Effects of Culture on Teaching and Learning

David Livermore                   blog                       Global Thinker and Author

http://davidlivermore.com/2011/06/06/this-is-your-brain-on-culture/

On his blog, Global Thinker and Author, David Livermore says cultural differences matter.  The brain is wired differently in different cultures, but  can be retrained and then back again to the original culture. He mentions a study done by Dr. Ying-Yi Hong of University of Illinois students.  The Chinese college students had just come from China. They and group of American students were asked to look at a picture of a sheep in a room.  The American subjects’ brain function, as measured by MRI technology, focused on the object, or image of the sheep.  The Chinese students looked at the background of the picture, or the context.  The Chinese found the viewing of the picture more anxiety producing than the American students, since the contexts didn’t match; the sheep didn’t belong in the middle of a room.  This type of anxiety was said to be consistent with other neuroscientists findings in studies involving Westerner’s vs. Easterners brains.  Hong repeated the MRI scans several months later.  Interestingly, the Chinese student’s brains looked much more like the American students’.  The scans of the American students didn’t change over that time.

The author says the findings suggest that culture does shape the neurology of our brains, but it is not permanent and that cross cultural experiences can change the neurological wiring of our brains.

He believes that if we work on improving our cultural intelligence, we are increasing mental flexibility, which improves our cross-culture effectiveness, quality of life, and other areas of our work.

This study was on college-aged students. I am not sure if the implications would be the same for children, but it would be interesting to know how children’s brains would react.

Cynthia Czerwonka, ESOL Endorsement blog