Recently I’ve a lot of conversations on teaching styles with my friends who are studying in different countries. From all the conversations, I extracted several points to share with those who are currently receiving admissions from different universities and trying to figure out which university may fit best to your own learning style.
It is said by a lot of people that European graduate schools is course based education, while American graduate school is research based. In fact, recent years, with the various requirements increasing in research field, the major of American graduate schools are also taking the course based model.
Compared to other countries, the Swedish teaching style can be reflected by the following points:
1. Education in Sweden puts more emphasis on teamwork. Studying in U.S. schools is basically doing individual projects rather than teamwork. However teamwork is closer to the actual situation of work, where communication and management skills really matter. On the other hand, individual projects are good way to reinforce individual ability efficiently, but often cooperation is ignored in the process. Both the two modes have their pros and cons, which can greatly affect your study life in your future school .
2. Short-power distance characteristics of Swedish culture appears in school education as well. Compared to the U.S., where professors really have high authority, in Sweden professors are very approachable. While the American professors are straightforward, Swedish professors are patient and mild. When American professor will say “No, that’s wrong.” Swedish professors will usually say “Maybe you can the try.”
3. KTH shares advantages on great extent of internationalisation, where the university puts much emphasis when recruiting new students. Compared to many other countries, the population of Chinese people in Sweden can be regarded as small, which also creates a good opportunity to push you to the true internationalisation. Many of my friends who are studying in the States told me that within their everyday life circle it’s basically Chinese people, for there’re so many Chinese there, making it hard to get out of the group. In Sweden, the situation will be quite different, rare Chinese here can sometimes make you feeling lonely, however it pushes you more to get contact with the local cultures and get to know more international friends. In the context that the school focuses on teamwork, the learning process can offer you the great chance to learn a lot of foreign culture from international students as well.
That’s the major points I summarised when I compare the different teaching styles between Sweden and other countries. Welcome leaving your experiences on the comments!
