Stereotypes in education. Part 2. Technicians versus humanitarians (технари vs гуманитарии).

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“Humanitarians, do not get mad at the joke technicians! 

They are people just like you, but a little smarter!”

It is thought that technicians are smarter than humanitarians. There are a lot of jokes and videos, where technicians humiliate humanitarians and show hatred towards them. This video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5DPKck0wtE would be a very clear demonstration of the reality, but I guess, from technician’s point of view.

But where do all these come from?

Nowadays there is a tendency to place students into classes of different directions, usually there are two of them called something like “technical” - natural science like mathematics, physics, chemistry etc. and “humanitarian”, including history, literature, languages and others. This might be one of the roots.

Another aspect is of hemisphere; it is believed that your inclination to any of the directions mentioned above depends on whether you are left or right hemisphered. This means, that people with well developed left brain are more logical, can easily work out mathematical tasks, count and numerate things quickly etc. and right brain people are considered to be more creative, they are close to art, poetry, singing, writing etc. And of course there also exceptions, when people do not take any position and stay between these hemispheres; these people can have strong features from each side.

And what about gender peculiarities? Why there are too many boys studying at one institutions and too many girls in others? For example, simply our school, you know the proportion of girls to boys. Maybe you have noticed how girls and boys study at school, mostly girls are excellent students; but then how come that boys become directors and get well-paid jobs?

Another conversation on this topic I witnessed recently a technician was joking sarcastically: “Humanitarians are bla-bla-bla… Check out our essence! Who creates all these innovations and makes our life easier?” To conclude, I think everything is balanced anyway, people should not say that some people are more important or smarter than others. All of these are just stereotypes.

Challenges of blogging

In this post, I would like to tell about the challenges I experienced in writing for the blog in comparison with academic writing and I will compare my experience with the results of the survey about blogging experience conducted among my groupmates. Overall, my earlier attitude towards blogging can be described as rather negative – mostly unfriendly and cautious. Although some of my friends are successful bloggers, well read and supported in their writing exercises by readers as well as their families and friends, it was hard for me to understand how any blogger can freely reveal his or her thoughts in public. According to the survey, conducted in our class, about one third of my groupmates would support me in that sharing your thoughts via blogging is not as easy as it seems. Therefore, when blogging was announced as our major writing activity to do this semester, I was happy, because I knew, this would be a challenge for me.

Blogging really turned out to be challenging. The first challenge for me was choosing a topic. In my opinion, for a standard academic writing it is easier, because your instructor or supervisor is your main targeted audience and in this case, the most important point is to choose a topic you know well to be able to demonstrate the full knowledge in the field. However, choosing a topic for a blog post, the most important point is writing about an interesting or highly relevant issue, because main peculiarity of blogging is freedom of readers to choose what they read. In addition, the main purpose of writing for the blog is to attract as many readers as possible. According to the survey, over 50% of my groupmates find it difficult to choose topics for blog posts. It is not a surprising number for me, because there are especial requirements to the topic for the blog post: blogger writes for audience which chooses whether to read the post or not, so the topic must be worth reading.

Another challenge for me was a writing style. By trying to blog, I learnt that good writing  can be very different in style. What is appropriate for academic writing may seem clumsy in a blog post and vice versa. In addition, our exercise was to do blogging on education-related topics, so we could not be too informal. In my opinion, blogging is a good writing practice, because you develop sense of words and phrases, suitable for various range of topics.

And the last challenge for any blogger is comments. After I published my post about women in education, I got comment from one of the coursemates I know, which showed that she did not fully understand some phrase in the blog, and after her comment, I edited this phrase to be clearer. However, the main thing I learnt was that when you engage in blogging, you must be ready for negative comments, because there must be people whose life positions are different from yours. However, I am eager to receive feedback, and so are just below 50% of my groupmates. The secret motivation of the blogger here is the willingness to get his or her work appreciated. Of course, the blogger must be ready for criticism, and that is why the other half of my group did not find getting feedback from peers as attractive.

