"Forward thinking" Thai school bans homework - director believes Finland model is better

[Assurancetourix]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The director said that he had studied education models in Finland

Why go to Finland to find what already exists in Japan or Korea which are two Asian countries.
It seems to me that it would be easier to transcribe in Thailand what is practiced in highly educated countries like the two countries mentioned above.
I am not sure that asking Thai children and parents to put themselves in the Korean school system,  they'll like it very much ..

 

Japan and Korea are known for their very strict discipline. Something completely unknown in Thailand.

I very often pass by primary and secondary schools in Thailand when I cycle on my MTBike ;
whatever the hour it's a big mess 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Assurancetourix

[Assurancetourix]

1 hour ago, car720 said:

So what is new?  They don't understand anything.

except how to use their stupidphone (thank you bluesofa for the word ) to go watching dirty videos on X's sites;
that, they know how to do ....

[Krataiboy]

From my experience of raising five youngsters, the less time children spend in state education the better. 

 

Schools here are little more than indoctrination centres which teach conformity to Establishment norms while crushing creativity and ignoring children's innate curiosity.

 

If I had the time and energy, I'd save myself a heap of frustration and money by home-schooling my only remaining school-age child, using the huge range of education websites available on the internet - many of them free.

 

I'd divide the day between formal learning of core subjects and practical stuff she would need in adulthood, with the rest set aside for more creative indoor and outdoor pursuits in which she has a keen natural interest.

 

Stimulate their curiosity about the world around them and children will do most of the rest for themselves. Cram them into sausage machine schools and be prepared for a pretty disappointing end product.

 

Just ask yourself why so many Thai university students end up flipping burgers and doing other menial jobs!

Edited February 20, 2020 by Krataiboy

[Assurancetourix]

1 minute ago, Krataiboy said:

Schools here are little more than indoctrination centres which teach conformity to Establishment norms while crushing creativity and ignoring children's innate curiosity.

Absolutely;
today in my sub prefecture, it was scouting ..
The kids were walking in goose steps in a beautiful blue and white uniform while their teachers in khaki spent their time on their stupidphones ...

[CraigInBangkok]

23 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

Schools here are little more than indoctrination centres which teach conformity to Establishment norms while crushing creativity and ignoring children's innate curiosity.

I went to a grammar school in the uk in the 80's and to be honest most of the teachers didn't like you to question things. 90% of the teachers couldn't be @rsed to teach as they had been there too long. Copying passages out of their text books onto the board and if you could'nt copy quick enough you had no chance. I may of not been the best pupil but I do feel if they had put more passion and life into it I would have been more interested. It was all about conformity and obeying the rules and I hated every second of it. 

[Monkeyrobot]

So what do they do in Finland after school in the winter when it’s below 20 degrees ? Play Xbox.

[macleans]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

The director told Channel 7 that he had received so many complaints from the students themselves that homework was ruining their lives, making them stressed and causing them not to want to go to school. They didn't even understand their homework.

This has to be a wind-up by a Channel 7 news writer. I watched the whole interview this particular sentence was not mentioned by either the director or the student interviewees. In the interview, the director sounded quite decent in terms of his visions (I'm not a big fan of Thai teachers btw). The kids looked particularly excited because they think they would have more time for extra curricular activities such as music, sports, etc. or have time to make academic improvements on what they have actually learned in the class.

 

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by macleans

[canuckamuck]

All the other models are better, so good for Thailand to start looking at how other countries do stuff.

[RtotheC]

To be honest, Thai kids just copy off of the one kid that actually does it anyways. It's basically pointless. 

[rvaviator]

4 hours ago, csmith said:

The focus of most comments in this thread seem to be focused on teaching with little mention of learning.

 

Learning is a collaborative process not just the responsibility of one person or dependent on one strategy … it required a blended approach.

 

Learning is no longer something that just happens in early years but needs to be a lifelong activity .… 'lifelong learning' 

The Strategy in the article may well work … it depends on what the traditional homework is replaced with … if it encourages the child to be more responsible for their own learning, to become independent learners, to be able to collaborate more easily, to be better researchers, to be able to quantify their own personal learning networks (PLN) .… then that would be brilliant.

… and while we are here .… try a Google search for 'The Flipped Classroom' … of even check it on Youtube ????

 

 

 

 

Flipped learning and all that jazz is great if you have a system that can set that up .. manage it and direct the children accordingly .... Do you see that happening ?  I assume you are in education in Thailand .. Does that fit a progressive and innovative model that you see?  Maybe .. just maybe he is doing this to be 'popular' with the paying parents who are giving him a hard time as the kids does not understand the homework they are given ?

[rvaviator]

1 hour ago, Monkeyrobot said:

So what do they do in Finland after school in the winter when it’s below 20 degrees ? Play Xbox.

Try skiing ..  or sitting in a Sauna for 1/2 hours then roll aground  naked in the snow ...  ????

 

[digger70]

8 hours ago, whiteman said:

So no homework they just get more Dumber than they currently are, Kids of today ok mum home early no homework on to the computer games

Born Not Knowing anything , and learn nothing at school. that's the way to go Backwards thailand knows best.  ????????

