Relationships between learning strategies and self-efficacy: A cross-cultural comparison between Taiwan and the United States using latent class analysis

ABSTRACT Learning behavior of East Asian students has been debated due to their striking performance on international large-scale assessments. This study was a comparative study using latent class analysis to examine students’ perceptions of learning strategies, students’ reported learning strategy use, and the relationships between learning strategies and self-efficacy across Taiwanese and American students in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012. The results indicate that learning strategy items were perceived equivalently. Taiwanese students (5%) reported less memorization than American students (19%). More Taiwanese students (63%) reported elaboration strategy; more American students (57%) reported control strategy. High self-efficacy Taiwanese students reported memorization the least; high self-efficacy American students reported elaboration less than control strategy. Implications are discussed.