Cognitive development and student approaches to learning: An investigation of Perry's theory with Chinese and U.S. university students

The purpose of this research was to provide cross-culturalevidence of the relationship between student approaches tolearning and stages of cognitive development and of the validityof Perry's theory of such development. The participants for thisstudy were 67 U.S. and 193 Mainland Chinese students. Theparticipants rated their ability on several scales, responded tothe Zhang Cognitive Development Inventory (Zhang 1995) and theStudy Process Questionnaire (Biggs 1987a, 1992) as well as ademographic questionnaire. Self-report measures of achievementscores were also obtained. There were four major findings. First, cognitive development and student learning approaches wererelated in predictable ways. Second, the cognitive-developmentalpatterns of the American and Chineseparticipants differed. Third, for both American and Chinese students,extracurricular activities positively contributed to theircognitive development. Finally, a statistically significantrelationship between cognitive development and achievement wasidentified among the American group, whereas no relationship wasfound between cognitive development and achievement among theChinese group. Implications of these findings are discussed.