Culture, Virtue, and Education: How Perceptions of Learning Affect Success

Researchers have long sought to explain what conditions may contribute to a student’s academic success. East Asian students have been some of the more demonstrably successful in the United States, leaving experts to grapple with what may be causing these better outcomes, as proper analysis of such a learning model could serve to benefit America’s poorest and most vulnerable students.

Researchers have hoped to determine whether the Confucian-derived “virtue” model of learning—wherein a family’s responsibility to a child and a child’s responsibility to the family are both emphasized—is linked to academic success. Recent literature has demonstrated that the virtue model may encourage the development of characteristics such as perseverance, humility, and respect. Though research has suggested that such a model may be both prevalent and successful for middle-class Chinese Americans, little analysis links the “virtue” model of learning to Asians of lower socioeconomic standing.

In a recent study, Janine Bempechat, Jin Li, and Samuel Ronfard observed the academic performance of thirty-two Chinese-American high school students, half of whom were boys and half of whom were girls. The vast majority of these pupils’ parents had less than a high-school education and worked low-paying jobs. The researchers examined the extent to which the “virtue” model of learning was emphasized at home and at school, and closely monitored subject grade point averages (GPA) as an indicator of success.

Within the home context, the virtue model of learning was characterized as an environment in which parents sought to teach their children moral concepts rather than specific classroom subject material. In particular, the virtue model concerned itself with the attainment of qualities like determination, tenacity, reverence for elders and superiors and studiousness. To investigate the extent to which such traits were cultivated, evaluators designed two interviews. They first asked participants about their perception of paternal expectations, the degree to which parents were involved in schoolwork, and other elements of day-to-day life. The second interview asked students to provide their thoughts on their learning and academic experiences and philosophies. The interviews took place in a three-month span; the interviewers examined results of both interviews and highlighted specific traits they deemed to be “virtuous.”

The authors observed that students characterized as virtuous tended to report higher GPAs. As for the acquisition of these virtue beliefs, the researchers found that a strong positive correlation existed between self-reporting of family involvement in academics and the development of further virtues. Adolescents who reported being directly lectured on the importance of virtue development—the traits they later repeated to interviewers—also tended to report higher GPAs than those who did not.

The authors thus found a significant positive link between the attainment of virtues and academic success. These virtues were first developed through the child’s social exposure to their parents, and they in turn were found to boost a child’s ability to exercise self-control. Obtaining this self-control proved to be the most significant factor for achieving academic success. The study hypothesized that the development of personal virtues may help mitigate the problems faced by youths of low socioeconomic status.

In their study, the authors found a strikingly significant correlation between virtue development, levels of self-control and academic achievement, regardless of economic class. Ultimately, the authors found that the main engine of virtue development remained family socialization, but it seems possible that a state actor could encourage parenting that is focused on virtue development. This end could be accomplished through advertising campaigns and other forms of public service announcement. Though such an idea currently has little mainstream political traction on either side of the aisle, the pursuit—or at least exploration—of such a policy could pay dividends for America’s students.

Article source: Bempechat, Janine, Jin Li, and Samuel Ronfard. “Relations Among Cultural Learning Beliefs, Self‐Regulated Learning, and Academic Achievement for Low‐Income Chinese American Adolescents.” Child Development 89, no. 3 (2018): 851-861.

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