Recent studies would seem to suggest that China boasts one of the best education systems in the world and that the once acclaimed British education system is trailing a long way behind. With long days of studying, competitiveness amongst peers and strict discipline in the classroom, it's clear to see why the Chinese system is deemed world-class. On the other hand, it has also been reported that China is turning to a British-style education because Chinese parents find it more creative. But what do you think?
Is there anything British schools can learn from the Chinese education system?
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I am 27 years old, and I like your education way very much, because your education comprehensive ability and humanization are very good. Our education method is really not suitable for many people. I think this education is only suitable for short-term training. Chinese education can indeed rapidly improve one's ability, but it will also lose a lot of things. Lost: character, choice, doubt, freedom, time, sociability, happiness, hobbies, cooperation, health, hands-on ability, etc. The results are: very quick mastery of certain areas of ability, endurance, discipline and so on. Chinese education will make most people become good babies and give parents more free time. But, at the same time, you will lose more time to love and understand your child and the child will not have time and energy to learn how to love and love you. The result of the exam, in fact, is not that important, I think this is really like the students in video change to the robot, will be very numb. Without freedom and choice, we should do what others do. I think we will lose too much. Your students will tell the teacher what the trig functions are for? Maybe I will never use it in my life. I really feel that these students are really smart. We've learned so much that we won't be able to use it for the rest of our lives. I think good hobbies are more important than grades, because it will affect your future and creativity. Good choices are more important than what you do. We're education, like in video you don't have a choice. We believe that good study is a good child, poor study is a bad child, these are deeply engraved in the bones of teachers and parents. I think it's actually not that important what you see on the test, because there's so much you don't see. If a person just gets good grades, does not love, does not know how to respect others, I think there is no point in going to school. Chinese education, that silence is not called respect, I think can only be regarded as obedience. Seeing your students fall behind because of running, the teacher will comfort you very warmly, while no one on our side will take care of you at all, which will be very cold. Spend a lot of time every day, the most harmful is the body. Hope you can have a good youth ~
I haven't worked or lived in China, however I have worked in post compulsory settings in England for a number of years. When I started my career in the 70s, full time students in Technical Colleges, studying for vocational and academic courses had significantly more time in workshops and classrooms per week than they have had in recent years. They also attended colleges, if they were fortunate, for substantial blocks of time.
In the best of college sessions, with the best of staff, students enjoyed learning and were given ample opportunity to display creativity on practical projects and had time to reflect upon and develop both practical and academic skills.This was also true in 'theory' lessons, bricklayers mathematics and plumbers science were firmly embedded and learned by repetition and practice in both practical and class based sessions.
In the worst of sessions however they were dictated at from text books, subjected to death by acetate, had a recent graduate from the social sciences attempting to raise their conciousnesses in General Studies sessions, and threatened with tests to maintain class discipline if things were going badly.
There was more repetition and structured exercises in the best of classes, as we all kinda knew, both students and staff, that you got better by practice, as long as it was planned and supported by guidance from tutors and fellow students.
In the worst of classes there was significant elements of 'non-teaching'. That doesnt mean the tutor was absent, althoug that did happen, it meant there was no rationale for what was being done, no purpose to the activity and consequently very little 'learning'
It is a given to me that a necessary bedrock for acceptable teaching and learning is a clear purpose and clear objectives for sessions. These need to be set from the outset and whenever possible agreed between teacher and students. It is also a given to me that repetition and practice creates skill and enhances recall ability, we can be hard wired as a previous comment has stated.
Aptitude and attitude, or lack of it, may make it a longer or a shorter process.I wonder how many recall (it may be apocryphal) the Gary Player response to the 'you are a lucky golfer' comment. If you dont it was: ' I seem to get luckier the more I practice' or something along those lines.
The theories of practice I have usually drawn upon come from research into sportIng performance. I have come to the conclusion that distributed practice is superior to massed practice and I noted with interest that the Chinese teachers did allow 'rest' times during their instruction, the fact that some students were overheard saying 'I dont get it' doesnt mean that an approach wasn't working; it just wasn't working yet. Given the time constraints on teachers and tutors in the 'ordinary' classroom today there is a pressure to get a positive reponse ie a performance that is adequate and is observed in one interaction and then move on leaving the student to do the extra work for reinforcement at home. It seems to me that the repetition in the Chinese approach allowed transfer after the first 'correct' performance and on to further planned reinforcements until the tests at the end of the 'experiment'. It may have been 'boring' or uninspiring, it seems however to have been effective. That is probably because the Chinese teachers believed in it as an approach.
In the early years of my career I had time, that most precious of resouces, and space in which I could explore with my students, take risks with them, build relationships with them and maybe even be innovative and creative in my own small way. This could be both in a group setting and in one to one. What struck me about the holistic approach that the Chinese School adopted was the whole day approach. It seemed to be closer to a 'boarding' experience than a prison to me. There was the same emphasis upon the importance of discipline and trying hard at everything. If it was competitive so be it. I believe competiton can be helpful especially if you're being competitive with yourself . Or is that trying harder? Interesting to note that all of the English staff had quite a competitive edge when it came to the final tests.
So a fascinating, but maybe flawed, experiment. Reminiscent of Professor Dylan Wiliams foray inro mainstream schools for the TV. So what can we learn from it? I dont know what Confucious woud say about it all. However Plato describes Socrates position on individuals (and their moral actions) He claims Socrates identified Good, Bad and neither good nor bad as three 'states' an individual could be in. Good could be considere as Right, Bad as Wrong and us poor educators in the middle neither Right or Wrong most of the time. The point is not to get hung up what is good or bad about either system but what we can draw from them. Are our kids tough enough? they can be. Who's job is it to make them tough enough maybe less hockey dads/moms and more tiger dads/moms.Education is not the 'silver bullet' to solve socities ills.
I was also pleased to see proper attention to nutrition, hydration and physical exercise as a recognised and fully integrated part of the Chinese School experience. I am pretty certain, even although I have never lived in China, that Chinese children dont think milk comes from Supermarkets.