Performance Anxiety

Korea loves tests.  They especially love when their own child/student does well on them.

Schools teach to the test.  

Information and topics are drilled and crammed into students' heads, so that the student (should) know exactly what will be coming at them on the exam(s) and they will then in turn be able to perform well on the test(s).

When I worked in a public school, it was laughable how blatant the the test prep was.  

I once had a geography teacher in high school who talked us through the test - the whole test! - the day before we were going to take it.  And what's worse, he let us write down "information" and "clues" on a notecard WHILE  he was reading us the ACTUAL test!

Korea feels a bit like that.  

You don't get to take a notecard with you, but everything that will be on the test is hammered into students' heads.

Hammered hard.

But despite the heavy blow of the hammer's head, this process is working for Korea.

Some Facts and Figures:

On the 2009 PISA test results, South Korea ranked:

1st in reading.  For every category.

4th in science.

(Wikipedia, 2015)

On the 2015 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s ranking of school performances, Korea finished 3rd.  The results were based on 15 year old students' average scores in math and science. 

(Graham, 2015) 

However, a report in 2009 found that Korea was near that bottom of test takers for TOEFL speaking skills. Ranking 136th out of 161 nations.

(Kang, 2009)

Reasons for their success:

       Waking up early to study before school.  

       Going to school and studying.  

       Going to hagwons after school to study more.  

       Going to another hagwon to study an extracurricular. 

       Private tutor visits student at their house.  

       Student does homework. 

       Student studies into the later hours of the night.

Repeat again and again and again...

Students ARE successful.

Life is NO fun.

Academic expectations:

Here's one student's review of the academic system and the pressure that is put on Korean students as a result of the high education expectations put them by their families, teachers and school system.

For me, it is hard to evaluate the high academic expectations because I do not fully know to what extent other subjects are taught and what all is being done in those classrooms to raise the level of students' educational endeavours. 

I do not know what teaching methods or strategies homeroom and other subject teachers are using.  I don't know what to what degree the engage students and push to advance their learning.

I do know that teachers have a their own amount of pressures and expectations to live up to though.  Korean teachers have mounds of paperwork and reports to fill out and submit regarding student performance and scores.  

This in turn reflects on the school and the school's ranking.  Making it all one big circle of pressure to demand better results and top performances.

I do believe that no matter where you teach or from what country you come from, teachers should set a high bar for their students to reach for in their academic studies.  Do not accept what you can do easily.  Easy isn't helping you.  It doesn't challenge you.  Push for what is challenging.  Work through what is hard.  Then you will succeed even more than you imagined and the possibilities before you will be limitless.  

Or so this is what I think teachers are meant to provide for their students.