Have you eaten? Fine, thank you.
If you were asked “Have you eaten?” on the Beijing street, don’t feel weird, it is same with Chinese people responding to the question “How are you?” with a quick and firm answer “Fine, thank you. And you?”
Those two sentences are the result of standard education in China.
One week ago, I was taking a course at the university of Hong Kong, the professor was showing a video from Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxfsO1BZtKo) which talks about designing and promoting online education in multicultural background areas all over the world. What an extraordinary thought!
Let’s put this Shakespearean idea aside and look at it with a RASE microscope. RASE (Resources – Activity – Support – Evaluation) is a pedagogical model developed to support teachers to use Moodle in effective, student-centered and engaging way to achieve intended learning outcomes in their courses.
Resources for the student would be the traditional books and hi-tech wireless products, for instance, mobile phones and internet etc. There are tens of thousands of teaching materials all over the world in many ways.
Activity through hi-tech is also easy to conduct. If student got confused about a question, a simple click on the mouse would get the help from his/her friend on the other side of the earth. Brainstorming could also be conducted in this international learning environment, meanwhile, it will also expand students’ outlooks.
Support is not a big issue either. Even the latest international new learning environment need teachers to take care of all the students in the position of facilitators.
Coming to the Evaluation part, there came up three questions:
- Who will be the evaluator? Teachers or the organisation?
- What is the standard of evaluation?
- Do we need international standards for different fields of study?
Since the programme is an online course supported by Stanford University in the United States, the range of this educational system would be spread to America first easily, then Europe, Asia and Africa. Does it mean that we have to be evaluated based on American standards? I don’t think all British people would say yes to this, neither will the Cubans.
Culture shock is not really a big problem, the problem is culture shock may become culture avoidance under some circumstances. Education on the internet is a great idea, but the internet itself has many controversial points, which may violate the alien culture outside the internal box.
If there’s an international cultural recognition and acceptance, the world would really become a family. Then who will be the master or monitor of this big family? The political decision, the educational evaluation and even the choices of eating tools would all become possible concerns. Therefore, the evaluator cannot be a person or an organisation.
Idealistically speaking, there would be one day that this new learning environment has absorbed all the neighbourhoods all over the world. What about the standards of evaluation?
Chinese people traditionally like to combine higher education with social status, judging from how famous the educational institution is. To them, the core of education is just a piece of diploma certificate which could lead to a highly-paid job; to western people, they focus on the practical skills that students may acquire during and after having education. How can we balance this two extremes, or in other words, which should be the focus of evaluation to education.
Shown in the video, Mr. Paul Kim said everyone has the right to enjoy better education. That’s true for sure. But my doubt is what standards should be adopted in setting up an international standard? Another big concern for the standard is the political policy. For instance, Youtube is blocked in Chinese mainland, there’re many international universities set their open sources on Youtube, but if this new learning environment will be set up in China, another video server should be considered. For some controversial contents in education, like history or politics, the examine will be stricter and even affect the facts. Since the teaching and resources have so much conflicts, the evaluation without any doubt would be very difficult as well.
I personally don't see the point of having united and international standards for evaluation. Like what I described before, it’s too idealistic just like Shakespeare’s works. Everyone has their own standards for evaluating an educational system or work. It is ok to set a direction or guideline for evaluation, and the evaluation should be adjusted to different teaching objectives.
Getting tired of being asked “how’s it going”? Maybe it’s funny to answer “Yeah, I ate some dim sun”
Your analysis is inspiring and vivd， especially the metaphor of quick answer to the question. Indeed, the thought of designing the new learning environment is totally different from standard education in China. I think a new idea is worthwhile even though it has some limitations. It can still be improved during the execute. But to start is the most difficult step , especially in china education.
ReplyDeleteEverything starts with difficulty. Truly it is.
DeleteAnother example of this is Apple give up the Google Maps on iOS 6, which got really big critics, but contrary to most complaints, the map on iOS6 in China is really good, because the China's policy doesn't allow IT companies to develop maps easily, so Apple has to cooperate with Chinese map companies, which benefits the Chinese people accidentally.
Therefore, the adjustment is very important, and the standards should be various to different situations. So is the evaluation. International standards sometimes may be quite difficult and irrational.