HEWLETT-Packard recently released its inaugural HP New Asian Learning Experience Study, a survey that explored how the personalities of Asian millennial parents impact the way they define learning.
The study showed that Malaysian parents are most concerned about future-proofing their children, especially when it comes to the rising cost of living and their child’s ability to acquire requisite skills for future roles.
The study, which involved 3,177 Asian millennial parents across seven countries — India, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines — identified the unique mindsets of parents: how they define learning, the types of learning experiences, their values, their involvement in helping their children learn and their hopes and fears for their children’s future.
“As a parent, I understand the importance of a well-rounded education,” said Fayza Amin, managing director of HP Inc Malaysia.
“At HP, we’re aligned with Malaysian parents’ focus on the role of digital and print in facilitating effective learning outcomes. We want to support parents in raising our future leaders by providing the right information, technology and learning experiences.”
In an era of constant transformation, the accelerated pace of technological change will transform our workplaces, which will be defined by mobility, immersive technologies, borderless enterprises and collaboration with intelligent machines.
PARENTS’ CONCERNS
Malaysian parents are concerned that their children will not be able to keep up with the competitive and fast-paced world.
The study shows that Malaysian parents are most concerned about the rising cost of living (75 per cent) and whether their child is equipped with skills for future roles (60 per cent).
With the Ministry of Education’s focus on technology-based learning, HP Malaysia introduced the Little Makers challenge that spurs creativity in an advanced learning environment for children by combining technology with print-based learning.
By engaging with over 90 partnering schools nationwide for the HP “Little Makers” campaign, HP Malaysia aims to support the future of the nation with the creation of immersive learning experiences through its print and PC innovation.
The change within the technological landscape has brought a new approach towards learning — one that varies from the learning experiences Asian millennial parents had while growing up.
The HP New Asian Learning Experience Study revealed that parents believe their children can benefit from a mixture of both printed and digital materials.
Malaysian millennial parents perceive print as being a more effective medium for reading comprehension, comprehension skills and vocabulary knowledge while digital platforms facilitate both creative and critical thinking.
Ultimately, they perceive a combination of both print and digital as the most beneficial outcome.
Parents prefer honing their child’s math and art skills on printed materials, and helping their child learn musical, auditory and linguistic skills via e-learning. They use a mix of print and digital predominantly to enhance math skills (57 per cent) and linguistic skills (53 per cent).
The HP New Asian Learning Experience Study shows that Malaysian parents’ definition of learning reflects the requirements of the future workplace. They value both experiential learning (78.2 per cent) and rote learning and memorisation (70.1 per cent). Overall, Malaysian parents value experiential learning as an opportunity for children to hone their creative and critical thinking skills (92.7 per cent).
While Malaysian parents perceive bonding with their children through learning activities as a great way to develop interpersonal skills (83 per cent), they also feel the need to increase the pace and control the content of their child’s learning journey.
Despite Malaysian parents stating that they value experiential learning, they still fall back on the methods which they are most familiar with.
While they only see the limited value in tuition, 58 per cent of parents surveyed stated that they are more than willing to spend extra income in enrolling their children in tuitions and other academic activities outside of school, despite not knowing the actual effectiveness these activities have on their children.
Zaid Mohamad coaches and trains parents to experience happier homes and more productive workplaces. Reach him at zaid@smartparents.com.my.