GTP Diversity.pptx  

5. Summaries, 12 November – 25 November 2012   Week 8-9 Each class summarizes the answers received from other Learning Circle partners and posts the summary into the wiki. The Guidelines for this Phase are to be found here!

 

 

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Summary LC1 Wolfert Lyceum:

 

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We have divided our rather large class in groups that each created their own summary. We hope this gives additional insight into what we have learned.

 

Group 1

 

Question 1: Ask your principal which three rules are the ones that are most being broken by pupils.

1 of the most violated rules in regular schools is that chewing gum is eaten while it should not. Another one of the most violated rules are mobiles. You can’t use your mobiles in the classroom and in strict religious schools you don’t have one with you. Another violated rule is aggressive behavior and there’s no schooluniforms be worn. Students want their one style, but they have to wear a schooluniform! Also guys have gel in their hair, but that’s strictly prohibited.

 

 

 

 

Question 2: Where do you eat in school and what type of food is mostly eaten? Do you generally bring your own food or do you it at school? What are typical dishes for your country or region?

Agreements: Almost everyone eat their lunches in their classrooms. At the LC3 Hajj Bahaa Eddine Hariri School and at the LC8 Herbert H. Carnegie Public School they both eat most of all sandwiches and juices.

Disagreements: At the LC4 Kaohsiung Jhengsing Junior High School they eat rice and noodles, which is different from the other schools, where they don’t eat those.

 

 

 

Question 3: What would you like to change in your school to improve your learning? This can be both material or immaterial.

Some of the schools don’t want to change anything they are happy with what they’ve got. But there are some students that want to learn another language next to their own language. They want more books in the library that are in a different language, so that they can read what will help them to learn another language.

Also what a lot of students said that they want more electronica to use while learning. For example they want to use their mobile phones instead of their diaries. And I think it would be great because we children like to play with stuff like that and if we could use that in school it would be even greater! They also would like to work with ipads or netbooks instead of writing all the time. At the other they also agree that it would be very expensive for the school and that it would be dangerous, because not all of the students are careful with stuff like that so if they brake something it will cost the school much money to repear it.

One school also said that they want reduce tests en exams, because they have tests every week now and they found that too much. Another school said that they wanted to remove the chewing-gum rule because they found it even more silly if they’re not aloud ‘cause than the students will stick it under the tables. But when they are allowed to eat it I won’t happen. And they researched it and people found out that it actually increases there math scores. Students also want to change the toilet facilities, they don’t find it really hygienic now.

 

Question 4:  In what area is your school situated? Is it urban or rural? Does the location affect your teaching or learning? Is your school typical for your country or an exception?

I looked in which area de schools are, or it is more in a village or in a big city, if the location of the school from influence is for the education, and if the schools are typical in de area or country.

Differences: All school are in a other sort of area like in an city or more in a little village somewhere in the mountains. Also money play a role on the schools.

Agreements: The most schools are affected by the area where they life, the most schools are also the same as other in the country but there are some that a totally different.

 

Question 5: Does religion play a role in your school or in the way you spend your free time outside of school?

The similarities are that the kids at school are free to believe whatever they want. They are public schools. They do not talk at school about faith, because faith is not very important in their culture. Most schools have this actually.

 

Question 6: Would you ever like to visit the Netherlands?

All schools would like to visit our beautiful country. They find our culture and beautiful art very interesting. They also want to be happy because skiing and snowboarding in the winter snows. They also want to see the Delta project. They find our architecture beautiful.

 

Group 2

 

1. Why did we ask the question? 

We asked the questions because we were interested in your country, for example if there were differences between your country and our country.

2. What did we know about the theme when we started?

We thought that there were not much differences, but we thought, for example, that you doesn’t have to bring food with you to school because you buy something.

3.What did we learn in our classroom?

We learned about the differences about your school and culture for example the school subjects.

4. What did we expect to learn?

We expected to learn about your culture and school and the differences between your country and our country

 

5. What was similar or different between the students received from the answers?
Similar: One of the most broken rules in schools are: no chewing gum in school.
Different: Some schools have kitchens and in other schools, the kids have to bring their own food.
Different: Some schools are especially build for a religions while others don’t have any religions.
Similar: Everyone like to visit the Netherlands ones.
Different: But some like to live here while others only would stay for a short while.
Similar: None of the schools are affected by the place the located.
Different: Some kids would like to change the way the learn and other are very happy with how the learn. 

6.What did we learn from the responses of the students?
They all like to visit the Netherlands!
Everybody has very different food in the school canteens.
Some people don’t take their own bread to school.
There are school without air-conditioning.
Some schools has religions and other schools doesn’t.
And there are a lot more of differences and other interesting things about schools in different countries.

