CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.2 Discussion
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chaotic as students sat close to each other and some were annoying other students. As the students were getting louder, the teacher had to use techniques to calm them down in order to get through the exercise. Finally, some students were very quiet and worked in a very efficient way, where others were distracted and didn’t get the right answers and finally, two students couldn’t follow the class in the same way as their other classmates and they needed special attention because of their learning difficulties.
When the first class was over, all students from the first class went in another small room to do their homework and could benefit from the staff member’s help. The second class held 5 students from 10 to 12 years old and functioned in the same way;
one hour class, there were interactive games, some reading but no writing. The teacher created games to enhance the student’s reflex of action, in English language and teamed up students to create once more this atmosphere of “competition”. In the reading part, students repeated after the teacher read the sentences in the book, even though some of them didn’t seem to fully understand what they were saying when for instance, one automatically repeated the words of the teacher that weren’t part of the reading. The class ended, and all students went back into the study room to finish their homework while just one student left the school with his mother. In this cram school, students usually stay more than two hours after regular school to do their homework and attend English class but never receive homework from that English teacher, each week the teacher makes the student rehearse what they have studied in the previous lesson or teaches something new.
This observation brought to the study a practical example of what an English class may be like in a Taiwanese cram school operating for less than ten years and aiming to attract students that want to learn English in an entertaining way and a happy environment.
4.2 Discussion
The study discovered that the Taiwanese authorities were urging schools and teachers to enhance more creative citizens. This move is showing the efforts to improve the current cram schools into more student-centred learning schools. Participant A, shared
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the same point of view saying, that Educational reforms in Taiwan have impacted the survival of cram schools. As a positive impact, reading is no longer the single way to get through school, the requirements on the subject is no longer quite as high 10 years ago. At the end, the reforms have impacted the cram schools’ teaching methods by enforcing English language and making it a main subject for students. Through this impact, cram schools have clearly affected the student’s way of learning and may also have enhanced their learning abilities.
Teaching method
From the two cram school owners interviewed, we can observe a real engagement from certain cram schools, - in this study, from English learning schools - In fact, they are now encouraging students to diversify their knowledge for better development.
In Taiwan, we realize that the teacher-centred method prevails among the student-centred method. Although, that method is still used in many schools in Taiwan because of its efficiency and long-time use, we have found that some schools, are trying to implement a student focus education to enhance new ways of thinking, creativity, and communication abilities among students; for instance, Participant A owner of an English cram school is a good example to illustrate this willingness of trying new ways of teaching by hiring a Drama teacher and favour student-centred approach. That approach has been recognized as the Western method of teaching, which is now being praised by parents, students and even cram school teachers in Taiwan. Both of the owners interviewed shared their enthusiasm towards a more creative education in Taiwan and hiring teachers who can provide a different or new style of teaching. Participant B, the second owner thinks it is a great idea for cram schools to promote more learning and thinking. Coming from a Westernized education, she believes creative learning and thinking is an integral part of any student’s education. Participant B ackowledges the necessity of implementing creative learning and thinking in cram schools for younger students and elementary grade levels and change is happening now.
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The two interviews conducted on English language cram school owners helped understand the “English learning fever” and the “push for online English learning”.
Online learning is becoming more and more popular in the cram school industry nowadays and will continue to attract students as long as the Taiwanese education system changes its current way of teaching English. Participant B shared the feedback of her online students and believes that in-classroom classes are still necessary.
The aim of educational reform aimed to improve the nation’s international competitiveness and cultivate better human resources to bring the best of each child and make Taiwan a more healthy and stronger country. In the 21st century, in-depth learning, creativity, and innovative learning as well as looking forward to quality instead of availability are replacing the conventional ‘knowing how to take tests’ in Taiwanese education.
Environment and teaching style
Through both findings and the literature review, it is clear that the environment in cram school can vary from one school to another, and throughout the interview process, the researcher has found that the bigger the cram school, the less positive the experience will be from both teachers and students. From the teachers’ perspective, the researcher discovered that a poor management of a cram school can lead to greater unsatisfactory experiences. Oppositely, a good management and leadership can lead to a more respectful attitude towards its staff and teachers creating an overall satisfactory experience where teachers stay for longer and are delighted to teach (See Participant C).
Quality in cram schools
The government seems to have accepted cram schools to work in parallel for student’s learning achievement. As we mentioned previously, this suggests that the authorities
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believe cram school offering a suitable learning environment for students and set of subjects that should “guarantee” results in students’ academic achievements. Which have proven to be successful to a certain degree. In terms of grades, half of the students interviewed received good grades or, if not considered good, were at least better than before their cram school attendance. The only remaining concern is the inability to associate cram school with “quality education” because in this study, a large majority of teachers have been examined as not holding any teaching certificate.
