(English) Who are the rural students? – Answer
Wei Ji Ma | 把 2008年3月25号 粘贴在 乡村教育促进会 上面里 
Print This Post
其他帖子
- 06/01/2009: 4th Grade Musical Instruments四年级乐器制作活动
- 04/09/2009: How I Prepared for the Start of School课改我们在行动：开学前的备课过程
- 14/04/2009: Returning from Waldorf Training华德福培训归来
修正
Qian Xiao 说：
在 %I:%M%p 添加 2008年3月25号OK, great, now I know the answer.
Also I feel the answers given by rural kids have shown that they are purer and value more on people-people relationships, which makes me feel somewhat touchy and cozy. It is a pity that urban kids weigh less on those itimate people factors, but seem to be somewhat too pragmatic.
A few more thoughs:
First i am happy that most of our volunteers have made right guess, especially those who are closely engaged with rural kids like steve, which means that RCEF volunteers are really making efforts to understand rural students and their needs.
I feel somewhat relieved to know that rural kids don’t think “short-cut for exams” are that important.
I am not arguing that bening pragmatic is wrong. But being too pragmatic, emphasizing too much on quantifiable or useful results and neglecting valuable interaction with people is problematic. Maybe this result is just as expected, since rural China is where traditional culture and values are better preserved.
Lan Xuezhao 说：
在 %I:%M%p 添加 2008年3月25号So apparently I’ve lost my bet
But I should explain my thoughts..
I was so sure about my answer because of the empirical evidence I
found in people’s research in the United States. Children/teachers from
lower income families cared more about discipline and the achievement compared to children from middle income families, who value self-esteem, freedom of choice more. There are astonishing differences between head start kids and tuition based kids. I do understand, however, such an emphases on discipline and achievement could create the desire for the opposite, in other words, the less more discipline teachers put on children, the less they would want to be disciplined.
(But I am not sure if the children in your sample are too young to be exposed to competition or similar values etc, in which case the answers make sense.)
Qian Xiao 说：
在 %I:%M%p 添加 2008年3月25号So I want to add a little bit here:
I just talked with my best friend, a girl from villages in eastern China and now studying in the States. I gave her WJ’s post and asked her to guess. 30 second later, she told me: “must be the second group.”
“Why?” I asked her.
“the reason is that I feel they are more naive–they respect teachers more and they expect more from the teachers, even like solving their personal problems.”
She was also surprised that I could not make the right guess, because for her, a rural girl for 18 years, the answer is very very obvious. She said rural kids, not like their urban counterparts, have less oppotunity to see the outside world, and tend to respect and depend on their teachers, whom they consider knowlegdeble and high in moral standard.
She also said she laughed when she saw the “short-cut” thing and thought “this must be the urban group”. Why? I asked her, surprised. This time her answer did not make me relieved as before. “Well, ” she said, “because rural kids simply beleive preparing for exams WILL make them more knowledgeble. They won’t even justify themselves for taking a short-cut.”
Wei Ji Ma (作者博客) 说:
在 %I:%M%p 添加 2008年3月29号Very nice that you asked your friend, Qian! It is interesting and encouraging that she immediately picked the right answer. Maybe Xiaoqi’s findings are quite general. The explanation is also very interesting, that the rural children have more respect, admiration, and expectations for their teachers than their urban counterparts.