The use of help-seeking by Chinese secondary school students: Challenging the myth of 'the Chinese learner'

The use of help-seeking by Chinese secondary school students: Challenging the myth of 'the Chinese learner'

• Mok, Magdalena Mo Ching Centre for Assessment Research and Development, Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Kennedy, Kerry John Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Moore, Phillip John Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Shan, Peter WenJing University of Macau
• Leung, Shing On University of Macau

Evaluation & Research in Education, 21(3), 188-213, 2008

Routledge

2008

• P Social Context of Education
  • PB Comparative Education
• N Students & Student Services
  • NC Charactieristics & Conditions of Students; Opinion & Attitudes of Students, Problems of Adjustment
• A Human Growth & Development
  • AI Life Skills

Student Attitudes Effect Size Foreign Countries Secondary School Students Help Seeking Student Behavior Student Problems Problem Solving Ethnic Stereotypes Student Characteristics Student Motivation Hong Kong Taiwan China

• Hong Kong
• Macau
• Taiwan

• 1997.7 onwards

• Secondary Education

This article aims to investigate reasons underpinning academic help-seeking behaviours of Chinese students in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Data were collected from 23,563 secondary students. The study found significant differences both in attitudes and reported behaviour among secondary school students from the three locations, however, the effect sizes were all very small. Importantly, it was found that no matter which location, students considered grade enhancement to be the least important benefit of help-seeking. Rather, the most important benefit was that help-seeking enabled them to solve their learning difficulties or to solve their learning problems. The study also found that losing face was the last deterrent for the students not to seek help. Instead, Chinese secondary school students refrained from seeking help because they were afraid to disturb others in the act of help-seeking. In addition, a high proportion of students reported seeking help in the past two months in order to get advice on problem-solving approaches. Comparatively, a much smaller proportion of students reported seeking help in the last two months in order to improve on their grades. These results were discussed in light of the previous images of Chinese students.
[Copyright of Evaluation & Research in Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500790802485229]

• English

Journal Articles

• 09500790

• 10.1080/09500790802485229

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/e95756da

2010-11-24