His research is built on educational psychology and measurement, and we have kept researching together we have shared supervision and involvement in our student’s theses and co-authored 35+ papers. David left New England to move to ANU in Canberra, then to my home province Canterbury in New Zealand, and then to Hong Kong where his major substantive work that is the focus of this book was undertaken. This was the start of a long friendship spanning 35 years. Said that”, and his pursuit of the big ideas. I learned that I had to hurry up and read the literature he kept sending me as most morning tea times were punctuated with “what did you think of the x article”, “how come x said this but y v He was in the Higher Education unit, had a fascination with chess, was a fellow lover of quantitative methods (David’s first degree was in mathematical statistics), and had a deep knowledge of the research literature. I first met David when we were young lecturers at the University of New England. In each chapter David’s work is evident, and what a powerful contribution he has made. Kember’s chapter in this book provides the story of this development and how the paradox has been resolved, while McInerney’s chapter tells the story of David’s solid research programme and how it has evolved throughout the years. The chapters in this book show the generative power and solid platform that David and John provided, and the fascination is how their ideas have spread from China to encompass many other Asian countries. His four earlier books with John Biggs (and others) – The Chinese Learner: Cultural, Psychological, and Contextual Influences (1996), Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives (2001), Learning and Teaching in Hong Kong: What Is and What Might Be (1993), and Learning and Development of Asian Students: What the 21st Century Teacher Needs to Think About (2010) – were among the first to create a research literature on the Chinese learner and created a platform for many others to research this topic. Another aim of this book is to celebrate the scholarly achievements of Professor David Watkins who has pioneered research on the Asian learner. This book dispels these false contrasts and offers a much more nuanced interpretation about the qualities of the Asian learner. Simple answers to this paradox are often provided, such as the East is collectivist, whereas the West is individualist the East overuses memory, whereas the West uses deeper learning the East favours effort, whereas the West favours ability and so on. It outlines the seeming paradox about Asian learners who perform so well in international tests of school achievement and collaborative learning – but many in the West shudder at what they see are didactic, top-down teaching methods and an over reliance on memorisation, rote learning, and surface-level thinking. This is a book recognising one of the major contributors to educational psychology in Asia. is part of Springer Science+Business Media (Foreword Printed on acid-free paper Springer Science+Business Media Singapore Pte Ltd. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
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Bernardo Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology University of Macau Macau SAR, P.R. The Hong Kong Institute of Education Hong Kong SAR, P.R. King Department of Curriculum and Instruction The Psychology of Asian Learners A Festschrift in Honor of David WatkinsĮditors Ronnel B.