Teacher, leave them kids alone

If I was a Taiwanese university student I might be tempted to tell Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi exactly where he can put his suggestion that they review their attitude towards learning.  But what prompted the Minister to do this? 

Daisy Hung (洪蘭), director of National Central University’s Graduate Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said in an article published in the Chinese-language CommonWealth magazine recently that during a ministry inspection trip at National Taiwan University’s (NTU) College of Medicine, she saw students arrive late for classes, doze off, eat instant noodles or drumsticks, watch TV on their laptops or send text messages to their friends during class. Hung, an NTU alumni, said she was very surprised to find that the students did not respect their classmates or the teachers.

“With college student attitudes like these, how are we going to compete with others?” Hung said in the article. “If you don’t want to study hard, why not yield the opportunity of learning to other people who really want to learn?” (Because the fee paying daddies and mummies won't accept that - its not their little angels that are the problem)

In my limited experience, good teachers interest students, motivate them, demand that they raise their game and provide a catalyst for self-study outside the classroom environment.  Yes, there are always students who doss around but I think the real issue here is that NTU is supposed to be the cream of the cream which every over-proud parent hopes their offspring will eventually attend.  But rather than focus on the quality of teaching (as OFSTED inspections in the UK do), Doris decided to blame the students.

The Minister made it worse by then arguing that ...

... many professors had complained that students in Taiwan had become less hard-working, with the majority of students staying up late and deliberately not attending classes early in the morning.

Wu said college students in Taiwan should cherish the opportunity to learn since the government has spent a large amount of money funding higher education.

Aside from the usual generational gripe ("in my day ..." ad nauseum) Wu failed to see that conditions have changed in Taiwan.  Since getting into a university is so easy these days, it could well be undermining students' sense of achievement and motivation once they get there meaning that they don't cherish the opportunities they have since it is no longer an exceptional opportunity for advancement that it was in the past.

My suggestion here would be to carry out a similar inspection on teacher's performance to see if there are problems in the level of preparation and methodology amongst staff and to move class start times to mid morning or lunch so as to take account of current student's lifestyles and ensure a better attendance rate.  Additionally, if a class does not require students to use IT then the teacher needs to set out and enforce a rule of no computer or phone use in class.  It's simply unacceptable that they let students do what they want and then pout and sulk about it afterwards. 

But then, it is easier to blame students than ask tenured adults to change the way they work.