Article: Stagnation
I’ve signed up for two subjects in Fall 2008 – Algebra and American Civilization. Having only six hours of lesson each week would allow myself time to follow up with Dad’s medical treatments at UMMC. I would also be helping Charis, a post-gradiate in Counseling Psychology, establish a blog cum website to raise awareness for her subject of expertise. I also intend to sit for the SAT examinations if things go as planned.
Life’s getting mundane around here. The occasional change of pacing and focus is good for the spirit. But I can imagine how others might disagree with this plan. Students here want to complete their degrees as fast as possible, and at all cost. To me, that’s not education.
In the past four semesters, I’ve taken various second and third year subjects, imagining what I would do as soon as I complete my Bachelor’s, even though I tell myself not to get carried away by the rat race. But the more I studied here, the more stagnant my mind seemed to have become. Like the students who rush to complete their studies, our full-time lecturers are also in a rush to teach as many classes, and cover as many topics as possible. Instead of recommending students to use textbooks as reference, lecturers replicate the textbooks by summarizing them in class. But there would be need for lessons since we can just read and memorize notes without attending classes. Teaching this way is also unnecessarily theoretical. Suppose author said, ‘Theory A is round’. Would you comment on that? No, there would be nothing to say because it’s his theory and our job here is to remember it…. and tell it rightly in exams.
Psychology is a broad field of study, so broad that no one person can effectively teach all of them – such as Developmental, Cognition, Industrial, and Counseling at once – without paying exclusive attention to any on his part. My friends tell me that lecturers/professors in foreign universities also conduct research where they teach. They are dedicated in their field, and therefore, are able to impart their dedicated experiences in the classroom. When you are taught by these lecturers, you can feel their passion and love for the subject, and how much time they have spent studying it. Like a life calling.
But you don’t get that kind of education in Malaysia. Lecturers here are paid a salary just to teach, often more than three loosely related subjects at one time. You can only stretch a person so far, and lecturers can only afford to dedicate themselves in one field of interest. Any more than that, and he’s just doing it to make a living while students suffer.
So I’ve decided to hold back from taking any more Psychology subjects until a better option comes along.
11 comments
Hi Yvonne,
I just want to encourage you in your studies. I know it’s hard to do so on your own but I took an excellent Christian Counseling course en route to my Bachelors and despite it being a correspondence course without a classroom, I’ve found what I learned to be tremendously effective in counseling others to deal with their particular issues. Children and adults.
If it’s your passion or even part of your passion, I know you can do well in it even without a dedicated class!
Mark: I’ve considered correspondence courses too. But I am not confident about doing it all on my own.
Stagnate or rather hibernate…
Life is about inching our way … then later Life is summation of things done and not done…
Yes it is true, my professors are doing research all the time, especially the Assoc. Professors. Its their passion. The Faculty Psychologists are really scientists with an interest in research. But to be fair, I also think that they are less bogged down with some administrative work and they have better support staff. Those that teach large classes of undergraduate students have teaching assistants. I’m not sure whether Malaysian lecturers have teaching assistants.
Charis: No, lecturers here haven’t got any assistants. But all they do is teach. Professors abroad need assistance because they are concerned with research at the same time. Do you think assistants for local lecturers who only teach is apt? I wonder.
..there you go..helping another person with her project:great going, Yvonne! Good idea to have a central site for counselling pyschology in Malaysia, Charis.
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