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Studies in Higher Education

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A challenge to the anecdotal stereotype

of the Asian student
a a
David Kember & Lyn Gow
a
Hong Kong Polytechnic
Published online: 05 Aug 2006.

To cite this article: David Kember & Lyn Gow (1991) A challenge to the anecdotal stereotype of the
Asian student, Studies in Higher Education, 16:2, 117-128, DOI: 10.1080/03075079112331382934

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 Studies in Higher Education Volume 16, No. 2, 1991 117

A Challenge to the Anecdotal

Stereotype of the Asian Student
DAVID KEMBER & LYN GOW
Hong Kong Polytechnic
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ABSTRACT This paper challenges the anecdotal stereotype that Asian students have a marked
predilection towards reproductive study strategies and suggests that, as elsewhere, approaches to
learning tasks are more a function of the curriculum and teaching environment. Evidence is
presented from a survey of approaches to the study of Hong Kong students using the Biggs'
Study Process Questionnaire. Mean scores on the scales of the questionnaire were compared
with Australian results. The scores of the Hong Kong students were similar to those of
comparable Australian students, but if anything the achieving and deep approach scores were
higher for the Hong Kong students. The results are analysed to see if they can be explained as
an experimental artefact or whether they are real, in which case they seriously question the
anecdotal evidence which paints a stereotyped picture of the Asian student relying heavily on
rote learning. Factor analysis results cast some doubt on the surface construct for Hong Kong
students. However, the deep and achieving scales produced factor structures similar to those
obtained previously and the results from these scales alone are quite sufficient to question the
anecdotal evidence. Scores for both deep and achieving approaches were lower for second- and
third-year students compared to first-year students, which suggests that any tendency towards
reproductive approaches may be more a function of teaching practices than an innate tendency.

Introduction
As newly arrived academics in Hong Kong, we were greeted with numerous anecdotal
descriptions of the students we were about to teach. The anecdotes suggested that Hong
Kong students relied heavily on rote-learning and memorisation, but interestingly most of
our new colleagues maintained that they were good, or even very good, students. It was
moreover suggested that they were more passive and less interactive in class than typical
western students. Yet they were also described as very keen and competitive.
Similar anecdotal opinions have appeared in print. Dunbar (1988, p. 12), for example,
maintains that, for Asian students generally:
Learning is seen as possessing the ability to reproduce exactly what is taught in
identical form. This "reproductive orientation" manifests in rote memorisation of
facts, formulae, rules, tracts, and schema. Unifying principles are usually over-
looked, and emphasis on detail is encouraged. Learners are conditioned to accept
and respect what the teacher presents as correct. The focus is on acquiring
propositional knowledge and demonstrating acquisition by outright recall.
However, Dunbar cites no research evidence, nor even a reference, to back the assertions.
If the scramble to recruit Asian students is anything to go by, they do, however, seem to
 118 D. Kember & L. Gow

