Korean Job Discussion Forums

Boodleheimer

there's a viewpoint article in yesterday's JoongAng Daily (attached to the Herald Tribune) -- "Teachers can do a lot for reform to work" -- that i just read. it's more or less about the new "combined essay test" for uni admissions. the author states "Our society needs people who are able think [sic] logically, critically and creatively."

i'd agree.

he also states "Private institutes are adapting and preparing for the changing university entrance exams much faster than the private schools."

i have never worked in a hagwon in Korea, so i can't make a statement.

now, if i were to become a parent in Korea, i doubt i'd send my kid to a hagwon. why? because the kids in my public high school are so exhausted from constant studying that they can hardly remember their own names. they have precious little time outside their books. that's just unhealthy.

but it seems as this new essay test is a justification for hagwon learning -- high schools can't prepare all their students for an entrance exam that not 100% will take.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

It sure tends to increase the disparity amongst students, and not just in English. Imagine being a math teacher, say a grade 2 math teacher. You have a class with some students who have already done everything in the curriculum at private institutes, should be in grade 3, and are hopelessly bored with your lesson. Then you have others who failed grade 1 but, instead of re-taking it, just got moved ahead another year anyways. You can't let the advanced students sleep and not do their homework and there's very little remedial education for the weaker students who can't understand, compounding classroom management problems on top of everything. Some students are doing the bare minimum, if they're even capable of that, while others are getting 15+ hours of math instruction per week between high school and private academies. They can, and at my school sometimes do, move them from their homerooms and divide them into classes based on test scores, but the schedule often doesn't allow this. The problems are so obvious but the solutions just can't be implimented.

Until the university entrance requirements change completely none of this idiocy will change.

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

I talked with a co-worker about this. Apparently the ones most against streaming kids according to abilty are the moms as it's a slight against them that there kids are stuck in 'lower level' classes. And probably for good reason. The non-academic pathways for students in high school are really bad, as manual labour tends to be looked down on here.

In the end Koreans seem to want equality at school, at least at face value - everyone gets a bad education! However the hagwons really help play on the fears of being left behind. But eventually something has gotta give!

Boodleheimer · Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:51 pm Post subject:

my first graders are grouped according to ability-- the advanced kids are awesome and the lower-level ones have lost their willingness to learn.

Juregen · Joined: 30 May 2006

The problem is that parents assume that studying 16 hours a day is better then 8.

jaganath69 · Joined: 17 Jul 2003

Re ability groupings, I teach second grade at a private school and we recently scrapped our A and B groups based on ability to try a new method. We now pair kids, in terms of relative ability, placing a high acheiver with a not so high one. We are finding a better results for both as the higher level kids help the lower ones out, reinforcing the lesson with the former. However, we met from very stiff resistance from the parents of the former A grouping who felt their kids would suffer. Nothing of the like has happened.

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Boodleheimer · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:47 pm Post subject:

yesterday i felt kinda guilty-- one teacher was absent and he left me a note asking me to supervise his students as they "self-study". i told the kids they could study, read, talk quietly, or sleep. by the end of the hour, 70% were asleep -- some didn't wake up when the bell rang.

i felt bad for perhaps undermining the teacher's authority and perhaps they'd respect me less.

today i was told i'd be supervising a mock SAT. and the students were all happy that they were taking this test-- because they wouldn't have to "self-study".