A bevy of alternative schools in Taiwan take novel approaches to learning.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/12/07
By: Kathy Chen, Taiwan Business TOPICS Magazine
Credit: Depositphotos
Lunchtime is approaching and 18-year-old Tsai Jia-hao and his classmates are cooking seafood noodles in the sleek, open kitchen. Jia-hao expertly tosses the pasta in the pan, while other students chop cabbage and carrots for stir-fry. Their teacher looks on, finishing off the noodles with a sprinkle of Thai basil.
Jia-hao, a lanky kid in T-shirt and baseball cap, slides the noodles into a serving bowl, and his classmates gather around to serve themselves. “I love to cook,” he says.
It’s all in a day’s classes at Taiwan’s Xue Xue Institute. Xue Xue isn’t a culinary institution, though, but rather an experimental school where teachers use cooking as a way to help students get in touch with their senses. It is also one of several dozen alternative schools that have opened on the island in recent years, as educators and parents seek to engage the younger generation in learning that will prepare them for the 21st century workplace.
Although Taiwan’s first alternative school was set up in 1990, the government didn’t codify its policy on experimental and home schools until 2014 when the Enforcement Act for School-based Experimental Education and two related laws were passed. An amendment last year paved the way for experimental education initiatives to be expanded from K-12 to include higher education. [FULL STORY]
