In the article “Struggle For Smarts? How Eastern and Western Cultures Tackle Learning”, The author Alix Spiegel, opens the readers mind, showing how different each culture really is. Although we are all human and live on the same planet, it is surprising to learn how different we all really are. There are plenty of differences in the way everyone was raised and taught, and the way each individual puts forth effort. Back in the year 1979, a man named Jim Stigler, who at the time was a student at the University of Michigan, traveled to Japan to study another cultures teaching and learning strategies. A study he witnessed was in a classroom of young students. The test was to see if each student would give their best effort. Each student …show more content…
Li studied the difference in learning beliefs between Asian and American children. Jin Li has recordings of two different mothers and sons. One mother and son who were American had a conversation, the mother told her son that intelligence comes from the books he reads. He does not enjoy reading, and it seems as though he has a bad attitude toward books. From this, he is taught that even if he does not enjoy something he just needs to finish what he starts. The other conversation was between a Taiwanese mother and son. The son plays the piano, the more he practices, the more he improves. The mother tells her son that with great attitude and practice comes great achievement. The little boy practices hard and tries his best. Although he may mess up, he does not give up. This shows he likes what he does and he likes the outcome of it. The difference between mothers is that one tells her son he needs to learn what he is given, while the other tells her son he should love what he does in order to achieve the best possible outcome. I believe if a person loves what they do, they will work harder and give forth more effort and attitude. If someone is given something they may not understand , nor like, they will get frustrated and give up on it. It’s easier for a person that likes something to give positive attitudes toward it in order to figure out how to solve or practice for it. Another study was done with fifth grade students, the students were given an impossinks problem. The American students gave up on the problem within the first 30 seconds, while the Japanese worked on the problem for an hour, having to be stopped by their teacher. This shows a difference in how a child in each culture is taught. The American students gave up because they were not taught how to do the problem, in this culture they are told that their is always gonna be someone there to
Everything is criticized at every level in this story, the people by the main character, the main character by the author and even the story by the author as well. The cruel egoistic personality of Anders is definitely identifiable through these different levels of criticism. I will prove that the inner motivation of this behaviour derives from Anders' egoistic personality which sometimes makes him cruel against others, sometimes against himself. Furthermore, I will prove that whenever Anders criticizes somebody or something he actually tries to punish because of the imperfectness of the object. In order to make the referring to the different part of the story easier I divide it into three parts. The first part ends when the robbers appear at the door of the bank, the second ends when one of the robbers shoots at Anders and the left is the third part.
“In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that ‘stressing academic success is not good for children’ or that ‘parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun.’ By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be ‘the best’ students, that ‘academic achievement reflects successful parenting,’ and that if children did not excel at school then there was ‘a problem’ and parents ‘were not doing their job.’ … Chinese parents spend approximately ten times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams” (Chua 5). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua is an engulfing novel which clearly distinguishes the difference between Western style of parenting and the Chinese style of parenting. The quote stated above shows some of the statistics that we completed to write this book. The story is a breathless and emotional memoir of Amy Chua, consisting mostly her two daughters and husband. While the Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother appears to be about the battle between a parent and a child and the relationship they share, the author, Amy Chua, has actually implied that it is important for the children to start developing skills early on to benefit in the future as well as be successful in their lives.
My mom would always say, “American born Chinese students have it easy in America.” One key difference between the American education system and Chinese education system is the way they are taught. Being raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I went to school to understand the idea of analyzing and understanding concepts. After reading Only Hope, I realized that their education is based on more memorizations. To Chinese students, understand the concept and apply it is not the most important, you must just memorize it for the exam. Many parents in China would say that going on vacation and relaxing is a waste of time because they need to focus on learning. In Greenspan’s article, it mentions that a student in China is the top of her class and is fluent in English, yet she cannot go on vacation because her mother wants her to spend time learning, many students in China
To conclude, this article is important because it discusses the Singularity University features, aims, and how the studies run there. And it talks about how this generation who will graduate from this university will create our future later. However, even though Cadwalladr is proud of having a university like the Singularity University. Cadwalladr, and Peter Diamandis, and the other futurist should think of the reasons of why there is a problems in this world not by creating an artificial intelligence that will get rid of these problems.
Sparks, B. &. Butterwick, S.(2004). Culture, Equity and Learning. In G. Foley, Dimensions of Adult Learning (p. 276-289). McGraw-Hill Education.
The article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” by Amy Chua demonstrates the two different mind sets of parenting: Chinese parenting and Western approach to parenting. In my view, Chinese parenting is very strict about school work and extracurricular activities such as pianos and violins. For example, if we compare the two different sets of parenting; Chua says, for instance that Western parents believe that they are strict by forcing their kids practice their instruments for 30 minutes a day at most to an hour. This is nothing compared to the Chinese parents that would say the first hour of practice is easy it’s the second or third hour that gets tough (Chua 2011). This shows how forcefully strict the Chinese parents are compared to Western parents. The Chinese parents would say anything that really has to be said to their kid’s straight forward, but the Westerns would go about telling their kids, so it won’t hurt their feelings or their self-esteem. A few of these examples come to show that Chinese parents have intelligent kids, but are they intelligent enough for society? In other words are these Chinese children capable to work in group projects compared to an American kid that lives the usually life as a kid; like going to sleepovers and participating in different school activities. This is what David Brooks actually discusses about in his article “Amy Chua Is a Wimp”, says that Amy Chua’s way of parenting which is Chinese parenting isn’t effective enough. Well sure their kids are very intelligent and get high grades, but can they participate in well-functioning groups? One thing that Chinese parenting lacks in is a skill set that is not taught formally, but is imparted through strenuous experiences. This is exactly what Chua...
