0628 The different education styles between Taiwan and the US

I took a business mathematics class over the past two weekends. That is the first time that I took mathematics class in the United States. Before I came to the United States, my friend told me the mathematics class of business master is not difficult because its level was the same as the level of my high school. I had not believed what my friend said until I took the business mathematics class. After taking this class, I suddenly knew why I had to learn mathematics, even though the mathematics is not difficult for me. Then I started to think the difference of mathematics education between Taiwan and the US.

First of all, the mathematics education in Taiwan emphasized the solution skills, but the mathematics education in the US emphasized the applications. For example, when I learned linear function in the high school, I just memorized the formula and did a lot of assignments. Nevertheless, I learned the same material in the US, but the professor taught us not only how to calculate but also how to apply to the business. I also knew the meaning of numbers which we got from the linear function. Second, the mathematics education in Taiwan concentrated on results; the mathematics education in the US concentrated on processes. For instance, my high school teacher gave us the score only when we got the exact answer even if the process was current. In the US, the professor told us we can get part of full scores if we had current process but did not get right answers.

Some people said the mathematics education in Taiwan was successful. In my opinion, it was not successful, because the education made students have perfect mathematic skills, but they did not know how to put mathematics in use.