Do they learn differently? An investigation of the pre-service teachers from US and China

Based on the hypothesis that learning preferences tend to vary over cultures, this study compared and contrasted the learning approaches and learning styles between Chinese and American pre-service teachers in an attempt to know more about the learning/teaching landscapes in these two countries as “teachers teach the way they learned” [Dunn, R., & Dunn, K. (1979). Learning styles/teaching styles: Should they...can they...be matched? Educational Leadership, 36, 243, 238–244]. The results showed significant differences between the two groups in deep and surface-learning approaches as well as kinesthetic and visual learning styles. The underlying cultural backgrounds and social–economic factors accounting for the differences were discussed and the implications for teaching and learning enhancement in teacher education were explored.