rittenbe@msu.edu
International TA Program
Michigan State University
1989
International TAs who have just arrived in the United States and begun teaching at MSU often are surprised by the characteristics of their U.S. students (especially if the students are freshmen). The U.S. students may not seem as well prepared or well motivated as students at home. In part the new international TAs' reactions to their students are a result of differences between the U.S. educational system and the educational system in the TAs' home country. If you try to keep some of these differences in mind, you may have fewer frustrations and enjoy your students more when you start teaching here at MSU.
The U.S. Educational System
A good way to understand how the U.S. educational system has prepared your future MSU students is to compare it with the educational system in the Peoples' Republic of China. As we shall see, beginning university students in China are the product of an educational system which is very selective, whereas beginning students in the U.S. are the product of a system which is more open and inclusive. We think a similar contrast holds for other countries. If you are not from China yourself, you can think about the degree to which the differences we describe hold for your own country as well.
In China the educational system is centrally controlled by a national Ministry of Education. Most children go to primary school and middle school. However, China limits attendance in high school to a small group of the best prepared, most studious, and intelligent students. To enter high school the Chinese middle school students must pass difficult competitive examinations. Less than 28% of China's students pass these examinations and are accepted to high school. While in high school Chinese students take an intensive academic curriculum and begin to specialize in particular areas like math, science, language, or fine arts. Throughout high school they must work very hard to prepare for the national university entrance examinations. Rather than apply to the university as a whole, the Chinese students are required to apply for admission in a particular department. Normally they apply to the department that teaches the subject in which they had already specialized during high school. If they do well on the national examinations in their subject and are admitted to the department, then they are required to continue concentrating in that subject at the university. Less than 9% of China's students pass the university entrance exams. Getting into university is even harder than getting into secondary school.
You can see that once Chinese students are admitted to a university, they have excellent prospects for succeeding in their studies. They already have extensive academic preparation and proven ability. They know how to study hard from having successfully prepared for rigorous examinations. They already have quite clear academic goals, since they have already begun to develop special knowledge in a particular area during high school and they will be concentrating on studying in that area in their department at the university. Furthermore, the Chinese government pays for all of their education, so they can devote themselves full time to their studies.
You can judge for yourself how similar this pattern is to education in your own country. In many countries as in China university education is available to an elite group only. The students are carefully selected through competitive national examinations. They receive rigorous academic preparation in high school. Both high school and university are structured to encourage them to specialize early in a particular area. On entering university they are fully supported by government fellowships and subsidies.
In the U.S. the situation of new university students (including the students you will be teaching at MSU) is quite different. The U.S. system of education is highly decentralized, being controlled not by a national Ministry of Education as in China but by local communities, state governments, and private organizations. Also compared to China, the U.S. system is open and inclusive. The American ideal is that all children should receive support to develop their potential, and everyone, no matter what their social background, religion, or race, should have the opportunity to get as advanced an education as possible.
In the U.S. attending high school is the right of all, not the privilege of a few. Each American community provides high school education to all its young people. Over 86% of all students attend high school in the U.S. (as compared with less than 29% in China). There are no entrance examinations that force students to study hard and compete for admission; admission is automatic for all students.
Each U.S. high school is supposed to educate all the students of the community, no matter what their social or economic background, and no matter whether they are intelligent or slow, well- or ill-prepared, studious or lazy. This reflects the American ideal that public schools should break down class barriers and integrate people of different backgrounds. Because typical U.S. high schools are committed to serving all students, they do not concentrate all their curriculum and resources on educating the academic elite, as do Chinese high schools. Partly for this reason it seems that the average U.S. high school gives students less extensive academic preparation than high schools in China. For example, a report by the National Science Board found that U.S. high school students spend only 1/2 to 1/3 as much time studying science as students in China, West Germany, the Soviet Union, and Japan. You should not be surprised, therefore, if some of your beginning MSU students lack knowledge that would be typical of beginning university students in your home country.
For U.S. students, entering university is much easier than it is for students in China. This is because the U.S. university system is very, very large and quite open. There are so many different institutions of such varying standards, that almost every determined high school graduate can find admission somewhere in the system. At the top of the system are elite universities like Harvard, Yale, or Stanford that set very strict admissions standards. At the bottom (in terms of admissions criteria) are the many city and community colleges which will accept any student (no matter how poor his or her qualifications) so long as he or she is a high school graduate and willing to pay a small fee. In between these two extremes are a large number of universities and colleges which apply selective but not elitist admissions criteria. These institutions set a minimum standard of academic preparation for admission but above that may admit students with a very wide range of ability and preparation, much wider than the elite universities like Harvard.
Michigan State University is a good example of the universities that have "selective but not elitist" admissions standards. As MSU's name suggests, it is a state university supported financially by taxes paid by the citizens of Michigan. The university seeks to provide "equal educational opportunity" to all qualified residents of Michigan, including especially capable poor and minority Michigan students. Though the university receives sufficient applications that it could easily raise its admissions standards, it chooses to keep the minimum standard flexible enough so as not to exclude intelligent but poorly prepared students who come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds from access to an education. What this means is that MSU students have a very wide range of academic preparation and ability. Among them will be students who are as gifted and well prepared as any students attending the most elite universities in America. Among them also will be intelligent but poorly prepared students who need remedial classes before they are prepared to do normal undergraduate work.
