U.S. Teaching

“Czech Kids Stand and Deliver” (Feb. 11) quoted a 1994-95 survey on seventh- and eighth-grade students’ performance in math, where the Czech Republic was consistently ranked 6th and our own ranking was down to 28th and 24th. It also pointed out that the only countries performing better were in the Far East.

I have just returned from a one-semester “master teaching” in the Far East, where I taught “innovative and demonstrative” math and physics at grade levels 4-11. The biggest difference I found was that in the Far East all teachers were trained in their own subjects of teaching. Math classes (grades 1-12), for example, are being taught only by teachers with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in math and similarly physics by physics majors only.

The advantage of a teacher having an advanced degree in the subject taught is that he/she can see beyond the prescribed syllabus and therefore can advance the students according to their abilities.

PAUL CHOW

Emeritus Professor of Physics

Cal State Northridge