By Nation and Culture
The system is widely practiced in schools across Brazil, which Richard Feynman sharply criticized, China, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Romania, Italy, Turkey, Malta, and Greece. Some of these nations are admired for their high test scores in international comparisons while some of these nations regularly rank near the bottom on international tests. Xiaping Li (2006) has studied the effects of rote learning in second language learning in Taiwan. He notes Chinese learners hold high the tradition of rote learning as being an integral part of their culture.
In Singapore, with the introduction of the Integrated Programme, the government is making attempts to move away from rote learning, at least for the more able students.
Read more about this topic: Rote Learning
Famous quotes containing the words nation and/or culture:
“We are now a nation of people in daily contact with strangers. Thanks to mass transportation, school administrators and teachers often live many miles from the neighborhood schoolhouse. They are no longer in daily informal contact with parents, ministers, and other institution leaders . . . [and are] no longer a natural extension of parental authority.”
—James P. Comer (20th century)
“... we’ve allowed a youth-centered culture to leave us so estranged from our future selves that, when asked about the years beyond fifty, sixty, or seventy—all part of the average human life span providing we can escape hunger, violence, and other epidemics—many people can see only a blank screen, or one on which they project fear of disease and democracy.”
—Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)