Howard Gardner, a professor of education at Harvard University, reflects on a visit toChina and gives his thoughts on different approaches to learning in China and theWest.
哈佛大学教育学教授霍华德·加德纳回忆其中国之行,阐述他对中西方不同的学习方式的看法。
Learning, Chinese-Style
Howard Gardnereastern Chinese city of Nanjing with our 18-month-old son Benjamin while studyin1 For a month in the spring of 1987, my wife Ellen and I lived in the bustlingarts education in Chinese kindergartens and elementary schools.
But one of the mostelling lessons Ellen and I got in the difference between Chinese and American ideas of education came not in the classroom but in the lobby of the Jinling Hotel where we stayed in Nanjing.
The key to our room was attached to a large plastic block with the room number on it. When leaving the hotel, a guest was encouraged to turn in the key, either by handing it to an attendant or by dropping it through a slot into a box. Because the key slot was narrow, the key had to be positioned carefully to fit into it.
Benjamin loved to carry the key around, shaking it vigorously. He also liked to try to place it into the slot. Because of his tender age and incomplete understanding of the need to position the key just so, he would usually fail.
Benjamin was not bothered in the least. He probably got as much pleasure out of the sounds the key made as he did those few times when the key actually found its way into the slot.