TY - JOUR
T1 - Adapting evidence-based pedagogy to local cultural contexts: a design research study of policy borrowing in Vietnam
AU - Pham, Thanh Hong Thi
AU - Renshaw, Peter D
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - This study employs design-based research to investigate how university teachers and
their students from Vietnam perceived and adapted an evidence-based pedagogy
known as student-teams achievement division (STAD). Two hundred and twenty
one students and their teachers from three classes at a Vietnamese university participated
in this one-semester qualitative study. It was found that both teachers and their
students resisted many key procedures and practices of STAD. Specifically, the
students did not work effectively in mixed-ability groups, found role-rotating within
groups to be an ineffective strategy for promoting learning, and engaged only superficially
in small-group study without the teacher s supervision and scaffolding. Instead,
the Vietnamese university students worked more effectively in friendship groups,
participated in group work more fairly under the management of a designated group
leader and engaged in more complex knowledge construction when they were guided
by scaffolding questions from the teacher. Our study highlights the importance of
adapting evidence-based pedagogies to local institutional conditions and to the cultural
expectations shared by students and teachers about how to interact in the classroom.
Our study also highlights the efficacy of design-based research methods in systematically
investigating policy borrowing and the adaptation of pedagogies to local
sociocultural contexts.
AB - This study employs design-based research to investigate how university teachers and
their students from Vietnam perceived and adapted an evidence-based pedagogy
known as student-teams achievement division (STAD). Two hundred and twenty
one students and their teachers from three classes at a Vietnamese university participated
in this one-semester qualitative study. It was found that both teachers and their
students resisted many key procedures and practices of STAD. Specifically, the
students did not work effectively in mixed-ability groups, found role-rotating within
groups to be an ineffective strategy for promoting learning, and engaged only superficially
in small-group study without the teacher s supervision and scaffolding. Instead,
the Vietnamese university students worked more effectively in friendship groups,
participated in group work more fairly under the management of a designated group
leader and engaged in more complex knowledge construction when they were guided
by scaffolding questions from the teacher. Our study highlights the importance of
adapting evidence-based pedagogies to local institutional conditions and to the cultural
expectations shared by students and teachers about how to interact in the classroom.
Our study also highlights the efficacy of design-based research methods in systematically
investigating policy borrowing and the adaptation of pedagogies to local
sociocultural contexts.
UR - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1554480X.2015.1009836
U2 - 10.1080/1554480X.2015.1009836
DO - 10.1080/1554480X.2015.1009836
M3 - Article
SN - 1554-480X
VL - 10
SP - 256
EP - 274
JO - Pedagogies: An International Journal
JF - Pedagogies: An International Journal
IS - 3
ER -