tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/asian-education-9112/articlesAsian education – The Conversation2016-09-15T10:44:37Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/652522016-09-15T10:44:37Z2016-09-15T10:44:37ZDoes selective schooling work anywhere in the world?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137563/original/image-20160913-4958-sivofq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hands up for better education policy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">michaeljung/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After Prime Minister Theresa May announced that more schools in England would be allowed to start selecting pupils based on their ability, the government has <a href="https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/schools-that-work-for-everyone/supporting_documents/SCHOOLS%20THAT%20WORK%20FOR%20EVERYONE%20%20FINAL.pdf">launched a consultation</a> on its plans to make “schools work for everyone”. </p>
<p>But the national evidence, based on comparing the 163 existing grammar schools with all other state-funded schools in England, is clear. Grammar schools <a href="http://eer.sagepub.com/content/14/3-4/257.abstract">take in</a> very few disadvantaged or low-income pupils, and are associated with local segregation between families of different social and economic types, of a kind that reduces aspiration and damages futures. In order to get in, pupils have to be older within their year group (which is no indicator of talent or merit), and the few pupils who are eligible for free school meals in grammar schools <a href="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/projects?ref=ES%2FN012046%2F1">have been eligible</a> for fewer of their school years than average. </p>
<p>The higher examination outcomes for pupils attending grammar schools are explained by looking at who these pupils are – their prior attainment, family poverty, age-in-year and so on – and not by the kind of school they went to. It is not clear why these schools have survived as a remnant in the comprehensive era since 1966, nor why anyone aware of the evidence, both at home and abroad, would wish to expand them. </p>
<h2>Selection in Anglophone countries</h2>
<p>One of the biggest problems with comparing education policy in one country with that of another is that the economic, political and other contextual factors differ. A developing country may have selective schools and fund education poorly, leading to worse test outcomes than a richer country that does not have selection. This would be no test of the impact of selection.</p>
<p>None of the world’s major English-speaking countries such as the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have a national system of selecting children for entry to state-funded schools at around age 11, even though they may – like England – have specific school types <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lesson-from-canada-why-australia-should-have-fewer-selective-schools-35534">that are selective</a>. To slightly differing extents, they have <a href="http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/9810131ec035.pdf?expires=1473761934&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=70597FB2A18EBB05BF24C56E17A413A7">what the OECD terms</a> “low levels of horizontal differentiation at the system level”, meaning that their school systems are more comprehensive than selective. </p>
<p>These countries are, in many respects, the most similar to the UK. Many of the remaining countries with strong historical links to the UK are at different stages of development, such as Pakistan, which like several developing countries, does not yet have universal secondary schooling.</p>
<h2>Selection in the Pacific Rim</h2>
<p>The picture is less clear for non-European countries which are regularly deemed to perform well in international comparisons such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Programme for International Student Assessment</a> (PISA) tests. China is represented only by a few coastal urban areas. Japan and South Korea do not operate a national policy of selection – Japan has traditionally allocated places by the proximity of a child’s home to the school but is increasingly offering parents a “choice” of school. </p>
<p>Singapore on the other hand is more selective, and many of its most popular schools do use selection based on prior performance to handle over-subscription. Overall, however, there is no evidence from PISA or elsewhere that nationally selective systems and better test outcomes are positively linked. </p>
<h2>In the EU, selection does not produce equity</h2>
<p>Probably the clearest comparisons with the most evidence come from the European Union’s 28 countries. Even here, the level of development varies between countries. The <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/data-explorer">UN Human Development Index</a> is 92 for the Netherlands, but 78 for Bulgaria. In general, the countries that have low educational equity (<a href="https://www.oecd.org/edu/Education-at-a-Glance-2014.pdf">assessed by</a> a high correlation between social background and educational outcomes) are also less developed. Those with the highest Human Development Index, such as the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and England, tend to have high equity, better test outcomes, and are not nationally selective in their schooling.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Big moments for small children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Catalin Petolea/www.shutterstock.co</span></span>
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<p>The European countries that have relatively low equity for their level of development and expenditure on education (such as Austria and Germany) are the most obvious examples of systems with early selection of pupils, known as tracking. Others, such as Belgium or Ireland, traditionally operate on a strong sectarian faith-basis, which is linked then to clustering by ethnicity and immigrant status as well as social class. Such countries portray a stronger than expected link between a pupil’s individual attainment and the background of their parents – presumably because selection is on the basis of prior attainment, which is strongly correlated with socio-economic status and family background. </p>
<p>Levels of trust and civic participation among adults in such lower equity countries are among the lowest in the EU. This can be shown by the <a href="http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/view/10.1057/9780230277335">link between experiences</a> at school, who a child goes to school with, and their wider outcomes such as preparation for citizenship. </p>
<p>It is quite hard to find a suitable comparison from around the world that the government in England could “borrow” its new selective education policy from in the 21st century. Most developed countries do not operate a formal, national selective system and the most successful countries (rather than cities) in PISA do not operate a formal selective system. </p>
