A Peace of China: ? questions ?

My students don’t ask questions. This is perplexing; aren't college students supposed to ask questions?

I know that they might be shy with the new foreign teacher and they lack confidence with their English skills, both big obstacles. I ask, “What questions do you have?” Then, I wait, wait, wait. It’s just weird to not get any response from students, like questions, challenges, suggestions, comments, or even random and miscellaneous comments, the hallmark of bored American high school students. During class, my students are friendly, attentive, and engaged when I teach or give directions: they nod, smile, or take notes, and they fully participate in the speaking activities. So, what is going on?

After a few weeks of encouraging students to ask questions (we only meet once a week), I asked my Chinese colleagues for insight and suggestions. Here’s the shocker: Chinese students will not ask questions because they feel it shows disrespect to the teacher. A question implies that the material was not taught well. WHAT?

It’s true that the Chinese education system is teacher-centered with a focus on drill and practice. Part of my role here is to show my students Western ways of learning and teaching. In the US, or Boise anyway, we teach with a student-centered style that includes lots of activity, collaboration, inquiry, and problem solving. That’s how my lessons look here too. I even give them the daily objectives!

I’ve been asked to give a 1-hour lecture about teaching reading and writing to the International Relations Department next Friday. I decided to teach WICR (part of AVID), realizing that I can only give the professors a short, but manageable, overview. (Thanks Stephanie for the help!) Now, it occurs to me that what I’m really going to teach them is American style education, and I’m looking at my presentation with a different perspective.

I’m suddenly thinking about American values, and Chinese values, and seeing those values in education. It never occurred to me that how I teach shows what I value, as obvious as that sounds saying it right now. I just never thought about it.

Robert Kohls, who wrote TheValues Americans Live By almost 30 years ago, identifies 13 American values that seem, for the most part, still true. His list incudes personal control, time, equality, individualism, self-help, competition, future orientation, action, informality, directness, efficiency, and materialism. What I find fascinating is his table that pairs American values with counterpart values from a traditional culture, one like China, and the vast difference between them.

SISU lower campus, where I live:

The playground has areas for badminton, basketball, volleyball, and tennis.