When I study at Coventry University, it deeply impresses me that every class is fresh to me. The content of curriculum is reasonable, it is not too hard to get reach, but give you instructions to understand the knowledge of the theory easily. In fact, It is not very difficult to understand, it need us to take effect to catch the pace of teaching of teacher, and keep the same level with other foreign student, especially for us whose first language is Mandarin. In China, maybe you understand the derivation of the formula and the proof of the theorem. But you probably can’t understand how they apply to practice. In university, the effect of the teacher is to conclude the teaching material, and then it depends on your interest. The student usually find the field which need do more search through practice, and then ask the professor or find the answer in the library.
I have to mention that lots of people like me after finishing three years of the degree of bachelor then studying the fourth year in Britain. So far the big problem which I face is the “fault” of my knowledge in the long period when I attend the class. The “fault” means the knowledge I possessed have no connection with what our teachers teach, or in some aspects even no relevance. So it is hard for me to comprehend and it is time consuming to digest. The reason is that the discrepancy between the knowledge taught in China and abroad. So, if you are not starting from the first year here, there will be a serious problem of adaptation. I also encounter this problem. At first when I took classes, I was not acquainted to the language environment and I could not understand what was taught in class, so I lagged behind in study. And it took time to catch up after class. So I think, if possible, it is easier to accustom to the learning environment if one could come to Britain as freshmen or sophomore.
What amazes me is how the teachers of Coventry University design the themes for practice. This is an effective way to train specialists. They even would not let go any opportunity to creative a miracle for those who is not good at study. In my class, the students are from different background and their education levels are not quite the same. But the teachers here would not judge or require everyone with the same average. Every course work must be finished on a certain base. The process of finishing the course work is to fill in the gap between where you are and the base. The teachers will give you a guide to finish your task, clearly guiding you to think step by step, to practice and to improve. We could say that, even you have no knowledge about the task, if you follow the guide line, you could basically understand the procedure. Of course, if you don’t like to follow the guide, you could do it your own way and improve it. In comparison, the homework in China is of the same module: the teacher gives you a task and you do it all by yourself. It might be easy for the genius but not so friendly to those not good at study.
In addition, when talking about the way of education, it is always compulsory in China instead of inspiration. The teachers would not teacher you clearly and wholly all the relative knowledge. But it does not mean that the knowledge they don’t teach is not important and you don’t need to grasp, for he expects you to excavate and to think. But back in China, the teachers will take great pains to reiterate the important points. No one would bother to study other points. Maybe this is the difference of active learning and passive learning. The students take part in active learning will choose their future career by interest and more willing to research and more likely to achieve goals. In my opinion, this might in one aspect explain why the foreigners pocket the Nobel price while the kids in China study harder and more abstruse than those abroad.
Without doubt, Chinese traditional education has its advantage. What I say as above, just hope our department of education imitate the theory of “Na Lai“ ( take and keep) of Mr Xun Lu. Learn from others’ strong points to offset ones’ own weakness.
“It is utmost important for self-aware independence”
After my enrolment I became a student of Coventry. But I discovered that there was not any opening ceremony for the first day. Students just took their timetable and went to classes. In fact this ‘silent’ school open reflected that study here need the ability of voluntary and independence. And in the study I became more and more aware of the importance of these two words.
The education here is advance. Network is crucial. In Coventry University, every student must register an account on the Coventry website when enrols. There is one “blackboard” in the website which is of great importance to you study. For all the information about your class including the curriculum introduction, homework arrangement, discussion, direction and hand in, even all the class notification are published on this blackboard. So you have to check this blackboard system everyday to make sure you don’t miss any assignment or notification. At first I didn’t pay much attention to it for it was not practiced in China. I thought the teachers would tell us what we should do and when to hand in the assignments. I idled around while thinking there was no assignments. But at last, after I found out the assignments, I was in a dreadful rush.
In addition, there are some highly independent courses. For example, I take a course named 300AD－Personal Development Portfolio. There is no classroom tutorial for this course. A handbook is given to you at the start of every term, the assignments, the direction and the hand-in timetable are all written in it. And in this process, all have to be finished by oneself. For I was accustomed to the remind of teachers, I frequently forgot the existence of this course and missed the deadline for handing in the assignments. Additionally, there was one assignment I need to finish online which was to write an article every week. These things are very easy to neglect.
The life abroad is free, but we often forget how to reasonably arrange our time for study because of the freedom. So in the first beginning, we should make a detail study plan and study goals and force ourselves to execute in order to study willingly and independently, so as not to rush ourselves at the end.
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