The differences between Chinese and American education environments
A powerful, sobering look at American students today and why we need to re-think technology interfaces, Social Media and trends….
My students were always asking for examples of the differences in Eastern and Western education and social environ…Here is an answer from students themselves…
10 responses so far
This is brilliant! I had this feeling throughout that I wanted to rush out into the street, give people the URL and tell them to watch it.
URL? OK, the link.
Better idea.
Spread the video.
Link. Embed. Share.
Easier than a book.
Or a newspaper.
More likely to be consumed.
Imitated.
Improved upon.
Thank u.
Onemanbandwidth rox!
Not impressed. The students struck me as being immature and self-absorbed.
as I recall my own student days I think I would have to acknowledge any accusation that I and my cohort were “immature and self-absorbed” with “guilty as charged”, but surely the point is that the students “signs” were simply a way of displaying the survey results: my takeaway was that anyone involved in or concerned with education policy or practice should take serious note and see if there are more effective ways of communicating with a younger generation: and as a former “chalkie” I realise very clearly that “chalk ‘n talk” just don’t cut it any longer
After 30 years as a teacher and 24 as a student I can safely say that not much has changed in that regard: Teens and Collegians understand astronomy and physics thus: The world revolves around me…
I have learned a great deal more this year about how to listen and further–and pardon my being prosaic–conversations…
Before the Academy of Health Sciences would allow me to teach in the 70s I had to take two graduate courses in Behavioral Objectives and Measurement of Success via item analysis on tests in the classroom. The responsibility was ours if students did not learn in the classroom. We were, by mandate, more creative and cutting edge than teachers today: we used CAI, slide shows, self-created videos, magnetic chalkboards….There are few schools who enforce such standards on their teachers today….It is not my job to entertain, but it is my job to remain current and to deliver needed material in a way students can and will grasp it…IF I do my job well ( and there are easy ways to measure my success) and a student doesn’t get it then they can be self-absorbed in the re-take or elect to learn something…
I looked at the message in the film…Someone cheated those students: 100+ students in class??? I would be navel gazing and Facebooking as well…
All good points, and I was no different in my student days, but were they cheated? 100+ students in a class, sure, but were they promised any less?
Maybe this boils down to the difference in university systems, but when I was an undergrad at the University of Otago, you knew and accepted that class sizes varied radically according to the faculty, department and paper. If you signed up for first year chemistry, for example, you did so knowing you would be one of 1000+ in the course, that you’d be attending 2 lectures per week in which you were one of 300+, and one lab which was at a marginally more humane level- and that only because it was split into half a dozen “sub-labs” in each of which two graduate students tutored 20 odd first years. Most first year biology papers were the same. So you either got stuck into the work and did what you could, or, like me, decided that chemistry was the worst thing you could be wasting your life on, and promptly failed. Don’t bother complaining, though, you’ll get no sympathy. How well you do depends on how well you adapt to the system, and you chose to be there, so you take responsibility for your actions.
First year French, on the other hand, was much smaller, but even then you’d have to stand out for the lecturers to remember your name. Second year had more of a personal touch, and third year was better yet. Even so, even as we were graduating, I had some classmates whose French had not improved since high school, and that wasn’t because our lecturers were not fulfilling their responsibilities.
Sure, teachers have responsibilities, but so do students.
Well, it’s been 40 years since I have been to college, but I have a daughter in school. She graduated from high school 12 years ago, when to college for 1 1/2 years and then went out into the working world….After 10 years, she has gone back to school for a engineering degree. She is so focused that I have to remind her that she still has a life. She has made all “A’s” this time around. I think the student has to be committed and the professors have to be committed to what they are doing, it’s a two way street.
I agree with Chris and Lucy…
It is a two-way street, but I tend to fall hard on the teachers who just slide by…And I can’t cut schools any slack who cram lecture halls to overflowing and allow professors to vanish and push duties onto their TAs.
I guess, more than anything, I hope teachers will take a hard look at what is current and see what they can apply. I have always considered myself so lucky to be around younger people most of my life. It has kept me young and hungry for learning. I have always thought the most foreign land I could visit would be the one in which many of my peers traveled through traditional life phases. There is no value attached to that…I am just not sure I am going to know how to relate…
Congrats to your daughter Lucy!! I think, of all the places I have taught, I enjoyed Community Colleges where students were sure of what they wanted and were making great sacrifices to attain goals. Conversely, my worst teaching experience was at an elite school where students fancies themselves better than others not accorded their good fortune.
I wish her continued success!
“My students were always asking for examples of the differences in Eastern and Western education and social environ…Here is an answer from students themselves”
While its a good video, I dont think it reflects the real diffenences between eastern and western education, things are pretty much the same in Asia as far as I know.
Not all all the same…Browse through the category this belongs to and you will get a lot more info…
Certainly that video only shows the statistical differences between the groups…That and the freedom of expression and the ownership of expensive “toys” like laptops, access to the internet, ability to produce a video….
i think so too
its not far at all