Social studies report: Comparing Europe's culture with Korea's
1. Topic
U.K. and other Europe countries' education
2. Why I chose this topic
From may 8th to 18th, our school's frosh went on a Vision Trip to the U.S. or Europe as their own choice. Since I have an experience traveling the U.S, I chose Europe and had an opportunity to visit five countries, the U.K, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. I first thought that those five countries will have similar culture only because they are located in Europe, but found out that I was completely wrong when I visited them; they all had very distinct cultures and attraction. There were so many different cultural elements for instance European's life style, architecture, food culture, but the thing that interested me the most was their educating system, especially the U.K's. In the U.K, we visited Wellington school, Oxford and UCL, listened to the info-session and had a school tour. Their school system was very unique and I became very curious about other countries' school too but we visited schools in only England so I decided to write mainly about the U.K's Education.
3. Information about the U.K's education
1) the U.K's school system
Before I mention the details of England's education, I would like to introduce their school system first. England is using 6-5-2-3 system. This means that students in England get education from the primary school for 6 years, 5 years from secondary school(which is not divided to middle or high school), take a Sixth form or further education for two years, and study in college for three years, if they do not major in architect, medical science or dentistry. Kindergartens aren't compulsory, and the compulsory part of the whole education is only primary school and secondary school which is 11 years in total.
In my country Korea, we usually send children to kindergarten when they are 5~7 years old, and they enter elementary school in 8, but the U.K's students enter the school in different age.
Age
|
Korea
|
The U.K
|
The U.S.A
|
7
|
kindergarten
|
Primary school (Year 1)
|
Kindergarten
|
8
|
elementary school(1)
|
Primary school (Year 2)
|
Grade school (Year 1)
|
9
|
elementary school(2)
|
Primary school (Year 3)
|
Grade school (Year 2)
|
10
|
elementary school(3)
|
Primary school (Year 4)
|
Grade school (Year 3)
|
11
|
elementary school(4)
|
Primary school (Year 5)
|
Grade school (Year 4)
|
12
|
elementary school(5)
|
Primary school (Year 6)
|
Grade school (Year 5)
|
13
|
elementary school(6)
|
Secondary school (Year 7)
|
Grade school (Year 6)
|
14
|
middle school(1)
|
Secondary school (Year 8)
|
Grade school (Year 7)
|
15
|
middle school(2)
|
Secondary school (Year 9)
|
Grade school (Year 8)
|
16
|
middle school(3)
|
Secondary school (Year 10)
|
High school (Year 9)
|
17
|
highschool(1)
|
Secondary school (Year 11)
|
High school (Year 10)
|
18
|
highschool(2)
|
Sixth Form/College (Year 12)
|
High school (Year 11)
|
19
|
highschool(3)
|
Sixth Form/College (Year 13)
|
High school (Year 12)
|
The upper table shows the grade in Korea, the U.K, and the U.S.A, differing by the students' age. You will be able to find something unfamiliar in the U.K's grade, Sixth form, which is 2 years of preparation for college. During the sixth form, students study for AS/A-level which is a test needed for university application. On the first year of sixth form, students listen to 4 subjects of AS level, and on the second year they listen to selected three subjects from the first year and have a in-depth study. The A-level score is admitted only when a student complete both AS and A2 in same subject.
2) The school I visited: Wellington school ⓵
In the second day we arrived in London, we visited and had a tour in Wellington school which is one of the most famous schools in the U.K. Wellington school, established in 1859, have a very developed faculties, and is build on a very wide land(12ha). 11th graders and sixth form's 12th graders introduced their school to our school's students and the student who was assigned to my group was Korean 12th grader. Before we begin the tour, I noticed something weird from studen't school uniform.
(1) Two students in the picture are both Wellington's students, but their uniform seemed different, and boys' uniform was also different. There were two groups of the students, one wearing a formal school uniform with blue skirts/pants and the other wearing free but formal dress. I asked the reason to our group's guide and she told me that in England, they usually alleviate the rules about the uniform to sixth form students. The girl in the left picture's age is same with me(15) and she is in secondary school so she is supposed to wear the right uniform of her school, and the girl in the right picture is wearing her own formal dress because she is a sixth form student. For sixth form students, many other rules are loosen than before and the reason for it is because the school wants to treat them as almost adult, close to graduation. The U.K's school uniformed showed difference from Korea's uniform in this way.