 

7. Why do we think these differences exist?
We all live in different parts of the world. So we have other cultures, and different religions. That has influence on the way we think.

 

 

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Summary LC2 Sutton Public School

 

Please follow the link to enjoy our PowerPoint presentation on issues that are effecting Equity.

 

http://www.slideshare.net/SRatti/unitied-in-our-diversity-15299159  

 

 

 

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Summary LC3 Hajj Bahaa Eddine Hariri School:

 

Problems differ from one country to another. Each country has its own problems and its citizens and government are busy solving or trying to solve these problems.

The table below summarizes the problems and the solutions.

 

Country (code of the school)	Problems	Solutions
Netherlands LC1	1-Illegal immigrants that need shelter and the citizens ensure for them these shelters by paying more taxes that they can’t afford any more. 2-Noise pollution caused by airplanes and trains. 3-littering.	2-build high walls around the speed line, so the noise would be limited in that area. 3-In schools students are cleaning by themselves their schools.
LC2	1-Littering 2-vandalism 3-bullying 4-criminals 5-break-ins 6-global warming.	1-They use solar panels. 2-They avoid throwing garbage. 3- They do recycling. 4-They do many anti-bullying programs. 5-They work on saving trees.
Taiwan LC4	1-low birth rate. 2-enviromental problems. 3-climate change	1-They do recycling of plastic bottle, batteries, glass, used paper, cans, etc… 2-They try to depend on public transportation, ride a bike, or even walk. 3-They try to use wind power and solar power. 4-They encourage buying local food from local farmers.
Canisius LC5	1-traffic jams 2-pollution	1-They do campaign to raise awareness of the consequences. 2- They ask for having one day students clean the area around their schools.
Ghana LC6	1-poor sanitation 2-lack of health equipment in hospitals. 3-unclean nature	1-They suggest doing campaigns for the issue. 2-They see that the law enforcement agencies should intensify their work. 3-The government duty is to supply the hospitals with the needed equipments.
LC7	1-bullying (physically, emotionally and over the internet) 2-No schools teams, clubs and extra sports. 3-Increase in suicide rate.	1-Protest to defend our right of having clubs. 2-Discuss with the teachers the issue of having the students part of their fight with the government. 3-Creat our own teams and clubs

 

 

It is worth mentioning that the students in Canisius explained that the care about people that need help. They even work on making them happy anf feel that someone is asking about them. They send cards to each other in happy and sad occasions. 

 

 

 

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Summary LC4 Kaohsiung Jhengsing Junior High School:

 

There are so many different taboos and superstitions around the world, but we still  find the similarities  across countries. Please see the following results.

 

If you do something, then…

	LC1: The Netherlands	LC2: Canada	LC3: Lebanon
If you walk under a ladder…	Means seven years of bad luck	Will bring bad luck	Will have bad luck
If you break a mirror…			X
If you open an umbrella…	Will get bad luck	Will bring bad luck	Someone in the family will die
About day/date…	The misfortune day is Friday the 13th	Go to the sea on Tuesdays the sea goddess will punish you	Picking blackberries after October 11 will bad luck

 

 

 

About eating

LC2: Canada	LC 6:Ghana	LC7: Canada
If you eat za’atar before an exam, you will remember all you studied/ If you choke on something you were eating then someone is envying you and your food.	When you eat you are not supposed to put your other hand on the floor because they believe you will not be satisfied.	During Shabbat, you have to kiss the challah before you eat it.  Not doing this means bad luck!

 

 

 

 

About clothes

	LC3: Lebanon	LC 8:Canada
If you wear something inside out…	Will bring bad luck	You will have good luck
About shoes…	Never put your shoes on your bed because that means someone will die in your family	If you place your shoes upside down, someone in the family will die

 

 

About animals

LC1: The Netherlands	LC2: Canada	LC 8:Canada	LC7: Canada
Something wrong happens when you see a black cat	If a black cat crossing your path, will bring bad luck	If a wild bird flies into your house it is a sign of death	if dogs stop and stare at something, it means they are looking at sprits. Dogs can tell whether or not if this person is friendly.

 

People have different ideas on these taboos. Some believe them, and others don’t. Ideas show that some of these superstitions are considered to be reasonable but some of them are not. Then superstitions can sometimes be a reference for us to make a good decision.

 

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Summary LC5 Canisius:

 

As we already thought, it is clear that culture is something very unique. It is defined by many factors such as education, sport, food and religion. They influence each other. There are uncountable examples that illustrates this.

