In many parts of the world, the number of students who find learning at university more difficult than studying at school is increasing. This trend can be largely attributed to passive studying methods in school, and the academic workload in college is significantly heavier than that in school. This essay will analyze these causes and propose several viable solutions.
One major contributing factor is the passive learning methods in some high schools. Receiving knowledge only from the teacher prevents students from developing independent learning skills and curiosity about new concepts. Particularly, many students gradually lose their motivation to study, only learning when teachers provide knowledge directly. Meanwhile, the heavier academic workload also makes students feel overwhelmed and unable to cope with their studies. High schools only require students to solve basic math problems. Nevertheless, in universities, students learn complex formulas and concepts, which require them to fully understand the context. For example, schools require learners to find sin and cos of the angles from given sides. In contrast, while colleges require students to gather real numbers, students also have to input numbers into complex formulas, produce accurate results and interpret them.
To address this issue, both governmental and community-level solutions are required. The government should reform the curriculum with more interactive sessions, where students have the opportunity to actively present in front of their classes. Specifically, many international schools have applied this method to their education program. The students take on the role of a teacher to teach their classmates. Thereby, the students gain a deeper understanding of the lessons and become more familiar with independent learning. Additionally, many alumni support high school students through creating foundation courses, which help students to be exposed to university-level concepts and learning methods.
In conclusion, a greater sense of difficulty in college or university is mainly caused by the learning methods and the study volume. However, through reforming curricula and community support, this problem can be effectively mitigated.