Small power distance

1
Small power distance

• Teachers expect initiatives from students in
  class
• Teachers are experts who transfer impersonal
  truths
• Students treat teachers as equal

2
Large power distance

• Teachers are expected to take all initiatives in
  class
• Teachers are gurus who transfer personal wisdom
• Students treat teachers with respect

3
Collectivist

• Purpose of education is learning how to do
• Diplomas provide entry to higher status groups
• Harmony should always be maintained and direct
  confrontations avoided
• High-context communication

4
Individualist

• Purpose of education is learning how to learn
• Diplomas increase economic worth and/or
  self-respect
• Speaking ones mind is a characteristic of an
  honest person
• Low-context communication

5
Feminine

• Values shared by men and women
• Sympathy for the weak
• Average student is the norm
• Failing in school is a minor accident
• Friendliness in teachers appreciated
• Men and women study same subjects
• Work in order to live

6
Masculine

• Values shared by men and women
• Sympathy for the strong
• Best student is the norm
• Failing in school is a disaster
• Brilliance in teachers appreciated
• Men and women study different subjects
• Live in order to work

7
Weak uncertainty avoidance

• Students comfortable with open-ended learning
  situations and concerned with good discussions
• Teachers may say I dont know
• There should not be more rules than is strictly
  necessary
• Tolerance of deviant and innovative ideas and
  behaviour
• In philosophy and science, tendency towards
  relativism and empiricism
• Scientific opponents can be personal friends

8
Strong uncertainty avoidance

• Students comfortable in structured learning
  situations and concerned with the right answers
• Teachers supposed to have all the answers
• Emotional need for rules, even if these will
  never work
• Suppression of deviant ideas and behaviour,
  resistance to innovation
• In philosophy and science, tendency towards grand
  theories
• Scientific opponents cannot be personal friends