National Tsing Hua University and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) are two top universities in Hsinchu City’s East District (東區). For many years, they have been a talent pool for Taiwan’s high-tech industry, supplying the country with a never-ending stream of professionals.
Their education systems are self-perpetuating and sound, while the two institutes have stood out from the rest in the past few years. Despite this, potential concerns have them launching a new wave of student recruitment.
The potential problem was spotted by former NYCU president Frank Chang (張懋中), who also served as a chair professor in the electrical engineering department at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Taiwan head of a world-class international software company asked him to guess how many of the company’s 3,000 Taiwanese employees were “product leaders,” Chang said.
Chang, intending to be humble, said “five,” but was surprised to hear that the answer was “zero.”
The main reason was that most Taiwanese only know how to answer questions, not how to ask them.
The company’s product leaders are mostly Israeli and Indian, as they have been taught from childhood how to ask questions.
After all, Albert Einstein once said: “The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill.”
Einstein also said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
Einstein proposed many creative ideas, mainly because he could formulate problems in his imagination. For example, consider his theory of relativity. It was the result of a thought experiment in which he used mathematical reasoning as a tool and the findings of other studies as references.
In Israel, teaching methods at all levels aim to put theory into practice by using real-life problems to stimulate students’ ability to imagine and think.
For example, water shortages in a desert environment and the issue of effective water use led Israel to invent the world-beating “drip irrigation” technique, turning the country into a kingdom of vegetables and flowers.
Since patenting the invention, Israel has been selling the technique worldwide. Such teaching imparts a “living education,” whereas in Taiwan, vehicle engineering graduates from a science and technology university cannot even change a tire.
Taiwan can always learn something from other countries — Israel has had 12 Nobel Prize winners over the past 20 years, although Israeli students rarely participate in scholastic competitions such as the International Olympiads in mathematics, physics and chemistry.
Israel’s percentage of start-ups is the third-highest in the world.
Taiwanese students should be encouraged to ask more questions and let their imaginations run wild, instead of training them to mechanically answer questions and turning them into “test-taking machines.”
Teng Hon-yuan is a professor at Chinese Culture University.
Translated by Eddy Chang
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
On a quiet lane in Taipei’s central Daan District (大安), an otherwise unremarkable high-rise is marked by a police guard and a tawdry A4 printout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating an “embassy area.” Keen observers would see the emblem of the Holy See, one of Taiwan’s 12 so-called “diplomatic allies.” Unlike Taipei’s other embassies and quasi-consulates, no national flag flies there, nor is there a plaque indicating what country’s embassy this is. Visitors hoping to sign a condolence book for the late Pope Francis would instead have to visit the Italian Trade Office, adjacent to Taipei 101. The death of
As the highest elected official in the nation’s capital, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) is the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate-in-waiting for a presidential bid. With the exception of Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), Chiang is the most likely KMT figure to take over the mantle of the party leadership. All the other usual suspects, from Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) to KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) have already been rejected at the ballot box. Given such high expectations, Chiang should be demonstrating resolve, calm-headedness and political wisdom in how he faces tough
RSS