British and Taiwanese Education differences
British students’ learning methods are very different. They study independently
without the teacher's interference, and no one will remind you what you should do.
Every student needs to remind themself about learning and what is next step. It
sounds like the dream for every student. However, this is difficult to Taiwanese
students because we used to the teacher telling us the answers and what to do next. In
fact, learning is constantly research. I have always enjoyed learning this way. The
school will hold some competition activities to increase students' enthusiasm in
learning. If the students are absent, it is not mean they stop learning. They still ask
questions to the teacher in the next class. Certainly, the attendance is important, and
this point is like Taiwan. After all, attitude is one key to learning. On the other hand,
the local students did not ingratiate teacher to get a good grade. But there are two
ways to get good grades: first, often meet with your professor; second, ask questions
in class. Because those are showing a positive attitude on the work, teachers will
naturally think highly of students who are more positive and active.
In Taiwan, teachers would not focus on teaching how to write essays. This is
most important for tech-university students. Students of university of science and
technology did not have any concept about writing an essay because in Taiwan,
writing essay is not the focus. Taiwanese students, teachers, and parents care more
about grades. If you have high grades in the class, the teacher might think you are a
good student. Taiwanese students are like test machine. Taiwanese students also take
extra courses after school to improve their test grades. In U.K, I think the most
obvious difference is the teacher help students think for themselves, rather than telling
them what to think. Taiwanese education cares about the grade at school rather than
care about thinking and understanding.
I have also discovered a special different concept between Taiwanese and UK
education. As I have mentioned in language and power at work course, we have to do
interview role-plays. This assignment is difficult for international students. If we do
not have work experiences, it is not easy to design a real interview situation. Beside,
we have culture problems, we need to avoid impolite behaviour during the interview
role-play. Therefore, we have to find out the way to solve these problems. Of course,
we can find out the videos or samples on the Internet. But local students did not use
computer to find answers. They like thinking by self. We have many meetings but
nobody will bring the laptop to discuss the work. Taiwanese student might prefer to
find the answer on Internet, and British student prefer to think by self.
Finding
answers from the Internet may b a quick way to complete the work, but students
will miss the chance to discuss and progress through the thinking and discussing
processes.
Taiwanese students may seem slow, but it is because we lack training
of our brain. I thought Taiwanese students are not familiar with western style of
thinking. That’s why Taiwanese students always like to ask teachers what the answer
is. The professor will give assignments designed for the student to think and solve
issues in the workplace. Because we will face to the problems in the feature, and this
is a practice chance.
In conclusion, learning is attitude, understanding and practice. The students have
to first have a good attitude to learn. It is helpful if students can go to teachers who
might give student directions and suggestions. For understanding, we cannot always
run for the grade, learning is not only the grade. It is often reading and researching,
and figure out what is real or false. Because content of book is not completely right.
Therefore, people need to steadily search the answer. Lastly, with a lot of knowledge,
we need to transform it to power, and put knowledge into practice. We have the
responsibility to bring the benefits for this world since we are part of earth.
This picture is interview role-play in the course of: Language and Power at Work.
(Interviewer: Shu-Han and Charles; interviewee: Sabah)