Cultural Differences in the Use of Strategies for Self-Regulated Learning

This article reports the results of a study that compared the strategies used by three different groups of upper secondary school students to regulate their own learning processes: Australian students, Japanese students at school in Japan, and Japanese students studying in Australian schools. Although students in the three groups used a similar range of strategies, the pattern of use for each cultural group varied. Variations in the pattern of strategy use were also associated with academic achievement. The structuring of the physical environment for study purposes and the checking of one's work were two of the most important strategies for each of the groups. The Japanese students used memory strategies significantly more than did the Australian students. Furthermore, although Japanese students studying in Australia resembled their Australian counterparts more than their Japanese counterparts on many of the strategies, they still attached significantly greater importance to the use of memorization than did the Australian students. This finding is discussed in the light of cultural and educational differences between the two groups in terms of their beliefs regarding the relationship between memorization and understanding.