be appreciated in western countries. The appreciation is not entirely confined to the cash
they can bring in. MacGregor (1990) asserts that "Hong Kong students are considered
bright, hard-working and loyal friends of this country".
External examiners of Hong Kong students appear to have been influenced by the
prevailing image of the students. Biggs (1989a) reports the reaction of an external assessor at
the University of Hong Kong:
. . . the students are said to be regurgitative with little insight and understanding of
the subject in question, their answers close to what was taught, differences between
better and poorer students being reflected in more effective recall than in
qualitative factors. (p. 27)
Reid (1989, p. 10) reports comments from external examiners at the Hong Kong
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Polytechnic:
Students do better in questions requiring factual recollection and are weak in
questions requiring reasoning and analysis.
However, other examiners' quotations from the same source (Reid, 1989, pp. 10-11) suggest
that any tendency to rote-learn may be as much a function of the teaching and learning
environment as an inherent characteristic.
I'm still concerned at candidates not being sufficiently required to think and
reason.
I suspect that there is a tendency to over-lecture. Consequently the students
probably do not get sufficient time to think and to study on their own.
I would like to see the amount of detail being taught in the whole course reduced.
The greatest contribution we as teachers can make to the students is to teach them
to think and to create on their own. This requires a difficult balance between the
amount of material taught and a time to absorb this material.
Studies in other countries (e.g. Entwistle & Ramsden, i983; Marton & S~lj6, 1976; Thomas
& Bain, 1984; Watkins & Hattie, 1981) suggest that students will tend to employ a surface
approach if that is what the curriculum appears to demand, or if the learning environment is
unfavourable.
There appears to be little research evidence to determine whether students from Hong
Kong or other parts of Asia are more prone to rote-memorisation than their western
counterparts; or alternatively whether there is a similar balance of students with propensities
towards surface and deep learning approaches, and similar tendencies to be influenced by
their learning context.
Two instruments, the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) (Ramsden & Entwistle,
1981) and the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) (Biggs, 1987), have been widely used to
examine students' approaches to learning so norms are available for western students.
However, at the time the project described in this article was started, we were only able to
discover three published accounts of these instruments being used in the Asian region, all
with Filipino students. Hattie & Watkins (1981) and Watkins & Astilla (1982) used the SPQ
and Watkins et al. (1986) used a shortened version of the ASI with school students. None of
these papers, however, directly addressed the above question: are students from Asia more
prone to rote-memorisation than western students? This paper examines the question by
reporting evidence from research, at a tertiary institution in Hong Kong, which examined
systematically the approaches to learning of Hong Kong students.
 Asian Students 119

Method
Questionnaire
The 42 items of the Biggs' SPQ (1987) were translated into Chinese for the survey by a
research team at the Hong Kong University led by Biggs. Contributions to the translation
were made by a number of people, before independent back translation. A common version
of the questionnaire is being used by researchers at five tertiary institutions in Hong Kong,
who have also contributed to the accuracy of the translation. The questionnaire given to
students had the item statements in English, followed immediately by the Chinese transla-
tion.
Responses to the questionnaire items were made by ticking responses to a five-point
scale on a separate cover sheet. The reverse of the cover sheet contained 18 questions
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requesting personal details, grades in two English language examinations and self-ratings in
reading, writing and speaking English. The student's name, student number and Hong Kong
identity card number were requested so that the data from the questionnaires could be
compared with examination grades. In addition, the research project is longitudinal in nature
so there is an intention to re-administer the questionnaire.

Samp/e
The sample for the SPQ consisted of 2143 students in degree level courses at the Hong
Kong Polytechnic. The data were collected during the third or fourth week of the academic
year from selected classes from first to final year. The number of respondents from each
participating department is shown in Table I. Lecturers handed the questionnaire and cover
sheet to students in lectures. Students were asked to complete the questionnaire before
leaving the lecture. At the start of an academic year, the majority of Polytechnic students
attend lecture classes so the usable response rate for the survey was about 80% of the
students in the selected classes, which is very high for a survey of this type.

TABLE I. Responses to the survey by department

Department Return

Accountancy 976
Applied Social Studies 139
Diagnostic Sciences I54
Language and Communication 115
Rehabilitation Sciences 181
Textiles and Clothing 578

Results
SPQ data were analysed with SPSS-X (SPSS Inc., 1986). The questionnaire yields scores for
each student for three approaches to learning: deep, surface and achieving. Each of the three
approaches can be divided into motive and strategy sub-scales. The meaning of the three
approaches and their motive and strategy components is given in Table II.
 120 D. Kember & L. Gow

TABLE II. The meaning of the sub-scales in the SPQ instrument

Approach Motive Strategy

Surface Surface motive (SM) is Surface strategy (SS) is

instrumental: main purpose reproductive: limit target to
is to meet requirements bare essentials and reproduce
minimally: a balance through rote-learning.
between working too hard
and failing.
Deep Deep motive (DM) is intrinsic: Deep strategy (DS) is
study to actualise interest meaningful: read widely,
and competence in particular interrelate with previous
academic subjects. relevant knowledge.
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Achieving Achieving motive (AM) is Achieving strategy (AS) is based

based on competition and on organising one's time and
ego-enhancement: obtain working space: behave as
highest grades, whether 'model student'.
or not material is interesting.

