GTIIT started teaching its first batch of students in October 2017. In the first year we have delivered many courses taught by the finest  teachers of the Israeli Institute of Technology, the Technion. Today, we bring an impression of Dr. Avital Binah-Pollak, who teaches the course Chinese & Israeli Culture Comparatives and has received extremely positive evaluations from the students.

In general, I view education as a dialectical process. So, whether a certain lesson focused on Israeli society, a topic the students knew relatively little about or the Chinese society, a topic the students are very familiar with, my goal was that the students will not be passive listeners but be engaged in a dialogue with me. As an anthropologist I was taught that whenever entering a new "research field" the best thing that can happen to you is to be surprised from what you meet. The reason is that if you enter the field and just discover what you already know, you most probably did not learn anything new. So, I can say that even though I have visited China several times before and have been engaged in research about the Chinese education system, the GTIIT students surprised me. There is a large difference between Israeli and Chinese education methods. It starts from when the child is born and continues throughout the years, both in the family sphere and in the formal education system. One major difference is the emphasis on authority in Chinese education and the lack of it in Israel. During the semester it was quite apparent that Chinese students are not used to question the teachers' words, even if she made a mistake, while Israeli students are often encouraged to challenge their teachers.

I can gladly say that I was surprised to learn that the students did go through a meaningful process: They applied the concepts and ideas learnt throughout the course and created group projects which demonstrated creativity and critical thinking. Perhaps, one reason is that when you learn about a new culture, it makes you reflect on your own. The same is true with regards to what I have learned from the students about Israel, China and education.