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From: dant@mrloog.LA.TEK.COM (Dan Tilque;1893;92-101;)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Student preparedness
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Date: 15 Jan 89 08:00:21 GMT
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Reply-To: dant@mrloog.LA.TEK.COM (Dan Tilque)
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George W. Leach writes:
>
>      Another factor may the cultural differences between students and the
>instructor.  In many countries the instructor lectures and the students
>hang on every word, paying maximum attention. 

Or, quite likely, taking dictation without understanding a word said.
Richard Feynman in _Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman_ discussed his
experiences in Brazil.  He was giving a lecture on polarization and
stopped to ask a simple question on something he'd just said.  Not a
single student understood the question.  The problem was that he'd
asked them to apply his lecture to a real world situation.  The
students could repeat back what he'd just said but didn't really
comprehend a thing.

Brazilian students evidently succeed by writing down everything the
teacher says, memorizing it, and regurgitating it back on the final.  No
original, creative, synthetic or analytic thought is required.  I have a
feeling that Brazil is not unique in this kind of scholasticism.

---
Dan Tilque	--	dant@twaddl.LA.TEK.COM