Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Asian Education System from another view


Well, the first few days of school are awake, there's nothing worse than the UofS (which would be pretty hard to win), but definitely a little stressful. Although I have learned that it is clear that the staff would just say that things have died in the line, but do not really care if you're on time or not. They are threatened by things like putting a "W" on your transcript if you withdraw from the class before the deadline (which, incidentally, was the first day of classes:!? S), but if you wander around long enough, you learn that you actually have a couple of weeks! Two of my classes have been failures so far, the first seminar in biology, is pending in case of cancellation of registration (3 PPL!) When you have 5 students. Thus, we were told: "Go out and find the number of children who want to take 2 points Class" ..... I really hope that the other two are involved in anything because I do not believe that none of these companies to provide students, more classes in the department of science ..... Other microbiology, which I did not expect the school for about four hours, seemed to "Cancel" when the professor is not shown ....... The only Thai students could say was "Welcome to Thailand."I went back to school twice now, though I do not know why I did not learn my lesson the first time I went into the house aimlessly, it seemed that day in the desert, looking for an infinite water and a fan damn it! But I did see a rat and a transvestite, so it had its highlights. So today decided a friend and I to make the trip again. About halfway, he lifted his belt in his backpack, which was across her chest, and he had the perfect strap-shaped symbol that was tattooed on his sweat shirt. He told me to pretend I did not see it, but of course I have taken the internet.I took my first "moto-taxi" ride yesterday! It was fun but scary! We had some time until the driver quickly surprised down the river on this small path to where we had to duck his head on the bridge! My hair was completely destroyed before I came to school, but less than the dollar, I could not complain!Most of us want a house in Bangkok for a few minutes to see Muay Thai fight! Must be quite violent ..... I'm trying to make a video!Oh, and I must say ..... It is 29 degrees.

Saturday, 18 February 2012

Western Students lagging behind Asian students


Sydney: School children in the west up to three years behind than in Shanghai, China and Asian educational success, but the product intrusive "Tiger," the parents, the Australian report released Friday said.
Independent research Grattan Institute think tank said in East Asia was a center of high-performance schools in four of the world the best systems in the region - Hong Kong, South Korea, Shanghai and Singapore.
"Shanghai, an average of 15-year-old students' mathematics performance 2-3 years more than the counterparts in Australia, the United States and Europe," said Grattan School of Education, Program Director Ben Jensen.
"This has important consequences. As the economic power shift from west to east, such as high performance training."
Students in South Korea next year, the United States and the European Union, reading, and seven months before the Australian students to report information on the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
PISA-founder of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, has become a standard tool for comparing international standards in education.
This study, but in many OECD countries to significantly increase funding for schools in recent years has often been disappointing, and not always successful as a result more money.
Australian schools are enjoying a great increase in expenditure in recent years, student performance continues to deteriorate and was shot in South Korea, which consume less per student than the OECD average, up, he said.
"The cultural success is not defined, the product of Confucianism, learning by heart, or a tiger mother," said the second report, a reference to Chinese parents to drive hard to help their children.
He said Hong Kong and Singapore made great improvements to be read in the last decade, even if the test is categorized to help students learn from the outside than it is necessary to solve the problems.
The report shows that most system-centered, ruthless practice, learning and teacher training, professional development and guidance rather than more spending.
The four systems are also afraid to make tough compromises to achieve its objectives in Shanghai, for example, by increasing class sizes up to 40 students, but to give teachers more time to design their own classes and research.

Saturday, 4 February 2012

Career Guidance in the Singapore Education System Seem Lacking

After his education in Singapore since 1998 (secondary 3), and after once been a teacher in training under the Ministry of Education in Singapore, I think one of the many shortcomings of the education system of Singapore is that it is a good career / missing guidance for education students.

Well, I suppose you could argue that the education itself, what is missing, but an oversight (or indifference) of the Ministry of Education in the thought that people know what you want, and will be happy with the choices they made on the age of 16. But believe me when I compare the education of the Ministry of Education.For those not familiar with the education system in Singapore.

At the age of 16 or 17 years, after taking the GCE O-level, the student must choose whether he / she wants to go to the Polytechnic, where he / she has a degree in a specialized area (eg, Engineering, Business, Accounting , mass communication, Nursing, Biomedical Sciences, Information Technology, etc.) or to study in the first study for the GCE levels or International Baccalaureate diploma. The GCE A Levels and the IB diploma program are essentially similar - students choose a number of topics, from a group of subjects available, such as Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, History, literature, geography, economics, etc. In other words, words Everything is quite common, and students are not limited to any particular field.