Adapted from Biggs (1987~ p. 11).

Mean SPO Scores

Mean SPQ scores are shown by academic department in Fig. 1. The overall means for the
entire sample are shown by the bars labelled 'ALL' to the right of the vertical line. As the
survey was so extensive and the return high, it seems reasonable to treat the data as norms
for the Hong Kong Polytechnic and to compare the results with Australian norms (Biggs,
1987). The Australian mean SPQ scores included in Fig. 1 are of students in Colleges of
Advanced Education (CAEs), which offer similar courses to those at the Hong Kong
Polytechnic. However, the Australian study was limited to arts, science and education
faculties/departments, which do not correspond precisely to the departments surveyed in
this study.

50
scores 49
48
[] SA
47
[] DA 46
[] AA

36
Acc DS Eng RS APSS }TC ALL Sci Arts
Department Australian CAE

FIG. 1. Mean SPQ scores by department: Ace, Accountancy; DS, Diagnostic Sciences; Eng, Language and
Communication; RS, Rehabilitation Sciences; APSS, Applied Social Studies; ITC, Textiles and Clothing.
 Asian Students 121

Interpretation of SPQ Means

The SPQ mean scores have no absolute meaning but can be used for comparison within and
between groups, or for correlation with other variables. The striking feature of the results in
Fig. 1 is that they do not conform with the anecdotal evidence that rote learning is far more
widespread among Hong Kong tertiary students than among their counterparts in countries
like Australia or the United Kingdom. Overall, the Hong Kong students have somewhat
higher scores on the deep approach scales and lower scores on the surface approach scales
than Australian Science CAE students. It should be stressed, however, that comparison
between Australian and Hong Kong students is not straightforward as identical departments
were not sampled in the two studies. It is reasonable to conclude, though, that the surface
and deep scores of Hong Kong students are at least comparable to those of students from
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CAEs in Australia, and if anything, the Hong Kong students score lower on surface approach
and higher on deep.
The scores on the achieving approach sub-scales do seem to back the anecdotal
impressions. The overall scores for Hong Kong students for achieving approach are higher
than the Australian CAE scores, suggesting that Hong Kong students are keener and more
competitive.
It is interesting to note that Australian students' approaches to study seem to be similar
to comparable British students. Studies using either the SPQ instrument (Briggs, 1987;
O'Neil & Child, 1984; Watkins & Hattie, 1981) or the ASI of Ramsden & Entwistle (1981)
(Entwistle & Ramsden, 1983; Harper & Kember, 1986; Ramsden & Entwistle, 1981;
Watkins, 1983) found no striking differences between British and Australian students.
There is backing for these results from Biggs' (1989b) survey of Hong Kong school
students with the Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ). The surface approach scores of
Hong Kong students were lower than their Australian equivalents. Moreover, the deep and
achieving approach scores tended to favour Hong Kong students, although there were some
differences by sex.
The SPQ was also used independently at the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong (Balla &
Stokes, 1989). The bilingual version of the questionnaire was applied to a sample of 305
first-year and 210 final-year students in six departments (Gow et al., 1989). The results by
department are similar to those obtained in this project. The means for the surface approach
scales are somewhat lower and those for the deep approach scales somewhat higher. The
results at school level and at two tertiary institutions in Hong Kong are therefore consistent,
but not in line with the anecdotal image of Hong Kong students.
There are several possible explanations for the discrepancy between the SPQ results of
the present study and the anecdotal evidence concerning the learning approach of Hong
Kong students.
(1) Students in the Australian study answered the SPQ anonymously, whereas it was
necessary to ask subjects to provide their names in the present study to enable subsequent
comparisons with other data. It is possible that Hong Kong students have a greater
propensity than Australian students to answer items in the way they think the researcher
wants them to, or in the way which presents them in the best light.
(2) The SPQ for this study had the items in English, followed immediately by the
Chinese translation. In the Australian study the items were in English only.
(3) The proportion of the population entering tertiary education is lower in Hong Kong
than in Australia. The Hong Kong Polytechnic is therefore more selective than Australian
CAEs. Possibly the students selected have a lower propensity to a surface approach than
general secondary school populations.
 122 D. Kember & L. Gow

