One Course, 150,000 Students.
AT the May announcement of edX, the Harvard-M.I.T. partnership that will offer free online courses with a certificate of completion, Susan Hockfield, the president of M.I.T., declared: “Fasten your seat belts.” If anyone was ready for the ride — the $60 million venture aims to reach a billion people — it was Anant Agarwal, the director of M.I.T.’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Mr. Agarwal, named the first president of edX, describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur” who first went into business as a child in Mangalore, India, building coops for 40 chickens and selling their eggs. Start-ups still call to him: in 2005-6, he took time off from M.I.T. to create a semiconductor company. And in December, when M.I.T. decided to plunge into the world of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, with a new platform called MITx (now folded into edX), he came forward to teach the first offering, which ran March 5 to June 8 and enrolled over 150,000.
How did you come to teach the first course?
I just backed into it. M.I.T. asked me to look for a teacher for the MITx prototype course. I talked to some of my colleagues, who are much better teachers than I am, but I couldn’t get anyone to agree to do it. Many of them said it couldn’t be done in three months. But I’m really impatient, I like to get things done, and I’ve started enough companies to know that you can do things that big companies wouldn’t think was possible.
The debut course was “Circuits and Electronics.” Why that one?
It was not my first choice at all. A computer science or digital course would have made more sense, but “Circuits” was something I could teach. It’s one of the hardest courses at M.I.T. You need differential equations and calculus, and we had to develop online simulated laboratories.
We’re starting slowly, with four to six courses in the fall and maybe a dozen in the spring. We hope to offer computer science, biology, math, physics, public health, history and more.
Did you expect so much demand?
With no marketing dollars, I thought we might get 200 students. When we posted on the Web site that we were taking registration and the course would start in March, my colleague Piotr Mitros called and said, “We’re getting 10,000 registrations a day.” I fell off my seat and said, “Piotr, are you sure you’ve got the decimal point right?” My most fearful moment was when we launched the course. I worried that the system couldn’t handle it, and would keel over and die.
Granted, there are no papers to grade, and assignments aren’t free-form, but how does one professor handle so many students?
We had four teaching assistants, and my initial plan was that they would spend a lot of time on the discussion forum, answering questions. One night in the early days, I was on the forum at 2 a.m. when I saw a student ask a question, and I was typing my answer when I discovered that another student had typed an answer before I could. It was in the right direction, but not quite there, so I thought I could modify it, but then some other student jumped in with the right answer. It was fascinating to see how quickly students were helping each other. All we had to do was go in and say that it was a good answer. I actually instructed the T.A.’s not to answer so quickly, to let students work for an hour or two, and by and large they find the answers.
The discussion forum has many interesting features, like karma points. If someone posts a question, and another student votes it up, which is like “liking” the question, the student who posted it gets karma points. Or if a staff member checks an answer as correct, the student gets a big bonus of points. If you get a large number of karma points, you get some of the privileges of an instructor, like closing down a discussion when people have come to the right answer.
How does this all work with a global enrollment?
It’s been amazing. You’d see someone post in Brazil looking for other students in Brazil so they could meet and have a study group at a coffee shop. Facebook sites for the course popped up, not all in English. There are people in Tunisia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Latin America. And a professor in Mongolia has a group of students taking the course. He got them all a little laboratory kit, so they’re doing the experiments live along with the course.
Most students who register for MOOCs don’t complete the course. Of the 154,763 who registered for “Circuits and Electronics,” fewer than half even got as far as looking at the first problem set, and only 7,157 passed the course. What do you make of that?
A large number of the students who sign up for MOOCs are browsing, to see what it’s like. They might not have the right background for the course. They might just do a little bit of the coursework. Our course was M.I.T.-hard and needed a very, very solid background. Other students just don’t have time to do the weekly assignments. One thing we’re thinking of is to offer multiple versions of the course, one that would last a semester and one that could stretch over a year. That would help some people complete.
EdX operates under an honor code, with no way to verify that the student who registered is the one doing the work. Is that likely to change?
It’s quite possible employers would be happy with an honor certificate. We’re looking at various methods of proctoring. We have talked about people going to centers to take exams. There are also companies that use the cameras inside a laptop or iPad to watch you and everything else that’s happening in the room while you take an exam, and that may be more scalable.
So what is the future of edX?
When there are more courses, I could imagine people taking several of them, and putting them together, getting the certificates, and using it something like a diploma. I think the courses will get better and better, but we don’t know how they’ll be used.
And because we will have all this data on how students actually use our materials, there are opportunities for research on learning. We can watch how many attempts students made before they got an exercise right, and if they got it wrong, what they used to try to find a solution. Did they go to the textbook, go back and watch the video, go to the forum and post a question?
Our goal is to change the world through education.
Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/education/edlife/anant-agarwal-discusses-free-online-courses-offered-by-a-harvard-mit-partnership.html?ref=education
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Thailand Takes First Steps on Long Road to Inclusive Mainstream Education
Thailand takes first steps on long road to inclusive mainstream education.
The strict hierarchy of Thai society means the drive for inclusive education needs strong commitment from both politicians and school leaders. In the past decade, there has been significant political progress in moves to implement a system that ensures children with disabilities have access to mainstream schools. However, with cultural barriers and resistance from some headteachers, the journey towards fully inclusive education has only just begun.
