This article is about disproving the idea that Korean students are passive learners such as Chinese and Japanese students. The researcher conducted 2 studies, at a middle and high school. From the reading it seemed as though the high school was a Foreign Language high school. The finding showed that students didn’t resist this kind of class and that they were able to learn using a critical pedagogical method.
My frist question :Do her results truly reflect a regular high school senior students’ ability to handle this type of critical pedagogical method?
My frist question :Do her results truly reflect a regular high school senior students’ ability to handle this type of critical pedagogical method?
I don’t think the high school was indicative of a normal high school. It seemed like the high school was a foreign language school since it mentioned the school had a heavy emphasis on foreign languages.
It went so far as to say that the kids’ English ability was greater than most Korean seniors due to that fact.
It went so far as to say that the kids’ English ability was greater than most Korean seniors due to that fact.
My second question :
What is the best way to balance the needs of the student by covering both the material relevant to theSAT and communication needs by using a critical pedagogical method? Would the diversity of material allow for enough grammar/vocabulary for the students to have enough success on the SAT ? Is there a way to design material that is student generated that would allow this?
What is the best way to balance the needs of the student by covering both the material relevant to the
i think you make some good observations. it's quite likely that the author was teaching in a foreign language high school, though my guess is that even in foreign language high schools, there would be/are significant barriers to establishing a relevant critical practice. i'm not sure if you read the second reading, but the author included one student who said he felt the methods were inappropriate- that they should learn how to think critically AFTER high school.
ReplyDeleteso, what this means to me, is that there are and always will be various goals among various people in a classroom. every classroom is a unique situation, so establishing critical practices is always about finding limitations and challenging them.
thanks so much for your reflections!
Thank you for your comments. I remember that part about the student and I think he was saying that because he felt he needed to prepare for the college entrance exam. So he was more concerned with his immediate needs to learn grammar and voca more since it would directly affect his test score. I think he said critical thinking could wait because his immediate concern is getting into a good university and then getting a good job.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there are various people in a class and not everyone will enjoy a particular way of teaching. However, I do think that critical way of teaching might be better in the present situation for high school students if there were some way to incorporate their testing needs into the lesson.