Tag Archives: teacher

by The SW Eden | November 25, 2018 · 10:11 pm

Problem of Thai students’ choice of undergraduate field of study

Cite this journal as: Eden, S. W. (2018). Problem of Thai students’ choice of undergraduate field of study. Retrieved from http://sw-eden.net

Problem of Thai students’ choice of undergraduate field of study

I was born in Thailand in 1987. I had studied in Thai school more than 10 years, including my elementary, primary, middle, and high school. I went to a Thai university for a half year before moving to New York. Later, in 2012, I finished my master degree and became a university lecturer in Thailand and also a doctoral student in both Thailand and Ohio.

The problem that I have found since I was young is that the “disproportion” regarding the number of students, their skills, the number of choices in undergraduate programs, and the number of choices in the real-world career.

First, many parents want their children to study in healthcare related programs, such as medicine, pharmacy, nurse, and also veterinary. With my experience, these people do not expect that their children would help others, but these parents expect their children’s high income and quality of life.

field of study teachers batman and students batman
Figure 1: Field of Study

Generally, there are 3 types of high school in Thailand. During the primary school and middle school, almost all of the students in Thailand learn the same thing set by the government. However, in high school, they are separated to be 3 different programs, which are (1) science and math school, (2) art and language school, and (3) art and math school. Many students have to go to tutor school during the weekend and try many way to get into the first choice, science and math school. This is because it is the gate to get into the healthcare-related career, and also other careers that they could make a lot of money, like, architect and engineer.

For other two choices, the art-related high school programs, students in these two programs could have a ton of choices in their future, but they seem not to be proud of being in these two programs.

This phenomenon causes a too-high number of people studying math-science-and-healthcare-related programs, but finally, many of them have to work in art-and-social-sciences-related careers. In other words, if too many people graduated from such the program, there will not be enough spaces for them in the workplaces.

In my opinion, Thai parents should encourage their children not just to earn the large amount of money, but to devote themselves for the society. There are many jobs that we could balance both at the same time. For instance, I could produce a prosocial film for the audiences to learn from it.

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Tagged as career, field, graduate, Job, major, occupation, program, school, teacher, thai, thailand, undergraduate

by The SW Eden | November 23, 2018 · 5:14 pm

How much does a college advisor make in Thailand?

Cite this journal as: Eden, S. W. (2018). How much does a college advisor make in Thailand? Retrieved from http://sw-eden.net

I work in a public university in Thailand. Most of the teachers in our school have to be the advisor of a couple classes of students. A class consists of about 50 students. I know from my friend that these teachers are paid once a semester. I am not in that system, but I just want to share what my friend told me.

My friend is a lecture in a management program. She is an advisor of students in the weekend program. Another teacher in the same program is the advisor of the students in the evening class of weekday program.

I think this may confuse you, if you are from other countries, like the US, Australia, or some from Europe. In Thailand, many universities separate the students by their time that they come to class. In my school, there are 3 of them. First are those who have to study during the day time of Monday to Friday. Second are those who have to study in the evening of Monday to Friday. Third are those who study in Saturday and Sunday.

Thailand Asia wage
Figure 1: Make it in Thailand

Teachers who are the advisors of students in the evening of Monday to Friday will be paid about 60 to 90 USD per a semester. However, those who are the advisor of Saturday and Sunday classes, will be paid only 60 cents per a student per a semester. My friend told me that she got paid only 7 USD per a semester, because her class consists of 12 students.

She feels that the wages are not fair for those who gave to come to school during weekend. I do not know much about this issue, but I think it is good that I am not in this system. I am the advisor of those who are in the day class of weekday. I do not get paid, since my salary covers all the day time.

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Tagged as advisor, college, student, teacher, thai, thailand, undergraduate, university, wage

by The SW Eden | November 17, 2018 · 10:17 pm

Is he going to be a selfish husband?

S.W. Eden

Cite this journal as: Eden, S. W. (2018). Is he going to be a selfish husband? Retrieved from http://sw-eden.net

I had had a friend. I do not want to name him here. So, I would like to give him a nickname, Fred, to call him in this post.

Fred is one of a few faculty members who is good-looking and also has a good-looking girlfriend. Some think that he is very genius. For me, it is like a stereotype, that if he is good-looking and always wear a formal cloth, everyone will think that he is responsible and intelligent.

I did not think like others since the first time I met this guy. In my life, I meet many people with this appearance, but have no responsibility. I did not say that I prejudiced him, but I say that I just waited to see his actual behaviors.

