2014年7月16日水曜日

Review of Education Related Movie


Value of Teaching
Good Will Hunting (1997)

 

              “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library.” - Will Hunting, a janitor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has an extraordinary ability in mathematics. One day Professor Gerald Lambeau gives his students difficult problems that seem nobody could solve. By answering this problem faster than anybody else, Will is found as an unidentified genius and his rare ability attracts the celebrated professor Lambeau. Since Will has been prosecuted because of repeated assaulting, the Professor decides to take charge of Will, to make him work as a member of the advanced mathematic team, and also to let him take therapy sessions from Dr. Sean Maguire. Sean tries to shine a light into Will’s closed mind and helps him how to deal with his gift and his future.

              In this story Will has a special skill but he refuses to use it in his career. As for him it is very natural thing to know how to solve the problem by just go through it once. He hates those smart people who show off their knowledge they get from books and don’t speak their own words. From this point we can see that educational background is not equal to one’s real ability. Even if he is raised in poor environment or has hardly any formal schooling, he lives his own life.

              “He pushes people away before they get a chance to leave him. It's a defense mechanism.” - The reason Sean has a chance to get to Will’s heart is because both of them have the same unfortunate early background (child abuse). Will’s withdrawn nature is the result of his home environment. Sean, as a teacher for his way of life, points out that Will has a certain philosophy. He doesn’t allow anybody to ruin it because it always has to be perfect, and that way he can go through his entire life without ever having to really know anybody.

              Through once-a-week meetings, Sean has never given up for Will and at their last one, finally Will has courage to see himself as he is. He starts to live more in touch with reality and Will and Sean are already beyond the patient-doctor relationship. We learned that teacher could be the one who changes the whole world of his student. Sean, as a therapist and a teacher, always has a resolute will to confront with Will himself and his painful past. This movie shoots us a considerable question at us – What is the teaching? What humans live for?



Van Sant, Gus, dir. Good Will Hunting. Prod. Lawrence Bender. 1997. DVD.

2014年7月14日月曜日

22. Do the teachers care about their quality of education?

This depends on the teacher.
I currently have a teacher who obviously does not want to teach.
He takes attendance, then opens the text book and assigns us 3 small sections, 6 questions each,
call us up to the white board where we answer a question.
When we make an mistake, he fixes it without really telling us why it's wrong, then finishes class within an hour, although its an 90 minute class.
The other day, a student asked why an comprar (to buy in spanish) was used as compras (plural word) in a singular sentence instead of compra, and he, I quote
"Compras is plural and if you put an s on the end, it sounds likes you bought a lot and buying a lot of things is cool."
I was just staring at him bewildered of his response.
If he doesn't know the answer, he should look it up or something instead of talking about how buying more things make you sound richer and cooler.
He talks on the phone during class, and texts even while a student is asking him a question.

But on the other hand, I have an teacher who listens to what each student wants to say,and makes the class enjoyable in many ways by allowing us to participate and have ownership in our work.
He allows us to learn about many issues and problems that are occurring in the world, and lets us choose what topic we want to study and learn about.
I truly believe that he is a role model teacher.
s/o to Mr.Dias for being the role model teacher!!

How much amount of salary is considered as an 'high paying job' to you?

In our survey, 44% said that 10,000,001 yen- 15,000,000 yen ($97,996.15-$146,991.37) was an high paying job to them.

I guess this is an fair amount, because if you had a partner, you would have enough money to do whatever you want to and buy a descent sized house.
You are well off even if you don't have a partner, and you can enjoy a sip of the luxurious life.

They highest paying jobs and their training time, or time to get that positions are;

5. Lawyers

Annual mean wage: $130,490
Training time: 7 years

4. Petroleum Engineers

Annual mean wage: $138,980
Training time: 4+ years

3. Chief Executive Officers

Annual mean wage: $176,550
Training time: 6+ years

2. Dentists and Orthodontists

Annual mean wage: $204,670
Training time: 8 years

1. Doctors and Surgeons

Annual mean wage: $234,950
Training time: 11+ years



MacMillan, Malcolm. "Looking To Make A Lot More Income? Here Are The Jobs You Should Seriously Consider." AskMen. askmen, n.d. Web. 14 July 2014. <http://www.askmen.com/money/career_150/177_career.html>.

24. Should education be fun?

Yes, education MUST BE FUN for kids to enjoy it.
It is impossible to enjoy an class which the professor just blabs on about what they are interested in.
Yes, listening to an opinion is fun, if they introduce the other side of the opinion as well.

I personally had a biology teacher talk about aliens and about love, instead of teaching us about Darwin, and other subjects that biology classes are supposed to teach.
It is not really fun for students to enjoy a class is the teacher is in their own world.

If the teacher makes the class fun by having interactions with their students, they will have to participate, which will enhance their grades because they are physically doing what they are supposed to learn.
In elementary school, most of our classes was not sitting at a desk, but more of a participation style, which we were capable of learning new subjects and knowledge that we still remember up until now.

