Re: [xmca] Korean Education

[Carol Macdonald <carolmacdon@gmail.com>]

Larry,
What is a "great learning space"?

Let me tell you, they will not be able to replicate Oxford or Cambridge or
Edinburgh as the cultures are understated and cannot even be expalined by
the natives.  Did you know that in Sept 2010 Cambridge admitted only one
student of colour?  Racism rules.  Not in Scotland, where I was, but still
you have to penetrate the culture.

And Harvard with 10 000 students with 3,000 with perfect SAT scores, wanting
to get in to first year, what does that tell you?? That would drive the
Korean back into their night schools immediately.

Carol

On 12 October 2011 15:20, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:

> China has the goal to create 2 of the "best" universities in the world.
> They are going to America's and Great Britain's "top" universities to study
> their "Liberal art" disciplines [not engineering or science] They recognize
> it is the liberal arts not the classical sciences that "generate" great
> learning spaces
> I wonder if Al Andalus and its libraries emphasized "sciences or liberal
> arts?
>
> Larry
>
> On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 4:34 AM, Michael Glassman <MGlassman@ehe.osu.edu
> >wrote:
>
> > Hi Carol,
> >
> > I have some Korean students and sometimes we talk about. the educational
> > system  There seems to be at least some type of battle raging in Korean
> > education circles over all of this.  The trouble with what is happening
> is
> > that the system is producing cookie cutter students and there is little
> > emphasis, or even a fear of creativity.  I think Korea just dramatically
> > changed its cthat ollege entrance exame format because of this  so that
> it
>  > is based less on a standardized test model and much more on written
> essays.
> >  Also I believe it used to be that you could only apply to one or two
> > colleges so that application process was very high stakes and nerve
> wracking
> > - but now you can apply to multiple colleges.  I have heard the same
> thing
> > in China discussing the education process, they are worried the system is
> > teaching students how to take tests and not to think.
> >
> > We here in the United States seem to be moving in the oppositie
> directions
> > (except of course at very expensive private schools).  We are working
> more
> > and more to take creativity and independent thinking out of the education
> > process, especially for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.  You
> > are right I think, KIPP is an attempt to institute the type of intensely
> > focused education that some in Asian countries are trying to escape,
> > complete with the emphasis on long hours of rote learning.  There have
> been
> > limited studies of KIPP even on success in this, usually at only one or
> two
> > KIPP schools - chosen by KIPP.  I have no idea why there haven't been
> more
> > comprehensive studies.  But even the studies that are done are not
> > longitudinal - meaning we don't know if there is a lasting effect on
> > learning based self-efficacies (why are there no studied measuring
> > self-efficacy when that is what KIPP is claiming it accomplishes?).  The
> > program seems to work for a certain type of student for a particular
> amount
> > of time, but as the Korean example suggests, what are we losing?
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu on behalf of Carol Macdonald
> > Sent: Wed 10/12/2011 12:55 AM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: [xmca] Korean Education
> >
> >
> >
> > Did anyone see the article in the Time magazine about the Korean
> > school  educational obsession with studying, and the "learning police"
> who
> > have to check that night schools don't go over 10:00p.m? And students
> sleep
> > in class during the day.  Compare that with the *equally high
> > performance*of Finnish children who have 5 hours of school, one hour
> > of homework, and
> > only 13% having remedial lessons.
> > What does that tell us about the optimum conditions for school learning?
> > (National obsessions aside.)
> > Carol
> >
> > PS The KIPP schools approximate the Korean model--what there?
> >
> > --
> > Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate
> > themselves.
> > Ernest Dimnet<
> > http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/ernestdimn404995.html>
> >
> >
> > *Visiting Lecturer
> > Wits School of Education
> > Research Fellow*
> > *Linguistics Dept: Unisa
> > *
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-- 
Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate
themselves.
Ernest Dimnet<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/ernestdimn404995.html>


*Visiting Lecturer
Wits School of Education
Research Fellow*
*Linguistics Dept: Unisa
*
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