Once, he asked me for the first 30 minutes of my class for his friends from a TV show to shoot a footage in my class. 30 minutes is okay for me to give him. And it is a good thing if my students could be in a show. Therefore, I allow his friends to shoot the footage in my class.

My class hour is from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM. You know what? His friends could get the camera ready in the first 30 minutes. Many crews just begin to download the files to put into the computer (as a part of the show, they need to have a powerpoint slide). They finished everything at 6:00 PM. This means, he asked me for half an hour, but they took me 2 hours.

It is worse than that. The time during the process got slower than the expectation, no one walked to inform me what actually happened. I was waiting in the teacher room, and I have to keep walking to the class to see if they finished their job. And after 2 hours that they just finish their job, no crews walked to inform me that I could begin my class. It was my own students who walk to me and tell me that I could go into the class then.

bird red room student work in class

My students felt tired and wanted to go home instead of keep learning for another hour. I gave them a short class, so they could go. Those crew from the TV shows did not say any “thanks” to me, did not inform me when they had gone, and did not give anything to my students. They just came to take the advantage from us. They just wanted a footage with students in the class.

I told the guy, the good-looking faculty member, what happened. He did not care, I know. He just said sorry, but I could see his face. He was not actually sorry, because he was laughing and smiling.

It is worse than that. The officer of my faculty walked to the classroom, and he did not see me in the classroom at my hours. He just checked that I did not come to teach. It is true of him, but it is not totally my fault. My fault is that I said, okay, at the first time to that guy.

Next 4-5 months, that guy I hate got married. I guess most people in the same program went to his wedding ceremony. I did not go there. I cannot forgive. I hope he is gone, gone from my life.

A good thing that I did not go to his wedding ceremony is that he did not talk to me again after the day. He may think that I am selfish that I did not go there, but in fact, he is one of the most selfish guys I have ever met.

Your best friend always lies to you. Why?

S.W. Eden

Cite this journal as: Eden, S. W. (2018). Your best friend always lies to you. Why? Retrieved from http://sw-eden.net

I got a friend when I went to a graduate school. I, a kind of, liked her, because, with my first judgement, she had a quality that could be my future girlfriend. We were nice to each other. We went shopping together at a few shopping malls we could find in a small town. At that moment, I thought we could get along well.

However, she started being a liar, a very big liar. She missed our appointment twice without initial informing. Both of the times, I kept waiting for her for whole day. We both got the hotspot in our apartment, and also the internet in the devices. When I tried to contact her to ask if she would come or not, she did not provide me any answer. She disappeared from the connection and did not say anything to me. Later, when we meet at the school, she pretended like there was nothing happen.

After that, I felt like, she was not real for me. She had too many reasons to say that everything was not her mistake. It was only because she is the big liar. I felt I was alone for a week and trying to stop myself thinking about her.

conflict love friend liar school
Figure 1: Conflict with friends

We did not talk to each other about half year. Later, we met again in other school in Thailand. We enrolled in the same class with the same teacher. I made a decision to forgive her and became her friend again. I am a guy with a short memory. I did not feel that I am hurt that much anymore.

Later, I knew from the teacher that she told him a bad thing about me, and it was not the truth. The teacher did not know that she was (again) the liar. I was suddenly angry. I told the truth to the teacher. I dis not know if he would whether believe me or not. He asked me to calm down and forgive her.

Right now, I still have to meet her sometimes at the school. I feel like what I am doing is to pretend to be nice. I will never hurt her in turn by telling a lie. I am not good at that and I do not want to be like that. If she asked me for help, okay, I will help, but that does not mean I forgive or forget everything she has done to me, but it is because I think it is the thing that a normal person should do. I cannot feel like nothing had happened between us.

So, what is the song that I should sing for her? I want to sing some alternative rock or punk. Dear the readers, please name me one song.

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Tagged as course, Dormitory, friend, liar, professor, school, student, teacher

by The SW Eden | November 14, 2018 · 12:15 pm

Got an F or Fail from major courses, What can I do?

S. W. Eden

Cite this journal as: Eden, S. W. (2018). Got an F or Fail from major courses, What can I do? Retrieved from http://sw-eden.net

I am a university lecturer. I know that I should be very serious and all the students should be serious about their education, too. When I was an undergraduate student, about 10 years ago, some friends got an F and I have got a couple of F, too. Although I had never had an absent and I submitted all the class assignment in those two classes, I still got F because I fail in the final exam.

