1 page peer review

Liang Ying

English101

Assignment 1

09/16

Different Classroom Journey

Reading Rebekan Nathan’s book –My Freshman Year is a real enjoyable thing. As a professor of anthropology, she tried to show us a picture of international student’s life through her personal experience. Similarly, as an exchange student from China, I think I am quite lucky because I can experience both Chinese university life and American university life. Sometimes, it is hard for people to judge the reality except through hands-on experience. After two-week’s study at Umass Boston, I have found a lot of difference between American and Chinese university life. In view of classroom life, I think teacher-student interaction and students’ enthusiasm and initiative are the most different aspects between American university and Chinese university.

Firstly, in American classroom life, the professor emphasizes the participation of the students in the course of teaching, in other words, it is a kind of student-center classroom. For example, according to an Asian student’ description in Nathan’s book: “one of the surprises was how often students the professor in the middle of a lecture to ask their own questions.” Undeniably, if we Chinese students interrupt the professor in the middle of a lecture, in most situations, our professor would be angry with us. Because they think it is a disrespectful way to interrupt him while he is talking. Moreover, at Umass Boston, the majority of the professors would ask the students whether they have any questions after the professor have explained some knowledge points. This asking-answering interchanging is quite helpful to arouse the students’ initiative. What is more important, students can consolidate and digest the knowledge better through asking their own questions. However, I totally disagree with one of the Nathan’s opinion that some students can even put their feet up on the chairs in an American classroom. Although teachers should give enough freedom to us during the class, we students should still obey some fundamental rules to show our respect to our teachers. We all should remember that Mutual understanding is a two-way process between students and teachers.

Secondly, the way that teacher uses to assess the students’ abilities is quite different between American teachers and Chinese teachers. At an American university, you should pay full attention from the very beginning of the semester to the end. There are a lot of short assignments, papers, quizzes, and exams arranged to judge whether you have really digested the knowledge that our teacher had taught us. However, the situation in Chinese universities is totally different. In Chinese university, we only have one examination at the end of the semester. Even if you did not work hard at the beginning and the middle of the semester, you can also get good grades if you just work hard during the last month of the semester. Besides, the questions on the tests are also quite different between American exams and Chinese exams. An international student from China has told to me that the questions on the tests are usually some opening questions, and you can have your own perspective. Through the tests, the teachers want to know that you have carefully and critically thought about the questions being posed. In this way, you should not only understand the knowledge points but also think about it critically. She also mentioned that the teacher also encourage the students to put forward some reasonable and creative answers. At some Chinese universities, you can easily get good grades if you can remember the knowledge by memory and write them down on the test. In short, we certainly have to work long and hard enough to get good grades at American universities.

Thirdly, we can easily feel that the atmosphere of American classroom life is much more laid-back and open than that of Chinese classroom life. However, compared with America, there are still some educational advantages at most Chinese universities. To a large extent, the majority of the Chinese students and Teachers have been influenced by Confucianism. In the thought of Confucius, students should respect teachers and their teaching. And teachers should also attach great importance to education and love their students. If a campus has a harmonious relationship between teachers and students, it will be quite beneficial both for students’ learning and teachers’ teaching.

In conclusion, the American educational system is filled with vigor and vitality. Both China and other countries can learn from the advanced aspects of American university, such as teacher-student interaction, students’ freedom and advanced education idea. I really hope the American educational system could not only benefit the international students, but also benefit all of the undeveloped countries’ students. One thing I know for sure, education can change one’s whole life. And classroom life is one of the most important parts of education.