(4) The Hong Kong students may have a greater or lesser tendency than western
students to respond to Likert scale items by using the extremes of the scales.
(5) There may be complex cultural differences between Hong Kong Chinese and
Australian students which require further analysis.
(6) The Hong Kong students are no more orientated towards a surface approach than
Australian (and United Kingdom) tertiary students so the anecdotal evidence is not true for
this sample.
Explanations 1 to 5 will now be examined in turn to see if they can be eliminated.

(1) Anonymous Responses

The possibility of the SPQ scores being influenced by whether or not a name was requested
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was investigated by Biggs (private communication, 1989c). The SPQ was administered to
two randomly selected groups of students from another tertiary institution in Hong Kong.
One group was asked to give their name, the other group completed the questionnaire
anonymously. No significant differences were found between the two groups on either SPQ
means or factor structures.

(2) English and Chinese Versions of Questionnaire

An experiment was performed to test the influence of the language used for the SPQ. Three
versions of the questionnaire were prepared. The first was that used for the main sample
which had the item statements in English~ followed immediately by the Chinese translation.
The other two versions had the items in English or Chinese only.
A sample of 295 students was randomly divided into three groups which each
completed one version of the questionnaire under the same conditions. The questionnaires
were administered during a lecture period and students were asked to complete the
questionnaires before leaving the class. Means and standard deviations on the three SPQ
main scales for the three treatment groups are shown in Table III.

TABLEIII. SPQ means for the three treatment groups

SPQ scale Chinese only Englisho n l y Bilingual

N 99 94 102
Surface approach 39.7 (7.7) 43.4 (5.7) 39.2 (6.4)
Deep approach 42.6 (8.8) 44.1 (6.9) 44.1 (7.8)
Achievingapproach 36.8 (7.8) 38.7 (7.6) 38.2 (7.1)

Three analyses of variance tests were used to test the significance of differences
between the groups for each of the three scales. The tests for the deep and achieving
approach scales showed no significant differences between the groups given the three
versions of the questionnaire, at the 5% level of significance. The test for the surface
approach data, however, indicated that the means for the three versions of the questionnaire
were significantly different. Comparison between the groups using the Scheff6 procedure
indicated that the difference arises because the results for the Engish language only version
differs significantly ( p < 0 . 0 5 ) from results of the other two versions.
I f any of the treatment groups were to show a difference those receiving the English
 Asian Students 123

only version were probably the most likely. Gibbons (1987) has noted that the Hong Kong
population are nearly all Cantonese speakers so English is rarely used outside formal
situations in education and international business. Students receiving the bilingual version of
the questionnaire probably read the items in Chinese. The results are therefore close to the
Chinese only version.
The reason the difference arose only with the surface approach scale suggests that there
were problems of wording or translation with items in that scale. Comparison of mean scores
for each item, for the three treatment groups, revealed that four items of the surface
approach scale had significantly higher scores for the English version only group. Inspection
of these items revealed no obvious conceptual links between the four items and translation
problems with only one of the items.
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(3) Selectivity of Tertiary Education

The possibility that the results reflected the selectivity of tertiary institutions in Hong Kong
was dispelled by Biggs' (1989b) survey of Hong Kong school students with the Learning
Process Questionnaire (LPQ). Biggs found that the Hong Kong sample was significantly
lower on both surface strategy and motive than their Australian equivalents. If Hong Kong
students appear to display more desirable study approaches at both school and tertiary
levels, the results presented in this paper cannot be a function of selectivity at the tertiary
level.

