What Works: Is Western educational research relevant for educational reforms in Asia?

This paper critically reviews evidence of the relevance of Western educational literature for guiding educational reform in Asia. I conclude that reforms based on constructivist notions and the types of classrooms which lead to higher quality learning outcomes may well be relevant. But even such notions need to be treated with caution as a number of fundamental Western conceptions of the nature of teaching and learning do not travel well across cultures. There is now a massive amount of Western research on factors related to educational achievement. A recent major meta-analysis of this data has produced clear evidence of which instructional approaches are likely to be most effective in Western educational settings in terms of improving student learning outcomes (see Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Such evidence has (sometimes) been used to inform educational reforms in Western countries. But are these findings relevant for Singapore and elsewhere in Asia? In this paper I will try to answer this question by reviewing research mainly done by my colleagues and myself in Hong Kong and some other Asian countries to try to highlight some of the areas where it i