Discussion: View Thread

Dear Colleagues,

Interested to see the post on the piece in the Chronicle of Higher
Education of September 28, "Chinese Writing and Math Skills." (
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i05/05a03001.htm )

This was an interesting article. I have just written a letter to the
editor on this. Without denying the possibility of a brain mechanism,
I applied Occam's Razor to suggest a simpler mechanism.

A copy of my letter to the Chronicle follows.

Ken Friedman


Sirs,

The Chronicle (September 28, 2001: "Chinese Writing and Math Skills")
reports an intriguing study by Chieh Li, of Northeastern University,
and Ronald L. Nuttall, of Boston College, proposing that a brain
mechanism "may underlie both writing Chinese and performing math
problems."

I will propose a simpler mechanism.

The study focuses on Chinese-American students. Most Chinese-American
families emphasize education and value academic success. Without
denying the possibility of a brain mechanism, the factors accounting
for outstanding achievement among earlier groups of successful
immigrants may be responsible here, too.

These factors include study, dedication to subject matter, and family
support. This culture honors academic achievement and values learning.

The mental skills that are strengthened by speaking and writing two
languages - any two languages - may also be involved.

A comparison may shed light on these factors. The Norwegian School of
Management offers a course in organization theory and design to
first-year Norwegian college students. We teach in English. We
emphasize writing and research skills. We develop critical thinking
skills through analysis, rhetoric, and logic. These are new
challenges to our students. We encourage and reward active
participation. We reinforce it with constant support by a dedicated
teaching team.

Our external examiners give these students high scores. Many are
startled to discover that these are first-year students rather than
juniors or seniors. After introducing this course to the first-year
program in the mid90s, we observed higher levels of performance in
later courses and thesis work. The advances these students make in
all their abilities can be attributed to the skills and work habits
they develop in the course.

These students experience the challenges of multi-language education
and mastery of conceptual skills in a supportive environment. On a
small scale, these students experience some of the factors at work in
an immigrant culture that values learning, supports learning with
reflective coaching, and encourages achievement.

These are proven factors in high test scores and outstanding academic
performance. They function for all cultural groups and all languages.
The Chinese language may have some specific value here. The Chinese
culture itself is more likely to be responsible.

Sincerely,



--

Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Technology and Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management

Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University

Ken and other MED listserv participants,

I'd like to applaud Ken Friedman for his efforts. After reading about the
Chronicle piece, I was also thinking that alternative explanations for the
findings should be ruled out. Anytime a pre-existing individual
characteristic is used to divide subjects in a quasi-experimental design
(ability to speak languages is only one example, but age and sex are other
examples that are more commonly used), there are numerous threats to
internal validity. That is, there are many potential differences between
members of such groups, and as Ken points out, the simpler ones should be
ruled out first.

I was surprised to see a study with these limitations highlighted in the
Chronicle. Sometimes we (as a community) get caught up with findings that
are intuitively appealing or simply interesting, and we forget to be
systematic in our interpretation of data. I applaud Ken's efforts to to do
so.

Maybe this is a good segue into discussing other areas of management
education and development that might be over-stated or under-supported. In
this vein (but on a different subject), I was wondering what listserv
members think about the concept of community of practice. While
intuitively appealing and clearly based on solid foundations (e.g.,
learning is often a social process, meaning is developed through repeated
interaction), I am having difficulty finding empirical literature
suggesting the power of such communities over learning. Any thoughts or
leads in this area would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

From a different Ken

At 02:15 PM 09/27/2001 +0100, you wrote:
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>Interested to see the post on the piece in the Chronicle of Higher
>Education of September 28, "Chinese Writing and Math Skills." (
>http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i05/05a03001.htm )
>
>This was an interesting article. I have just written a letter to the
>editor on this. Without denying the possibility of a brain mechanism,
>I applied Occam's Razor to suggest a simpler mechanism.
>
>A copy of my letter to the Chronicle follows.
>
>Ken Friedman


~~~~~~~~~

Kenneth G. Brown, Ph.D.
Dept of Management and Organizations
108 Pappajohn Business Building
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
PH: 319.335.3812 FX: 319.335.1956
HTTP://www.biz.uiowa.edu/faculty/kbrown
~~~~~~~~~

Dear Colleagues,
Ken presents an interesting viewpoint which does indeed simplify the
finding noted in the study. However, I can simplify it even further.
After the family has finished dinner and the dishes have been cleard
away, everyone sits down together and does their homework. The older
siblings help the younger ones with the parents monitoring the
process. This also applies to other Asian cultures.
Dick
Richard T. Dailey, PhD
Professor of Management
Fulbright Scholar
Belarus State University and
Belarus State Economic University
Fall Semester 2001


>Dear Colleagues,
>
>Interested to see the post on the piece in the Chronicle of Higher
>Education of September 28, "Chinese Writing and Math Skills." (
>http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i05/05a03001.htm )
>
>This was an interesting article. I have just written a letter to the
>editor on this. Without denying the possibility of a brain mechanism,
>I applied Occam's Razor to suggest a simpler mechanism.
>
>A copy of my letter to the Chronicle follows.
>
>Ken Friedman
>
>
>Sirs,
>
>The Chronicle (September 28, 2001: "Chinese Writing and Math Skills")
>reports an intriguing study by Chieh Li, of Northeastern University,
>and Ronald L. Nuttall, of Boston College, proposing that a brain
>mechanism "may underlie both writing Chinese and performing math
>problems."
>
>I will propose a simpler mechanism.
>
>The study focuses on Chinese-American students. Most Chinese-American
>families emphasize education and value academic success. Without
>denying the possibility of a brain mechanism, the factors accounting
>for outstanding achievement among earlier groups of successful
>immigrants may be responsible here, too.
>
>These factors include study, dedication to subject matter, and family
>support. This culture honors academic achievement and values learning.
>
>The mental skills that are strengthened by speaking and writing two
>languages - any two languages - may also be involved.
>
>A comparison may shed light on these factors. The Norwegian School of
>Management offers a course in organization theory and design to
>first-year Norwegian college students. We teach in English. We
>emphasize writing and research skills. We develop critical thinking
>skills through analysis, rhetoric, and logic. These are new
>challenges to our students. We encourage and reward active
>participation. We reinforce it with constant support by a dedicated
>teaching team.
>
>Our external examiners give these students high scores. Many are
>startled to discover that these are first-year students rather than
>juniors or seniors. After introducing this course to the first-year
>program in the mid90s, we observed higher levels of performance in
>later courses and thesis work. The advances these students make in
>all their abilities can be attributed to the skills and work habits
>they develop in the course.
>
>These students experience the challenges of multi-language education
>and mastery of conceptual skills in a supportive environment. On a
>small scale, these students experience some of the factors at work in
>an immigrant culture that values learning, supports learning with
>reflective coaching, and encourages achievement.
>
>These are proven factors in high test scores and outstanding academic
>performance. They function for all cultural groups and all languages.
>The Chinese language may have some specific value here. The Chinese
>culture itself is more likely to be responsible.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>
>
>--
>
>Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
>Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
>Department of Technology and Knowledge Management
>Norwegian School of Management
>
>Visiting Professor
>Advanced Research Institute
>School of Art and Design
>Staffordshire University