According to Dimmock, C and Walker, A's article, the group-oriented culture is more dominant in the Asian societies and middle-eastern countries whereas the self-oriented culture is more dominant in the Anglo-American societies.
In group-oriented culture, people are more dependent in each other plus they maintain tranquility in the group and the necessity to stay together is maintained. There is a firm and stronger marriage in group-oriented culture. There is also a strong social value in group-oriented culture. Asante (1987) and Pope, Cheng, and Leong (1998) suggested that there surely is a feeling of connectedness in the Asian societies and all group-oriented ethnicities.
In distinction, self-oriented culture is seen as an independent and individualistic individuals who rely very less on one another but are more competent compared to group-oriented societies. They are very modern and youth oriented compared to group-oriented contemporary society. They are very complex and have values such as being competitive, autonomy and having more independence. They believe in identical treatment and are capable of confronting straight when problem occurs. They have confidence in a formal framework and are incredibly direct.
The U. S. is generally considered as home oriented culture (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swindler, & Tipton, 1985), whereas all Asian societies are considered as group-oriented (Gudykunst et al. , 1992)
b). Decision-making in school
In group-oriented culture, it is similar to a philosophy that lots of personal decisions are used by the superiors. In Asian contemporary society, there is a strong hierarchical romantic relationships in the partnership between parents and children, teachers and students, employers and employees. They don't follow much on laws or guidelines usually. They consider specific situation rather than applying general principles. Personal feelings carries more weight. As there exists value for hierarchy, less questions are asked by individuals. Group focused culture have prices that include security, obedience, obligation, in-group tranquility, hierarchy, and customized relationships. It is therefore obvious that decision making is placed on the oldest, most proficient, most experienced and the most superior in group oriented culture.
In self-oriented culture, Anglo-Americans practice 'Limited Relationship Civilizations' where decisions taken are based on measurable criterions and on the issues at stake. For instance, when there's a promotion of personnel, it will always be based on justification with regards to the performance (which is measurable), whereas in group-oriented culture, personal decisions are made without strong information or other objective facts.
c). Ingenuity and Problem-Solving skills
In Asian societies, replication and rote learning styles, this means students are
required to reproduce knowledge gained, tend to be significantly used whereby it is less likely to produce creative students. Asian students are stereotypically quiet, docile and hardworking. They may be good at pursuing instructions but limited in their creativeness. In Asia, the students learning style is teacher-centered because of traditional Asian culture's sociable hierarchy.
However in Anglo-American societies, a far more creative approach is followed. They are simply more conducive, beneficial and are also with the capacity of reproducing whatever learnt in a more creative approach. Students here are well-informed and turn out with creative and progressive ideas.
Problem-solving in Asian societies are usually more informal and versatile whereas in Anglo-American societies, decisions are made firmly by the e book and are extremely formal.
d). Leadership
In Asian societies, the power is more centralized. People see a strict chain of command word where rank is vital. The best eldest or experienced in the group is well known. They have got the authoritarian style of leadership, along with structured and more functional solution (Leong, 1986; tsu & Schultz, 1988; Yu & Gregg, 1993). The principal's role in a college is very powerful in this group-oriented culture.
Self oriented civilizations have been described as supporting a feeling of parting between individuals and having values that include pleasure, being successful in competition, achievements,
freedom, autonomy, and reasonable exchange (Asante, 1987: Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swindler, & Tipton, 1985; Cheatham, 1990; Hofstede, 1980; Ivey et al. , 1997; Triandis et al. , 1993).
In Anglo-American culture, electricity is allocated more evenly and everyone experienced a fair chance of leading. Here, command values is seen in teachers and parents alternatively than concentrating only on the principal or brain of the school. There is more identical and fair chance for everyone to lead in Anglo-American societies.
QUESTION 2
HOW (a) TO (d) IS MANIFESTED IN THE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA ?
(a). Group-oriented culture and self-oriented culture
In Malaysian education system, it is actually a group-oriented modern culture. The education system in Malaysia has an objective of inculcating unity on the list of multiracial people in this country. Through education, the federal government intends to develop an adaptable and strong nation, just modern culture and strengthen individuals development. From here we're able to see the importance given to a group and not as individual progress.
However, for me, we do not acknowledge the multi-cultural origins of other races and religions. Therefore, there is lack of cooperation especially among the Chinese language, Tamil and countrywide institutions in Malaysia.
(b). Decision-making in school
Ensuring that everyone gets equal and proper education in Malaysia is the central government's responsibility. It is highly focused, centralized and is an attribute of group-oriented culture. The Ministry of Education regulates every depth in the system. In schools in particular, the decision-making is placed upon the principal of a college who has the authoritarian capacity to make the final decisions. Schools have a tendency to be very hierarchical.
In the training Ministry, decisions tend to be made through a process relating many process and techniques before a consensus can be founded through a series of deliberations. This may be seen in the decision making of teaching Technology and Mathematics in English. Sometimes this technique can take a long time and requires perseverance Senior leaders in the training Ministry orchestrate the procedure and secure the support of the all the folks involved like university principals, educators, parents, students and non-governmental organizations. Nevertheless, their type carries a great deal of weight and they sometimes have the ultimate say when making the ultimate decision. They might not exactly rely much on guidelines or laws. They often consider the precise situation alternatively than applying common principles. Personal feelings and experiences ponder more highly than empirical information and other objective facts do. This is very obvious in the case of teaching Science and Mathematics in English when all Tamil and Chinese universities were against the theory and implementation.
Teachers also represent authority, ability and knowledge. It really is unethical to struggle, question, or disrespect a teacher's behavior, therefore, it is natural for Malaysian students to follow-teacher motivated learning styles.
(c). Creativeness and problem-solving skills
As Malaysian education system indicates rote learning practice, it is unlikely that creativity
plays an important role here. Students will be more booklet and exam focused, functional understanding and learning lack in this area. Therefore, we see products of education who lack certain skills.
Though there's a hierarchy to follow, in most cases, electricity is not used properly. Therefore problem resolving skills is very adaptable and casual in Malaysian education system. There are numerous interferences from third celebrations like political groupings in Malaysia when involves implementation or resolving problems related to education. For example, the problem of educating Maths and Research in English Terms.
(d). Leadership
As Malaysian education system practices group-oriented culture control is more centralized where the highest rank has the most electricity of control over situation. Furthermore, schools have hardly any autonomy and principals play important roles as leaders.
In the training Ministry, the training Minister gets the highest leadership ability and below him, all the subordinates like the region education officers, school principals, and all the educators are responsible to handle the implementations and educational programs designed for all the nationwide and vernacular colleges.
It is described before that in group-oriented population like Malaysia, command is kept by the most superior and authoritarian style can be seen clearly. Promotions are given based not really based on experience and knowledge but more on word of mouth and likings by the superiors. A tutor is marketed when he or she has a good reputation with mainly the
principal of the school.
