Education

The culture and tradition of the society shapes the development of Western and Eastern (i.e. Asian) education philosophies. When comparing student involvement within classroom activities, Westerners stress on active learning on their learners, whereas the Easterners prefer passive learning. In the teaching process, the roles of students are recognised in Western education philosophy by giving them the rights and respects. Students are given the opportunity and freedom to take charge of their own learning process. And teachers play their role as a facilitator than the knowledge producer in guiding students to discover and develop their abilities and potentials. In contrast, Eastern education philosophy holds on to the concept of teaching. Students in a way receive knowledge in a rigid way as they only seem to learn and study straightly from the teachers. In the Western education philosophy, students learn by understanding since westerners believe that the best education is mean to form the society to become a cultural nation in regard of their education and education aim. Therefore, they will critically evaluate rather than just memorizing. Nevertheless, in Eastern education the students practice the concept of memorizing, as this philosophy focuses mainly on book learning and memorization within the teaching and learning process.

Reference: Hassan, A & Jamaludin, NS 2012, Approaches & values in two gigantic educational philosophies: East and West, Faculty of Educational Studies, University Putra Malaysia,