What worries me is when most students opt for the route Polytechnic. In fact, I'm all for the idea of ​​an HBO school, because I personally feel that the other route is a waste of time (after the experienced). But this applies only if the student knows, at the age of 16 or 17, what he or she is interested and wants his / her career to build.Which brings me to my point that the lack of career / education guidance or counseling in our educational system. Students go to the colleges, the choice of courses that have very little idea, and just discovered they hate the course. While some may leave and re-application of the course to another course more, ultimately perpetuating that mistake, and pursue careers in fields that do not want.

Therefore it is necessary that students have a clear idea of ​​what they ask, what options they have and the different types of careers that would need to follow a certain course given.

Students often choose courses based on the following factors:

1. Not knowing what they want
2. Options for friends3. Selection of parents4. Ministry options (such as the Ministry of Education actively promote the life sciences, everyone rushed to the course. Ditto Info-Tech courses)5. Not having an option due to lower-than-stellar results on the O

And sometimes hate students to complete their studies because:

1. They knew that the course would look like2. They were not aware of the career choices (most of that study life sciences I never thought that I would end up in the lab every day watching cells grow or something)
3. They received only a general description of what the course is about, but not in depth information from the various modules (materials should be given to the students to read, instead of just an overview of the brochures faculty)In that case it painfully clear that the students career / education guidance is lacking, especially after O-level is very general, very general and A-Levels (these roads are the name of the General Certificate of Education GCE for a reason too), because after these tests is to choose the specialties of colleges and universities, which affect their future career.

Of course, a certain discipline to the work force is not entirely impossible, but not the point of education to be equipped with the skills and knowledge to efficiently implement and efficiency of a work in the future? Would not it be a waste of resources to train an engineer, but that he / she goes to another job completely separate?

The remedy for this, maybe it reduce or minimize errors in the decision making stage, and I feel it can be done through the right career / educational guidance.ETA: As I write this, it is also clear to me that it might be better for career guidance are provided by a party that is neutral, not directly related to or influenced by the Ministry of Education. But I am good in both directions (outside of the Ministry of Education, preferably the first), provided that is not provided by the school that the student is considering, for obvious reasons not exactly going to be impartial .

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Beyond the writing in Singapore

Comment "good writing is more than getting the 'A' (9 June 2011) by Mr. Chew Hui Min made the sharp observation that the memorization and regurgitation of the heart - especially the language of instruction - you useful useful short-term trials but could have potential ramifications. lasting episodes of "cram" the interest of students studying in the tooth in the long run, irritate and creativity due to the repeated need to follow a fixed model of response and expression.
In the general context of language teaching in Singapore, it seems a disproportionate importance is placed on writing and thus reading, listening and speaking are overlooked.
Exposing students to the stock phrases for compositions, however, is not necessarily the use of non-constructive and active role of familiarity with the phrase can build vocabulary, increase the level of expression, and increase Understand literary terms by creating metaphors and word games . Line eyes turned when the student grows to be solely dependent on them, do not have the ability to use them with wisdom and skill, not knowledge in content or writing related measures in its examination. The expression language itself - even if superficially, built by the common phrase - has a bit, if the user is not the process of thinking about knowledge of crane.
In the general context of language teaching in Singapore, it seems a disproportionate importance is placed on writing and thus reading, listening and speaking are overlooked. Of course, students can easily feel disabled in presentations, or even pieces of research vis-à-vis the interaction of the conversation simply because they have the ability to apply what they learned.
Emphasis on writing looks very impressive based on the fact that the leading candidate for the standardized exams test your linguistic skills, especially through writing. Unfortunately, the ability of listening, reading skills and oratorios that are important to the general understanding and practical application of language. Through various channels, and only involving multiple forms of interaction and focus, the teaching-learning to be more attractive and productive for students and educators. So, instead of the convenience of the status quo, teaching in educational institutions should be adapted creatively to reflect the above aspects.
Perhaps, if the other students and parents become more aware of the real value of language learning is the way of learning and not the end result itself, they have fewer problems and often continue to produce notes based on examinations. More important, parents and teachers focus on the success of students who do most of their language