Happy Independence Day to all! The rain stopped and the sun finally peeked out from behind the clouds. The weather has been partly sunny to sunny all day.
Today was an especially busy day. The morning was spent once again at Ewha Womans University, a very beautiful campus. The first lecture of the morning was an overview of curriculum and instruction given by Dr. Insoo Oh . We had so many questions during his lecture that he probably only was able to get through about one-third of his prepared material. He began by presenting a video clip from PBS titled "South Korea's Education Fever" which presented the importance of educational success in South Korea and the extent to which parents will assist and push their children to succeed. Education is seen as the channel for social mobility (higher status and income). The majority of students attend afterschool tutoring for 3-5 hours one or more days a week to "get ahead in specific subjects. Up to 10 % of a family's income may be spent on private tutoring in "hakwans" (sp?), private tutoring academies. The better the score on the national exam at the end of high school, the better the university a student may attend, and the better the chance for top jobs in the country. Hence, there is a lot of pressure on students, especially in high school. We spent a lot of time asking questions about hakwons and the effect of the pressure to succeed on students.
We learned that the country has a national curriculum that changed about every 5-10 years through the late 2000's and every few years more recently due to more rapid changes what should be taught, etc. From the year 2000, local school systems have been developing localized curricula based on the national curriculum. The national curriculum is divided into many of the same areas as in the U.S.: native language (Korean), math , science, social studies, art, music, foreign language (English), physical education, etc. Korean language, math, and English are most important on the national college entrance exam and more classroom hours are spent on the subjects. Students also take "moral education" throughout their school years, a subject dealing with proper moral behavior. Teachers are certified to teach this subject. It was our understanding that what is covered in one school district may not be exactly what was covered in another school district in a specific grade and time of year, a result of allowing local school districts to develop local curricula.
We learned that there are many types of high schools in Korea. There are many general high schools which are akin to most high schools in the U.S. Special purpose high schools exist in foreign language, science, international, art, and physical ed. The limited number of places in foreign language, science, and international high school are highly sought after with only about 1% of students in each of science and international high schools. Specialized high schools (e.g. design, internet, animation, taxes, tourism, cooking) focus study in a particular area, still covering the same subjects as other high schools, but perhaps in a less rigorous manner. Professional high schools are most akin to technical and vocational high schools in the U.S.
Dr. Jungmin Kwon gave an introduction in to Korean special education. It was clear from her presentation that the availability of special education is much lower than in the U.S. However, the number and percentage of students qualifying for special education has been steadily increasing as the need for, and understanding of, such education has become more apparent. The field is still in its infancy compared to that in the U.S. Students qualifying for special education may attend special education schools (about 1/3 of students) and the rest in general education schools. As in the U.S., some parents have trouble accepting that their child is in need of special education services. Parents may spend a tremendous amount of money on tutoring children in elementary grades in the hope of their child overcoming what is a problem with learning.
After lunch the group was priviliged to visit a "hakwon", a private tutoring academy, in Daechi-dong, an area of Seoul known for top quality hakwons. Parents will pay high prices for low quality apartments in the area so that their children will get access to "top quality" instructors in the more famous hakwons. A single hakwon focuses on a specific subject area. We visited C & A Critical Writing Academy, a hakwon tutoring students in reading, writing, and debating in grades from elementary through high school. The reading, writing, etc. focuses on a particular topic area. Students attend 1 day a week after school with the number of hours spent at the academy increasing as the child ages (elem= 2-3 hrs, middle school = 3 1/2-4 hours, high school = 4-5 hours). About 100 students come to this hokwon each day. Fees work out to be about $10/ hr U.S. (about $120-$200 per month). Students are evaluated by testing every 3-4 months to decide what should be their placement in the next time period. The tutoring groups are small (we saw about 4 students in a group). Parents receive feedback about every 2 months and have meetings with faculty about as frequently to discuss the progress of their child. The director of the hakwon did not believe that this approach to increasing achievement was a productive route to be taken in the U.S. It's best to leave additional discussion in this area for when we return to the U.S.
The latter part of the afternoon was spent at Namsan Park in the central of Seoul, most of which was spent atop the N Seoul Tower, or Namsan Tower, located at the top of Namsan Peak. From the top of the tower you can see for miles, with the city of Seoul extending out in all directions for those miles. You cannot fully comprehend the physical size of the city of Seoul without viewing it from the tower. The city is simply huge! According to an entry in Wikipedia, metropolitan Seoul, with about 24.5 million people, is the 2nd largest metropolitan area in the world.
