Cho Named to Korean National Academy of Engineering
Peck Cho has been inducted
into the National Academy of Engineering in Korea.
At 45, he is the youngest person
to be elected to the academy and one of only 22 overseas members. This
is the latest in a series of honors he has received from engineering societies,
including the Outstanding Teaching Award from the American Society of
Engineering Education, the Teetor Educational Award from the Society of
Automotive Engineering and the Outstanding Service Award from the Korean
Society of Engineering Education.
Cho, Michigan Tech's ombudsperson
and a professor of mechanical engineering, was honored for his efforts
in the field of education. For the last decade, he has consulted, cajoled
and cheered for educational reform in his native Korea, with the goal
of instituting the best practices in American education while sidestepping
its mistakes.
Among his efforts, he has brought
more than 100 Korean engineering students to MTU, developed an exchange
program for student groups and provided opportunities for a dozen Michigan
Tech faculty to deliver seminars and mini-courses in Korea.
"Asia's universities are
waking up from deep, deep slumber and are trying to reform," Cho
said. "They are now struggling to stay competitive and relevant to
the national interest."
Ten years ago, Cho predicted
the recession that struck Asian economies in the mid-1990s, blaming an
educational system that stifled creativity and initiative. Their respective
higher-ed establishments have recognized the need for change, Cho said,
but their typical response reinforces old social and educational hierarchies
and will do little to boost Asian economies to a position of international
leadership.
"The strategy they usually
adopt is to stress graduate research at the expense of undergraduate education,
exactly when societal changes demand that institutions of higher learning
provide quality education."
In addition to writing four
books on the subject, including "Seven Reasons for Korean Revival:
Educational Reform" (coauthored with his wife) and "New Teaching
Techniques," Cho has been featured on several Korean radio and television
talk shows, written newspaper columns and spoken before dozens of conferences.
He has lobbied for the creation of learning centers, better teacher training
and the abandonment of the memorize-what's-on-the-board style of teaching.
And his weekly e-mail newsletter on teaching reaches more than 7,000 subscribers.
These efforts have met with
some success. About 30 Korean universities are considering establishing
centers for teaching, and for many teacher training is now a requirement
for new faculty.
"What I've been able to
do is articulate why we must invest in quality education and then show
them how it can be done," Cho said.
Jang Gyu Lee is chair of foreign
affairs for the Korean National Academy of Engineering and a professor
at Seoul National University's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science, where Cho has been a frequent guest lecturer.
"Dr. Cho has made so many
contributions to Korean academic society that I'm afraid I can only describe
his work partially," Lee said. "With the e-letters, he strongly
influences the Korean academic community to strengthen education.
"You know, Korea tends
to follow American universities in which faculty members put research
in front of education," Lee noted. "College education has steadily
deteriorated. Many Korean professors tell me that they follow the suggestions
made by Dr. Cho and improve the quality of their teaching.
"I deeply appreciate Dr.
Cho's contributions for that."
Now his message is beginning
to spread beyond the borders of Korea.
Cho has been invited to present
at international conferences in Australia and Singapore, as well as to
serve on the editorial board of the Engineering Education Journal, published
by the Association of Engineering Education for South East Asia and the
Pacific.
"Change takes a long time
here in the U.S.," Cho said. "Over there, everything is moving
so fast. . . . I expect to see big changes in the next five or 10 years."
Asian nations have been immensely
successful in developing industrial economies, Cho said. If they can re-tool
their educational systems for the Information Age, the West could find
its economic preeminence challenged once again.
If Asia is roused out of this
"deep, deep slumber," American universities could be in for
an awakening of their own.
