The Drive to Learn

What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Raising Students Who Excel

By (author) Cornelius N. Grove

Publication date:

09 June 2017

Length of book:

182 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

238x159mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781475815092

Countless books and articles have offered remedies for the poor learning outcomes of American schoolchildren. Virtually all of these publications share one thing in common: They propose improvements in the policies and practices controlled by adult educators. Grove believes that our children’s poor learning cannot be totally the fault of educators. Our children are active participants in classrooms, so if there’s a problem with how well our children are learning, then we as parents might be at fault. To discover what our part is and explore what can be done about it, Grove draws on over 100 anthropological studies of children’s learning and child-rearing in China, Japan, and Korea. They reveal that those children, even the youngest ones, are highly receptive to classroom learning. Why do they come into classrooms with attentive and engaged attitudes? How did they acquire the drive to learn? Can American parents benefit from knowing how Chinese, Japanese, and Korean parents think about and carry out child-rearing? The Drive to Learn explores these questions.

Preface
Why I Wrote This Book
How I Came to Write This Book
Receptive to Learning
Acknowledgements
Introduction
An Overview of How This Book Proceeds
The Plan of This Book
About This Book
Chapter 1: Daring to Seek Answers
The Question, Restated
The Parts of the Paradox
Reviewing Step 1 of the Discovery Process
Chapter 2: Evaluating Eyewitness Reports
Questioning Eyewitness Reports
Passiveness in Class
Rote Memorizing
How Step 2 Advanced Our Discovery Process
Chapter 3: Exploring Motivations
The Agony of Defeat
Why Motivations Differ
How Step 3 Advanced Our Discovery Process
Chapter 4: Analyzing Determination
From China to America
Deep Meanings of Learning
How Step 4 Advanced Our Discovery Process
Chapter 5: Assessing Emotional Drive
Self and Family
Mothers and Motivation
Self, Emotion, and Drive to Learn
How Step 5 Advanced Our Discovery Process
Chapter 6: Thinking Like a Sociologist
Learning in Different Societies
Learning to Be Competent; Learning in School
The Episode with the Key
How Step 6 Advanced Our Discovery Process
Chapter 7: Thinking Like a Historian
Taming Students in America
Taming Students in East Asia
Explaining East Asians’ Drive to Learn
How Step 7 Advanced Our Discovery Process
Chapter 8: Revealing How Parents Think
The Outward Focus of the East Asian Family
Two Approaches to Raising Children
How the Chinese Talk about Parenting
How the Japanese Talk about Parenting
Cheerleaders and Coaches
How Step 8 Advanced Our Discovery Process
Chapter 9: Revealing What Parents Do
Maintain Very High Expectations…Consistently
Intervene to Insure that High Expectations are Met
A Revealing Study of Mothers and Children
How Step 9 Advanced Our Discovery Process
Chapter 10: So What Should We Do?
What Are Our Options?
So What Should Families Do?
Parenting with Gŭan: Seven Commitments to Your Child
Chapter 11: Responsibility and Creativity
Responsibility
Creativity
A Note About the Online Annotated Bibliography
Conclusion
Bibliography [standard, non-annotated]
Endnotes

Due to the consistent comparison of public education in America to the education of students in other nations, test results have been known to identify Chinese, Japanese and Korean educational practices to be superior. [This book] explores why the students in these countries demonstrate high dedication to educational attainment. . . . The book takes on a different perspective from most books that identify reasons for the decline in educational performance of students in America. Most research studies the practices of educators or teachers. The author of this book studies the personalities and perspectives of students to understand the learning outcomes and create theories to improve student achievement and performance. . . . This book provides high expectations and mindsets that are simple to implement. I would recommend this book to any educator or parent in need of effective strategies and practices to improve student attitudes towards the importance of education.