On a fresh Friday morning, around 7.20 I had to leave the house. Cause there was a class trip organized by the Limnology. I am going off to..Lake Mendota by boat.
We were having a lab practical, just this once on the lake. And although I have treaded on the frozen ice surface of the lake during winter, I have yet to take a boat on the lake. And it turned out it was fun!
I guess for the most part, the fun was because the experiment went well. I did had experience using the Ekman grabber, zooplankton net, Von Dorn water sampler and the DO meter. We had about 10 of us in the boat and I was lucky to have the Prof with us, driving the boat alone (impressive!). The Prof is a bout 40ish and keeping himself humble at all times. While conducting our sampling, we had lively personal conversations with the Prof-not usual in Malaysia, where professional and personal do not mix.
I admired the Prof. He said clearly in the lecture hall that " I am giving the best that I can, I may admit that I do not have all the answers, but if you have a question that I could not answer, then I will get back to you as soon as possible'. Such humililty. And I do not think that ever, in my life as a student in a local university in Malaysia have I encountered such humble words! Profs in Malaysia are mostly influenced by the British colonial usually have egos and that means usually evading questions like that from students and even prompting the students to do further reading by themselves, thus limiting the interest of students.
Here in the US, the students are more open too. In the middle of the lecture when the need arises, students would raise their hand and the Prof would stop his lecture to answer questions from students. Although how lame the question is, the Prof answers professionally without making the student feel small.
Another class I am taking is the algae class. It is a take home test for all the exams.The difference is this class has already ruled out the exam questions, all of it. And it takes readings of 2-3 papers and the text book to answer the exam question. And this is interesting and not like the common, regurgitating the notes as most of the biological classes I have been to.
Interesting aspects of education.
1 comment:
Dear reece! I found the same situation right here either... well i think they behave like more professionalism characteristics. Some of profs in M'sia they had that but its not too abvious among students. Left behind the students need and supports. By the way, I wish we'll have good education right here... insyaAllah. Educate ourself before educate others!
P/s: Good luck with ur exams!
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