To clarify before I begin this post: Galya is the 'director' or principal of the AH. Her husband, Alexei, is also employed by the AH doing various things, and in addition, he is a professor of English and Latin at the Vladimir Pedagogical University.
One of Alexei's classes is an English language conversation class. He invited any of the American AH teachers who were interested to come to the Ped today to participate in a discussion on higher education in the United States and how American institutions of higher education differ from their Russian counterparts. I thought the whole experience was extremely interesting. Six of us went. We (the Americans) started the discussion by talking about where we went to college, what type of college it was, why we chose that school, and the advantages/disadvantages to attending said school. Of our group, B went to Stanford, Y, J and I went to small liberal arts colleges (yeah, Sewanee calls itself a University, but as it only has a grad program in Theology, I’m lumping it in with Gordon and Swarthmore), and M went to Indiana University, a big state school. I've written a good bit on my other blog about my opinions of Sewanee, and what I liked and disliked about the place, so there's no point in getting into that here. Besides, this is from Russia with blog, not from small-liberal-arts-college-in-Tennessee blog. The students asked us questions about our schools and our experiences, and we compared the differences between our schools and theirs.
A lot of what I learned regarding the Russian higher education system is incredibly interesting. For starters, when you apply to a Russian university for undergrad, you must apply to a specific department. None of this applying to a college and then declaring your major a few months or a year into your college career. And no changing courses of study, either. Once you are accepted into a department, that's your department until you get your degree or drop out. In order to apply, you do not simply complete an application and submit essays. You must take both a written and oral entrance exam, for which you must prepare extensively. In other words, if you want to study, per say, English lit, you must already have damn good knowledge of English lit to even get accepted. Each department accepts a specific number of students (this varies by both school and department). Let's say for example that the English lit department accepts 30 students. Those 30 can attend the school for free. But, there might be more than 30 students who get to attend classes. Other people who score high enough on the tests can also enroll; however they have pay tuition. (I think the number of "commercial students" is limited, but I don't know for sure.) In the US, we get to choose which courses we want to take and when. There are certain core courses required for graduation and certain courses that are required for each major. However, when we take these courses is rarely predetermined, and we have a wealth of electives to choose from. (For example I, a Russian/PolySci major, got to take Astronomy, Geology, and Pseudopsychology while in college.) For most Russian students, there aren't any electives. Each department has a set of core courses and "electives"; however, the school determines which "electives" will be offered and which courses its students will take and when.
Another really big difference between the Russian and American educational systems is the attitude towards cheating. In the United States, cheating is viewed as a bad thing. If you copy someone else's work verbatim in an essay and neglect to cite your source, that's plagiarism, and will very often cause you to be kicked out of your school. At the very least you'll get a zero, and then you're pretty lucky. Same goes for copying someone else's homework assignment or cheating on an exam. Not so in Russia. The Russian cultural mindset regarding cheating is completely different from in the US. Over here, if you quote someone else's work directly within your work, and neglect to cite it, it does not matter. You are not cheating. The fact that you went out and discovered this information in order to use it in your work shows that you are scholarly. And now that you have read at least the portion of this work that you've copied, surely you now know that information, and therefore you have learned something. (I can almost understand this logic if you are copying out something by hand, but I do not think it can be applied to this modern age where one can simply cut and paste off the internet.) There is also the idea that copying the homework or exam of a fellow student is not cheating; your classmates are obligated to help you! And of course, students are not punished for cheating. Like I said, it is a cultural mindset. No one thinks it's wrong. When B and I mentioned the Honor Codes at our universities, and how there were no teachers in the room for exams and yet no one cheated, this was received with disbelief.
This whole view of cheating as acceptable is quite prevalent in my classes. Cheating on quizzes is very difficult to control, although I try my best. And it is not just the kids. I find adults of all ages hiding cheat-sheets or cribbing off their neighbors. I also discover cheaters after the fact (ex: when I was grading quizzes, I discovered that two students, seated next to one another, both spelled "spacious" as "spaceout.")
Additionally, in case you don't know, a pedagogical university is a university for training people to be teachers. We asked the students in the class (there were about 40) if any of them wanted to be teachers. No one raised their hands. Not a one. They all said that the salaries for first-year teachers in Russia were way too low (roughly $40/mo I think), and thereby really not enough to live on. They were all either planning on continuing to study at another university following graduation, or hoping to get a job employing their language skills (they were all studying English and German).
Unfortunately, there were three Russian classes all together for this conversation, amounting to 30-40 students, and the groups did not know one another. This made them all a bit shy around each other, not to mention in front of the Americans. Only a small handful of the students ended up doing most of the talking. Alexei is planning on inviting us back to the Ped periodically to chat with his conversations students in smaller groups, which will probably lead to more conversation. I will definitely go. Today was fun, and I certainly got something out of it. (Not to mention that Alexei compensated us for our time by giving each of us a very large and scrumptious Russian chocolate bar.)
After the morning at the Ped, we returned to the AH for the monthly staff luncheon. Supposedly the Russians and Americans take turns cooking these lunches, alternately called "Russian Lunch" and "American Lunch." I am sure the Russian lunches will always be better, as they have access to all of the proper ingredients. Lunch today was delicious, and I was totally stuffed. We had borscht, Russian salad, beef stroganoff, potatoes, and a yummy cinnamon apple and ice cream concoction for dessert. Mmmmmm.