[DrTuner]

Yes, Finland does that well. Take a guess why... to teach there requires a Master's in education. Finland has consistently been investing in high quality education and the difference from my days (70's & 80's) is staggering. That part of my taxes back then went into right place.

 

No hope whatsoever to translate that model into Thailand. It requires an uncorrupt platform.

Edited February 20, 2020 by DrTuner

[metisdead]

Inflammatory posts have been removed. 

[samsensam]

9 hours ago, BobbyL said:

I can't disagree with that. Research has shown there are very little benefits to regular homework in terms of academic attainment. Extra - curricular activities such as sports, music, art and design etc can offer far more social and intellectual development.

 

The school that I taught at in England gave no formal homework apart from a small humanities based project each term (3 a year). Students were also required to read regularly and fill in a reading record.

 

The international school where I work in Bangkok require the students to have maths, spellings, English and reading homework each week. This all obviously has to be marked by myself too ????. In particular, the Thai parents in my class request more work for their children to do at home and regularly email me for stuff. Jeez, just let the kids have a life outside of school!  

 

i do agree but that was within an educational environment of a national curriculum, professionally trained teachers and inspection of schools, with failing school/teacher performance addressed.

 

on a different topic, speaking to several children of friends it seems to be quite common for the end of year exams, set by thai and foreign teachers, to contain questions unrelated to any work covered in the previous school year, which seems a strange way to assess student learning...

 

[Redline]

However, what the Channel 7 report did not mention but what also featured in Michael Moore's film is that teacher training in Finland is extremely extensive.
 

Well, there you go.  And they  can’t even explain the homework ????

[Destiny1990]

With School classes from 0730 till 16:00 any homework after that is totally ridiculous!

Better make the last school hour an hour where students can ask questions and or reading and or studying!

[Enki]

15 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

in the USA more than 20 years ago the workload in public and private schools exploded.

you kept up or fell by the way side.

i was dating a woman with a 14 year old daughter who was top in her class and she was so stressed she was on medication.

but that is how it is now. Thailand is so far behind.

It sounds more that Thailand is far ahead, or did you just try to praise the 14 year old girl on medication?

[Enki]

13 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I agree, homework is essentially worthless.

Even more worthless in Thailand as only 1 person in the class does the homework and everyone else copies.

But they have to pay 5 TBH per page copied ????

[Enki]

9 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

 

Just ask yourself why so many Thai university students end up flipping burgers and doing other menial jobs!

Thai have far less a problem with picking up a simple job. Here in Europe people tend to frown upon people who do jobs like that. In Thailand it is not uncommon to work as a restaurant manager 2 years, and then to home for a year to help for a token price the father or other family member to build a house, and then go back to a restaurant and work as dish washer for a year until the boss trusts you to be shift manager. Or start learning Thai massage ... work three or four years and go back onto your old farm. In relation to westerners, most thai are super flexible. They often go to work where a friend of them works. Sometimes jobs limited for just 6 weeks ...

[Iron Tongue]

Looked it up:

Average teacher's salary in Finnland €3,570.  Average Thai teacher 40,000baht, or less than a third that.

 

How is a Thai teacher going to extort "gifts" from the parents if there are no tests?

[car720]

12 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

except how to use their stupidphone (thank you bluesofa for the word ) to go watching dirty videos on X's sites;
that, they know how to do ....

it is necessary for improving skills to add to their resume. 

[gk10002000]

i was born in 1957, coincidentally the first international geophysical year. Here in the USA, things were kind of quiet.  Little town in Rhode Island but not far from the capital.  Walked about 3/4 of a mile to school every day, rain or shine up through 6th grade (age 11).  Parents did not walk us to school, did not wait on the steps, etc.  I don't remember much homework at all.  Had a book report to do now and then.  I know I did not spend much time on homework if there was any.  I was arguably blessed with a brain, could read very quickly, etc.  I did on my own wander over to the town library now and then, and even the big city library downtown.  Maybe my memory is a bit flawed.  I did end up getting engineering and math degrees, and was quite a good independent study person.  I am pretty sure that if I had lots of homework I would not have liked it.  I was lucky to have some good friends to hang out with, learned to work on cars, how generators worked, mechanisms, etc.  And during those cold winters I did like to read.  Spring and summer though, it was play time.

[car720]

20 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

i was born in 1957, coincidentally the first international geophysical year. Here in the USA, things were kind of quiet.  Little town in Rhode Island but not far from the capital.  Walked about 3/4 of a mile to school every day, rain or shine up through 6th grade (age 11).  Parents did not walk us to school, did not wait on the steps, etc.  I don't remember much homework at all.  Had a book report to do now and then.  I know I did not spend much time on homework if there was any.  I was arguably blessed with a brain, could read very quickly, etc.  I did on my own wander over to the town library now and then, and even the big city library downtown.  Maybe my memory is a bit flawed.  I did end up getting engineering and math degrees, and was quite a good independent study person.  I am pretty sure that if I had lots of homework I would not have liked it.  I was lucky to have some good friends to hang out with, learned to work on cars, how generators worked, mechanisms, etc.  And during those cold winters I did like to read.  Spring and summer though, it was play time.

Yea, but you had a brain.