Today was one of those days when I was reminded of the far reaching effects of the type of education system a country has and how it extends to life in general. One way of dividing education systems and the way of life in most any country is the degree to which the education system is rote memory as opposed to problem solving.
We had a chance to experiment with some test types new to student here. Multiple choice tests can be written to cause the student to evaluate the "best answer" as opposed to an answer that is somewhat close to a correct answer. Also, in another test four sentences were written. Students needed to determine if any were correct and also needed to correct any sentences with grammatical errors in them. This requires the skills of analysis and evaluation. In all cases, students had a very difficult time with the short exams.
When students are educated with a rote memory system, the adult society tends to go about life in the same way. Using information to solve problems is not the typical approach to life. When American education is criticised because our students don't "know" as much as students from other cultures, we need to look a little deeper into the entire situation. A "walking encyclopedia" with little or no ability to solve problems is inert!
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