"Even when I offered to work for free, they still could not be convinced," explains Paul Lennon, a British ex-pat whose son was born with Down's syndrome. When he started looking for mainstream schools for his son in Chanthaburi province six years ago, headteachers in the local area refused him a place. Yet the National Educational Act, passed in 1999 – and accompanied by posters declaring: "Any disabled person who wishes to go to school can do so" – supposedly guaranteed all disabled children access to state education.
Some headteachers Lennon spoke to were amenable to the concept of inclusive education, but didn't feel they had the resources or training to implement it effectively. Others, with decades of experience of working in special schools, felt this institutional model was more suitable.
The education act did have some success. Between 2000 and 2004, the number of students with disabilities accessing education increased from 145,000 to 187,000. These students were taught at more than 18,000 inclusive schools, defined by the government as those that teach children with and without disabilities. There was further legislative progress with the Education Provision for People with Disabilities Act, passed in 2008, which made it illegal for schools to refuse entry to children with disabilities.
After much perseverance in securing a school place for his son, Lennon turned his attention to helping other children gain access to inclusive education by helping to set up the Good Child Foundation.
Nanthaporn (Nuey) Nanthamongkol, a six-year-old girl with Down's syndrome, was due to be sent to a distant boarding school before he intervened. "Without our work, Nuey would have been separated from her parents, sent to a school 80km away," says Lennon. "For kids with Down's syndrome, this is the worst possible thing you could do."
Nuey's story also highlights the cultural complexities of disability in Thailand. Sermsap Vorapanya, who is the author of A Model for Inclusive Schools in Thailand and has conducted a study on Thai inclusive education practices, explains: "It is critical to understand that most Buddhists [in Thailand] believe in reincarnation. Disability is widely viewed as a deserved failure to lead positive previous lives."
Theravada Buddhist teaching on rebirth led some families to report feeling shame about having a disabled child.
However, many headteachers in Vorapanya's study cited the Buddhist belief in the need for compassion as a reason they support inclusive education. Meanprasat private school in Bangkok, which combines western-style "child-centric" learning with a Buddhist ethos of moral ethics and regular meditation, is recognised as a national leader in integrated educational practices. In total, 130 of its 1,300 students are disabled. The school's philosophy is that children with disabilities "should have the chance to mix with society and be accepted by it". More than 5,000 teachers visit the school annually and attend workshops held to help spread good practice.
State schools, however, which have much less funding, have been described by Vorapanya as having "woefully insufficient resources" to implement inclusive education properly. Headteachers have complained that while schools can now access a minimum of 2,000 baht (approximately £41) funding for each disabled child, this is not enough to cover the required resources or training expenses. Another problem is that this funding can only be given if the child has been officially certified with a disability. Teachers have reported that some parents do not want this social stigma or are fearful that this certification will lead to discrimination.
Despite the significant challenges, Lennon is optimistic. "We are making great strides," he says. "If we keep doing good, the results will surely follow."
Chanthaburi province is moving away from the special schools model, placing students with moderate special needs in mainstream schools. Lennon helps place volunteers in local schools with children with Down's syndrome, and is working with local government to demonstrate how this practice can be replicated across the province.
Inclusive education remains in its early development stages in Thailand. But, as Vorapanya says, the country has "made a great beginning" to a monumental task.
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/mar/27/thailand-first-steps-inclusive-education
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
The strict hierarchy of Thai society means the drive for inclusive education needs strong commitment from both politicians and school leaders. In the past decade, there has been significant political progress in moves to implement a system that ensures children with disabilities have access to mainstream schools. However, with cultural barriers and resistance from some headteachers, the journey towards fully inclusive education has only just begun.
"Even when I offered to work for free, they still could not be convinced," explains Paul Lennon, a British ex-pat whose son was born with Down's syndrome. When he started looking for mainstream schools for his son in Chanthaburi province six years ago, headteachers in the local area refused him a place. Yet the National Educational Act, passed in 1999 – and accompanied by posters declaring: "Any disabled person who wishes to go to school can do so" – supposedly guaranteed all disabled children access to state education.
Some headteachers Lennon spoke to were amenable to the concept of inclusive education, but didn't feel they had the resources or training to implement it effectively. Others, with decades of experience of working in special schools, felt this institutional model was more suitable.
The education act did have some success. Between 2000 and 2004, the number of students with disabilities accessing education increased from 145,000 to 187,000. These students were taught at more than 18,000 inclusive schools, defined by the government as those that teach children with and without disabilities. There was further legislative progress with the Education Provision for People with Disabilities Act, passed in 2008, which made it illegal for schools to refuse entry to children with disabilities.
After much perseverance in securing a school place for his son, Lennon turned his attention to helping other children gain access to inclusive education by helping to set up the Good Child Foundation.
Nanthaporn (Nuey) Nanthamongkol, a six-year-old girl with Down's syndrome, was due to be sent to a distant boarding school before he intervened. "Without our work, Nuey would have been separated from her parents, sent to a school 80km away," says Lennon. "For kids with Down's syndrome, this is the worst possible thing you could do."
Nuey's story also highlights the cultural complexities of disability in Thailand. Sermsap Vorapanya, who is the author of A Model for Inclusive Schools in Thailand and has conducted a study on Thai inclusive education practices, explains: "It is critical to understand that most Buddhists [in Thailand] believe in reincarnation. Disability is widely viewed as a deserved failure to lead positive previous lives."
