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Jizzo T. Clown · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 8:25 pm Post subject: Academic Cultures

I'm aware that in most Asian countries, it's standard procedure for students not to question their teacher, but rather, to absorb whatever input the teacher gives and be able to regurgitate it back on to exams.

I have a professor from Italy, and she said that the culture is the same over there. She said that once when she asked her prof to clarify something, he said "I'm not here to answer your questions."

Is this attitude towards learning is prevalent in all European universities? What about other areas, like the Middle East or Oz? In America, everyone is expected to ask for clarification, and even challenging the professor's view is looked upon favorably.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

To "question a teacher" is quite different from "asking the teacher a question". Which do you claim is the case for Asian cultures? I work in Japan and have never heard of such a thing. EITHER one! In fact, I get Japanese teachers coming to me all the time because of some smart kid who wants them to clarify a nitpicky grammatical detail that the J teacher is unable to answer.

Jizzo T. Clown · Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:47 pm Post subject:

Maybe asking the teacher a question is questioning the teacher (according to the mindset of certain groups of students)? Of course, my assumption about Asian Higher Ed could be off. I was basing that on my experiences in China...then again, my uni students might've just been shy!

However, from the lack of responses, is it fair to assume that unis across Europe discourage student-professor interaction, or are all "Western" Universities created equally Question

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

My uni in the Netherlands was all PBL-based; teachers acted essentially as guides. We were constantly interacting on a relatively equal basis with students. My understanding is that this approach has been fairly prevalent in some European unis for the past 15 years or more, so I would say based on my limited experience that European unis (at least some) definitely do NOT discourage student-professor interaction. And, basically, are not teacher-centered in any way.
Although, it may well be that German unis, for example, operate on a very different system than Dutch ones. The fact that this continent is multi-cultural is probably reflected in its unis too, right?
I suppose it's difficult to make really general statements about this, but I don't think that all North American unis encourage student-professor interaction and I know for a fact that all European ones don't discourage it.