Last week the Education Bureau released an English language curriculum guide for primary schools. I learned of the guide in the Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao, under the headline, “Education Bureau updates primary school English curriculum guide, reducing dictation, ending drills, and stopping copying from texts.” I quickly went to the original document, which, happily, merely advises against dictation in the first few months of Primary 1. I understand dictation to be a useful tool in education. Apart from building listening and language skills, a good selection of unseen dictation passages also broadens students’ interest in subjects that are potentially of great interest and value for personal development. My worry about the Education Bureau’s advice on downplaying the need for drills was also slightly reduced when I saw the phrase, “excessive use of mechanical drills”. Of course, anything excessive is not good.
From my study of human nature, I have concluded that although understanding the concepts behind every theory, proposition, or how a skill works is crucial, all successful learning must be based on habit formation. You cannot be a great pianist or violinist without hours of boring “mechanical drills”, which may even be decontextualized (like drilling scales). You cannot be a great swimmer just by learning and understanding the theory behind swimming and how to swim fast. Without long hours of mechanical drills, which involve uncountable hours of training, no athlete can win a medal. Merely learning the logic of computer programming without doing programming work again and again will not make one a competent programmer.
If students do not do enough drills, they simply cannot build up the necessary reflexes that are needed to deal with rapidly changing challenges. Using language skills in everyday life requires spontaneous responses at every turn. Only when one has internalized these skills to the point where they become second nature can one use them spontaneously and build confidence.
I recall in the old days, my teachers reminded us that to learn anything we should try to use all our faculties: listening, seeing, writing, and understanding. As a student of English as a second language, I needed to study grammar and do many drills repeatedly.
I have personally benefited a lot from dictation and drills in my formative years. The main problem with the education system today lies in the culture of competition to excel, which in Hong Kong’s context, simply means achieving outstanding examination results. Most students care for examination results more than the subjects examined. They are simply driven to study to get good results. This is the result of a toxic culture that haunts school principals, teachers, parents, and students.
Students, after all, are living human beings with the full range of aspirations and propensities that come with being human. They also possess unfathomable potential. The most important challenge for teachers is to ignite students’ love and respect for life and encourage their curiosity to learn
A former principal of a secondary school, who is pursuing a doctorate in education with the Education University of Hong Kong, stated in an article recently published in Ming Pao, that the ongoing campaign to eliminate schools with low enrollment is exacerbating the problem of excessive focus on examination results. Schools that do not deliver good public examination results will have a hard time attracting new students. The proposal is to allow schools that are highly popular to enroll more students. If that happens, the risk of poorly performing schools being closed down will rise. He noted that examination performance need not indicate poor teacher performance, because students have varied learning abilities and diverse backgrounds.
An appendix in the guide listed seven learning goals. They include nurturing a sense of belonging to our country, Chinese culture, values education, active learning, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) education, media and information literacy, and a healthy lifestyle and balanced physical and psychological development. All this sounds great, but it is important that students take center stage. Students, after all, are living human beings with the full range of aspirations and propensities that come with being human. They also possess unfathomable potential. The most important challenge for teachers is to ignite students’ love and respect for life and encourage their curiosity to learn. If they love their lives and their parents, friends, and nature, they will be motivated to learn. Teachers will help them learn as they make mistakes and savor the joy of self-improvement. If they care for themselves and for others, they would abstain from substance abuse, love their family and their own country, and care for sustainable development. They will accept that drills are needed not as a way to get good grades but as a way to master specific skills. Examinations are not to be feared but are a tool to assess our learning effectiveness for reflection and improvement.
Young people are naturally curious. As we tell them the historical facts about our country, which should be narrated like stories with engaging themes, they will come to develop a sense of cultural identity. When I was a kid, I thoroughly enjoyed the many historical stories that I learned in class. I also enjoyed reciting many Chinese poems. This is not just rote learning, it is fun and truly a delight. Young people can memorize things so easily. Memorizing some poems is not difficult at all. Even copying texts is hugely beneficial. Curious readers are encouraged to look up Why Handwriting Still Matters in the Digital Age by Vittoria Traverso, courtesy of National Geographic magazine.
The author is an honorary research fellow at Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute, Lingnan University, and an adjunct professor at the Academy for Applied Policy Studies and Education Futures, Education University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