Despite these challenges, blogging was a good exercise and a good development tool. With the help of this exercise, I learnt that it is possible write interesting things without necessarily revealing your intimate feelings. In this activity, we wrote about education, and that was really interesting and useful. Now, since I have overcome these challenges writing for a blog as a classroom activity, I will definitely practice some blogging outside classroom.

References:

Montgomery, D. P. (2015a). [Blogging and Academic Writing]. Unpublished raw data. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/PX8wv7

My reflection on Blogging

The digital revolution of the last few decades has brought progressive changes to the world making its society dynamic, its economy knowledge-and-technology-driven, and its education globalized. Accordingly, adapting new computer-based approaches of teaching and learning had a significant impact on the development of education in general. Blogging, as a new trend in academic writing, is an effective way of learning a second language because it helps students express their voice and at the same time improve their academic and colloquial writing and speech.

            Blogging for second language learners assist to link “the interactivity of speech with the permanence of writing” (Warschauer, 2010, p. 1). It means that posting blogs reflects a strong interconnection between speech and writing. Also, blogging develops student’s critical thinking, responsibility for their words and skills to balance the voice in academic and colloquial writing. Thus, blogging has let a start to a boom of free writers, free voice and a circulation of information all over the world (Warschauer, 2010). Moreover, writing classroom blogs provokes the learner-centered education where students might express their voice and influence the learning system at all. However, there is a risk that the freedom to write in different topics might cause sensitiveness among readers.

Concerning academic and colloquial writing, some research revealed that a student who scored high in an academic vocabulary test had a low indicator in middle-range vocabulary one (Montgomery, 2015). It shows that a student who pays more attention to learning the language through academic readings might have a shortage of a colloquial vocabulary. And, thus, blogging could prevent this gap by letting students express the ideas in natural and understandable way (Montgomery, 2015).

As for my personal experience, I would say that blogging helped me feel free to talk to the audience and share my ideas and thoughts with them. So, blogging had a positive impact on my academic and independent writing. For example, attempts to write a post by formulating the sentences and ideas in easy-understandable way enhanced the fluency of my speech. Before when we used to write academic essays with definite rules, it restricted my horizons of thinking because of the rubric. But when I started blogging it opened the door for me to the beauty and richness of the English language. However, there was one limitation for me – the time. If I had more time on thinking about the topics of the blogs and writing them then I would put myself more in the blogs

As a blogger, I would rate my experience as satisfactory and successful. I would highly recommend it to other students who want to improve academic writing and speech. . In my opinion, a blogger is a writer. In writing you show your soul and thoughts, ask distressing questions, and share your feeling with a reader. And only the message from heart finds a way to heart.

References

Montgomery, P. (2015, April). Did you read my post?: Improving autonomy, English, and

engagement through class blogs. Paper presented at The International Conference for Building Cultural Bridges, Suleyman Demirel University. Kaskelen, Kazakhstan: ICBCB.

Warschauer, M. (2010). Invited commentary: New tools for teaching writing. Language

Learning & Technology, 14(1), 3-8

Internationalization VS Regionalization

    

The article by Ogachi (2009) reviews internationalization and regionalization of higher education in East Africa. In this blog post I will present an analysis of this article by giving some facts and concluding it,.

Ogachi (2009) defines internationalization of higher education as a net of connections that tie not only regional but also cross-border bonds that can be either international or intercontinental. And in this context, internationalization of higher education refers to academic mobility, an exchange of international curriculum, building branch campuses, or providing twinning education system. Despite the widely implementation of internationalization in developing countries, specifically, in East Africa, there is inequality in the process of realization at the regional level.

Over the last decades, a high increase in private universities run by foreign institutions as well franchising pushed African countries, namely, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, toward regional internationalization that became further regionalization. And this process cross over Africa is carried out only in terms of student mobility between these countries (Ogachi, 2009). Consequently, it was expected that inbound student mobility would considerably rise up, but the students still remained to cross the border to get international education. It is very interesting to note that the author expresses uncertainty towards worthwhileness of internationalization of higher education in Africa. This doubt came from the socio-economic condition of the country where the access and quality is on low performance.