One of Alexei's classes is an English language conversation class. He invited any of the American AH teachers who were interested to come to the Ped today to participate in a discussion on higher education in the United States and how American institutions of higher education differ from their Russian counterparts. I thought the whole experience was extremely interesting. Six of us went. We (the Americans) started the discussion by talking about where we went to college, what type of college it was, why we chose that school, and the advantages/disadvantages to attending said school. Of our group, B went to Stanford, Y, J and I went to small liberal arts colleges (yeah, Sewanee calls itself a University, but as it only has a grad program in Theology, I’m lumping it in with Gordon and Swarthmore), and M went to Indiana University, a big state school. I've written a good bit on my other blog about my opinions of Sewanee, and what I liked and disliked about the place, so there's no point in getting into that here. Besides, this is from Russia with blog, not from small-liberal-arts-college-in-Tennessee blog. The students asked us questions about our schools and our experiences, and we compared the differences between our schools and theirs.
A lot of what I learned regarding the Russian higher education system is incredibly interesting. For starters, when you apply to a Russian university for undergrad, you must apply to a specific department. None of this applying to a college and then declaring your major a few months or a year into your college career. And no changing courses of study, either. Once you are accepted into a department, that's your department until you get your degree or drop out. In order to apply, you do not simply complete an application and submit essays. You must take both a written and oral entrance exam, for which you must prepare extensively. In other words, if you want to study, per say, English lit, you must already have damn good knowledge of English lit to even get accepted. Each department accepts a specific number of students (this varies by both school and department). Let's say for example that the English lit department accepts 30 students. Those 30 can attend the school for free. But, there might be more than 30 students who get to attend classes. Other people who score high enough on the tests can also enroll; however they have pay tuition. (I think the number of "commercial students" is limited, but I don't know for sure.) In the US, we get to choose which courses we want to take and when. There are certain core courses required for graduation and certain courses that are required for each major. However, when we take these courses is rarely predetermined, and we have a wealth of electives to choose from. (For example I, a Russian/PolySci major, got to take Astronomy, Geology, and Pseudopsychology while in college.) For most Russian students, there aren't any electives. Each department has a set of core courses and "electives"; however, the school determines which "electives" will be offered and which courses its students will take and when.
Another really big difference between the Russian and American educational systems is the attitude towards cheating. In the United States, cheating is viewed as a bad thing. If you copy someone else's work verbatim in an essay and neglect to cite your source, that's plagiarism, and will very often cause you to be kicked out of your school. At the very least you'll get a zero, and then you're pretty lucky. Same goes for copying someone else's homework assignment or cheating on an exam. Not so in Russia. The Russian cultural mindset regarding cheating is completely different from in the US. Over here, if you quote someone else's work directly within your work, and neglect to cite it, it does not matter. You are not cheating. The fact that you went out and discovered this information in order to use it in your work shows that you are scholarly. And now that you have read at least the portion of this work that you've copied, surely you now know that information, and therefore you have learned something. (I can almost understand this logic if you are copying out something by hand, but I do not think it can be applied to this modern age where one can simply cut and paste off the internet.) There is also the idea that copying the homework or exam of a fellow student is not cheating; your classmates are obligated to help you! And of course, students are not punished for cheating. Like I said, it is a cultural mindset. No one thinks it's wrong. When B and I mentioned the Honor Codes at our universities, and how there were no teachers in the room for exams and yet no one cheated, this was received with disbelief.
This whole view of cheating as acceptable is quite prevalent in my classes. Cheating on quizzes is very difficult to control, although I try my best. And it is not just the kids. I find adults of all ages hiding cheat-sheets or cribbing off their neighbors. I also discover cheaters after the fact (ex: when I was grading quizzes, I discovered that two students, seated next to one another, both spelled "spacious" as "spaceout.")
Additionally, in case you don't know, a pedagogical university is a university for training people to be teachers. We asked the students in the class (there were about 40) if any of them wanted to be teachers. No one raised their hands. Not a one. They all said that the salaries for first-year teachers in Russia were way too low (roughly $40/mo I think), and thereby really not enough to live on. They were all either planning on continuing to study at another university following graduation, or hoping to get a job employing their language skills (they were all studying English and German).
Unfortunately, there were three Russian classes all together for this conversation, amounting to 30-40 students, and the groups did not know one another. This made them all a bit shy around each other, not to mention in front of the Americans. Only a small handful of the students ended up doing most of the talking. Alexei is planning on inviting us back to the Ped periodically to chat with his conversations students in smaller groups, which will probably lead to more conversation. I will definitely go. Today was fun, and I certainly got something out of it. (Not to mention that Alexei compensated us for our time by giving each of us a very large and scrumptious Russian chocolate bar.)
After the morning at the Ped, we returned to the AH for the monthly staff luncheon. Supposedly the Russians and Americans take turns cooking these lunches, alternately called "Russian Lunch" and "American Lunch." I am sure the Russian lunches will always be better, as they have access to all of the proper ingredients. Lunch today was delicious, and I was totally stuffed. We had borscht, Russian salad, beef stroganoff, potatoes, and a yummy cinnamon apple and ice cream concoction for dessert. Mmmmmm.
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