A Cross-cultural Study On Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning:the Correlation Of Thinking Style And Roles

With the cultural fusing and cultural conflicting, there are more and more cooperative projects in education field. During the cooperation, computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is playing a more and more important role because the collaborative learning environment embedded with multimedia and network makes it possible to learn synchronously or asynchronously at any time in any places.There are already numerous researches indicating that under one single cultural background the CSCL learning efficiency can be improved by playing roles, revolutionizing learning patterns and designing attractive learning activities etc. Based on those approaches, this study focuses on role-playing in a cross-cultural setting and intends to explain the forming reasons of emergent roles from thinking style perspective. Therefore, the research questions are (1) What is the characteristic of the thinking styles of students with different cultural backgrounds? (2) Which emergent roles do the students with different cultural background play? (3) What is the correlation between thinking styles and emergent roles? Could thinking styles effect role-playing in cross-cultural CSCL?The research results show that there are big differences between students from two countries on both thinking styles and emergent roles. These differences can be explained because SPSS examination shows that some thinking styles are related to curtain emergent roles, In details, liberal thinking style has a negative correlation with questioner and challenger. Hierarchic thinking style has a positive correlation with starter and timer. Monarchic thinking styles has a negative correlation with challenger. Anarchic thinking style has a negative correlation with questioner.Based on the results, the advice can be given that roles who are responsible for analyzing, arguing and reasoning, take arguer, questioner and challenger for example, can be assigned to Chinese students or Asian students while roles, such as starter and timer, who are responsible for overall management and summarizing, can be assigned to students from western countries when providing intervene in cross-cultural CSCL. The conclusion can be used as a reference or guidance to the educator, instructor or teacher because the proper intervene can improve the learning efficiency.