            In my opinion, this review paper is quite critical and subjective from an insider’s point of view, albeit, very interesting because it gives food for thought. In future, it can lead to the research on “Regionalization of Kazakhstani Higher Education: does the background history hold Kazakhstan to move forward?” It will be interesting to explore the question because today’s internationalization of HE in Kazakhstan is still on the process with unclear comprehension of it at the national and regional levels.   

In conclusion, East Africa, as other developing countries nearly the world, face some challenges in the implementation of internationalization and regionalization too. The challenges of quality assurance and knowledge production are well discussed and critically reviewed. Overall, this article helped me understand regionalization process more deeply and look through the problems that occurred in quality assurance system.

Ogachi, O. (2009). Internationalization vs Regionalization of Higher Education in East Africa

and the challenges of quality assurance and knowledge production. Higher Education Policy, (331-347).

Mountain University: Dream or Reality

           The reason why I wanted to blog on this topic is that I would like to visit these universities in future and see the real results of the initiative to build campuses near mountains and how they affect on country’s education system and collaboration with international partners.  

The agreement to establish the University of Central Asia (UCA) in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan was signed in 2000 by the initiatives of three presidents of those countries and the Aga Khan. The location for the UCA was chosen by the Aga Khan who put emphasis on the development of mountain regions: Tekkeli in Kazakhstan, Naryn in Kyrgyzstan, and Khorog in Tajikistan (Sahadeo, 2011). 

The goals of the UCA are to build Central Asian system of Higher education in accordance with westernized style; to save cultural and historical aspects of the developing countries; and to enhance the education system in rural and mountain areas. The campuses of the UCA are provided with world-class facilities, well-designed curriculum in accordance with westernized education system. The language of construction at the UCA is English. Consequently, foreign faculty and researchers are attracted to come to the university and to transfer their knowledge and practice to the local staff.

Sahadeo (2011) refers the following challenges to the regional problems in education in most post-Soviet countries: the issue of corruption in universities, passive involvement of women in education, low quality of rural education and insignificant amount of teachers’ salary. I would not agree with the statement of passive involvement of women in education in Kazakhstan. If comparing these three countries, Kazakhstan is more ahead. There are many bright women scholars, educators and students, who present a significant number of women representatives in education.

 It is worth to question why the universities are located in mountain areas, far from the cities. The reason is that lagging-backward regions of most developing, especially, post-Soviet countries are mountain areas. As the market-based economy drives the nations, most of people move from villages to cities endangering culture and history of a country. Also, establishing universities will help increase the employment rate in rural areas. But, in realty does it work? Does this initiative really improve the social status of people from rural areas? 

In conclusion, it is difficult to say about the future of the UCA because the construction of the campuses has still been continuing. Nevertheless, the initiative to maintain mountain-rural areas by building a higher education institution is a big step to a bright future.  

Sahadeo, J. (2011). Regional histories, critical thought, and the University of Central Asia. In

I. Silova (Ed.), Globalization on the margins: Educational and postsocialist transformations in Central Asia (pp. 95-115). Charlotte, N.C.: Information Age Publishing Inc.

Are you state-funded or self-financed?

The question-title of the blog is closely related with the Finance of Higher Education. Therefore, this blog will cover dual-track tuition fees policy and its impact on academic achievement of students who are state-funded and students who are self-financed.

The phenomena where the state regulation of tuition fees is very constrained with “merit-based” entry to no-fee or low-cost education and open access to for-fee education is called dual-track tuition policy (Johnstone, 2003; Johnstone and Marcucci, 2010). In simple words, if a student gets a high score, let’s say, in UNT then there is a probability that the student gets a scholarship or, otherwise, s/he can pay for higher education themselves and study.  

There are limitations of this tuition policy. Dual-track tuition brings inequity among students from different levels of society (Marcucci, Johnstone, and Ngolovoi, 2008). Mostly, students who get free higher education are those who can afford to pay tuitions or their parents could pay for them. Accordingly, students from low income families have struggles to get those scholarships by competing with students who can pay for higher education. According to Sawyerr (as cited in Johnstone, 2003) introduction of tuitions might increase “the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ in access to higher education”. By this, it means that in spite of enrolled students to the university, there are still challenges in access. As for another limitation of this tuition policy might be differences in academic abilities of students (McMartin, 2009; Ngolovoi, 2008). It means that students with the lowest admission scores to free education had slight difference in academic ability compared to students whose scores were below “cut-off point”.

