2009-08-13

Cross over Developing & Developed Societies

Maruyama, Hideki. (2009). A Potentiality of Non-Formal Education beyond the Boundaries of Developed and Developing Countries: from a Japanese Academic Discourse, Innovative Education Research, 2009, 11-20.


要旨:いわゆる発展途上国と先進国を分けるには多くの理由があるのは確かである。ある者は、日本は発展途上国には注意を払うべきではなく、他の豊かな国々から成功経験をより輸入すべきだとし、またある者は、日本のように発展するため途上国に日本の成功経験を輸出すべきだとする。本論は、日本の学術的言説の議論に横たわる二元論を指摘するものである。そして、ノンフォーマル教育の言説に着目することで、学習と研究の本来的目的を再認識する。著者は、教育の歴史的理解と国内外における学習成果の近年の議論をまとめ、学習の目標と成果についてノンフォーマル教育の理論の潜在性を描写する。今日の世界における多様性が増すにつれ、直線的な発展モデルや明確な分類とは異なる視点が重要なのである。


Abstract: There are many reasons to separate the developing countries from the developed ones. Some people simply do not pay attention to the former because Japan should be developed more by importing good practices from the other rich countries. Others believe Japan should export its own good experiences to the developing countries to develop as like. This article points out the dichotomy lies in the discussions in the Japanese academic discourses, especially in education study, and tries to remind ourselves of the original purpose of learning and of research by focusing on the discourses of non-formal education. By doing so, the author summarizes historical understandings of education and recent discussions about learning outcomes in Japan and other countries and describes the potentiality of non-formal education theory to cover the goal and outcomes of learning. As diversity appears more in today’s world, the different view from a linear development model or sharp categorization is important.


Key words: Non-formal Education, Competence, Outcome of learning, Development

2009-04-17

http://poligazette.com/2008/09/05/turkeys-real-problem/

"Turkey’s Real Problem... It is education.

Compared to the rest of Europe Turkey’s education system is horrible. It is sorely lacking in a variety of ways, but especially with regards to teaching students foreign languages.

During my visits to Turkey I have seen how teachers try to teach this highly important foreign language to their students. Sadly there are some problems. For instance, the average teacher is hardly able to communicate with a foreigner in English. His vocabulary is not big enough, his accent is too strong and he is nervous because he seldom speaks English to foreigners; he is used to speaking English to Turks, who often do not notice the horrible accent of their fellow Turk and his pathetic lack of a somewhat normal-sized vocabulary."

Wait a minute. I need to ask my home country if its normal school teachers could communicate in English.