 

We found out that every country that participated in the Learning Circle has its own unique items that makes their culture typical Canadian, Ghanese, Lebanese, Taiwanese or Dutch and therefore very interesting. Mostly these items are geographical or historical. Canada has a complete different climate than Ghana or the Netherlands. Lebanon, Taiwan or Canada have been influenced by tribes, immigrants or foreign rulers. These factors influenced their cultures which again influenced education, sport, food and religion.

 

Mostly we saw that education has the same goal, namely to learn and to increase your changes to get a good future, to get a better job or to develop yourself. But, we saw that in Canada education is also influenced by the French descendants and in Taiwan education is more focused on collectivism, which is totally different in the Netherlands.

 

It was also interesting to see that the practicing of sports are different in all the countries. Sports is linked to culture, because of the history or the geography. In Canada hockey is more famous than soccer as it is in the Netherlands.

 

Furthermore we noticed that every country has many different dishes, which we really would like to try. Similar is that every country has its own rules of behaviour. Although, there are differences we all have etiquettes. It is important to know them if you visit these countries.

 

Finally we learnt that culture is influenced by religion. Of course this depends in which country you live, but we saw that in every country you can find the main religions and they all influence the culture.

 

 

 

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Summary LC6 Moring Star School Ltd:

 

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Summary LC7 Herbert H. Carnegie Public School, Patrice and Natalie:

 

Are our customs and traditions sustainable in a 21st Century world?

 

Question A: "Will our traditions and customs survive the 21st Century?"

 

From this graph we can see that the responses are evenly distributed because we live in different parts of the world and there are different customs and opinions around the world.  For example, the Netherlands shares some of the same religious and commercial traditions as Canada such as Santa Claus and Easter, but Taiwan seems to value giving respect to elders above these holidays and symbols,.  Some people believe that traditions evolve with the times, but in Lebanon, traditions are so connected to their culture and history that they won’t be easily forgotten.  Therefore, different parts of the world have different opinions on whether or not their customs and traditions will survive the 21^st Century world.

 

Question B: "What customs and traditions define you...your culture?"

 

By: Ishaan, Vadim, Dylan, Aidan and Dayan

Although we have very diverse cultures, the majority of the world’s traditions revolve around religion.  Using a triple venn diagram, we separated the customs and traditions into three categories or “borders”: religious holidays, national holidays and customs (cultural norms), which we interpret as things that are considered normal or expected within a culture.  When we were grouping the responses, we noticed that certain things crossed borders, and so, our categories grew.  For example, we realized that while Christmas may be a Christian holy day, it has become so commercial that even non-Christians celebrate it, making it almost the normal thing to do, or what we would call a custom.   Other holidays, such as Halloween and Easter, have also become commercialized through media and capitalism.  We think marriage crosses all three of our borders because marriage is found in most cultures, but we get married for different reasons.  These reasons can be religious or customary, especially when you get to a certain age.  Marriage might also become a national holiday.  You just need to look at royal weddings and the fact that countries will literally shut down when a king, queen, prince or princess gets married.  And so, what we celebrate is as important as why we celebrate them.

 

Question C: "Trends or Traditions? Is our 21st Century world creating more or less of each?"

 

The third sub-question for our GTP question was “Trends or traditions: Is the 21^st Century creating more or less of each?”  The overwhelming majority of the GTP countries (100%, actually) thought that our 21^st Century was creating more trends than traditions.

 

One thing that many of the countries pointed out is that while trends grow as our society becomes more and more obsessed with fashion and things that are disposable and  fast-paced like “mobile technology tools” (Jhengsing Junior Highschool), our traditions are not disappearing all together.  Jhensgsing explained that “complicated rituals may disappear” and the Sutton Public School’s students believe that the smaller ones will disappear; still, the majority of the respondents thought that traditions would simply change by becoming less sophisticated or frequently practiced.  This statement made us realize that if it wasn’t for religion, many of us would not have traditions that will be passed down from generation-to-generation.   Wolfert Lyceum made a good point when they explained that we are living in a society where individual decisions have created more trends than traditions, which we know can only be sustained by a group.  Factors such as diversity have also lessened the impact of tradition on our everyday lives. 

 

And so, we conclude that our modern society is producing trends that are overshadowing our traditions and even our desire to participate in them because they no longer fit into our 21^st Century (entertainment-obsessed) lifestyles.  Still, we aren’t convinced that traditions will become extinct, because just like fashion goes in cycles, maybe there will one day be a trend to bring traditions back.  You never know!!!  

 

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Summary LC8 Herbert H. Carnegie Public School, Rebecca and Laura:

 

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Summary LC9 Nellie McClung P.S., Tracy and Nicole: