How To Enable Asian Teachers To Empower Students To Adopt Student-Centred Learning - Article 5

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

Asian teachers’ reluctance to empower students is presented as a significant barrier to students’ practice of student-centred learning. The study develops strategies enabling Asian teachers to delegate authority to learners, supporting active participation rather than passive positioning. A one-semester study involved twelve college teachers and 615 Vietnamese college students. Results show that group work and frequent questioning alone do not constitute empowerment; effective student-centredness relies on teachers promoting complex knowledge, using formative assessment, maximizing group supervision, and adopting supportive verbal behaviours.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Learning approaches in Asian contexts

Rationale for shifting to student-centred practices

Teacher development initiatives

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 38 | Issue 11 | Article 5 | | --- | --- | | 2013
How To Enable Asian Teachers To Empower Students To Adopt Student-Centred Learning
Thanh Thi Hong Pham
School of Education, University of Queensland, Australia, [thi.pham1@uqconnect.edu.au](thi.pham1@uqconnect.edu.au)
Peter Renshaw
University of Queensland, [p.renshaw@uq.edu.au](p.renshaw@uq.edu.au) | | Recommended Citation Pham, T. T., & Renshaw, P. (2013). How To Enable Asian Teachers To Empower Students To Adopt Student-Centred Learning. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 38 (11). [http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2013v38n11.4](http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2013v38n11.4) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol38/iss11/5](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol38/iss11/5) Australian Journal of Teacher Education How To Enable Asian Teachers To Empower Students To Adopt Student Centred Learning Thanh Thi Hong Pham Peter Renshaw University of Queensland Abstract: Asian teachers’ reluctance to empower students has been claimed to be an significant barrier preventing their students from practising student-centred learning. To promote student-centredness in Asian classrooms, this study aimed to develop strategies that could enable Asian teachers to delegate part of their authority to students. Twelve college teachers and six hundred and fifteen Vietnamese college students participated in this one-semester study. The results revealed that ‘artificial’ innovations such as forming group work and regularly questioning students in class did not mean empowering students in active learning. Students were only positioned and given opportunities to engage in proper student-centredness when Asian teachers were able to promote students’ complex knowledge, minimize individual instruction but maximize group supervision, employing formative assessment and adopting complimentary verbal behaviours. The study strongly suggested that reformers need to take teachers’ comments into consideration to design culturally appropriate strategies that could assist teachers to make real changes. Introduction The literature presents two main perspectives about Asian students’ learning approaches. The first argues that Asian students are rote and/or surface learners (Ballard & Clanchy, 1994; Burns, 1991; Gow & Kember, 1990; Ramsden, 1992; Robertson, Line, Jones & Thomas, 2000; Samuelowicz, 1987). Freire (1993) describes this approach to learning asthe “banking concept of education” which means that students are “receptacles” and “filled”with the “content of the teachers narration”(p. 1) . Various researchers have argued that this approach to learning is not effective (Gow & Kember, 1990; Robertson, Line, Jones & Thomas, 2000) . However, a number of studies have, in fact, shown that many Asian students are very successful at Western institutions and consistently outperform their Western counterparts on international examinations (Biggs, 1998; Jensen, Hunter, Sonnemann & Burns, 2012). Therefore, various researchers have questioned the stereotyped perception which sees Asian students as ‘mindless machines’ and claim that learning approaches adopted by Asian students should not be analysed and understood based on the logic of thought adopted by Westerners. Specifically, researchers supporting this second perspective (e.g., Biggs, 1998, 1996; Pratt, Kelly & Wong, 1999; Watkins, 1996; Renshaw & Volet, 1995; Tang, 1991; Gow & Kember, 1990) explain that when facing an academic task, Western and Asian students actually have the same primary goal of trying to reach understanding, but Asian students use memorisation, rehearsal and repetition as a means to achieve this goal in a distinct way – a concept which Westerners find difficult to understand. Although the use of repetition and memorisation strategies by Western students has been found to indicate a surface ap

FAQs

What problem does the study address regarding Asian classrooms?

The study addresses teachers’ reluctance to empower students, which is claimed to hinder students from practicing student-centred learning.

How was the study conducted and who participated?

It was a one-semester study with twelve college teachers and 615 Vietnamese college students.

Which classroom strategies were found not to equal student empowerment?

“Artificial” innovations such as forming group work and regularly questioning students did not by themselves mean empowering students in active learning.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine