tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4755637818606819433.post7050614768626002473..comments2023-11-03T06:14:28.420-07:00Comments on Education Blog: The Cultural Factors Hindering Science EducationUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4755637818606819433.post-14351799683609448272011-04-11T20:52:06.599-07:002011-04-11T20:52:06.599-07:00Re: “... in my experience there have been many stu...Re: “... in my experience there have been many students which had dropped from science classes because the information, concepts and ideas were simply too difficult to grasp...” <br /><br />If this is so and wherever this is so, it means that (a) either the students are intellectually underdeveloped as well as lack curiosity, or (b) the presentation of the “information, concepts and ideas” is not made in a form which the audience understands, as for example if it were made in an unknown language. I don’t think that American students lack sufficient native intelligence as well as curiosity. They are just as smart and curious as students elsewhere. However, their home- and societal values might be different in that they are not expected to deal with and tackle difficult or even merely complicated tasks, but try to look for and choose the “easy way” to go. In real life, of course, what promises to be the “easy way” often turns out to be the most arduous and unrewarding way in the long run. But that doesn’t occur to the students who have learned how to build and maintain their self-esteem regardless of non-accomplishment, or particularly on non-accomplishment. In other words: American educational principles in this department are disingenious, not only in many a home, but undoubtedly overwhelmingly in the education establishment.<br /><br />And teaching in a “language” the listener is going to understand is a basic requirement for anything to be taught. If, from the student’s perspective, "the information, concepts and ideas” are “simply too difficult to grasp,” then the information is being presented in an ungraspable form. And that, I can see, is common practice in many schools. Yet, if the will were there, it could be changed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com