In fact, a teaching certificate is useful to prove that the teacher is able to teach and has experience with teacher trainings.
Through the teacher interviews show different assumptions on how to become a cram school teachers. For foreigners teaching English, the main belief is to be chosen from their nationality and colour of skin. For the only Taiwanese teaching English, it’s about background, experience and passion for teaching and finally, for Taiwanese teaching academic classes, the assumptions are personality, lack of teachers. Although, some of the above requirements may sound important, some cram schools may hire unqualified teachers with no experience that have little or no idea how to teach children. On the families’ behalf, they pay high amounts of money for their children to attend cram school without the guarantee of receiving a good learning experience.
The study has found out that the requirements to become a cram school teacher in Taiwan are not “high”, and discovered that one of the reasons cram schools employ numerous un-certified English teachers is because of the high demand to learn English from children to older adults. This argument brings doubt to the cram school institution’s way of processing and on the quality of teaching that may hinder students learning experience.
Another interesting aspect the researcher found out is; all foreign teachers mentioned that in the smaller size cram schools, they usually hire white teachers, even though they are not native English speakers and have lower English ability; the language ability does not seem to matter as much as the appearance (Participant C, F and G).
The literature review helped the researcher find that all governments have the obligation to ensure that their citizens receive good education from whatever source it
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is provided. That is the reason why cram schools are not the most reliable place for students to receive knowledge.
Learning outcome
The researcher has found out that Taiwanese cram schools cannot assure parents and students to provide quality education because of the lack of trainings and experience that can be explained by a big number of teachers without any certificates or training.
That is why cram schools are controversial for students’ learning experience and achievement.
Teaching methods can affect the students in their way of assimilating knowledge in the long term (Participant C). That teacher taught in three different schools, and could differentiate the environment of teaching and students abilities in both bigger institutions and smaller an-chin ban. In the second school, the larger of the cram schools studied, children could not speak any English after years of being in the school and could only read English. Depending on the type of cram school, the experience will diverge but also, the learning outcomes as a result of an unsuitable environment, pressure and lack of attention. Even though some teachers have done the effort to suggest new ways of teaching, in the literature review, the teachers supported that argument saying the student centred method was not effective in cram school classes and usually brings chaos rather than discipline.
However, cram schooling may not guarantee full quality for students but it still remains as the major resource of complementary education in addition to regular schooling. Attending cram schools can help a student receive better grades for examination purposes. Most students want to attend cram school to influence their academic performance, and this argument is largely mentioned as being the main reason why students attend cram school (100% answered this way). The study has discovered that the teacher’s ability to teach was an important element in the students’
choice of cram school. Finally, 87,5 percent of former attendees mentioned that teachers taught better in cram school. After collecting data, more than a half of interviewee samples received good grades through cram school even if they didn’t
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fully enjoy their experience. Concerning Liu’s assumption on Cram schools having an important role in students’ learning achievement is true (Liu, 2011). After all, cram school does help in students’ academic achievements to a certain degree, especially because the current Taiwanese education system is still failing to provide the necessary tools for students to succeed normally without having to go to cram school.
English in cram school
The findings prove the necessity and how important is the link between English and cram school in Taiwan through literature review and research methods. Also, throughout this study, the researcher discovers that mastering the English language is crucial because of a large amount of students attending English cram schools. In the literature review, we mentioned how the English language was valued and how big the investment was towards helping students learn that skill. English language is a skill that is believed to be mastered, sometimes from even an early age, and this is when cram schools become involved with English (Krashen, 2003).
As mentioned previously in the literature review, Krashen (2003) speaks of the English Fever in Taiwan and looked closely at language learning stereotypes.
Through his study he concluded that outdoor experience was a necessity to learn a language. Language class will only help students reach the intermediate stage, so they can continue improving on their own.
The study has also found that Cram schools have increasingly embraced online tutoring, and the students enrolled in distance programs are rapidly rising. There is a clear fact that online teaching/learning is getting more and more popular nationwide.
Even though the former attendees interviewed have not participated in an online teaching cram school, shows how recent this new way of teaching is. In Taiwan, one of the reasons cram schools employ numerous un-certified English teachers is because of the high demand to learn English from children to older adults. In that sense, cram schools can be limiting to students learning of English because of the large amount of
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time students need to study during a week. Students then don’t have time to go outside and explore their capacities of learning.
Diversity of cram school experience
Through the findings, the researcher can argue that cram school experience is different for each individual more interestingly depending on the environment of the cram school and the students’ motivation.
