CHUNCHEON, South Korea — A city about 50 miles east of Seoul has adopted the “Great Books” teaching model used by St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, as educators worry about students’ reliance on artificial intelligence, NPR reported on Monday, Nov. 9.
Related: more on our Artificial Intelligence and Asia-Pacific pages.
How the model works
In Great Books classes, teachers guide discussions rather than lecture, and students rely on their readings, their own reasoning and debate with classmates instead of outside sources such as the internet, NPR said. Chuncheon’s government formed an academic partnership with St. John’s last year. Students read Aristotle, Shakespeare, Euclid and Korean authors including Nobel laureate Han Kang.
Why South Korea is trying it
NPR cited a post-COVID drop in South Korean reading skills on international tests such as PISA, and figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showing 51% of South Korean students use AI chatbots to study at least weekly.
“Korean students are even losing their old capacity to memorize facts,” said Lee Yonghwa, an Incheon National University professor who co-founded South Korea’s first Great Books program in 2019. Lee said students who cannot reason independently cannot judge the quality of what AI produces for them.
How far it has spread
About 120 college students and some 770 younger students are now in the program, with 40 teachers in training, according to Lee. Chuncheon Mayor Yook Dong-han told NPR the city wanted a different educational philosophy, citing personal experience of the country’s test-driven system.
What happens next
The program is still in its infancy, NPR said, so its effect on students’ reading and reasoning has yet to be measured.
Sources
Read next in Artificial Intelligence
Artificial IntelligenceTesla Expands Robotaxi Service to San Antonio, Another City Where Waymo Already Operates
Artificial IntelligenceTrump Calls Jensen Huang an ‘Honorable Guy’ as Yale’s Sonnenfeld Puts the Nvidia CEO’s Survival at ‘About a 50-50’
Artificial IntelligenceMIT and UBC Researchers Build WorldParticle, One AI Model That Simulates Sand, Fluids and Folding Proteins
Most read this week
- Abdul El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood Claims: What’s Confirmed and What Isn’t
- Stock Futures Erase a 2.4% Overnight Drop as Markets Digest Democrats’ Sweep of Congress
- Spain Transport Minister Óscar Puente Quits 26 Days Before Election Over Crash That Killed 69
- Boston Plans to Close 3 Schools in 2028 as Enrollment Drops as Much as 58%
- GM Korea’s Sales Jump 26.6% on Chevrolet Exports as Hyundai Slips 6.3% and Korean Factory Growth Cools
Latest
- Bikers and Bug Conservationists Unite Against Google’s Planned Data Center East of London
- Rosneft Limits Gasoline Sales in Several Russian Regions as Ukrainian Refinery Strikes Continue, Reports Say
- Trump Says He Expects to Meet Putin and Xi at the APEC Summit in Shenzhen Next Week
- Pope Leo Tells Milei the Economy Must Serve People on First Papal Visit to Argentina in Nearly 40 Years
- Bangladesh’s Ousted Leader Sheikh Hasina Requests a New Passport Ahead of Promised December Return