Amy Chua (2011) names off three reasons that support her argument in why Chinese children are more successful. First, she mentions that Westerners worry too much on how their child will accept failure, whereas Chinese parents assume only strength in their child and nothing less. For example, if a Western child comes home with a B on a test, some parents will praise the child on their success and some may be upset, while a Chinese parent would convince their child they are “worthless” and “a disgrace.” The Western parents hope to spare their children’s feelings and to be careful not to make their child feel insecure or inadequate, while Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe their children can get them (Chua, 2011). Secondly, Chinese parents believe their chil...
For years, people have always felt that the Japanese school system was superior or more effective than that of the United States. Although some feel this way, others feel that the Japanese system is too strict and not flexible enough for those who may need extra help along the way. Through researching two different case studies, and also reading other materials, I have found many similarities along with many differences between the two, including teaching methods, overall emphases, and student involvement. Both countries have developed very effective and intricate systems of teaching, which compliment, and clash against one another. The Japanese system is not in all ways superior to that of the United States; however, there are a few different reasons why people may feel that the Japanese are in fact “smarter” than us. To begin with though, one must have an understanding of both systems and a basic knowledge of how they work.
Her first point is that if the child gets a bad grade on a test, the Western parents would never actually blame their child. Instead, they would put the blame on the school, questioning the teacher’s abilities. If a Chinese child gets a bad grade, however, the parents would put the blame directly on the child, assuming that he or she did not work hard enough. Furthermore, they will punish the child and demand improvement.
In this paper, it will be looking at the culture and education practices of Finland, Canada, and China. Education varies from country to country as well as does one's culture, lifestyle of the people who live there. In doing so will review their culture and the role of their education policies that are used to motivate schools and teachers to improve student learning along with how their culture plays into learning. Furthermore, children should be taught with respect to their culture. However, we can also learn from one another. In addition, we have similar and different educational practices from one another. Such as when it comes to the Finnish, Canadians, to the Chinese as, we all learn in different environments because of our culture. Furthermore, and most importantly, thus educational practices vary from culture to culture. For instance, these counties are considered some of the best when it comes to education, Finland, Canada, China and it is because of their educational practices along with their culture government.
It is appropriate to know that this teaching practice is “multidimensional” because it involves getting new knowledge, performance assessment, techniques of instructing, classroom climate, the content of curriculum, relationship between a teacher and student. There is need for teachers from different disciplines to cooperate in disseminating concepts of a single culture as students play an active role in evaluating their performance (Banks, 2006).
In Asia, people believe all the hard work will lead to profits through the experience of growing rice paddies. According to the writer, this argument is not limited to the rice paddies but continues over the experiment of the math tests. For example, Gladwell introduces a story of Renee. Renee is Alan Schoenfeld’s, a math professor at Berkeley, student. He considers Renee different. When Renee meets a problem she does not know, she will not stop until she is absolutely sure she has it right. Renee’s studying spirit helps her to succeed during studying. It is based on a function of persistence and doggedness. However, under the US education system, students are not good at focusing on one thing. Gladwell ends by noting the result of the test called TIMSS, the difference between how Asian and American students learn math is the emphasis on effort and hard work. This doggedness is not
The Genius by Frank O’Connor The boy’s personality and his intelligence are swiftly established in the opening paragraph. His mother is presented as being a strong influence on him and appears as a kind of ‘ally’ against the rough children – ‘savages’ as she describes them – that live and play in the area. It is clear that she encourages him to regard himself as ‘different’ and separate from them, but it is equally obvious that he is not anxious to associate with them anyway. He describes himself as “a cissy by conviction” and says that he regarded the idea of fighting as both unattractive and ‘dangerous’.
Merriam and Bierema (2014) stated, “Adult learning is a journey” (p.238). Within that journey culture and context affect learning and our globalizing world. Culture can be simply defined by the shared practices, values, and beliefs that are passed on and taught as the correct way to act and think. Culture deeply influences a vast amount of groups from regions to organizations and classroom environments (Merriam & Bierema, 2014, p. 239). Culture has an effect on both formal and informal practices. Throughout adult education, culture is examined from several perspectives including one’s position, privilege, context, and power.
Learning is a universal concept; it is a part of daily life for every human being, no matter their age or location. Although education is standardized regionally, it can be ordinarily defined as the pursuit of knowledge, or it may be alternately described as a route to a culturally “well-rounded” adult. Aside from simply defining the term, there is a constant debate over the purpose of education. One Stanford University Graduate student argues that education should be recognized as “a multi-purpose enterprise that can be unified under one great aim: to produce better adults” (Noddings 232). Ultimately, however, there are many facets to education, each of them correlative to the ultimate social goal of producing “better