In the case of Participant I, the first former attendee intervieweer, her cram school experience was rather disappointing. It seems she had high expectations on the cram school she was going to study; she was looking forward to use her imagination and her creative thinking, but in fact, most cram schools don’t provide such way of learning. The fact she had this expectation on this art cram school shows how well these institutions are convincing but also it suggests how easy it is for cram schools to influence people’s choices in such an exam oriented society, where; having good grades and entering in the best schools are the most important motivations for students to attend cram school. Cram schools have become a common place for children to get supplementary education in Taiwanese society.
Despite the lack of opportunity in cram school to learn in a more creative way, cram schools do offer other opportunities that the mainstream school is not able to provide and that tends to enhance the students’ experience. Two female former attendees (Participants L and P) were interviewed and both 22 years old had similar ways of seeing their cram school experience from the positive part, both mentioned the teacher’s patience and trying to encourage students to raise their hands to ask questions as being a lot less stressful in cram school than in mainstream school. Also, the interaction between students and teachers is much more evident in cram school than in their regular school which can enhance greater communication. As mentioned Svitak (2015), learning experiences are often created through interaction. Therefore, interacting is an important part of schooling and communicating and expressing oneself outside plays a role in the schooling experience.
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On the other hand, both participants mentioned the lack of space in bigger size cram schools due to overcharged classrooms; this can effectively hinder the quality of learning as mentioned by Participant P.
The pressure from cram schooling can also decrease the satisfaction of the cram school experience. Even though some participants mentioned how less stressful it was to raise ones hand in class to ask questions some other pressures still remain.
Participant P, L, and K, mentioned the pressure received from the cram schools’
Quizz and ranking according to grades. In fact, having to be compared between classmates and being ranked according to your performance can be humiliating at school as well as in front of their parents. Cram schools are also very expensive and take a lot of time. Both participant K and J attended fifteen to sixteen hours of cram school per week and mentioned the high cost of attending cram school. Because of the intense requirements from regular schools, adding supplementary classes on top of 50 hours of classes per week can be excessive for children and teenager. These two former attendees confessed that because of cram school, some students get the feeling that they’ve missed out on their childhood. In this part, the researcher acknowledges that the pressure endured from cram school can be both physical (intense school hours) and emotional (fear and humiliation).
Discussion summary
As suspected, because of cram schools’ influence in Taiwan’s society, these supplementary tutoring institutions deserve greater attention on its function and impact for instructing the next inventive generation. As Bray & Lykins (2012) argued, policy makers have neglected the role of private supplementary tutoring, which may have negative as well as positive outcomes.
Liu, (2011) discussed about cram school as being a place where other than having to do their homework, children can communicate by sharing experiences between them.
In this study, this argument has been analyzed correctly through the former attendee’s interview. Bray and Lykins who argued about cram schooling as bringing positive
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impacts for students’ academic achievement, mentioned that the rote-memorizing type of private tutoring did limit the capacity of learning by focusing on narrow domains of achievement (Bray & Lykins, 2012). Both Participant I and K argued on this statement, especially participant I who was disappointed after attending a non-academic cram school to study Art. Cram schools are indeed great adepts of rote memorization, which can result in students’ lack of creativity and ability to reflect and make insightful judgments (The International Guide on Students’ achievement, Hattie
& Anderman).
The researcher has discovered that if students get to choose whether to go to cram school or not, it will highly determine their sentiment of satisfaction in cram school. It appeared that 3 students who firmly decided to go to cram school (Participant L, O and P) have more satisfying experience than those who were forced by their parents (Participant K and N).
Along the interview process, the researcher found out that the factor that can lead to a satisfactory experience in cram school is, motivation. Indeed, students must be motivated in order to get the best out of their cram school experience. Depending on one’s specific needs, the motivation behind attending a cram school will diverge.
After embracing all interviewee’s data, learning in a more efficient way gathered 50%
of respondents, and 62.5% respondents replied that getting teachers attention is the main motivation that make students willing to study in cram school. Significantly, the study discovered that a majority of respondents affirmed that cram schools made them learn more efficiently and a larger amount of students find cram school teachers better than teachers in mainstream school. A few students interviewed described cram school teachers as providing deeper and wider knowledge than those in mainstream schools.
The study has shown that the reasons behind the decision to attend a cram school are diverse and unique to the individual and as such the outcome of the students’
experience is varied. Some students enrolled in cram school because they feel it is the
“right thing to do” in terms of following peers or the trend. Some other students show real intentions to get better results or becoming more efficient through cram school
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experience. Most students replied showing indifference towards their cram school
experience. Most students replied showing indifference towards their cram school