University of Macau

Faculty of Education

2021/2022 2nd Semester

Self-Reflection Paper

IUN KIT LAM, KELLY

HC010723
EDUC2001-001
Sociology of Education
Michael, Wu Mei Jiun
 10 May 2022
Q1: The author wrote this article to draw an analogy of the current Macau
Education System as a gambling game, which is the most legible signature in Macau.
In his metaphor, he describes the Macao Higher Education students treated school
education as an ‘investment’: where these students are way too ‘smart’ in
calculating the time and efforts, to reach the ‘passing grade’ just too precisely, not
even aiming at a higher level. The problem is that the standard of the current Macao
Higher Education is too low and not satisfying enough for a Higher Education student
should have possessed. The author suggested that it was due to the negative school
climate led by most teachers, who are directly responsible in the students’
performances as they were trying to be ‘friendly’ and ‘nice’. For instance, they were
way too generous in tolerating the students’ negative attitudes such as ‘skipping
classes’, not even want to give a ‘failing grade’ to any of them, despite they are
deserved to this kind of disqualification. Therefore, the author did indicate the main
problem of the Macau Higher Education: the negative attitudes of students towards
education, also the improper role of teachers today. They should see ‘class
participation’ as one of the “scoring rubric’, not as the major grading system.

Q2: In the article, the author has given some criteria a good educational system
should consist of. For example, he suggested that the teacher-students relationship
should operate on a two-way basis, where both teachers and students should be
working hard on stiving for higher standards together, in order to create a better
school climate. Moreover, he proposed that teacher should be ‘staying firm’ and
‘keeping to high standards’ as to become the one who effectively control the school
climate, but not the students. However, the problems discussed in the article does
not match the ideal image of how an idealized Higher Education should look like. In
fact, the teachers are having too low expectation on students, therefore students are
mostly unmotivated in their learning, resulting to the phenomenon that the teachers
and students are not reaching the consensus of achieving ‘higher standards’
together anymore, thus lowering the standards of the Macao Higher Education.
Q3:     The most likely reason is the ‘negative’ teacher expectation in the Macau
Higher Education. According to the symbolic interaction theory (FIT), teacher’s
expectation can influence a student’s performance directly, where both teachers and
students are reflective images like a mirror, therefore their behaviors are very likely
to be shaped by one another. In the article, the author has mentioned that the
teachers nowadays “have low expectations of students and put up with poor
performance and low-quality work from them”, which can be understood that the
teachers are not even expecting much from their students. They are labelling
students as ‘unmotivated’ and ‘low-standard’, even they did not even notice that.
The low expectations from teachers are greatly reduced, which creates the self-
fulfilling prophecy that teacher expect less therefore students respond to them as
giving lesser. As a result, these low-achieving students are discouraged about their
ability to learn. The teacher and student are lacking visions and goals, whom are no
longer cooperative and motivated. Therefore, the ‘negative’ teacher expectation
impacted the students’ performances directly.

Q4:    The problem in the Macao Higher Education is that students are becoming
‘risk-maker’ who feel safe at staying at the ‘comfort zone’ to get a merely passing
grade and not making further effort. This can be foreseen that the future Macao
society cannot make further progression due to this kind of ‘passive student climate’
and attitudes. Applying the ‘Functional Theory’ into this problem, school serves the
most important function to the society, in which ‘socialization’ is the primary key for
students to learn different good values and become productive members of the
society. However, the role expectation of students has changed too much for
decades. Macao students are now having the trend of living in the subculture where
they are accepting the ‘unmotivated behavior’ in order to survive in their peer
groups. As a result, they are not learning to become ‘innovative’, but only managed
to survive in maintaining the average grades, which is risky for their future. In the
long term, the Macao society in these future decades is getting to be fading away:
the society members are not working hard, everyone just keeps at the merely
passing standard line, and the whole Macao society is not productive anymore.
Despite Macao has been spending so much on the investment of Higher Education, it
turns out that these resources are in vain.
 Q5: I totally support with the perspective of the author that the current Macao
educational system is grading ‘class participation’ as the focus of the students’
performance. Although participating punctually could be showing the efforts
made by the students despite their smartness, however, the school is utilizing this
assessment in a wrong way. ‘Class attendance’ should always be integrated with
academic efforts such as actual paper results and performances in class, therefore,
it should never be considered as the major academically grading factor. For
instance, attending every lesson is the responsibility of students. Teachers should
not abuse ‘class attendance’. I also agree with the author that ensuring students
to receive a passing degree is a kind of ‘collusion’. It is undeniable that this kind of
informal collusion could indeed prevent any unwanted trouble between teachers
and students successfully, but it never benefits them in the long term,
academically nor socially. 