Theravada Buddhist teaching on rebirth led some families to report feeling shame about having a disabled child.
However, many headteachers in Vorapanya's study cited the Buddhist belief in the need for compassion as a reason they support inclusive education. Meanprasat private school in Bangkok, which combines western-style "child-centric" learning with a Buddhist ethos of moral ethics and regular meditation, is recognised as a national leader in integrated educational practices. In total, 130 of its 1,300 students are disabled. The school's philosophy is that children with disabilities "should have the chance to mix with society and be accepted by it". More than 5,000 teachers visit the school annually and attend workshops held to help spread good practice.
State schools, however, which have much less funding, have been described by Vorapanya as having "woefully insufficient resources" to implement inclusive education properly. Headteachers have complained that while schools can now access a minimum of 2,000 baht (approximately £41) funding for each disabled child, this is not enough to cover the required resources or training expenses. Another problem is that this funding can only be given if the child has been officially certified with a disability. Teachers have reported that some parents do not want this social stigma or are fearful that this certification will lead to discrimination.
Despite the significant challenges, Lennon is optimistic. "We are making great strides," he says. "If we keep doing good, the results will surely follow."
Chanthaburi province is moving away from the special schools model, placing students with moderate special needs in mainstream schools. Lennon helps place volunteers in local schools with children with Down's syndrome, and is working with local government to demonstrate how this practice can be replicated across the province.
Inclusive education remains in its early development stages in Thailand. But, as Vorapanya says, the country has "made a great beginning" to a monumental task.
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/mar/27/thailand-first-steps-inclusive-education
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Teaching English for First Graders - Where to Start?
Teaching English for first graders: where to start?
The HCM City Education and Training Department has decided that students will not have to sit the exam to be able to enroll in intensive English classes. Those students, who want to study English, will only have to register their demand with the schools. However, the problem is that there are too many students who want to learn English, while the number of English teachers remains modest.
“160 first graders have registered to learn English. The students are now put in the same classes with the students who do not have the demand to study English. However, they will be put in separated classes from the second semester. What I am worried about is that the splitting cause a great chaos,” said a teacher of Bau Sen Primary School in District 5 in HCM City.
Nguyen Xuan Bao, Headmaster of Bau Sen Primary School, said that he still does not know what to do with the students who have registered to study English. The students must be divided into four classes, while in current conditions, the school can only arrange two classes. “Recruiting English teachers proves to be the biggest problem now, because it will not be easy to find teachers if we can only offer modest pay,” Bao said.
Under the current regulations, the teachers who teach English to first graders, under the pilot programme must obtain TKT certificate granted by Cambridge ESOL. In order to obtain the certificate, teachers must attend a training course in English teaching skills with foreign teachers. However, the problem is that teachers themselves would have to pay the tuition for the training course, estimated at six million dong.
“I agree that TKT certificate is a necessary document which shows teachers’ qualification. However, it is unreasonable to force teachers, who have modest income, to pay for the training course,” said a headmaster of a primary school in District 3 in HCM City.
She went on to say that the school really wants to pay the tuition for the teachers, but it cannot arrange the money. Meanwhile, students only have to pay 50,000 dong a month for English classes, which is not enough to pay the teachers.
Shortage of classrooms also causes headache to primary schools. The city’s Education and Training Department has decided that every class can only have a maximum of 35 students. Meanwhile, schools say they cannot arrange enough classrooms for so many students,
“We have no idle classrooms. All the rooms have been used to ensure that all the children in the district can go to school,” headmaster of a primary school in Tan Phu District said.
It seems that many schools are puzzled when implementing the pilot English teaching programme. At some schools, students, who who want to study English, are put in the same classes with those who don’t. At other schools, students who study English are put in special classes. Yet other schools still have not begun to accept registrations from students who want to attend English classes.
Headmaster of a school in District 3 complained that his school is still awaiting guildelines from the local education sub-department. “Our teachers are very worried. They fear that when the classes are re-arranged, this will affect the teaching quality,” he said. As first graders are small children who may not adjust well and find it difficult when put in other classes where they have to sit with new friends and study with new teachers.
Though the HCM City Education and Training Department has decided that first graders can also begin to study English, some educators still believe that it would be better to start teaching English in the second grade.
Read more at http://www.vnnewstime.com/education-news/teaching-english-for-first-graders-where-to-start/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
The HCM City Education and Training Department has decided that students will not have to sit the exam to be able to enroll in intensive English classes. Those students, who want to study English, will only have to register their demand with the schools. However, the problem is that there are too many students who want to learn English, while the number of English teachers remains modest.
“160 first graders have registered to learn English. The students are now put in the same classes with the students who do not have the demand to study English. However, they will be put in separated classes from the second semester. What I am worried about is that the splitting cause a great chaos,” said a teacher of Bau Sen Primary School in District 5 in HCM City.
Nguyen Xuan Bao, Headmaster of Bau Sen Primary School, said that he still does not know what to do with the students who have registered to study English. The students must be divided into four classes, while in current conditions, the school can only arrange two classes. “Recruiting English teachers proves to be the biggest problem now, because it will not be easy to find teachers if we can only offer modest pay,” Bao said.
Under the current regulations, the teachers who teach English to first graders, under the pilot programme must obtain TKT certificate granted by Cambridge ESOL. In order to obtain the certificate, teachers must attend a training course in English teaching skills with foreign teachers. However, the problem is that teachers themselves would have to pay the tuition for the training course, estimated at six million dong.
