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16 years ago
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
OK Computer
I've been hearing foreign faculty complain about how most Chinese students have photographic memories, but lack the ability to think creatively and critically. In class today I witnessed, for the first time, some of my students' extraordinary ability to memorize and regurgitate information. I showed a seven-minute video that described last week's financial meltdown on Wall Street. I then called on students and asked them questions that required them to infer the answers from the clip. It was downright spooky watching some of them mimic verbatim -honest to god- large portions of the video with Rain Man-like precision. And when I asked them to explain what they'd just said using their own words, they were utterly lost. Future super power? Eh.
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4 comments:
How many Americans could either regurgitate the content the video or explain it? Especially in a foreign language?
Don't you think that's cultural? You are supposed to "respect" (i.e., not question) elders or superiors, so you never learn to challenge what you're told by them.
The education system is also built around rote memorization. Their system does not teach them to infer meaning or analyze information, which makes sense and is efficient if you're a single state government managing 1.3 billion people.
Is the photographic memory a genetic trait or has it been drilled into your students over the course of their education? One of my professors was educated in China, was a tenured professor in China, then moved to the US where she transitioned to nursing. The first day of class, she told us to scan the 8 to 10 chapters of assigned reading each week and then review her powerpoint slides. Last week she reprimanded us for not knowing a specific value (that was not presented in the class--which is all conceptual, big picture lecturing--but came from our scanned reading). When the students began discussing this after class, it came up that she has a PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY! I am now spending every waking second (except this one & last night when I went out to drink tequila with my brother & sister-in-law) READING & TAKING NOTES ON 8-10 CHAPTERS PER WEEK...This is only 1 of my 7 classes!!! Love the blog!
xoox Jess
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