2014年6月13日金曜日

About me.

Hello, this is Alisa!!!
Before I start answering questions, I would like to talk a little about myself.
I am Alisa, and currently am studying at an private university in Tokyo.
I live with my cat Sophie, who is a Russian Blue that I adopted :)

I, myself grew up and went to an International School in Tokyo until 6th grade, then went to the states and attended middle and high school in Colorado until 2008. After that, I attended an private high school in Kyoto, and after graduation, attended an private university in Kyoto, but dropped out after an year.
I got back in to uni last year, and am currently in my sophomore year.
My father is English, and my mother is Japanese which makes me an mix, and due to the fact that I look more foreign than Japanese, I get a lot of compliments on my Japanese such as "Wow, your Japanese is so good!" which annoys me at times because I grew up in Japan, and people shouldn't just assume that I'm completely foreign!
Anyways, I like to do horseback riding for fun, and have been riding since I was 6 years old.

Anyways, that was a little something about myself!!


Alisa

2014年6月12日木曜日

Our questionnaire

This is an questionnaire we made in order to find out how people feel about education.
Please do answer to this survey, since we have to make an presentation about this issue on our final day of class, which is on July 24th.

https://jp.surveymonkey.com/s/QPVXZ23

Thank you!!!

Its monsoon season in Japan, so we need to carry an umbrella wherever we go.
It is terrible.


Alisa and Haruka

2014年6月5日木曜日

This is a word cloud made by wordle.
This shows all the words to which an article was made from.
I used

Knott, Matthew . "Universities in united stand over student debts." . The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 June 2014. Web. 5 June 2014. <http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/universities-in-united-stand-over-student-debts-20140604-39jhj.html>.

This talked about the cons of university studies, and problems about it.

word cloud

The following word cloud is made from POD, the organization which devotes for improving teaching and learning in higher education.

"Strategic Plan & Mission Statement." . Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, n.d. Web. 5 June 2014. <http://podnetwork.org/about-us/mission/>.

2014年5月22日木曜日

30 Questions

1. Does the income increase as the quality of university increase?
2. Is university education necessary?
3. What kind of job do people to did not graduate an four year university do?
4. how might parents impact the quality of their children`s education?
5. Is it true that rich people recieve higher education?
6. What is value?
7. What makes you you?
8. What do you think is the superior education?
9. Is money related to education?
10. What is considered as an education?
11. Why is IVY League so famous?
12. How much amount of salary is considered as an 'high paying job' to you?
13. Is thre an inherent value to human life? Is one's value related to where he was born? Or circumstanses?
14. Why is education necessary?
15. Who was the first person who got educated?
16. What is considered 'smart'?
17. How does education differ accross the world?
18. How do you evaluate Japanese education?
19. Why is there such an difference between the quality of an education within a country?
20. Is it possible to fix this difference?
21. Are private universities ways for professors and founders to gain money?
22. Do the teachers care about their quality of education?
23. Do you believe that the more you invest in your education, the more you will be rewareded?
24. Should education be fun?
25. Would things change is education was fun and interactive?
26. In Japan, it is easy to graduate an university if you just sit in class, but does that work in the states?
27. How much can you pay at the maximum for an education?
28. Are private universities over rated?
29. Can this situation be changed?
30. How do people think about this issue?



Any suggestions anyone??

Good/Bad Features of LGESJ

A site I chose is that of Liberal and General Education Society of Japan (LGESJ). This organization sets a study theme to work on as a society and organizes Research Council for its promotion. It also holds symposiums at project study meetings to share results of research.
 
Good aspects of the LGESJ website are...

  1. Research Councils are held at frequent intervals and also well-reported
  2. Well organized and up-to-date information are provided in easy to understand ways
Poor aspects of the LGSEJ website are...
  1. Activity reports are not fluently written
  2. Bulletins of the academic society can not be read without registration as a subscriber
  3. Few visual supports / viewpoints

2014年5月8日木曜日

Hello everyone, we are Haruka and Alisa, and we are students at a private university in Tokyo.

We started this blog to study and learn more about the pros and cons of private university and college education.
We are interested in this topic because we feel that there is a big gap between foreign and Japanese education.

When a person who graduated an Ivy League school can get a very high paying job at an top level global company. On the contrary, a person who graduated an top level Japanese univeristy cannot get into an top level global company.
Why is that?
are we wasting out time, dreaming to be able to work at such companies?
 
 
 
We will be up posting entries atleast once a week, talking about problems within and out Japan about its educational problems.
 
 
 
Is it all about the money?
 
 
Since we just chose out topic today(5/8) we do not have that many information about this issue, but our current pros and cons are:
PRO
college/university education is necessary to get a decent job.
It is important to study a variety of things in order to have background knowledge on various issues.
 
CON
The level of education differs from the price of each school and its teachers
The higher the level of school, the expencive it gets.
We don't study things that are necessary in real life job.
 
 
Please, please give us your opinions, questions, or any sorts of comments :)
This is our classroom!!!
 
Haruka, Alisa