“I agree that TKT certificate is a necessary document which shows teachers’ qualification. However, it is unreasonable to force teachers, who have modest income, to pay for the training course,” said a headmaster of a primary school in District 3 in HCM City.
She went on to say that the school really wants to pay the tuition for the teachers, but it cannot arrange the money. Meanwhile, students only have to pay 50,000 dong a month for English classes, which is not enough to pay the teachers.
Shortage of classrooms also causes headache to primary schools. The city’s Education and Training Department has decided that every class can only have a maximum of 35 students. Meanwhile, schools say they cannot arrange enough classrooms for so many students,
“We have no idle classrooms. All the rooms have been used to ensure that all the children in the district can go to school,” headmaster of a primary school in Tan Phu District said.
It seems that many schools are puzzled when implementing the pilot English teaching programme. At some schools, students, who who want to study English, are put in the same classes with those who don’t. At other schools, students who study English are put in special classes. Yet other schools still have not begun to accept registrations from students who want to attend English classes.
Headmaster of a school in District 3 complained that his school is still awaiting guildelines from the local education sub-department. “Our teachers are very worried. They fear that when the classes are re-arranged, this will affect the teaching quality,” he said. As first graders are small children who may not adjust well and find it difficult when put in other classes where they have to sit with new friends and study with new teachers.
Though the HCM City Education and Training Department has decided that first graders can also begin to study English, some educators still believe that it would be better to start teaching English in the second grade.
Read more at http://www.vnnewstime.com/education-news/teaching-english-for-first-graders-where-to-start/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Saturday, August 4, 2012
China's Students Take on Tough Gaokao University Entrance Exam
China's Students Take on Tough Gaokao University Entrance Exam.
Every year, police road blocks are set up around schools and nearby construction sites are ordered to fall silent as the country is plunged into two days of "Gaokao fever".
This year, 9.15 million Chinese high school students are sitting the notoriously tough university entrance exam.
Critics say that for most of them, it is the culmination of a year of cramming, of repeating past papers and in large part, learning by rote.
In fact, almost everyone - students, parents, teachers and policymakers - seems to accept that the system is squeezing creativity out of students.
But despite the criticism, China's exam machine just keeps on squeezing, and more horror stories emerge each year.
Most recently, photographs emerged of a classroom in Hubei province, showing students taking energy-boosting amino acids from intravenous drips hung from the ceiling.
Miserable experience?
But is the Gaokao experience always so taxing and miserable?
The BBC followed pupils at Zhabei Number 8 High School in Shanghai for a year. The school has a population of almost 500 students, spread over three grades.
In terms of the ability of its intake, it ranks near the bottom of the 10 state-funded schools in its district.
But the first thing that strikes a visitor is that this school shows no sign of the discipline problems that might be found in schools elsewhere in the world with large cohorts of relatively disadvantaged students.
It costs the taxpayer a little more than $2,000 (£1,291) per pupil per year. The buildings are modern and smart, the pupils are well turned out in their green tracksuits, and the classes are orderly.
And, like everywhere else in China, cramming and intense exam preparation are very much in evidence.
Long hours
Ma Li, 18, fits the profile of a beleaguered final-year student toiling on the exam treadmill.
Hard working and bright, she regularly puts in an extra six hours at home at the end of a 10-hour school day.
"This studying lifestyle is pretty hard," she says. "There's not much time to relax, but we're all in it together, and we encourage each other."
Ma Li, who hopes to study shipping logistics at Shanghai Maritime University, a top-tier college, is a good illustration of an aspect of China's education system that often goes unreported.
Her parents are migrant workers who moved to Shanghai in 1993 and she has profited from the city's now three-decades-old commitment to provide universal education.
In China, it is certainly true that like so many other places, students from wealthier backgrounds get into the better schools and therefore the better universities.
But the education system appears to be better than many at acting as an effective check on the opportunity gap growing too wide.
Shanghai's recent ranking as the world leader in maths, science and reading test scores in an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study underlines this point.
The data was not just based on the city's elite students, but on the scores of a cross-section of students from all abilities, including the children of migrant workers.
Not stereotypical
It's not hard though to find students who are less engaged.
Ding Zhenwei is in some ways a refreshing antidote to the stereotype of China's results-obsessed student masses.
He has set his sights relatively low and plans to study interior design at a second-tier private college.
So he is coasting, confident he would make the modest Gaokao mark he needs, and is doing barely any extra studying outside of school hours.
"Even if I do fail to get in, I'll find another way of making a success of my life," he says.
In fact, 80% of Zhabei's final year students make it into either a first or second-tier university every year.
That is impressive, given the school's intake of less advantaged pupils, but it is also a sign of China's higher education boom.
In the past decade, it has massively expanded university places to reach about 30 million, the highest number in the world by far.
While that change has done nothing to reduce competition for the most prestigious institutions, it may be leading at least some students to question the value of cramming for the Gaokao.
After all, what is the point of all that pressure and stress if it leads only to a place among the ranks of the country's unemployed?
More than one million fewer students will take the exam this year compared with the peak in 2008, and observers are wondering if that fall is due to some kind of "Gaokao fatigue".
But there are still those students who see the test as important enough to have a second go.
