[00:08.20]Within a few decades, a quarter of China’s population will be aged 60 or over.
[00:13.77]As a result, there will be fewer full-time workers between the age of 20 and 65 to support the older people and children in the society.
[00:24.03]As the age distribution of the population changes,
[00:27.59]education will become increasingly important as a means of improving the health and employment opportunities of older people.
[00:35.58]It will also help strengthen family relationships and the sense of community.
[00:40.52]The Ministry of Education introduced the first University of the Third Age (UTA) in Shandong in 1983.
[00:51.12]There are now about 17,000 UTAs in China providing a wide-ranging curriculum to about 1.4 million older people.
[01:01.88]When the age restriction for the University Entrance Exams was lifted in 2001,
[01:08.26]several other people, including a 73-year-old Shandong man, signed up to take the test.
[01:14.81]In the autumn of 2004,
[01:14.92]business woman Liu Fuzhen joined her 14-year-old son at Yincai Junior Middle School in Lingshai as a full-time member of second grade class.
[01:25.16]It is 23 years since Mme Liu dropped out of school to help her family through financial difficulties by finding work.
[01:33.57]Having set up a successful property business,
[01:37.00]Mme Liu has now decided to pursue her childhood ambition of completing high school and attending university.
[01:43.94]READIGN
[01:47.99]DISANCE LEARNING
[01:49.74]Distance learning is being adopted in several countries to help children in remote rural schools,
[01:56.25]and it is also becoming increasingly popular with individuals as a means of obtaining higher or further education.
[02:04.01]While distance learning is a very different experience from attending a university or college,
[02:09.62]it does have several advantages and can be ideal for people in particular circumstances and with certain characteristics.
[02:18.45]Distance learning students do not need to be in the same place as the course provider.
[02:24.20]They can even be in different country.
[02:26.65]As a result, the cost is usually much lower than attending a university or college.
[02:31.91]Students can also take as long as they want to complete the course,
[02:36.01]so they can organize their study while they are working.
[02:38.65]Many distance learners even continue to do a full-time job.
[02:42.46]Distance learning allows students the freedom to arrange their own study schedule,
[02:48.23]but the disadvantage of it is that many students tend to put off their study tasks and spend much longer on their course.
[02:56.15]Distance learners never meet the other students or teachers face to face
[03:00.85]so they have to motivate themselves to complete projects without encouragement and advice from other people.
[03:07.41]While students who attend college or university are able to acquire information from lectures,
[03:14.01]distance learners usually depend only on written materials.
[03:18.53]To be successful, distance learners have to be good readers.
[03:22.77]They must be able to analyse and absorb written texts with little help from a teacher.
[03:28.51]Because distance learners are not in the academic environment of a university,
[03:33.82]they have to discipline themselves while studying.
[03:36.95]For example, students with children may be disturbed by their children from time to time.
[03:42.28]Other features of campus life that distance learners cannot experience are the lively social and sports activities.
[03:49.96]Therefore distance learning would not suit people who wee further or higher education as an opportunity to make friends and have fun as well as to study.
[04:00.67]MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR MEMORY
[04:05.08]Have you ever heard anyone say “I have a terrible memory”?
[04:10.07]It is quite common for people to believer that their difficulties in remembering are just part of their personality.
[04:17.34]In fact, research has proved that human beings’ memories are surprisingly similar and our ability to remember can easily be improved
[04:26.45]The German philosopher Hermann Ebbinghaus carried out one of the earliest studies of human memory,
[04:33.69]which resulted in the “ Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve”.
[04:37.16]His experiments were conducted in 1885,
[04:40.87]but his conclusions still apply to students today.
[04:44.32]Ebbinghaus discovered that when we learn something new,
[04:44.75]we forget most of it immediately.
[04:47.21]He found that more than 50% of the information is forgotten after one hour,
[04:53.24]and almost two-thirds within one day.
[04:55.70]The good news is that our rate of forgetting then declines,
[05:00.06]so the material we can recall after one day (usually about 20%) will stay in our memory.
[05:07.90]Ebbinghaus then carried out experiments to see if reciting made a difference to our ability to remember.
[05:14.82]It is evident that reciting the information just once increases how much we can recall to about 66%,
[05:23.36]and we remember it for several weeks. This rate is even higher if the facts or ideas are “meaningful”,
[05:30.70]and further reciting keeps the material permanently in our memories.
[05:35.33]As we forget most new information within one day,
[05:38.56]the first recitation should take place as soon as possible-no later than 24 hours after learning it.
[05:46.01]Although Ebbinghaus referred to “reciting”,
[05:49.33]many educators today prefer to use the term “to review”.
[05:53.58]The reason for this is that learners frequently misunderstand what effective reciting involves.
[05:59.96]Take language learning an example: students often tend to recite lists of single vocabulary items,
[06:07.64]rather than to review them in a context.
[06:10.07]If you try doing this, you will find that you do remember a lot of words,
[06:15.27]but you will not understand how to use them appropriately.
[06:19.11]A more useful method is to use the new vocabulary by describing or retelling the main ideas of the text,
[06:26.81]presentation or discussion in your own words.
[06:29.63]In the way, you “review” or “recite” the vocabulary in a context,
[06:35.67]so the information becomes “meaningful” and you will remember much more |