TAIPEI: A prominent scholar's incisive criticism of the attitude of students studying medicine has triggered heated debate, which has led the professor in cognitive neuroscience to resign from the post as a visiting education evaluator of the Taiwan Medical Accreditation Council (TMAC).

Daisy Hung, director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience of National Central University's College of Science, has tendered her resignation after TMAC decided not to adopt her evaluation opinions, education officials said Tuesday.

The education authorities respect TMAC's decision, the officials added.

According to TMAC Director Andrew Huang's secretary, the decision was a consensus among council members, after Hung published an article criticizing students at National Taiwan University (NTU), the top-notch university in Taiwan, for "eating instant noodles" and "chewing drumsticks" in class.

Commenting on the TMAC's decision, central Taiwan's China Medical University Hospital Vice President Lin Shinn-zong said ignoring Hung's accreditation was "disrespect for Hung" after the latter spent time and energy to seek improvement in the quality of higher education.

As Hung was blamed for disclosing contents of her evaluation which should have been kept confidential, her article published in the CommonWealth monthly drew defensive remarks from students at the NTU College of Medicine who organized a workshop on November 30 to discuss what triggered the criticisms.

In her article titled "giving way to people who want education," Hung wrote that as other universities around the world fight for talented students, Taiwan's smartest students will not only be late for class, but also eat instant noodles and chew drumsticks in class, watch TV soap opera series on their computer, or lie prone on the desk for a long nap.

The renowned educator and writer in Taiwan denounced the students for wasting society's valuable and limited educational resources and their parents' money.

At the workshop, however, Fang Yuan, an NTU assistant professor in sociology, gave a different opinion on students' behavior. She argued that Taiwan's traditional "authoritarian" approach to education has proved its failure.

"Students" are the subject of education, she said, explaining that it is important for there to be interactions between teachers and students. She stated that every teacher has his or her different "silent agreement" with students.

If the teacher feels eating food in class has interfered with other students' learning, she wonders why the teacher will not act to stop it, Fang said.

She added that she believes "students' behavior in class is not equivalent to their learning attitude, nor learning effect."

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 12/03/2009 page2)