Wang Yu, 19, is repeating her final year at Zhabei Number 8 High School because she did not get the Gaokao score she needed last time round.
"I already know the shame of failure," she says.
She is determined to do better this time so that she can rejoin her contemporaries who have started university without her.
Shining example
Education policy chiefs have long admitted the shortcomings of the Gaokao and have taken limited steps to try to introduce a more balanced and rounded education.
There is evidence in Zhabei, that students are now being trained to integrate knowledge and apply it to real-life problems.
The city's teachers are being extensively trained and there's lip service being paid to cutting those long study hours.
Shanghai was one of the first municipalities in China to stipulate a maximum amount of homework and set a minimum of one hour of physical activity a day.
How strictly those limits are being applied is another matter of course - at Zhabei, physical activity often seems to involve little more than a few minutes of choreographed group stretching exercises on the parade ground.
There is a consensus that China still leans far too much on preparation for exams and leaves too little time for real learning.
If future test takers from Zhabei Number 8 High School are really going to be given the chance to be tomorrow's creators, leaders and thinkers, then the system needs to change much faster.
If it does not, then some critics warn, that China may struggle to keep its economic boom on track.
Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18349873
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Every year, police road blocks are set up around schools and nearby construction sites are ordered to fall silent as the country is plunged into two days of "Gaokao fever".
This year, 9.15 million Chinese high school students are sitting the notoriously tough university entrance exam.
Critics say that for most of them, it is the culmination of a year of cramming, of repeating past papers and in large part, learning by rote.
In fact, almost everyone - students, parents, teachers and policymakers - seems to accept that the system is squeezing creativity out of students.
But despite the criticism, China's exam machine just keeps on squeezing, and more horror stories emerge each year.
Most recently, photographs emerged of a classroom in Hubei province, showing students taking energy-boosting amino acids from intravenous drips hung from the ceiling.
Miserable experience?
But is the Gaokao experience always so taxing and miserable?
The BBC followed pupils at Zhabei Number 8 High School in Shanghai for a year. The school has a population of almost 500 students, spread over three grades.
In terms of the ability of its intake, it ranks near the bottom of the 10 state-funded schools in its district.
But the first thing that strikes a visitor is that this school shows no sign of the discipline problems that might be found in schools elsewhere in the world with large cohorts of relatively disadvantaged students.
It costs the taxpayer a little more than $2,000 (£1,291) per pupil per year. The buildings are modern and smart, the pupils are well turned out in their green tracksuits, and the classes are orderly.
And, like everywhere else in China, cramming and intense exam preparation are very much in evidence.
Long hours
Ma Li, 18, fits the profile of a beleaguered final-year student toiling on the exam treadmill.
Hard working and bright, she regularly puts in an extra six hours at home at the end of a 10-hour school day.
"This studying lifestyle is pretty hard," she says. "There's not much time to relax, but we're all in it together, and we encourage each other."
Ma Li, who hopes to study shipping logistics at Shanghai Maritime University, a top-tier college, is a good illustration of an aspect of China's education system that often goes unreported.
Her parents are migrant workers who moved to Shanghai in 1993 and she has profited from the city's now three-decades-old commitment to provide universal education.
In China, it is certainly true that like so many other places, students from wealthier backgrounds get into the better schools and therefore the better universities.
But the education system appears to be better than many at acting as an effective check on the opportunity gap growing too wide.
Shanghai's recent ranking as the world leader in maths, science and reading test scores in an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study underlines this point.
The data was not just based on the city's elite students, but on the scores of a cross-section of students from all abilities, including the children of migrant workers.
Not stereotypical
It's not hard though to find students who are less engaged.
Ding Zhenwei is in some ways a refreshing antidote to the stereotype of China's results-obsessed student masses.
He has set his sights relatively low and plans to study interior design at a second-tier private college.
So he is coasting, confident he would make the modest Gaokao mark he needs, and is doing barely any extra studying outside of school hours.
"Even if I do fail to get in, I'll find another way of making a success of my life," he says.
In fact, 80% of Zhabei's final year students make it into either a first or second-tier university every year.
That is impressive, given the school's intake of less advantaged pupils, but it is also a sign of China's higher education boom.
In the past decade, it has massively expanded university places to reach about 30 million, the highest number in the world by far.
While that change has done nothing to reduce competition for the most prestigious institutions, it may be leading at least some students to question the value of cramming for the Gaokao.
After all, what is the point of all that pressure and stress if it leads only to a place among the ranks of the country's unemployed?
More than one million fewer students will take the exam this year compared with the peak in 2008, and observers are wondering if that fall is due to some kind of "Gaokao fatigue".
But there are still those students who see the test as important enough to have a second go.
Wang Yu, 19, is repeating her final year at Zhabei Number 8 High School because she did not get the Gaokao score she needed last time round.
"I already know the shame of failure," she says.
She is determined to do better this time so that she can rejoin her contemporaries who have started university without her.
Shining example
Education policy chiefs have long admitted the shortcomings of the Gaokao and have taken limited steps to try to introduce a more balanced and rounded education.
There is evidence in Zhabei, that students are now being trained to integrate knowledge and apply it to real-life problems.
The city's teachers are being extensively trained and there's lip service being paid to cutting those long study hours.
Shanghai was one of the first municipalities in China to stipulate a maximum amount of homework and set a minimum of one hour of physical activity a day.