Q6: ‘Rational choice theory’ could support the above views of the author. In the
theory, it is claimed that every choice human made is based on the processed
evaluation made upon the advantages and disadvantages. In the article, the author
has indicated that the abuse of ‘class participation’ has led to the negative school
climate in current Macao Education system. Since students are rational in make
choices, therefore it is not surprising that they would ‘calculate how many sessions
they can miss before failing by non-attendance’, as mentioned by the author. This
phenomenon is very common in the Macao Higher Education nowadays, no matter
in secondary schools or universities. When students understand the ‘rules’, they
would play the game by making the least investment to obtain the largest return.
They are clear in their mind that that when ‘playing’ can ensure them a passing
result, they are not really interested in ‘working hard’ in their academic studies, as
they are rational in making the best choices. 

Q7: I do not agree with the author when he mentioned that “I do not subscribe to the
view that learning in HE should always be fun, easy or pleasurable.” Even it is true
that learning may not be happy all the time, but at least teachers are attempting to
make the dull learning atmosphere into something positive and happy. In my opinion,
when a teacher can the make students become motivated who are totally uninterested
at the beginning, then this teacher is an effective and successful teacher who can
arouse the students’ motivation. Moreover. the second viewpoint opposite to my idea
is that the author has mentioned “PowerPoints which are poor proxies for teaching:
full of smiley faces, thumbs-up signs, clasped hands, cartoon figures, funny
photographs”. In fact, PowerPoint is the most effective when teachers can make use
of visual aids to make the learning interesting and attractive, if they are using in the
way appropriately. The author in this article may be too subjective in the design of the
PowerPoint, and probably do not understand the needs of a student, as he mentioned
that ‘a thousand words’ could be better than a picture. Therefore, I totally disagree
with these opinions mentioned by him. 

Q8: According to the symbolic interaction theory (FIT), both verbal and non-verbal
elements are useful in the information delivery, especially to students. As teaching
using visual aids like PowerPoint is a kind of learning auxiliaries, therefore showing
pictures would be effective for students learning. When students can receive the
information which teacher wants to deliver to them through graphics, then this kind of
non-verbal exchange is effective in the information acquisition process in students’
learning. Moreover, teachers are the one who make decisions about the strategies they
use, therefore their decision upon whether to include pictures or words are relevant, if
the materials are appropriate and effective for students’ learning. 

Q9: Regarding the problem of negative learning atmosphere in most Macao Higher
Education, we as the education professions should be responsible in dealing with
these challenges. Provided that the most ideal image of the society is harmonious and
productive, the outcomes of the Higher Education are expected to be corrected by
teachers. Therefore, teachers have the power to provide correct set of values and
attitudes to students, for example, emphasizing the compulsion of being punctual in
classes, encouraging them to develop creativeness. Most importantly, teachers should
be promoting the importance of ‘high standards in Higher Education’. For example,
they should be the models to keep their own set of principles, to be ‘sticking to high
standards’, to make high demand of them, especially at the Higher Education stage, so
that students will be well prepared for being a productive, disciplined and moral
future society member soon.
Q10: According to the function theory, education serves the needs of the society by
developing students’ skills and prepare them from participating in the institutions of
the society. Social cohesion can be achieved when all society members are having the
sense of ‘unity’. Therefore, we as the society member should be maintaining the long-
term stability of the society, ensuring that every member participate with manner
appropriately. To be more precise, we should assess students’ performances with
higher expectation, and raise the standards of the current stage if it is not satisfying
enough. With these efforts contributed by the society members, the Macao society can
be functioning smoothly, productively and effectively.