(2) Since the Wellington school is consisted of very outstanding students, it is quite difficult to compare it with Korea's normal high schools. It rather had many similar points with my school, KMLA like having expensive school fee. Wellington also put big emphasis on P.E class, just like our school. They had enormous school yard, gym, rock climbing equipment and many other faculties to develop students' physical ability. Wellington's students also lived in dormitory like us in KMLA, but unlike us living in one big apartment, they had different houses in dormitory like the movie Harry Potter. Our school guide told us that they have many events which house members work and unite together. ⇒This is the picture of Wellington's main building
3) The school I visited: Oxford (⓶)
The most attractive and different program practiced in Oxford was the tutoring system. In Oxford, every students must listen to tutoring class with the professors in ratio of 1~3:1. Our school's graduate who is now Oxford's student told us that in his case, he meets his tutoring professor twice a week alone. He said that since he have to talk a lot with the professor with long time, he have to prepare a lot for the tutoring class and sometimes the class is really hash and the homework is a big burden for him. However he also said that it does give him big sense of accomplishment and lots of new knowledge. Usually when we talk about Korea or America's university lecture, we imagine a big hall full of students and one professor giving a lecture in front of them, like the picture upward, but this kind of tutoring class can give big influence to students individual's development in many ways.
We listened to school's introduction in the UCL too, and took a look of UCL's campus scattered in London. UCL stands for University College London, and have a merit that students can go to school very easily by public transportation because it is located in overall London. UCL is famous with having 21 Nobel prize winners but do not have any striking points than the Oxford's points so I will only briefly introduce the school. UCL is consisted of 31 colleges, 19 independent institutes and 12 laboratories, and is the oldest and biggest amongst all Constituent college. Fine Art and Architecture is the most famous course of UCL's Bachelor's degree.
In Oxford, we had a campus tour with KMLA's graduate student, and had an info-session from saint anne college's college president and other professors. The U.K's university's course of Bachelor is 3 years, unlike Korea which is 4 years. After the Bachelor, they have one year of Master degree and three years of Master's degree. The two most different points in Oxford are as follows.
⇒This is the picture of KMLA's 18th wavers in info-session of Oxford
(1) tutoring system
The most attractive and different program practiced in Oxford was the tutoring system. In Oxford, every students must listen to tutoring class with the professors in ratio of 1~3:1. Our school's graduate who is now Oxford's student told us that in his case, he meets his tutoring professor twice a week alone. He said that since he have to talk a lot with the professor with long time, he have to prepare a lot for the tutoring class and sometimes the class is really hash and the homework is a big burden for him. However he also said that it does give him big sense of accomplishment and lots of new knowledge. Usually when we talk about Korea or America's university lecture, we imagine a big hall full of students and one professor giving a lecture in front of them, like the picture upward, but this kind of tutoring class can give big influence to students individual's development in many ways.
(2) Concentrating on major subject
In Korea or the U.S, university students must take subjects for general education, regardless of students' major. For example, even when the student choose to have major in Biology, he must listen to courses like History as prerequisite. However the U.K's universities were different. This is appliable in not only Oxford but many other british universities. The U.K's universities makes students take the Bachelor for 3 years without general subjects, and only major subject. This is how the british students are able to concentrate in one subject for three years and in the same time, gain sufficient knowledge about their major.
4) The school I visited: UCL ⓷
5. Afternote
10 days of touring in Europe gave me unforgettable memories with my friends, helped me learn and feel new things and spend happy days. Visiting places with totally different atmosphere and looking how people are living overseas was very valuable experience, and at the same time became a great chance for me to be more closer to other students. Because I had a report to write, I had to look much more closely to Europe's culture while traveling and I think that this helped me spend more profitable time than other students. Even if I only wrote about education in this report, looking for different cultural elements of Europe was very exciting and I thought that we should try to learn and accept some part of their cultures which is better than ours and try to develop our own culture more.
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