How are you? I have three short BBC videos for you about education in three different countries - Finland, India, and South Korea.
Let's watch one of the videos in class - as a class, you choose which one. Let's answer these questions after we watch:
1. Do you recognize anything of your educational experiences in any of these?
2. Which one of these is most like your experience?
3. Which one is the least like your experience?
4. If you could combine features of these experiences into a single system, which parts would you take from each country?
Here are the videos. This first one is about education in Finland:
This next one below is about India.
This last one is about South Korea.
All videos from the BBC uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to these videos. They are strictly for classroom use.
Watch the other two videos we did not see in class and make some notes about your impressions. Look at the questions above again. Post your impressions as comments to this blogpost. I'll be interested to read what you have to say and will value it greatly.
See you next week!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI 've found each of three educational systems has been affected by its social backgrounds. Finland considers the high quality system as a industry 'to export', whereas ' recycling system' in India and 'better school, better job' in Korea. As far as I' m concerned, Korean system is similar to Japanese one and we should introduce good 'autonomy' in Finland's educational system into Japanese system.
Andy
Some great remarks, Andy. Education and culture are woven into each other, for better or worse - and sometimes both.
DeleteI would love to see greater autonomy in the Japanese educational system, as I feel the teenage years are pedagogically rich for learner involvement and engagement. At the same time any change has to come from within - as a foreigner, it isn't up to me to reform the system. Whatever change happens has to come from Japanese. But there's no question that there are models out there that can be learned from.
I think Japan should introduce the Indian case, which is kids having more knowledge teach younger kids. Nowadays there are less family with many kids in Japan so kids do not have a lot of chances to communicate with other aged kids. Spending time with kids younger than yourself can make you learn patience and acceptance. At the other hands, you will find how fun and challenging to support other person. I'm sure those feeling will help kids grow up mentally.
ReplyDeleteI think so too, Chiharu. Educators (especially in TEFL/TESL) often talk about 'scaffolding' - a framework of support within which learning is fostered and developed. What I see in the Indian case is near-peer scaffolding - children who are older, but not much older, who have been through the system yet whose own development is not complete. But they know enough, and can communicate it well enough, to bring the younger ones up to speed. In doing so they are also gaining a sense of responsibility and in doing so are having their maturation scaffolded as well.
DeleteThe interesting thing is that a template for that exists within Japanese culture - the sempai mentoring ethic that, at its best, works a lot like what we saw in the Indian case. I wonder, though, if the sempai model has lost some of its force in the economic and social instabilities that Japan has gone through, especially over the last two decades. What do you - or any of our classmates - think about that?
I am uploading Tsuyoshi's comments here, which he sent me by email earlier and has given me permission to post here:
ReplyDeleteI watched two videos which focused the education in India and South Korea, and I got different impression after watching them.
In case of India, I could understand that the each teacher tried to educate each individuals possibility. In terms of school facility, I could not say it was enough for children’s education, but in the meantime, I could feel that all the teachers tried to teach each students without any exception. That might be the reason there were a lot of students who were different ages. They taught the basic essence, and tried to develop own possibility of each student. That was why one girl, who answered to the interview, smiled with happy face. It must not be enough as an educational circumstance, compare with the other states, but all the children in that big classroom can feel the possibility for their own future. If she got complained or got nervous about her future, I am sure that she could not smile.
In the meantime, I felt sorry for the boy of South Korea, because I could not feel any his own decision. That boy had to wake up early and go to school, and then after that he went to Tae Kwon Do. Then at night, he studied until, perhaps late midnight. It is hard schedule, and if all these matters were done by his own decision, I would not feel any sorry. However, in his case, it was not. His parents expected him to do so. In fact, the minister of Education, who interviewed with BBC, answered that everything is all up to memory. Judging from his comment, I could recognise that the major essence as South Korean education should be memorization. Perhaps, all the children must have to learn everything without any doubt, and the parents and teachers expect so. Thus, different from the case in India, I could not think that boy was happy about his life. In fact, he did not smile at all. Perhaps, his attitude and his living circumstance represent one aspect of South Korean society. It should be the unimaginable competitive society, so, for the purpose of survive in that society, all the children must have to learn without any freedom.
The living circumstance and educational condition is totally different between India and South Korea, but in terms of happiness for each children, I think the children in India are happier than the ones in South Korea. Recently, I read one article that the South Korean high school students committed suicide. The reason was that he thought he could not respond to his parents’ expectation. His academic result was not enough, that he thought he could not enter to the high level university. That means he could not get a good job. That was his reason of death. When I read this article, I was shocked, because, even if his academic score was not enough, there are a lot of possibilities to live for the future. Or academic knowledge is not only elements to learn at the university. There should be various opportunities to experience, and by those experience, the students got mentally matured. Thus, this should be another reason to go to the university. However, he could not think like that. This should be another aspect of South Korean society. Thus, although the education condition is excellent, I can feel nothing but sorry for the South Korean children.
I think, to develop the self-reliance is the priority matter for the educational field, and all the teachers must recognise about it. Once, the children got matured, they can learn the academic knowledge as much as possible. To let the students memorize a lot of academic knowledge without developing the mental aspect will be meaningless.
I think Finnish educational system is very interesting because this is different from Japanese one. Children are nor forced to be competitive and can be relax at their school.
ReplyDeleteSouth Korean system and attitude to career and education is quite similar to Japanese situation. However, children do not learn about creativity and imagination. Instead of them, they just memorise. I think this is one of the reasons why there are no Nobel prize award winner in South Korea. (I do not think this is the priority reason. This nation has confusing historical background.)
Indian system sounds good, but I hope every Indian child could go to their school. Do I expect too much?
Felt South Korea's educational system is very similar to previous ours and the problems they are facing are exactly same. Understand competition is a component of pursuing higher education, developing and grabbing good career and future but not everything.
ReplyDeleteThink the prior purpose of education is laying the foundation as a matured human being and requires thinking themselves and struggling for solving problems for that.
Things in a society sometimes cannot be solved with formula.
This is also the reason why educatIonal system in Finland is highly valued and becomes a model case.
In my opinion, the education system in Finland is best, because it is the most practical one among the three countries.
ReplyDeleteThe most impressive comments in the Finland’s video is “To keep a good level in mathematic science and technology, and the students are able to teach other ones, to work in a group with different kind of people, and then accept diversity”. There is no doubt that it is very important for students to develop socializing skills before go out to society.
On the other hand, Japanese education is still a “cramming system of education”. We have to learn the basic social skills before starting our work, but I think there is a big gap between Japanese education system and the necessary skills for work.
These are great comments from all of you once again, and the latest comments are continuing the thread and taking it out in new and interesting areas of thought. I'll look forward to seeing all of you tomorrow night!
ReplyDelete