Rote Learning To Be Eradicated From Thai Educational System

[zzap]

They reach for the calculator when you buy 2 packs of cigs these days.

And not just in Thailand...

All techniques should be taught in schools, where appropriate!!

That's right.

[sierra01]

I'm from the old school days too, no calculators, just fingers and thumbs...if the teacher didn't see you using them!

Usually I've done the change calculation in my head before the assistant has even picked up the calculator. I would be highly embarrassed if I couldn't do simple math like that in my head, just what do they teach them in school these days?

[Plus]

Embarassed? Stupidity is not a fault here - nothing to be ashamed of.

I once met a farang woman who couldn't do multiples - if it was 5x12 she would remember 50, and then add 5 two times. She ended up marrying a Thai and moved upcountry - perfect match, I think. People like can't survive in big cities.

[sierra01]

They can if they have a calculator Plus, maybe even get a Govt Minister job

[awarrumbungle]

plus and astral - surely it is a balance. You do not process 3x5 in your head because it would take to long. Some things surely are beneficial to rote learn. I think in language there is a relatively large amount of rote learning. The rote learning may not have to be always done in class, but plain old memorisation has to occur at some stage or another. Don't get me wrong, I try as much as possible to teach techniques and thinking styles that can prepare them for future learning whether it be self-directed or school based. i.e phonetics, dictionary skills, understanding through context, De Bono stuff etc.

I know it's thailand but not everythings black and white.

On another note - shopkeepers are using calculators for 5+9 but all of my students do their maths tests without one?!?!

[udon]

They reach for the calculator when you buy 2 packs of cigs these days.

And not just in Thailand...

All techniques should be taught in schools, where appropriate!!

That's right.

Hi Zzap,

Welcome back, the mods have missed you.

[Crushdepth]

Just to show that stupidity is an international phenomenon:

We had a house built a while back. In the bathroom sink, the tradesman had somehow mixed up the colour-coded plastic tap handles: He put the red (hot) one on the cold water tap and vice versa. We asked him to fix it.

The easy way to do this is of course just to unscrew the handles and swap them over, but no. His solution was to rip out the copper plumbing under the sink and reconnect it to the 'wrong' taps.

The place: Australia (and that was *before* before they government screwed up the education system).

[zzap]

They reach for the calculator when you buy 2 packs of cigs these days.

And not just in Thailand...

All techniques should be taught in schools, where appropriate!!

That's right.

Hi Zzap,

Welcome back, the mods have missed you.

I made a resolution to behave myself, not post while under the influence of betelnuts, and not to comment on moderation.

[GuestHouse]

I think the fist thing is to remove the military from the education ministry, it is they who insist on rote learning.

[Jim 50]

Rote learning to be eradicated from Thai educational system

BANGKOK: -- Rote learning will be eradicated from the Thai education system in 2006--right from kindergaten to PhD levels, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced here on Saturday.

Speaking during his weekly radio address, Mr. Thaksin said he had ordered the Education Ministry to overhaul the national education system within this year, whereby both students and teachers must work together.

Currently, rote learning is being practised in the system and it does not allow students to use imaginations, preventing them from creating and analyzing new ideas, he said.

"This’s a weakness in the Thai education system,” said Mr. Thaksin.

"Those who are able to create imaginations are not rote learners, but rather thinkers and if they could posses both knowledge and imaginations, then it is superb and they will be able to survive in the changing world," he added.

Citing scientist Albert Eistien’s popular saying that “Imagination is more important than knowledge”, the prime minister noted that most of the rote learners would end up being employees as they are unable to think further and are capable only to take orders.

--TNA 2006-01-21

Another Thaksin Thai HUB

Rote learning eradication from Thai educational system HUB

They reach for the calculator when you buy 2 packs of cigs these days.

And not just in Thailand...

All techniques should be taught in schools, where appropriate!!

That's right.

Hi Zzap,

Welcome back, the mods have missed you.

I made a resolution to behave myself, not post while under the influence of betelnuts, and not to comment on moderation.

Political correctness is the rule of the day here.

Rote Posting you could say

[Plus]

People have different ways of memorising things, for some "rote learning" is ok, though I don't think drilling multiplication tables is what is actually meant by that term.

[sonnyJ]

Developements on the educational system, sounds Great.

But I don't understand the term "rote learning", could some one define this please.

Does this mean I will have more opportunities to answer by my own words as in essays vs. stupid questions of the multiple choise on my exams at BU for my bachelors degree?

[zzap]

I haven't heard of "rote-learning" before, either, it seems to be about repeating what the teacher says, which is the method applied in Thai schools.

The downside is, that the pupils aren't encouraged, and given little opportunity, to apply what they learn outside the limited scope of books and teachers' assertions.

It's also not unusual to "learn" from a book for the exam, and forget the material one hasn't made any connection with afterwards.

[toptuan]

BANGKOK: -- Rote learning will be eradicated from the Thai education system in 2006--right from kindergaten to PhD levels, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced here on Saturday.

TALK ABOUT BEHIND THE TIMES!!! IT'S ALREADY BEEN DONE MY DEAR PM!

Don't you know the Thai government ALREADY threw out rote learning six years ago??? The Thai Educational Act of 1999 made it illegal to teach by rote.

So there Thaksin, and all you farang naysayers!

* * * * * * * * * * *

OK, back to reality...

Some of you already really hit the nail on the head:

And Mr T thinks he can almost instantly change an aspect of Thailand that has been entrenched since long before the first blackboard appeared here?

How can you have a discussion with 60 kids in a class. 1st things 1st reduce class sizes. From there discussions and thinking can really take place. How else do you teach such a large class other than by rote learning.

And exactly how do you ask people who became teachers by rote learning to stop teaching that way?

I work with university-level educators every day. They are always talking about "child-centered" education, and how bad rote learning is. I have the Thai Educational Act posted prominently in my office as an added incentive to my colleagues. Yet, when I walk by their open-door classrooms I hear same old, same old. Straight lecture and rote learning. It's like critical-thinking education has never been modeled in front of these teachers before. They are at a huge disadvantage.

On the larger classes: Some of our English classes are 150-200 students. Now if you gave an assignment where each student gave a 3-minute speech or role-play....that's right....you'd need a 10-hour class just to get through the presentations. So since you can't really have a student-centered approach in the classroom, what do we do? Right. Lecture. Or group recitation to pound in the rote learning. You can't even divide into smaller groups for group-work due to the fixed chairs in a tiered auditorium (theater seating).

But, no one in the class is uncomfortable,* they're used to it--that's what they've done since primary school.

What a (sad) joke for education.

*Except for a western-trained teacher. However, even a western-trained Thai gives up on critical-thinking education because of the class sizes and inadequate administrative support. By the time he/she reaches an administrative position, decades later, they're either burned out or accepting of the adage "This is Thailand" (translation: "Can't get a leopard to change its spots!")

Edited January 25, 2006 by toptuan