How strictly those limits are being applied is another matter of course - at Zhabei, physical activity often seems to involve little more than a few minutes of choreographed group stretching exercises on the parade ground.
There is a consensus that China still leans far too much on preparation for exams and leaves too little time for real learning.
If future test takers from Zhabei Number 8 High School are really going to be given the chance to be tomorrow's creators, leaders and thinkers, then the system needs to change much faster.
If it does not, then some critics warn, that China may struggle to keep its economic boom on track.
Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18349873
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Friday, August 3, 2012
Education and its Role in Cambodia
Education and its role in Cambodia.
Education in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge Regime mirrored the French system. Today, it is six years of primary school (grades 1-6), three years of lower secondary school (grades 7-9), and three years of upper secondary school (grades 10-12), following more of a westernised educational model.
In 1979, after the Pol Pot regime, the Ministry of Education was created, and later restructured in 1998. Today, there is no legislation in place to regulate the new system, and also, only a small budget is allocated to education by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Do we have a problem here?
According to UNESCO, only 1.6 per cent of Cambodia’s Gross Domestic Product (GNP) is spent on education. The GDP on education in most western countries is anywhere between 5.5 to 6.4 per cent.
In Phnom Penh, I see more Lexus cars than anywhere else in the world, and I hope the money allocated isn’t going to purchasing Lexus cars, the luxury car made by Toyota.
The government still denies the education sector the funding it needs, even though they are aware of the important role that education plays in the development of the country.
The main focus of the education system is on basic literacy.
Having worked in the education sector, and having former colleagues and friends who work in education, we have witnessed unethical acts
by teachers and the corruption in the education system.
The dilemma which many teachers are faced with is whether to cross the line between the ethical code of teaching and trying to survive on a teacher’s low salary.
Their decision is based on survival, and many have resorted to charging their students tuition fees and taking bribes for “passing grades” in examinations.
Also, many spend less time in the classroom as they have additional employment elsewhere to supplement their low teaching salaries.
In addition, the classrooms are under-equipped and lack proper teaching materials due to the shortage of funding. In several cases, much of the equipment and supplies have been stolen by staff members at their institutions.
With these problems facing the education sector, and the school-age population continuing to grow, the government still denies the funding it needs to realise its important role in the development of the country.
Why not pay the teachers a higher salary so they can focus on just one occupation, as a teacher, a much needed role in our society. Implement programs to provide free education to all the children, not just selected individuals or groups.
Countries like Brazil, Greece, Denmark, Argentina, Sri Lanka and Barbados provide free education which is funded through charitable organisations or taxation.
Finally, it is evident that there is a wide gap between the economic classes, with more than half of the population living in poverty in Cambodia.
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and there is a small percentage of the middle class, but it is growing.
Education is the only answer to getting people out of poverty and giving a brighter future for the young generations in Cambodia.
Read more at http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062256956/National-news/education-and-its-role-in-cambodia.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Education in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge Regime mirrored the French system. Today, it is six years of primary school (grades 1-6), three years of lower secondary school (grades 7-9), and three years of upper secondary school (grades 10-12), following more of a westernised educational model.
In 1979, after the Pol Pot regime, the Ministry of Education was created, and later restructured in 1998. Today, there is no legislation in place to regulate the new system, and also, only a small budget is allocated to education by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Do we have a problem here?
According to UNESCO, only 1.6 per cent of Cambodia’s Gross Domestic Product (GNP) is spent on education. The GDP on education in most western countries is anywhere between 5.5 to 6.4 per cent.
In Phnom Penh, I see more Lexus cars than anywhere else in the world, and I hope the money allocated isn’t going to purchasing Lexus cars, the luxury car made by Toyota.
The government still denies the education sector the funding it needs, even though they are aware of the important role that education plays in the development of the country.
The main focus of the education system is on basic literacy.
Having worked in the education sector, and having former colleagues and friends who work in education, we have witnessed unethical acts
by teachers and the corruption in the education system.
The dilemma which many teachers are faced with is whether to cross the line between the ethical code of teaching and trying to survive on a teacher’s low salary.
Their decision is based on survival, and many have resorted to charging their students tuition fees and taking bribes for “passing grades” in examinations.
Also, many spend less time in the classroom as they have additional employment elsewhere to supplement their low teaching salaries.
In addition, the classrooms are under-equipped and lack proper teaching materials due to the shortage of funding. In several cases, much of the equipment and supplies have been stolen by staff members at their institutions.
With these problems facing the education sector, and the school-age population continuing to grow, the government still denies the funding it needs to realise its important role in the development of the country.
Why not pay the teachers a higher salary so they can focus on just one occupation, as a teacher, a much needed role in our society. Implement programs to provide free education to all the children, not just selected individuals or groups.
Countries like Brazil, Greece, Denmark, Argentina, Sri Lanka and Barbados provide free education which is funded through charitable organisations or taxation.
Finally, it is evident that there is a wide gap between the economic classes, with more than half of the population living in poverty in Cambodia.
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and there is a small percentage of the middle class, but it is growing.
Education is the only answer to getting people out of poverty and giving a brighter future for the young generations in Cambodia.
Read more at http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062256956/National-news/education-and-its-role-in-cambodia.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Thursday, August 2, 2012
End of Empire for Western Universities?
 |
| world's young graduates |
By the end of this decade, four out of every 10 of the world's young graduates are going to come from just two countries - China and India.
