A presentation from the STEM Annual Conference 2014.
The learning and teaching landscape is heavily influenced by cultural contexts notably between Western and Asian models. The student-centric modular education in the UK aimed at developed higher order cognitive abilities contrasts with many teacher-centric models in Asia which is perceived to encourage surface learning. However Asian students have been shown to consistently outperform their Western counterparts in large-scale international comparative studies of academic achievement. This project provides preliminary quantitative analysis on the longer-term understanding of concepts in biology among 17 year olds in the UK and Malaysia. Students in the two countries were tested on GCSE-equivalent content one year later using context-equivalent questionnaires and the results were compared to their initial examination grades. This data shows that overall UK students achieved a mean post-test score of 72% in contrast to 49% obtained by Malaysian students. However initial grade comparisons suggest that Malaysian students retained knowledge better with 70% of the students either maintaining or dropping one grade. In comparison around 70% of UK students showed a decline by one or two grades suggesting strategic learning. Further analyses revealed that high achievers in Malaysia (A+ and A students) maintained their grades better than their UK counterparts. In contrast UK students with grades B and below retained knowledge better than Malaysian students with similar abilities. These preliminary findings indicate that bite-sized’ modular education encourages strategic learning provides interesting questions for future research.