Today was an especially busy day. The morning was spent once again at Ewha Womans University, a very beautiful campus. The first lecture of the morning was an overview of curriculum and instruction given by Dr. Insoo Oh . We had so many questions during his lecture that he probably only was able to get through about one-third of his prepared material. He began by presenting a video clip from PBS titled "South Korea's Education Fever" which presented the importance of educational success in South Korea and the extent to which parents will assist and push their children to succeed. Education is seen as the channel for social mobility (higher status and income). The majority of students attend afterschool tutoring for 3-5 hours one or more days a week to "get ahead in specific subjects. Up to 10 % of a family's income may be spent on private tutoring in "hakwans" (sp?), private tutoring academies. The better the score on the national exam at the end of high school, the better the university a student may attend, and the better the chance for top jobs in the country. Hence, there is a lot of pressure on students, especially in high school. We spent a lot of time asking questions about hakwons and the effect of the pressure to succeed on students.
We learned that the country has a national curriculum that changed about every 5-10 years through the late 2000's and every few years more recently due to more rapid changes what should be taught, etc. From the year 2000, local school systems have been developing localized curricula based on the national curriculum. The national curriculum is divided into many of the same areas as in the U.S.: native language (Korean), math , science, social studies, art, music, foreign language (English), physical education, etc. Korean language, math, and English are most important on the national college entrance exam and more classroom hours are spent on the subjects. Students also take "moral education" throughout their school years, a subject dealing with proper moral behavior. Teachers are certified to teach this subject. It was our understanding that what is covered in one school district may not be exactly what was covered in another school district in a specific grade and time of year, a result of allowing local school districts to develop local curricula.
We learned that there are many types of high schools in Korea. There are many general high schools which are akin to most high schools in the U.S. Special purpose high schools exist in foreign language, science, international, art, and physical ed. The limited number of places in foreign language, science, and international high school are highly sought after with only about 1% of students in each of science and international high schools. Specialized high schools (e.g. design, internet, animation, taxes, tourism, cooking) focus study in a particular area, still covering the same subjects as other high schools, but perhaps in a less rigorous manner. Professional high schools are most akin to technical and vocational high schools in the U.S.
Dr. Jungmin Kwon gave an introduction in to Korean special education. It was clear from her presentation that the availability of special education is much lower than in the U.S. However, the number and percentage of students qualifying for special education has been steadily increasing as the need for, and understanding of, such education has become more apparent. The field is still in its infancy compared to that in the U.S. Students qualifying for special education may attend special education schools (about 1/3 of students) and the rest in general education schools. As in the U.S., some parents have trouble accepting that their child is in need of special education services. Parents may spend a tremendous amount of money on tutoring children in elementary grades in the hope of their child overcoming what is a problem with learning.
After lunch the group was priviliged to visit a "hakwon", a private tutoring academy, in Daechi-dong, an area of Seoul known for top quality hakwons. Parents will pay high prices for low quality apartments in the area so that their children will get access to "top quality" instructors in the more famous hakwons. A single hakwon focuses on a specific subject area. We visited C & A Critical Writing Academy, a hakwon tutoring students in reading, writing, and debating in grades from elementary through high school. The reading, writing, etc. focuses on a particular topic area. Students attend 1 day a week after school with the number of hours spent at the academy increasing as the child ages (elem= 2-3 hrs, middle school = 3 1/2-4 hours, high school = 4-5 hours). About 100 students come to this hokwon each day. Fees work out to be about $10/ hr U.S. (about $120-$200 per month). Students are evaluated by testing every 3-4 months to decide what should be their placement in the next time period. The tutoring groups are small (we saw about 4 students in a group). Parents receive feedback about every 2 months and have meetings with faculty about as frequently to discuss the progress of their child. The director of the hakwon did not believe that this approach to increasing achievement was a productive route to be taken in the U.S. It's best to leave additional discussion in this area for when we return to the U.S.
The latter part of the afternoon was spent at Namsan Park in the central of Seoul, most of which was spent atop the N Seoul Tower, or Namsan Tower, located at the top of Namsan Peak. From the top of the tower you can see for miles, with the city of Seoul extending out in all directions for those miles. You cannot fully comprehend the physical size of the city of Seoul without viewing it from the tower. The city is simply huge! According to an entry in Wikipedia, metropolitan Seoul, with about 24.5 million people, is the 2nd largest metropolitan area in the world.
From Namsan Tower we proceeded to a very nice traditional Korean restaurant for a very traditional Korean meal. The number of dishes was impressive, with many different types of vegetables cooked in numerous ways. The color, textures, aromas, and tastes of the foods was extremely diverse. Across the board, I thought that the food was excellent. Consult other team members for their personal assessment. After dinner we were treated to traditional Korean dances on the dance floor in the center of the restaurant.
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