Teaching Methods: East vs. West

Discussion in 'Kuk Sool' started by SsangKall, Mar 31, 2011.

  1. SsangKall

    SsangKall Valued Member

    I have always been interested in the ways our curriculum would differ if it were taught 500 years ago. A couple of days ago, Mr. Simms pointed out that the curriculum of old was not progressive. With a little google searching, this is all I have found as to the old ways:

    http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/ls201/confucian1.html

    As I was reading a biography on Confucius at a bookstore, I saw a section that mentioned his method of examination entering Korea during the 3 kingdoms period. This style of imperial examination has been adopted since... until the end of the Lee dynasty.

    What would a curriculum of open handed techniques have looked like? Is it better at teaching the material? Would it even make sense to us? Ideas?
     
  2. SsangKall

    SsangKall Valued Member

  3. SeongIn

    SeongIn Banned Banned

    Analects 15:38. Confucius said, "In education there should be no class distinction."

    Certainly the impact Confucius had on learning without class distinction was responsible for the education of the masses whether the system of education implemented (memorization) was as advantageous as a progressive system or not. It achieved it purpose for its time. In some areas, memorization is fundamental to understanding.
     
  4. SsangKall

    SsangKall Valued Member

    in the same way hours in clinical/practise would instill motor learning?
     
  5. SeongIn

    SeongIn Banned Banned

    Based on knowledge obtained from the great medical show SCRUBS, it is apparent that memorization of material is still important even in modern medicine. :D
     
  6. elliotmurphy

    elliotmurphy Valued Member

    Wow, another cool thoughtful thread, rock on ssangall!
     
  7. Xanth

    Xanth Valued Member

    sort of along the lines I was thinking, I wonder if KMA in North Korea are stagnant and stuck in the pre or just post Korean time frame. How would their techniques compare to ours and their teaching methods compare with ours.
     
  8. SsangKall

    SsangKall Valued Member

    from the netflix docs and wiki-searching i have done, north korea has plenty of taekyeon and ssireum fun at festivals, but any extracurricular martial arts practise is ITF style tae kweon do. it is rough out there, so martial arts is pretty much left to military uses. but face it xanth, this is really what you wanted to see (turn speakers up for the first one):

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNcCfbIGQG4"]YouTube - Kim Jong Il Bodyguard Training[/ame]

    or


    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKH1PymutJQ&feature=related"]YouTube - The Toughest Job in North Korea (Best Version)[/ame]

    apparently, they throw shovels out there. so who knows, maybe they have access to "shovel hyeong". but really, memorization seems like the only tool i have seen used in the confucian curriculum...
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2011
  9. Pugil

    Pugil Seeker of truth

    I can see that kind of training to be very useful if someone attacks you with a large piece of wood. And I always thought that personal Bodyguards to countries leaders had personal weapons and suchlike!
     
  10. Pugil

    Pugil Seeker of truth

    These guys do the: 'We're complete nutters', somewhat better though!

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZoqXr8dcUc"]YouTube - Russian Spetsnaz Training[/ame]
     
  11. Bruce W Sims

    Bruce W Sims Banned Banned

    The nature of Education and Teaching are directly related to the nature of one's population as it relates to what is being taught.

    For Humans approximately 70-80% of the information about one's environment comes through the eyes. It easy to understand the old adage about a "picture is worth a thousand words", yes?

    What tends to confound teachers is the fact that not everyone seems sensitized to learn in the same manner. Some are more visual, some more auditory and some more tactile. My guess is that this may be culturally or geneticially determined (much like "handed-ness").

    And, as if we haven't enough to think about there is the matter of memory, or "retention". Odors seem to trigger memories the best, but the matter of first ingraining information into the brain seems to depend on repeating something until a biochemical link is established. There are all sorts of techniques for doing this including "mnemonic devices" and just plain old practice.

    One other thing....and I find this kind of interesting......

    There seems to be some level of discomfort associated with forming the links I am talking about and this may have something to do with the responses a given student may have to schooling--- either being attracted or repelled. The sense that I get is if the information is encoded in a "likeably distracted" way students tend to engage in the task better. A common encoding method is either poetry or music---or both. The popularity of teaching information by putting it in a "jingle" or rhyme has long been recognized as having great staying power as has taking heavy-weight material and turning it into a game. FWIW.

    Best Wishes,

    Bruce
     
  12. SsangKall

    SsangKall Valued Member

    in the same way, i often have a hard time memorizing technique numbers. i run through the set in my mind first, then perform or teach it. like mr. sims stated in the previous post, "staying power" goes hand in hand with mnemonic devices. i was reading about a book in the sf chronicle where the author hung out with some national memorizing champs. the devices they used coded a picture of something (say a big yellow house on a street) to a body of information. similarly, one can see the same type of memorization used in something like 'old man carries the pole' in chinna (that would be an son mok su 5 and its variations in later sets).

    being that i cannot find an actual curriculum, i am going to guess that teaching the old way would be more likened to a method of instruction (as opposed to a syllabus). i also wonder if numbering them in progressive sets is more likened something someone would find at a military school in old paekche.
     
  13. Bruce W Sims

    Bruce W Sims Banned Banned

    Then that raises the question about whether we want to be emphasizing skills that help communicate information TO an individual (IE: "encoding") ---- or focus on ways to help a person makes sense of ("decode")---and retain---what they are experiencing. Thoughts?

    Best Wishes,

    Bruce
     
  14. SsangKall

    SsangKall Valued Member

    encoding must be simple; decoding sounds as if practise is the only way. when a movement is foreign, giving the physics and muscles being implemented in the technique is ridiculous. in aikido practise at junior college, the shihan would not speak when performing the technique before us. looking back, i am now thinking everyone in the class was encoded the same information, but decoded it differently. is that the confucian way of teaching?

    some of our locks are so complex and dangerous that language is necessary (in california i can see a negligence lawsuit if no verbal warnings are given), but in aikido no talk was just fine. over time, learning just happened. it was almost a discovery-a-day situation.
     

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