Job Discussion Forums

[JZer]

Considering the lack of knowledge of many Asians outside of their professional knowledge, I don't really know how you can call them every educated.

[MarkM]

I am working in China, and I am dismayed at how narrow and limited the education seems to be. The fundamental problem, in my opinion, is that education here is prescriptive and rote-learning based. If students commit new information to memory, the learning is considered to have been successful. Period. In western countries, education is becoming increasingly student-centered and discovery based. Students link appropriate new information to prior knowledge in a way that enables them to construct new knowledge, which they are expected to use creatively. In other words, they learn to think for themselves. Discovery based education may appear to be less disciplined and is harder work for the teacher. But it produces much better results.

I am amazed that Asian countries are able to sustain such high economic growth rates in spite of the pitiful state of their education systems. I am dismayed by the almost total absence of the arts and very little evidence of creativity. The cultural revolution did a lot of damage in the past, but without a more liberated educational system nothing is going to change.

From a teaching perspective, this situation creates frustrations. Students have been conditioned into the memorisation mind-set and don't respond well to opportunities for creative thinking.

Rant over!

[naturegirl321]

[JZer]