You will find that many (perhaps most) MSU students do not have a clear idea about their major field of study when they first enter university. U.S. high schools and universities are not structured to direct U.S. students to concentrate on a specialized area of study early in their academic career. Unlike Chinese high schools, most U.S. high schools do not provide students either an adequate foundation of knowledge or study skills to begin concentrating in a specialty immediately on entering university. Moreover, unlike Chinese universities, U.S. universities do not require that students apply for admission to study in a particular field. In fact, MSU's curriculum (like that of most U.S. state universities) is designed to discourage beginning students from early specialization. In the first two years, it requires them to take classes in a range of fields. It also expects them to acquire knowledge in the prerequisites of a future major field of study. In this time they are exploring what subjects they like and don't like, what subjects they do well in and don't. MSU only permits them to enter a major in their third year at the university. They have a huge number of choices (they may select their major from 125 different programs); under university rules they may repeatedly change their ideas about which particular field they wish to pursue.
It is important to realize that compared to the well prepared, well-motivated students at a Chinese university, whose prospects of finishing university are excellent once they are admitted, that the academic success of new MSU students is more uncertain. For many new MSU students, the standards of their university courses are much higher than anything they know from high school. They often enter MSU uncertain about what they want to do. They may not be accustomed to studying hard. They may lack sufficient background to deal with certain required subjects. They may find that they personally dislike some general education courses they are required to take. They may want to enter a difficult major but loose out in competition with better prepared or harder working students. They have to cope with the stresses of being away from home for the first time, the disorientation of a huge university, and the distractions of student social life. Added to this, unlike Chinese students, they (or their families) must pay for their own education, and many of them work part time to do this.
In short, the U.S. educational system has been generous in giving your MSU students an opportunity for a higher education, and a wealth of personal choices they might make, but it has not necessarily prepared them to use the opportunities well or make the choices wisely. It puts them on their own, to a large extent. They have to do the best they can. Mixed among the beginning freshmen are the students who will succeed and those who won't. A sizeable number of students have serious trouble. They drop out of university for many reasons or they fail their courses and are forced to leave. On the other hand, there are other students who take the opportunities, meet the challenges, mature and thrive; they pass their courses and learn to study, clarify their goals and acquire the prerequisite knowledge to enter a major. Over time, as some students leave the university, others continue and grow. As a result, the character of the student body changes. If you teach freshmen students as a new TA, and then later as you get seniority are assigned to teach more advanced students, you probably will notice that the students' academic level and motivation improves. Perhaps by the senior year, the MSU students who remain may be closer in academic knowledge to the students at home.
Summary
So what can you expect about your future MSU students? Since most new MSU TAs are assigned to teach beginning courses in their department to beginning students, let us assume this is what will happen to you. Let's assume your class will have mainly freshmen or sophomore students 17-19 years old. Here are some things to remember about them, and how they compare to beginning university students in China:
- Freshmen students at MSU will have a very wide range of abilities, from very excellent to mediocre, with probably a somewhat lower average than beginning students in China. This is because MSU (like many U.S. state universities) is committed to giving an opportunity for advanced education to all qualified Michigan citizens, not just a narrow elite.
- On average your freshmen students at MSU have had less extensive academic preparation than beginning university students in China. In part, this is because U.S. high school seek to educate all students, and do not concentrate on rigorous training for a small select group as in China. For example, your average MSU freshmen students will have less knowledge of science and math than beginning Chinese college students. Yet in the same class of MSU freshmen, because of differences in the students' home background and high schools, you will find very different levels of preparation among different students.
- In comparison to beginning students in China, most of your MSU freshmen students will not understand what it means to study very hard and systematically. They haven't had to prepare for rigorous, competitive examinations like Chinese students. For many of them high school might have been quite easy. The heavy workload and higher level of competition in their first university courses (including the course you teach) may be a big shock for them.
- Your freshmen students may be quite uncertain about what they want to study and what kind of career they want to have after they finish university. In part this is because, the American educational system does not tell students specifically what they should study, but rather gives them a wide range of choices and encourages them to make up their own mind. Many of your freshmen students are still in the process of surveying different fields and deciding what they like and want to be. They may not know whether they like the subject you will be teaching.
- Though many MSU students are not rich (and some are quite poor), they are paying for their education, including the class they take from you; many of them must work part time to support themselves while they are studying. The government does not pay for their education as in China. So they not only have to adjust to studying your subject and their other classes but to do this while working.
- Unlike typical beginning students in China, the new MSU students' academic future at the university may be quite uncertain. They are on the verge of big changes; they have recently become independent and are being tested by life, perhaps for the first time. Many of them will grow and flourish at MSU; but another sizeable group will fail or drop out. As their teacher, you will have some influence on the outcome of their story.
Footnotes
- This essay is used in MSU's International TA Orientation. The essay was written in 1989. China's educational system has changed since then, but many of its basic differences from the U.S. remain.
- See Linda A. Reed, Education in the People's Republic of China and U.S.-China Educational Exchanges, NAFSA, 1988
- Computed assuming a negligible drop-out rate in Chinese middle school and high school using data for 1985 given in Reed ibid. pgs 23 and 27.
- U.S. figure computed from Table 242 Statistical Abstract of the United States 1989: 109th Edition, U.S. Department of Commerce, pg. 242. Chinese figure computed as noted in previous footnote.
- Figures cited in Coleman "Education and Our Future in Space" UCLA Magazine Summer 1989 pg. 24.