Today, I have been a university lecturer for 6 years, in Thailand. Now is the time that all universities have to think about their future, regarding the decreased number of new students. I think the university would need to consider about the “give an F” policy. They may not like the teachers to give the F to the students, because that reduces students’ satisfaction. Students may quit the university if they found they get many Fs.

The topic that I would like to discuss here is that, should I give an F to a very bad student? Bad students are those who often have absent. In the whole semester, they came to class only 2-3 times. Some did not come to take an exam, but they asked their parents to write the letter to ask me to allow their sons to take the exam after the examination date.

Figure 1: Teacher and funny student cartoon drawing

Almost all of these bad students do not submit any assignment, and they often said that they had other work to do to earn the money to help their family. I do not know if it is real or not, but I think, if it is real, they should drop and register for the class again when they have more free time.

Some professors in my university give these bad students the F, but some do not. Let’s talk about those who do not give the F for very bad students. We should be curious about what they actually think.

I have talk to one of them. He told me that if the students are very bad, he should allow them to keep being in the school until they graduate. This is because if no one gives an opportunity for these bad students, they would leave the school and do some illegal job in the future. On the other hand, if they are bad students who graduate, they will automatically find the job that most people look for. This way will help the society as a whole.

However, I still think that this thought is not entirely right. It might be right, but it does not fair for all other students who try very hard to graduate.

Last semester, I allowed a very bad student to pass my class with the grade D-. In fact, he should get an F, because he came to class only 2 times. Then, he took the exam. The total score he got was 30 from 100. I feel really bad about what I have done. I should not let him pass.

You guys… Do you want to say something about this issue. If I engage in this kind of situation again, what should I do?

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Tagged as grade, lecturer, school, student, teacher, thai, thailand, university

by The SW Eden | November 12, 2018 · 11:10 pm

Plagiarism in School Assignment in Thailand, How should I work with it?

Proud Arunrangsiwed

This is Proud Arunrangsiwed. I am a Thai university lecturer. The time that I write this post is November, 2018. I do not have much time to write my blogs recently. Most of the time of mine has been devoted for my students and research studies. Although my university needs a ton of research papers to improve its university ranking, but I cannot just sit and write my papers without taking care of my students. I have spent many hours a week to work with my students’ thesis and the correct their assignment. I might not one of a few lecturers that assign the individual projects and homework for the students to do. We all know that to assign individual projects, teachers have to spent a large amount of time on reviewing, talking, and correcting students’ work. I could do it. I mean, I will do it, because I feel that it is a right thing to do so. I think the students will be benefited by working in their individual project better than the group work.

I have noticed many other university lecturers. Many of them assigned the group work, and most of these works are about to write a whole book to report some project. Like, the whole semester, each group of students have to submit only one assignment, which is this thick book. These lecturers would grade the students based on only this book, class attendance, and the exams. There are no other homework assignments. Some said that these teachers are lazy. However, I would rather say that I am too diligent.

Let’s talk about the big-book assignment that most teachers ask most students to complete it at the end of the semester. Almost all of these books contained too much copyright infringement. Undergraduate students are likely to copy the contents from any website that they could find the related information regarding their topics. I am too tired to see this kind of students’ work.

First, I feel like they do not show the respect toward their teachers, because they think that their teachers are stupid and do not know that they copy the work of someone else.

Second, I feel like these students are brainless, because they could not create any work by themselves. I think it is a good thing to look around many information in the internet, but they should read and write them in their own words, not just copy and paste.

Third, I think it is not fair for other students who create the work by themselves. I guess that some teachers may not know how to check the plagiarism without using Turn-it-in. The grading will not be fair for the students who work very hard, compared to those who just copy and paste things from the internet.

Classroom in Thailand, and Thai people
Figure 1: Thai classroom

One of my friends who is the teacher in the school of management told me something about her students. She told me that she tried to blame and teach the students who like to copy and paste online information to put in their project book. You know what? Her students said that she (the teacher) was stupid because she did know the benefit of the internet where was the place for students to copy the text. This is a kind of panic, I think. I do not understand why her students think this way.

Once, I discover the fact that some other teachers also teach their students to copy things around the internet. I have been in a communication or media art program. In some class, the students need to go outside to take the photos and shoot the videos. However, one of my friend in the same school encouraged his students to copy any pictures and videos from websites and paste in their work.

I think, the educational institutes should do something with this kind of teachers. They should have a seminar or workshop or intervention to teach them to be a better teacher. Moreover the university and high school should have more strict rules to punish students who do the copyright infringement and plagiarism.

This blog is written by Proud Arunrangsiwed, a Thai animation teacher.