Interesting article on learning in the East and West.

[staceyobu]

A friend posted this article on facebook. I thought it was a good read on the differences between Japan and American learning. I might like to implement a little bit more Japanese thinking into our homeschooling.

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/12/164793058/struggle-for-smarts-how-eastern-and-western-cultures-tackle-learning

[Kfamily]

This was very interesting....thanks for sharing it.

 

I think it does vary from teacher to teacher as well. One important reason for keeping my older dd in piano was because her extraordinary teacher consistently expected her to work hard and to continue to push herself to do something more challenging. Even her piano pieces that were easier were expected to be done very well. Sadly, we've moved away and are on our third teacher after her. Not one of these teachers has expected as much from her as her first. (Interestingly, not even her Japanese teacher expected very much from her...which we've since left for a new teacher now. This may have to do with the fact that the music school was on the base and they dealt mainly with American students...I'm not sure. But, I was very disappointed that this didn't work.)

Edited November 13, 2012 by Kfamily

[Lily_Grace]

It sounds like a good following to reading The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids. There were some interesting thoughts in there...I wonder how to apply that idea more consciously. I know some philosophies, like Montessori, focus more on the effort but they use self correcting tools that stair step up. Hmm..

[duckens]

I read this article (the original)!

 

I do think that we need to work on the process of learning: praise of: "I can see you are working hard!" and the value of practice. I'm trying so hard to get dd to make the connection between practice and results.

 

I am a little horrified about the Asian first graders that worked on the problem for an hour. What a cruel thing for the researchers to give them an impossible problem! I also think there is value in knowing when to ask for help or get an outside perspective.

 

One of the reasons that science is so strong in this country is the collaborative aspect of modern science: reading others' research, bouncing ideas off of colleagues, having others' review our papers before publication.

[GailV]

This really reminds me of the book Mindset by Carol Dweck -- a website on the concept it here.

 

I happened to read that book at about the time I was reading a bunch of books on talent and excelling, and they all had the theme of struggle being valuable.

 

Small example: Last night dd drove somewhere that she didn't quite know how to get to -- she got lost, but recovered and made it where she needed to go. Now she knows how to do it for next time because she struggled with it. I've actually driven that exact same way with her dozens of times, but she never paid attention because I was being her personal GPS saying "get into this lane, merge here, go there".

[beaners]

Thanks for sharing this! I love to read about differences in education in different cultures.

[HejKatt]

Thanks for posting the article!

 

For the parents who subscribe to this philosophy - do you find that the school day takes far longer than scheduled? (Especially if your dc refuse(s) to give up or take hints.. ask me how I know. :glare:)