The projection from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows a far-reaching shift in the balance of graduate numbers, with the rising Asian economies accelerating ahead of the United States and western Europe.
The forecasts for the shape of the "global talent pool" in 2020 show China as rapidly expanding its graduate numbers - set to account for 29% of the world's graduates aged between 25 and 34.
The biggest faller is going to be the United States - down to 11% - and for the first time pushed into third place, behind India.
The US and the countries of the European Union combined are expected to account for little more than a quarter of young graduates.
Russia is also set to decline - its share of the world's graduates almost falling by half since the beginning of the century.
Indonesia, according to the OECD's projections, will rise into fifth place.
Degrees of change
Is this an end-of-empire moment?
Higher education has become the mirror and magnifier of economic performance - and in the post-World-War-II era, universities in the US, western Europe, Japan and Russia have dominated.
The US in particular has been the university superpower - in wealth, influence and until recently in raw numbers.
Up until 2000, the US still had a share of young graduates similar to China. And Japan had as big a proportion of young graduates as India.
Now China and India are the biggest players.
Their rise in graduate numbers reflects their changing ambitions - wanting to compete against advanced economies for high-skill, high-income employment.
Instead of offering low-cost manufacture, they are targeting the hi-tech professional jobs that have become the preserve of the Westernised middle classes.
Fivefold growth
As the OECD figures show, this is not simply a case of countries such as China expanding while others stand still.
Across the industrialised world, graduate numbers are increasing - just not as quickly as China, where they have risen fivefold in a decade.
The OECD notes that by 2020, China's young graduate population will be about the same as the total US population between the ages of 25 and 64.
This changing world map will see Brazil having a bigger share of graduates than Germany, Turkey more than Spain, Indonesia three times more than France.
The UK is bucking the trend, projected to increase its share from 3% in 2010 to 4% in 2020.
This push for more graduates has a clear economic purpose, says the OECD's analysis.
Enough jobs?
Shifting from "mass production to knowledge economy occupations" means improved employment rates and earnings - so there are "strong incentives" for countries to expand higher education.
But will there be enough graduate jobs to go round?
The OECD has tried to analyse this by looking at one aspect of the jobs market - science and technology-related occupations.
These jobs have grown rapidly - and the report suggests it is an example of how expanding higher education can generate new types of employment.
These science and technology jobs - for professionals and technicians - account for about four in every 10 jobs in some Scandinavian and northern European countries, the OECD suggests.
In contrast - and showing more of the old order - these technology jobs are only a small fraction of the workforce in China and India.
The OECD concludes that there are substantial economic benefits from investing in higher education - creating new jobs for the better-educated as unskilled manufacturing jobs disappear.
Quantity or quality?
The OECD forecast reveals the pace of growth in graduate numbers. But it does not show the quality or how this expansion will translate into economic impact.
There are other ways of mapping the changing distribution of knowledge.
A team at the University of Oxford's Internet Institute has produced a set of maps showing the "geography of the world's knowledge".
This measures how populations are consuming and producing information in the online world - mapping the level of internet use, the amount of user-generated material in Google, concentrations of academic activity and the geographical focus of Wikipedia articles.
And in contrast to the rise of the Asian economies, this tells a story of continuing Western cultural dominance.
"In raw numbers of undergraduates and PhDs, the Asian economies are racing ahead," says Prof Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, from the Oxford Internet Institute.
"But what's interesting is how the West persists in its positions of strength - because the West controls the institutions.
Mapping a new world
"There are more students in China than ever before - but they still use Western mechanisms to publish results, they accept the filters," says Prof Mayer-Schonberger.
"The big question will be whether the Chinese researchers can be as insightful as their Western counterparts - we don't know yet."
The maps also reveal how much Africa and South America are losing out in this new scramble for digital power.
Prof Mayer-Schonberger said he was "completely shocked" at the extent of the imbalance.
Another feature of the Oxford study is to show how research bases and their spin-out economic activity are clustered into relatively small areas.
In the US, says Prof Mayer-Schonberger, there is hugely disproportionate investment around Silicon Valley and the Boston area, with large tracts of "wasteland" between.
"Each era has its own distinct geography. In the information age, it's not dependent on roads or waterways, but on bases of knowledge.
"This is a new kind of industrial map. Instead of coal and steel it will be about universities and innovation."
Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18646423
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Educational Detente Across Taiwan Strait
Educational Détente Across Taiwan Strait.
TAIPEI — Last January, Chao Ying, a student from northeastern China, stepped out of the train station into the rain at Jiufen, a picturesque former gold mining town in northern Taiwan, and saw something that puzzled her.
A politician from the governing Kuomintang party, who had won a legislative seat in Taiwan’s elections the day before, was standing in the back of an open van that was driving up and down the road outside the station, shouting his thanks through a loudspeaker to passers-by.
“At first I didn’t know who this might be, or what exactly he was doing,” said Ms. Chao, 25, who is studying veterinary sciences at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, in central Taiwan. “I had to ask someone on the street.”
“I thought it was very good to see a politician thanking the people,” she said. “The Taiwanese must be very touched when they see such a thing.”
It was one more eye-opening experience for a mainland Chinese student in Taiwan. Ms. Chao is among more than 1,000 mainlanders who, for the first time, have been permitted to study for academic degrees in Taiwan and have just completed their inaugural academic year.
