Influence of Culture on Academic Achievement INTRODUCTION -- The Influence of culture

Creating a body of informed citizens.

Developing the individual's ability to think and reason.

Establishing a common body of knowledge and common socialization.

Preparing students for the future (good jobs and a place in society).

PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES also determine differences.

The length of the school day and year.

What kind of testing the system does and when.

The importance the society places on specific subjects.

How each feels about the impact of hard work or innate ability.

The kinds of tradeoffs each society finds acceptable.

THE SOCIETY'S INHERENT DIVERSITY is also a factor.

Ogbu's concept of voluntary and involuntary minorities is relevant in the United States, yet has little bearing in a culture with no real ethnic or racial diversity among its population.

Every society has its own ways of dealing with different genders, with poor students, and with the "gifted."

CONCLUSIONS -- This is a complex issue and some

comparisons, while interesting, should not be used to

condemn one system over another.

This is a discussion of the influence of culture on academic achievement. Different cultures see education as having different goals. Some see school as the beginning of the child's lifelong quest to get the best job possible and do well in society. Some see it as the formal start of a process of socializat

. . .
arly education is so critical to later job success. Americans, on the other hand, believe in creating more well-rounded individuals, and see a school system that takes too much time away from other activities (including playtime) as bad for students. Testing is also done differently among different cultures. Stevenson and his colleagues (1990) studied the differences between Chinese students and American students on math tests and found that Chinese students outperformed the Americans from first grade on. However, even in first grade, Chinese students are used to taking tests for different reasons, and these differences might explain some of the gap between cultures. In Asian societies, testing is always a way to categorize students in terms of future careers. In America, tests start as a way of measuring effectiveness. Tests are used to see what students have learned and how well the schools are working. Stevenson has done considerable research comparing Asian and American views of the educational process. He found, for example, that Japanese parents value effort more than innate ability. In cultures steeped in Asian philosophies, the individual can work hard to achieve a particular job. In American culture, by
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2107
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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