SOCIETIES' DIFFERENT STRENGTHS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

This paper investigates cultural differences in a comparison of the educational and research environments in two different countries: USA and Germany. These countries were chosen because they represent very converse approaches. A number of examples are used to argue that the differences are deeply anchored in different cultural values and may even reflect different personality type distributions in both countries. Thus, a working style is found that is more oriented toward cooperation in the USA and more toward individual work in Germany. Though currently countries are integrating each other's approaches and thus are converging, society is also faced with the challenge of keeping and supporting individual strengths.