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I read this aritcle and there's a lot of dogma on why some students out perform others, but it seems to me the real underlying issue is amount of time a student spends studying or the overall effort one students put towards mastering certain subjects.
If I had to create a list of what characteristics make a "superior student" I'd say the following;
1. Overall Effort is extremely high
2. Overall lenght of time student spends studying is extremely high
3. Overall Attendance in class is extremely high
4. Overall completion and practice of new material is extremely high
5. Overall parental involvement is high
Why then do we continue to push an agenda, that
1. Buses children to and from
2. Blame race/gender
3. Blame funding and quality
Why do we not highlight the fact that all things considerd equal if all students followed steps 1-5, that Asian students disproportionately follow we could then make a better assumption on difference between girls/boys blacks/whites short or tall etc
Until all students start to perform at equal levels we will continue to get unequal or different results....Any thoughts or ideas to answer a few of these?
One argument I heard was that in other countries that perform really well, they lack creativity. They test very well because they simply memorize answers very well. In the US educational system there more of an emphasis on not just learning facts or math but how to use them. It seems like a reasonable argument, it seems that most new inovations in the last century have come from the US. That's not to say that the US system doesn't underachieve more than it should. But teaching real world application rather than hard drilling on math and science tests seem like a better method. Any one will tell you that test scores do not accuratley portray intelligence.
. But teaching real world application rather than hard drilling on math and science tests seem like a better method. Any one will tell you that test scores do not accuratley portray intelligence.
That's fine in the liberal arts, but not in the professions. Objective standards must, and do, obtain there. Asians remain overrepresented in the hard sciences, engineering, medicine, and music.
One argument I heard was that in other countries that perform really well, they lack creativity. They test very well because they simply memorize answers very well. In the US educational system there more of an emphasis on not just learning facts or math but how to use them. It seems like a reasonable argument, it seems that most new inovations in the last century have come from the US. That's not to say that the US system doesn't underachieve more than it should. But teaching real world application rather than hard drilling on math and science tests seem like a better method. Any one will tell you that test scores do not accuratley portray intelligence.
Traditionally education in Asia is a lot of rote memorization, although in the richer and more privileged countries (e.g. Taiwan, Japan, S Korea, parts of China) teachers have been encouraging more and more creativity. There is an emphasis on not only being able to repeat facts and equations but to understand them.
Many of the innovations now are made by Asian scientists and engineers (in cooperation w/ their 'domestic' peers) who immigrated over here to the US. While I think it's true that many lack creativity, there are many others whose creativity manifests itself in many new discoveries and products.
I agree that the main difference is the cultural attitude towards education. I am an Asian-American born and raised in the US, and my parents made sure that education was a top priority. They were very involved in my education and really pushed me to learn more than my classes required.
Asian children have high expectations set for them by their parents.
While their parents take care of them as they are children, they are expected to put forth extreme effort in their studies, so they can succeed in life and then take care of their parents in their old age, as well as their own children. Their hardcore studying habits are just an expectation of their parents, and if they don't succeed, well... it's reprimanded much harsher than here in the US. Also, when they DO succeed, it's not very often that they are "rewarded" by their parents. Their reward is their success later in their adult life.
Any ideas on what leads Asian students to perform better than all students of all races in America?
A lot of it is culture - Asian culture has stressed education - and to achieve at education.
I spent a lot of time in Asia - and not as a tourist. I cannot tell you how many stories we would hear about a student who would commit suicide because of a bad grade. It was not that uncommon.
Parents were (and are) demanding that the first job a child had was to their studies.
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