Saturday was Teachers’ Day, but the learning environment in Taiwan has become worrying.
Charles Dickens wrote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This might well describe the situation in today’s classrooms.
First of all, it is the best of times because students do not have to rely on teachers to acquire knowledge thanks to rapid advances in learning software and resources. The Internet offers boundless potential. Students now have access to whatever they want to learn.
It is the worst of times because Generation Z has a passive learning attitude and prizes pragmatism. This has exhausted full-time and part-time teachers.
Part-time professors at private universities are paid a much lower hourly rate than their counterparts at public universities. There are part-time assistant professors who are only paid NT$630 (US$19.79) per hour for giving lessons at private universities, while the hourly rate for public university professors has been increased to NT$830. The higher education sector could be said to be implementing its own “one country, two systems” model.
Students in my class were shocked when they were told the hourly fee which private schools offer to part-time teachers. The pay is supposed to compensate teachers for preparing teaching materials, interacting with students, and preparing assignments and examinations. Teachers’ commute time should also be taken into account.
Yet the hourly rate is appalling as it can hardly compensate teachers for their commitment and effort.
Apart from the unfair pay, interactions between teachers and students cannot compare with those in the past. Nowadays, students are more self-aware. If they are not satisfied with their teacher, they can write online posts anonymously, take photos or videos secretly, which arguably raises privacy concerns, or express their discontent in negative teaching assessments.
Most teachers dare not voice their anger and grievances. The university management which upholds the “customer first” principle believes teachers are the ones who need to improve, not the students.
In this way, teaching and learning are similar to acting, with teachers in the role of salespeople, who aim to please, and students customers, who are to be pleased.
This is very different from the past. Nowadays, teachers not only have to protect themselves, but also have to learn “sales techniques” to sell knowledge to their “customers.”
Teachers who are passionate about teaching and have dreams they want to pursue in classrooms often in reality face expressionless and apathetic students who only pay attention to their phones.
Facing a declining birthrate, the Ministry of Education is promoting the “Flipped Classroom” model to guarantee students’ right to education. It should also aim to help educators and address the pressure they face in the higher-education system, which rewards only those who are good at doing research, but not those who are good at teaching.
Educators deserve a more dignified life.
Liu Wei-ting is a university assistant professor.
Translated by Fion Khan
US President Donald Trump is systematically dismantling the network of multilateral institutions, organizations and agreements that have helped prevent a third world war for more than 70 years. Yet many governments are twisting themselves into knots trying to downplay his actions, insisting that things are not as they seem and that even if they are, confronting the menace in the White House simply is not an option. Disagreement must be carefully disguised to avoid provoking his wrath. For the British political establishment, the convenient excuse is the need to preserve the UK’s “special relationship” with the US. Following their White House
Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention. If it makes headlines, it is because China wants to invade. Yet, those who find their way here by some twist of fate often fall in love. If you ask them why, some cite numbers showing it is one of the freest and safest countries in the world. Others talk about something harder to name: The quiet order of queues, the shared umbrellas for anyone caught in the rain, the way people stand so elderly riders can sit, the
After the coup in Burma in 2021, the country’s decades-long armed conflict escalated into a full-scale war. On one side was the Burmese army; large, well-equipped, and funded by China, supported with weapons, including airplanes and helicopters from China and Russia. On the other side were the pro-democracy forces, composed of countless small ethnic resistance armies. The military junta cut off electricity, phone and cell service, and the Internet in most of the country, leaving resistance forces isolated from the outside world and making it difficult for the various armies to coordinate with one another. Despite being severely outnumbered and
After the confrontation between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday last week, John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, discussed this shocking event in an interview. Describing it as a disaster “not only for Ukraine, but also for the US,” Bolton added: “If I were in Taiwan, I would be very worried right now.” Indeed, Taiwanese have been observing — and discussing — this jarring clash as a foreboding signal. Pro-China commentators largely view it as further evidence that the US is an unreliable ally and that Taiwan would be better off integrating more deeply into
RSS