Posted on 11/05/2007 12:52:30 PM PST by Kaput
America’s German Envy Misplaced by: Heyecan Veziroglu, October 03, 2007
It might surprise some education policy analysts who look enviously at the German method of education as a model for the United States to learn that at least one Teutonic intellectual admires the American system. “The U.S. has an inspiring climate for thinking,” Ingo Rollwagen who is Senior Analyst at Macro Trends Deutsche Bank Research said at an American Institute for Contemporary German Studies Conference.
He noticed that studying abroad brings a more refined understanding of learning processes to ensure persistence of learning. Thus, in the U.S., qualifications and credentials matter more and U.S. institutions attract more students.
There are new teaching standards in the U.S. while in Germany schools have the oldest teachers, and this is a problem. In the U.S., there is a lot of investment in information technology, and a lot of gaming and simulations in learning.
When he emphasizes team work, he states that in German schools, there is no indication of team work. German Schools do not have teachers’ team teaching but the U.S. system has team work.
Life-long learning is also prevalent in American education. Germany has to progress in science education. The Americans and German people could work together on different perspectives.
Rollwagen questions the meaning of universities:
· Are universities financial players or players in the society?
· Why do we need universities?
He states that learning is more than qualifications: Learning and its relation to social progress/coherence and the interrelation of human and social capital has to be revisited. When he analyzes the trends for policies of profit and progress, he includes personalization, enhancement of potential, philanthropy, and partnering.
In conclusion, he points out the fact that in the light of education policy trends, challenges remain. He defines these challenges as personal progress, persistent equity of access for disadvantaged people, motivation, sustainable curricula and courses, safeguarding the impact of gifts for the future, assessment of partnerships, quality control, monitoring of market access and pricing strategies, new management qualifications and collaborative organizational designs.
Heyecan Veziroglu is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
If you would like to comment on this article, please e-mail mal.kline@academia.org
Yaaa, any high school grad could do my job!
Who needs 8 yrs of science education! Just
pick it up in Readers Digest.
MV
.
Uhhhh...which is it; misplaced or replaced?
In my experience, German high schools (Gymnasiums) are much better than US high schools, but US universities are better than German universities.
Is that because Gymnasiums are for the more academically talented and those who are going into trades or just wish to be permanent drains on society go to other schools?
The problem is the you’re comparing less than the top 1/3 tier of those in the German system to 100% of those in the US system. That tends to skew the statistics considerably since those Germans taking the SAT and ACTs for example are almost all from that small top tier population. Realize that most Germans end up with a Real or even Hauptschule (9th grade) education and in all reality despite their self loving belief, it’s not on par with a standard 12 year HS.
The most “comparable” system to the US is what’s called a Gesamptschule but that normally only goes to grade 10. However, you have a system that does not separate out kids and imposes less of a “glass ceiling” since it allows for relative easy addition of the gymnasiale Oberstufe. Probably the biggest downfall of the German system is their railroading of kids at an early age, to early. The downfall of the US system is that you have kids that are holding others back in the classrooms. But like the German system it’s not so easy to simply lay blanket judgment on the US system, since even in our system you have those who are in AP/Honors and more advanced math/science classes who are lining themselves up. It’s more subtle, but even in the US school system you have those who are college/University bound and the others who are taking algebra in their senior year.
The German system makes teaching easier and allows for less drag (a concept behind many magnet schools for example). The US system allows for more opportunities for the student. In the US system it’s completely possible for someone in 9th grade to pull their head out of their ass and go to university in a pre-med program following HS. That’s what it basically boils down to, opportunity vs. efficiency.
Thoughtful and insightful analysis, Red6.
Thank you.
I have a friend who is the head of the Modern History Department at a major German University. He and I have discussed this topic at length. His firm opinion is that the U.S. University system is superior in almost every respect except perhaps training university research professors. He formed this opinion while performing a sabbatical at an American East Coast private university. After he returned, he noted that he had never worked so hard in his life. American students demanded that he be prepared and challenged what he said, something that never happens in a German University. I could go on, but I consider his views to be the best word on the subject that I have come across.
Higher education - That’s a different story all together.
Ultimately it is the consumer that places demands and has power through purchase decisions while under enormous pressure to finish as quickly as possible in the US system that makes it work.
In a socialist system there is little incentive to get through quickly and indeed the concept of the career-student is foreign in the US because you’re paying for the fun. A school like the THD, now TUD in Darmstadt receives their money from the state and the students are happy if they get in because you have a government that sets caps on how many will go to school each year with specific degrees and there is a shortage of slots. Forget any concept of competition or free market setting how many will enter a specific field, forget a consumer that is paying for a service and is looking at price-value, forget a school that is looking to sell themselves because students equate to revenue. In the German system the school will get its money, no matter what. The professors will keep their jobs, no matter what. The student hardly pays and is less concerned with getting through it as fast as possible.
It is not without reason why the Germans are far behind in non-traditional education online. Why should a school offer something like this in the German system, and thinking the way bureaucrats do? Why did German Universities not even offer degrees in computer programming or information’s systems management when in the early 80s US schools were pumping them out by the thousands every semester? Capitalism works!
Our higher education system is marked with a high degree of free market activity, while the Germans retain a much greater state and non-competitive system in their higher education. Neither the students nor the schools are under performance pressure as in the US. -IMHO
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