Below you’ll find brief reviews of ten essays in the field of ethnology of education written by Cornelius N. Grove. If the review of any essay interests you, you need only to clink on the link provided to retrieve it in PDF format.
You may share and print any of these essays, and you may quote them because no copyright is claimed. Dr. Grove asks only that you cite the essay in the standard manner, identifying its source as “misalignedminds.info/Essays.” Thank you.
Why Study the Cultures of Learning in Multiple Societies?
Since around 1970, research has been comparing the cultures of learning in the West (especially the U.S.) with those of East Asia. Described in this article are the nature of such research and four impactful differences that have emerged from the findings: (a) contrasting assumptions about children’s ability to learn; (b) dissimilar beliefs about, and attitudes toward, the act of learning; (c) divergent norms for proper behavior within a classroom; and (d) incompatible notions about children’s motivation to learn. Six pages in length, suggested readings, endnotes.
This essay draws on the research Grove completed to write The Drive to Learn (2017) as well as entries about pedagogy across cultures for two new encyclopedias. For more information, visit Grove’s webpage for The Drive to Learn.
If you think you might like to read this essay, click here.
The Difference in How Children Learn in Traditional and Modern Societies
This essay overviews the vastly different child-rearing practices of traditional and modern societies, yet contends that the mental means by which children acquire new capabilities in both types of society actually are identical. One factor, however, differs sharply: the nature, variety, and quantity of their opportunities to learn. Five pages in length, bibliography, endnotes.
This essay is an excerpt from Grove’s book, How Other Children Learn: What Five Traditional Societies Tell Us about Parenting and Children’s Learning (2023). For more information, visit howotherchildrenlearn.info.
If you think you might like to read this essay, click here.
Do Our Beliefs about Children’s Learning Discourage Our Children from Striving to Learn?
Addressed to American parents and teachers, this essay compares American and East Asian beliefs about (a) a child’s potentials and (b) how children learn best. Grove uses East Asian beliefs for this comparison because East Asian children are legendary for excelling in classroom learning, as demonstrated by international comparative test scores since around 1970. Two pages in length, endnotes.
This essay draws on Grove’s findings and conclusions from his research for the books The Aptitude Myth (2013) and The Drive to Learn (2017). For more information, visit theaptitudemyth.info and thedrivetolearn.info.
If you think you might like to read this essay, click here.
An Ethnologist’s Guide to Stronger Math Instruction and Achievement
This essay summarizes some of the findings from the extensive research carried out in East Asia since the 1970s to figure out why East Asian students consistently outperform American students on every international comparative mathematics test (primarily TIMSS and PISA). Among others, the topics discussed include the stance of the teacher vis-à-vis the pupils, the handling of pupils’ errors of reasoning, the nature of classroom verbal interactions, the emphasizing of abstract/symbolic reasoning, and the use of formal proofs and deductive reasoning. Fifteen pages in length, 1½-page bibliography, 2½ pages of endnotes.
This essay comprises extended excerpts from Chapter 7 of Grove’s book A Mirror for Americans (2020). For more information, visit amirrorforamericans.info.
If you think you might like to read this essay, click here.
How People from Different Cultures Expect to Learn
Grove wrote this essay to introduce the concept of knowledge-focused instruction that he had developed during the early 2000s. Knowledge-focused instruction is contrasted with learner-focused instruction, as explained at length in Chapter 6 of Misaligned Minds. This essay is Grove’s shortest explanation of these two terms. Three pages in length, no endnotes.
Knowledge- and learner-focused instruction is one of the principal topics dealt with by A Mirror for Americans (2020). For more information, visit amirrorforamericans.info.
If you think you might like to read this essay, click here.
Transmitting Knowledge in Classrooms: The Two Basic Approaches Worldwide
This is one of Grove’s longer discussions of the contrasting characteristics of the two basic instructional styles: knowledge-focused and learner-focused. This essay condenses seven of his published works on this topic, including entries in two new encyclopedias as well as his lengthy 2006 conference presentation in Singapore. Included is a full-page table contrasting numerous characteristics of knowledge- and learner-focused classrooms. Seven pages in length, full-page bibliography.
Grove’s 2006 conference presentation, “Understanding the Two Instructional Style Prototypes: Pathways to Success in Internationally Diverse Classrooms,” is 23 pages long including a series of explanatory diagrams. Although it is not available on this webpage, it is available among Cornelius Grove’s papers on both Academia.edu and ResearchGate.net. Skip to the bottom for active links.
If you think you might like to read this essay, click here.
How “Weird” Societies Think about Children’s Learning
This essay begins by briefly introducing the concept WEIRD, which designates societies that are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. The U.S. is a WEIRD society that (in comparison with all human societies) holds weird beliefs about children’s learning, including about (a) a child’s potentials and (b) how children learn best. Grove contrasts these beliefs with those of East Asians. Two pages in length.
This essay draws on Grove’s findings and conclusions from his research for the books The Aptitude Myth (2013) and The Drive to Learn (2017). For more information, visit theaptitudemyth.info and thedrivetolearn.info.
If you think you might like to read this essay, click here.
Where Children Learn How to Learn
This essay first introduces the Japanese term kata, which refers to an established orderly process for getting something done. Japanese kindergartners and first-graders are trained in the kata of efficient classroom learning. The result is that Japanese classrooms from first grade up operate with effortless efficiency, as often remarked by visiting Western observers. Six pages in length, bibliography, endnotes.
This essay combines excerpts from Chapter 3 of Grove’s book A Mirror for Americans (2020). For more information, visit amirrorforamericans.info.
If you think you might like to read this essay, click here.
Is “Whole-Class Interactive Learning” a Contradiction in Terms?
Grove responds to the common belief that if all pupils in a classroom are learning simultaneously, then those pupils must be passively listening to their teacher’s lecturing. But in East Asia, a common feature of whole class teaching is highly engaged pupils participating in interactive learning. How is this possible? Grove examines the roles of the teacher, the pupils, and the knowledge to be learned in East Asian classrooms. Five pages in length, bibliography, endnotes.
This essay combines excerpts from Chapter 6 of Grove’s book A Mirror for Americans (2020). For more information, visit amirrorforamericans.info.
If you think you might like to read this essay, click here.
Learning, Education, and Technology in Deep Historical Perspective
This essay is a meditation on how some human groups gradually changed from living in societies where children learned everything they would need to know as adults simply by watching others, to our present-day modern societies where children’s learning is inextricably bound up with years of technology-infused formal instruction. Five and a half pages in length, endnotes.
This essay draws on Grove’s findings and conclusions from his research for the book How Other Children Learn (2023). For more information, visit howotherchildrenlearn.info.
If you think you might like to read this essay, click here.
Additional articles, papers, and essays by Cornelius N. Grove are freely available on two publicly accessible scholarly websites.
On Academia.edu are a few additional essays drawn from Grove’s research as an ethnologist of education.
On ResearchGate.net you’ll find two types of essays:
-
A wide selection drawn from Grove’s decades of work as an interculturalist as well as an ethnologist of education.
-
A selection drawn from Grove’s 30 years with the cross-cultural business consultancy he founded, GROVEWELL LLC, including, for example, “The Seven Balancing Acts of Professional Behavior in the U.S.A.: A Cultural Values Perspective.,” coauthored with his business partner, anthropologist Willa Zakin Hallowell.