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What Drives Asian Descendent Students’ Motivation for Learning? Exploring the Key Ingredients to Nurture Achievement
Undergraduate Research Posters 2014
  • Melissa Beaune, Cleveland State University
  • Yiyin Wang, Cleveland State University
  • Mary Gove, Cleveland State University
  • Grace Huang, Cleveland State University
Description

This motivation project is part of a larger study of exploring the relationship between Asian parenting styles and children’s academic achievement. In light of the consistent Asian students PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) data results and the media phenomenon created by Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in 2011 in U.S., our research team found that high motivation has been a reoccurring theme in children’s academic achievement in the perceptions of Asian descendent parents. The purpose of this project is to examine the Asian descendent students’ motivations for learning through the parents’ experiences and perceptions. The research methods include individual interviews and a focus group interview. Eighteen parents, including thirteen mothers and five fathers participated in this study. All participants had at least one child within the ages of 2-20 years old. Based on our findings, four themes have emerged. We learned that these parents nurtured and sustained children’s motivation for learning through the following four ingredients, including resources, communications, setting clear and high expectations, and the modeling of the parents. Implications for educators will be provided in this presentation.

Publication Date
9-4-2014
Disciplines
Citation Information
Melissa Beaune, Yiyin Wang, Mary Gove and Grace Huang. "What Drives Asian Descendent Students’ Motivation for Learning? Exploring the Key Ingredients to Nurture Achievement" (2014)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/grace_huang/7/