4 ms·

I went through grad school and taught in university in the US. My perspective is a bit different. I agree in many ways the US is behind. But in some regions out

by sidlls 4y ago

I went through grad school and taught in university in the US. My perspective is a bit different. I agree in many ways the US is behind. But in some regions outside the US there seems to be a strong emphasis on rote/mechanical memorization that provides the appearance of good education, but it falls far short when a person is tasked with actually demonstrating an understanding of the material. Me and my US taught peers (of whatever ethnicity) almost always performed better on exams where the problems were similar to but novel compared with the homework, while these rote/memorizing people almost always did better on exams where the problems were essentially lifted from the homework (perhaps with irrelevant changes, such as slightly different numbers or what have you). It was an incredible eye opener, as I had always assumed the US had a trash education system in general. It’s more nuanced than that.

quartesixte 4y ago
An interesting problem for sure, but perhaps a result of self-selection bias? You and your other US peers represent the very tip of academic achievement in the country and perhaps are either the result of great teachers and/or programs that fostered that independent thinking, or were naturally inclined to do so anyways and your academic predispositions led you to where you are today. But let’s face it. The average American school never gets that far. And public schools in the US (based on the miles of anecdata published on the internet) seem to enforce rote memorization anyways. Standardized testing, teaching to the test, “my way or highway” teachers. So not only are we doing the same as our peer nations, but doing it worse. And any attempt to do critical thinking type teaching (a la Finland) gets lost in a sea of terrible schools, incompetent teachers, mediocre curriculums, and an education system that fatalistically lowers rigor and standards in favor of not challenging students to do better. No this is not a funding problem. Schools in the US have some of the highest per-student funding in the world. And those are also paradoxically the worst performing ones.

by sidlls 4y ago

quartesixte 4y ago

An interesting problem for sure, but perhaps a result of self-selection bias? You and your other US peers represent the very tip of academic achievement in the country and perhaps are either the result of great teachers and/or programs that fostered that independent thinking, or were naturally inclined to do so anyways and your academic predispositions led you to where you are today. But let’s face it. The average American school never gets that far. And public schools in the US (based on the miles of anecdata published on the internet) seem to enforce rote memorization anyways. Standardized testing, teaching to the test, “my way or highway” teachers. So not only are we doing the same as our peer nations, but doing it worse. And any attempt to do critical thinking type teaching (a la Finland) gets lost in a sea of terrible schools, incompetent teachers, mediocre curriculums, and an education system that fatalistically lowers rigor and standards in favor of not challenging students to do better. No this is not a funding problem. Schools in the US have some of the highest per-student funding in the world. And those are also paradoxically the worst performing ones.