Perspectives on Education

After taking some time to reflect on our experiences on Monday at Shuangxi High School, so many things come mind about education and teaching in the U.S. and Taiwan.  It was interesting (and comforting, in a way) to know that many Taiwanese teachers struggle with the same issues we do – motivating reluctant students, covering all course material before exams, getting students to read, and engaging students in their learning.  The history teachers we spoke to at Shuangxi teach history to their students for 50 minutes, 2 times a week.   And we thought we didn’t have enough time to covering all the content!  In high school, Taiwanese students study World History in 9^th and 11^th grades, Taiwanese and Chinese history in 11^th grade and in 12^th grade they do a seminar in history that covers globalization, history of science, civil society and cultural history, and policy.  The Taiwanese teachers were also very interested in that we taught “social studies,” while they considered their content area “history.”  I also found that there are conflicts within educators in Taiwan over the teaching of Taiwanese and Chinese history and the infusion of politics between the KMT and DPP in Taiwanese history curriculum.  There are also conflicting views of Chiang-Kai Shek which affects the way in which they teach Taiwanese history. 

Also, after hearing my students complain about their school day, I can’t wait to tell them that Taiwanese students go to school from 8am to 5pm and many of them live at dormitories at the school (even many of the teachers too)!  Tomorrow, we are off to another high school to meet with more teachers.