Many researchers have examined the impact of financial aid or scholarships and tuition fees on academic achievement of students. And the results of these researches do not correspond with each other and are sometimes contradictory. If speaking about the impact of dual-track tuition on academic achievement, little research has been done. Some empirical research reveals that scholarships have a positive impact on completion, whereas it negatively affects on college withdrawal and retention (Dynarski, 2003). Delanay (2011) discovered that financial aid has impact on academic decision making.  Concerning the impact of tuition fees, the researchers agree that tuition fees does not influence strongly on academic achievement (Dyranski, 2003). Also, part-time work influence on academic achievement of students. 

To sum up, there is the gap about the impact of dual-track tuition policy on academic achievement. So, it needs to be researched in future. Because financing higher education might cause misunderstanding in the society and have negative influence on country’s economy.

               

  

References

Delaney, A.J. (2011). State Merit-based Aid and Enrolling in Graduate Study: Evidence From

the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship. Journal of Student Financial Aid, 41(2).

Dynarski, S. M. (2003). Does aid matter? Measuring the effect of student aid on college

attendance and completion. The American Economic Review 93 (1), 279-288 pp.

Johnstone, B., (2003). Higher Education Finance and Accessibility: Tuition Fees and Student

Loans in Sub Saharan Africa. Journal of Higher Education in Africa.

Johnstone, B., Marcucci, P. (2010) Financing Higher Education Worldwide: Who Pays?

Who Should Pay? Maryland, Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Prss.

Marcucci, P., Johnstone, B., & Ngolovoi, M. (2008). Higher Educational Cost-

Sharing, Dual-Track Tuition Fees, and Higher Educational Access: The East African Experience. Peabody Journal of Education, 83(1), 101-116 pp.

McMartin, H. (2009). University Tuition Fee Policy Tools. Journal of Public Policy,

Administration and Law.

Ngolovoi, M., (2008). Financing Higher Education in Kenya: Student perceptions and

experiences. In Tertiary Education and Management, 141-150 pp. New York:

Roudeledge. 

Academic Writing vs Blogging

     “I do not want everybody to read my writings” was my first thought when told about blog writing assignments. Little has changed since that time, although I have already published more than five blog posts successfully. Immediacy of an audience and space for playing with ideas are overt benefits of blogging, however academic writing has more constructive and effective benefits. More coherent organization, constant feedback from the instructor, precise assessment and knowing where you stand are treasured perquisites of academic writing.

    It is obvious that blogging is more informal, therefore does not require strict organization of thought and purpose. This may bring an ease to student’s workload; on the other hand it may not contribute to the acquisition of expository writing skills. Academic writing is more audience oriented and accordingly needs more coherent organization, where every word matters.  

    Also, as any writing takes a lot of time and effort, getting second party feedback is significant. As survey has shown, almost all students are eager to get feedback from the instructor. It is also echoed by Fregeau (1999) who finds written feedback to be effective, especially when incorporated with oral one. Additionally, deciphering feedback can be a very entertaining task to do.

     Progressing as one learns is another important component of any course. Unlike blogging, which is assessed only at the end of the term, academic writing is timely assessed; hence the student knows where he/she stands which in turn can motivate to move forward and achieve the expected outcomes (O'Farrell, 2004).

    Finally, my personal experience has proven me that academic writing is more effective in a way that it teaches how to sustain logical arguments in an organized manner, formulate thesis statement and make writing more concise and coherent. Constructive feedback from the instructor and knowing where I stand motivated me to ameliorate my writing skills.

References

O'Farrell, C. (2004). Enhancing Student Learning through Assessment. A Toolkit Approach'. Centre for Academic Practice and Student Learning (CAPSL) Dublin Institute of Technology, 2004 Updated, 2009 University of Dublin Trinity College.

Fregeau, L. A. (1999). Preparing ESL students for college writing: Two case studies. The Internet TESL Journal, 5(10), 1-3.