The government of Taiwan, the self-ruling island over which Beijing claims sovereignty, has been inching toward more amicable relations with the mainland in recent years. The full opening of the island’s universities to students from across the strait last year followed more limited academic exchange programs and the expansion of tourism and direct flights from the Chinese mainland.
The new admissions policy has been hailed as a success by universities and officials in Taiwan. Allowing young people who could eventually rise to influential positions in Communist-ruled China to immerse themselves in Taiwan society, they say, should enhance sympathy for the mainland’s democratic neighbor.
“Many Taiwanese students go to the U.S. and return very pro-American. We want to generate that same kind of effect,” said Ho Jow-fei, director general of higher education in the Ministry of Education. He added, “It is possible that some of the mainland students who come to study here may one day become political leaders.”
Taiwan also sees a partial solution to the problem of maintaining enrollments and standards as a falling birth rate shrinks the pool of applicants at home.
As for the motives of the students from mainland China, several cited an education system modeled on that of the United States that could position them well for a career abroad, but at a more reasonable cost and offered in Mandarin.
Xu Jincheng, 22, of Shanghai, who is studying engineering at Feng Chia University, said that in Taiwan he was learning to think on his feet. At his mainland university, which he did not want to identify for fear of embarrassing his former teachers, the approach was “too narrow and theoretical.”
His tutors in Taiwan, he said, push him to come up with creative solutions to real-life challenges. This was useful, he added, because “in many companies the boss expects employees to solve practical problems.”
The mainland students have grown up hearing their government’s oft-stated position that Taiwan, separately ruled since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, rightfully belongs to China and that no means, including military force, can be excluded to achieve eventual reunification.
Still, Joseph Wong, a University of Toronto political science professor, said the students were likely to return home with the message that “these two societies are unlikely to become one.”
“These mainland Chinese students tend to experience Taiwan as a fundamentally different place,” said Mr. Wong, who also teaches at Fudan University in Shanghai and says he visits Taiwan at least twice a year.
One student who has noted sharp contrasts is Zhu Haoqing, a 24-year-old from Hebei Province who is studying for a master’s degree in land management at Feng Chia University in Taichung.
Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/world/asia/educational-detente-across-taiwan-strait.html?ref=educationandschools
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
TAIPEI — Last January, Chao Ying, a student from northeastern China, stepped out of the train station into the rain at Jiufen, a picturesque former gold mining town in northern Taiwan, and saw something that puzzled her.
A politician from the governing Kuomintang party, who had won a legislative seat in Taiwan’s elections the day before, was standing in the back of an open van that was driving up and down the road outside the station, shouting his thanks through a loudspeaker to passers-by.
“At first I didn’t know who this might be, or what exactly he was doing,” said Ms. Chao, 25, who is studying veterinary sciences at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, in central Taiwan. “I had to ask someone on the street.”
“I thought it was very good to see a politician thanking the people,” she said. “The Taiwanese must be very touched when they see such a thing.”
It was one more eye-opening experience for a mainland Chinese student in Taiwan. Ms. Chao is among more than 1,000 mainlanders who, for the first time, have been permitted to study for academic degrees in Taiwan and have just completed their inaugural academic year.
The government of Taiwan, the self-ruling island over which Beijing claims sovereignty, has been inching toward more amicable relations with the mainland in recent years. The full opening of the island’s universities to students from across the strait last year followed more limited academic exchange programs and the expansion of tourism and direct flights from the Chinese mainland.
The new admissions policy has been hailed as a success by universities and officials in Taiwan. Allowing young people who could eventually rise to influential positions in Communist-ruled China to immerse themselves in Taiwan society, they say, should enhance sympathy for the mainland’s democratic neighbor.
“Many Taiwanese students go to the U.S. and return very pro-American. We want to generate that same kind of effect,” said Ho Jow-fei, director general of higher education in the Ministry of Education. He added, “It is possible that some of the mainland students who come to study here may one day become political leaders.”
Taiwan also sees a partial solution to the problem of maintaining enrollments and standards as a falling birth rate shrinks the pool of applicants at home.
As for the motives of the students from mainland China, several cited an education system modeled on that of the United States that could position them well for a career abroad, but at a more reasonable cost and offered in Mandarin.
Xu Jincheng, 22, of Shanghai, who is studying engineering at Feng Chia University, said that in Taiwan he was learning to think on his feet. At his mainland university, which he did not want to identify for fear of embarrassing his former teachers, the approach was “too narrow and theoretical.”
His tutors in Taiwan, he said, push him to come up with creative solutions to real-life challenges. This was useful, he added, because “in many companies the boss expects employees to solve practical problems.”
The mainland students have grown up hearing their government’s oft-stated position that Taiwan, separately ruled since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, rightfully belongs to China and that no means, including military force, can be excluded to achieve eventual reunification.
Still, Joseph Wong, a University of Toronto political science professor, said the students were likely to return home with the message that “these two societies are unlikely to become one.”
“These mainland Chinese students tend to experience Taiwan as a fundamentally different place,” said Mr. Wong, who also teaches at Fudan University in Shanghai and says he visits Taiwan at least twice a year.
One student who has noted sharp contrasts is Zhu Haoqing, a 24-year-old from Hebei Province who is studying for a master’s degree in land management at Feng Chia University in Taichung.
Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/world/asia/educational-detente-across-taiwan-strait.html?ref=educationandschools
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)