(4) Extreme Response Set

Hui & Triandis (1985) have suggested that survey results can be affected if cultural groups
differ in their general tendency to use the endpoints of a Likert scale. Hni & Triandis (1989)
found that Hispanics were significantly more likely to use the extreme points of a five-point
Likert scale than non-Hispanics, though on a ten-point scale the response distributions of
the two groups were comparable.
It is possible that the Hong Kong students differ from western students in their
propensity to use the extremes of five-point Likert scales. However, if there is a cultural
difference in extreme response set, it cannot explain why the SPQ means differ from the
anecdotal image of the Hong Kong students. If the resuls were in line with the anecdotal
evidence, and the students tended to use the extremes of the scales, then the surface
approach means would be high and the deep approach means would be low compared to the
Australian norms. If the Hong Kong students were less inclined to use the extremes of the
scales, the differences with the Australian norms would still be in the same direction but the
magnitude of the differences would be considerably less. There is therefore a possibility that
extreme response set does affect the mean scores, but not in such a way as to explain why
the results of this survey differ from what would be expected from the anecdotal stereotype.

(5) Cultural Sensitivity of Instruments

If cultural differences affect the way in which the Hong Kong students complete the
questionnaire, differences should result in different factor structures. In order that compari-
son could be made with previous factor analyses of the SPQ, the methods of Biggs and
O'Neil & Child (both reported in O'Neil & Child, 1984) were replicated in the present
study, using the SPSS-X package (SPSS Inc., 1986). The method involved principal factor
 124 D. Kember & L. Gow

TABLE IV. Factor analysis of the SPQ items

Factor
Question
Sub-scale no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Surface 1 367
motive 7 479
13 517
19 621
25 422
31
37 780 269
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Surface 4 495
strategy 10 410
16
22 600
28 319
34 367
40 494

Deep 2 269 502

motive 8 518
t4 382
20 547
26 264
32 378
38 443

Deep 5 304 279

strategy I1 544
17 316 272
23 6t6
29 255 483
35 283 474
41 622

Achieving 3 361 298

motive 9 764
15 676
21
27
33 621 266
39 256 445

Achieving 6 393
strategy 12 560
18 613
24 689
30 377 286
36 452
42 479

Variance
explained (%) 14.2 7.8 3.2 2.3 1.9 1.4 1.3 1.2 1.1 0.8

Decimal points and loadings < 0 . 2 5 omitted.

 Asian Students 125

analysis, with iterations to obtain an estimate of communalities, followed by varimax

orthogonal rotation for factors with eigenvalues greater than one. The ten factor solution is
shown in Table IV.
Factors 1, 2 and 3 correspond reasonably weU with the sub-scales achieving strategy,
achieving motive and deep strategy respectively. Factor 4 contains items from the deep
motive sub-scale but also has two items attributed to deep strategy. The surface sub-scales
appear split and are not discrete: surface strategy items appearing with surface motive
and/or achieving motive.
The resulting factor structure can be compared with those from Biggs' university and
CAE samples and O'Neil & Child's British polytechnic sample (O'Neil & Child, 1984).
O'Neil & Child (1984) expressed some doubts about the surface dimension based on its
lower o~ coefficient and their factor structure. Their deep motive and strategy sub-scales also
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did not remain entirely distinct.

Comparing the factor structure from the present study with results from previous
studies, there is good agreement for the achieving strategy and motive sub-scales and
reasonable agreement for deep strategy and motive. It is difficult to associate factors
discretely with surface motive and strategy, but those previously assigned to these sub-scales
have not been highly coherent.
A full discussion of the factor analysis of SPQ results for this sample and a comparison
with factor structures obtained from the ASI will be presented elsewhere (Kember & Gow,
in press). For the purposes of this paper, it is sufficient to note that for both the deep and
achieving approach factors the results are similar to those in western countries. The factor
analyses therefore provide no grounds to question the validity of the deep and achieving
approach scores.
The factor analyses, however, do call into question the surface approach scale. The
items do not combine to produce coherent factors corresponding to the intended sub-scales,
but the results shown by O'Neil & Child (1984) show a level of incoherence in British and
Australian results. Further examinations of cultural differences in surface related approaches
are needed. The surface approach scores, though, are unnecessary to challenge the anecdotal
view of Hong Kong students. Finding scores on the deep approach scales which are as high
as, if not higher than, those obtained from Australian students is quite sufficient to seriously
undermine the credibility of assertions that Hong Kong students are much more inclined to
rote-learning than their counterparts in western countries.

