Thai children are not encouraged to question anything in class. Walk past a Thai lesson in progress and you will rarely if ever see a student with their hand raised (unless they want to go to the toilet, which is often)"Quote:
I can't believe that you taught in Thailand for so many years, without knowing that Thai students are not allowed to ask their teachers any questions.
Neither Prathomsuksa ( primary), nor Matayom ( secondary) students are allowed to ask their teachers any questions, which is an unwritten law by the Ministry of Education.
The reason for it is incredible. It could be that the teacher doesn't know the answer. That's it. No more questioning.
It's again all about the "loss of face". Would a teacher not know the answer, he, or she'd immediately lose face.
It might sound weird for people who're not in this system, but it's also a big problem in a teacher/student relationship.
I've had students and discussed this "problem" with them, there's really nothing they could do. If the teacher tells them that a blackboard is white, they have to accept it.
Which of course also hinders the students' critical thinking skills in a way that the situation is so out of control.
The Thai teachers let them copy material that might contain words, meanings, sentence structures,theories, etc...but the teachers don't even understand their own lessons, because they printed it off the internet.