The Influence of the Educational Environment

In the preceding section a number of explanations were advanced to explain the discrepancy
between the SPQ data and the stereotyped view of Hong Kong students derived from
anecdotal evidence. One by one these possible explanations have been eliminated. There is
an element of uncertainty about the surface approach scale, but the factor analysis data
supports the consistency between countries of the remaining SPQ scales. Having eliminated
other possible explanations, all that is left is to take the SPQ results at face value. They
suggest that the Hong Kong students are inherently no less inclined to use a predominantly
deep approach than their counterparts elsewhere and might even be marginally more inclined
to do so.
The quotations from examiners (Reid, 1989), in the introduction, suggest that, like
those elsewhere, Hong Kong students can be influenced to adopt a surface approach by
variables such as a heavy workload, surface assessment demands or over-lecturing. As the
SPQ scores had shown no evidence to support the anecdotal claims that Hong Kong students
 126 D. Kember & L. Gow

were more inclined to adopt reproductive approaches than western students, the influence of
the curricula and teaching and learning environment on the study approach was investigated.
Fig. 2 is a graph of the deep and achieving approach scores by year of study. Achieving
approach declines consistently from first to final year. Deep approach scores decline, except
for a return to second-year levels in the fourth year. Analysis of variance shows that the
decline in the scores is statistically significant at the level p<0.001 for both approaches.
Recourse to the meaning of these scales suggests that intrinsic interest and enthusiasm
decline and the students are less likely to employ meaningful learning strategies as they
progress through a course.

46-
45 -~
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44 -

• 43.

42-

40
39
38
2 3
year

FIG. 2. Mean SPQ scores by year of study: ( [ ] ) DA; ( ~ ) AA.

Reasons for the decline in deep and achieving approach scores were investigated by
semi-structured interviews (Gow & Kember, 1990). The interviews revealed evidence of
surface assessment demands, heavy workloads, didactic teaching styles and lack of intrinsic
motivation. The authors related these contextual variables to literature which suggests that
each of these variables can influence students to adopt a surface approach to study tasks.
In a study of Malaysian students, Zubir (1988) classified them as either lecturer-
orientated or self-orientated, although suggested that many were capable of both. The author
found that the learning orientation of the students was strongly influenced by the teaching
approach.
Anecdotal observations of rote-learning, in Asian students, may therefore be explained
more by the nature of the curriculum and the teaching environment than as an inherent
characteristic of the students. It is possible that some of the anecdotes result from self-
fulfilling prophecies (RosenthaI & Jacobson~ 1968). Lecturers believe that their students
adopt predominantly rote-learning strategies so set surface level assessment items. Their
expectations are fulfilled when the students adopt reproductive strategies to complete the
surface level tasks.

Acknowledgements
This research was carried out with grants from the Hong Kong Polytechnic and the
University and Polytechnic Grants Committee of Hong Kong.
The research team would like to thank Professor John Biggs for supplying the SPQ
questionnaire for the project, and Rosalia Chow, Irene Siaw, Roger Lui and Sherman Hu for
data collection.
 Asian Students 127

T h e research team acknowledges the fruitful collaboration with the research team at the
City Polytechnic o f Hong K o n g who are undertaking similar research into the approach to
study o f their students.

Correspondence: D r David K e m b e r , E T U , Hong K o n g Polytechnic, H u n g H o m , Kowloon,

Hong Kong.

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