<p>So the best evidence for England is still the evidence from England, both from when the grammar school system <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Origins_and_destinations.html?id=p00PAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">was widespread</a> and more recently. Both show that the gains are minimal if any, while the dangers for social cohesion are daunting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Gorard receives funding from the ESRC (grant number ES/N012046/1) to investigate the different kinds of poverty and their impact on education. </span></em></p>Grammar schools are back on the agenda in England, but they are not a go-to education policy for the 21st century.Stephen Gorard, Professor of Education and Public Policy, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/327032014-10-09T05:08:26Z2014-10-09T05:08:26ZHow East Asian children get so far ahead of their classmates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/61149/original/j25zm9x2-1412763491.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Racing ahead.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-42776815/stock-photo--year-old-little-asian-girl-doing-homework.html?src=cYNdDC5yXXi8PvMIMOxuPQ-1-47">mamahoohooba </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is no secret that children of East Asian heritage excel at school. In England, for example, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/280689/SFR05_2014_Text_FINAL.pdf">78% of ethnic Chinese children obtain</a> at least 5 A<sup>*</sup> to C GCSE grades, compared to a national average of just 60%. Yet, despite some <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/feb/07/chinese-children-school-do-well">very interesting research done</a> by my colleague at the Institute of Education, Becky Francis, we still know very little about why this is the case.</p>
<p>I have explored this issue in a <a href="http://johnjerrim.com/papers/">new paper</a> using Australian data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment data. Just like their counterparts in the UK, Australian-born children of East Asian heritage do very well in school – particularly when it comes to maths. </p>
<p>I show that they score an average of 605 points on the PISA 2012 maths test. This puts them more than two years ahead of the average child living in either England or Australia. They even outperform the average child in perennial top PISA performers such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-singapores-school-system-so-successful-and-is-it-a-model-for-the-west-22917">Singapore</a>, Hong Kong and Japan.</p>
<p>Politicians frequently tell us that we need to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/03/gove-defends-education-reforms">learn lessons from high-performing countries</a>. Yet, in my opinion, it is actually more insightful to consider what is driving the high performance of East Asian children born and raised within an “average performing” country such as Australia. After all, they clearly excel at the PISA tests, despite having been exposed to a western culture and education system similar to that in England.</p>
<h2>No silver bullet</h2>
<p>First, there does not seem to be a “silver bullet” that explains why East Asian children excel at school. Rather, a combination of inter-linked factors are at play.</p>
<p>Second, I find little evidence that children of East Asian heritage simply put more effort into the PISA test. So it seems unlikely that their high performance is a statistical artefact, or that they are more motivated to do well in the test than their British or Australian peers.</p>
<p>Third, the type of school matters a great deal. This accounts for roughly half the achievement gap between children with East Asian parents versus those with western (either Australian or British) parents. This may partly be a reflection of culture, including the high value East Asian families place upon their children’s education – meaning they send them to the best possible school.</p>
<h2>Outside the school gates</h2>
<p>Even after accounting for differences in family background and schools, children with East Asian parents remain one whole school year ahead of their peers with Australian (or British) parents. This is partly due to East Asian parents investing more in out-of-school tuition and instilling a harder work ethic in their children. These out-of-school factors therefore play an important role in explaining why East Asian children do so much better in the PISA test than their British and Australian peers.</p>
<p>What are the implications of these findings for us here in the UK? Well, every time international assessments like PISA are released, we hear <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-asian-schooling-infatuation-the-problem-of-pisa-envy-9435">about the lessons to be learned</a> from the high-performing East Asian economies. This has led to us <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/184064/DFE-RR178.pdf">comparing our curriculum to those in Singapore and Hong Kong</a>, and sending delegations to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/experts-to-visit-shanghai-to-raise-standards-in-maths">observe teaching methods in East Asian schools</a>. </p>
<p>Yet many of the key reasons why East Asian children excel are cultural and therefore beyond the control of schools. So what the data really teaches us is that parents and family culture matter a great deal. And we must not forget that England’s overall middling performance in such international comparisons depends on a lot more than just the “performance” of our education system, teachers and schools.</p>
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<p>_
This article is co-published with the <a href="http://ioelondonblog.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/east-asia-top-performers-what-pisa-really-teaches-us/">IOE London blog</a>.
_</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Jerrim receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>It is no secret that children of East Asian heritage excel at school. In England, for example, 78% of ethnic Chinese children obtain at least 5 A* to C GCSE grades, compared to a national average of just…John Jerrim, Lecturer in Economics and Social Statistics, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/243802014-03-25T06:12:46Z2014-03-25T06:12:46ZExplainer: what makes Chinese maths lessons so good?<p>Chinese students begin learning their maths facts at a very early age: maths textbooks begin with multiplication in the first semester of second grade, when children are seven years old. In order to understand multiplication, pupils have to memorise the multiplication rhyme: “four times eight is 32, five times eight is 40” and so on, which was invented by ancient Chinese scholars 2,200 years ago. </p>
<p>Stemming from this tradition, most classrooms have few concrete teaching materials for maths lessons. The cultural traditions of Chinese maths education lead people to believe that routine practice is the most efficient way to learn.</p>
<p>This continues today. And as a result, schools in Shanghai <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10494678/PISA-education-tests-Why-Shanghai-pupils-are-so-special.html">have scored highly in recent years</a> on international tests of maths ability. It is this aptitude for maths among Chinese schoolchildren that has led the UK government to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26533428">announce plans to bring over 60 maths teachers</a> from Shanghai to help teach in centres of excellence. </p>
<h2>15 hours a week</h2>
<p>The Chinese curriculum in maths is a nine-year programme divided into four mathematical stages, running from primary school to grade 9, when a child is 14 years old. The curriculum sets out four teaching periods a week for maths in primary and junior high schools. However, most schools arrange more than five periods each week. </p>
<p>Because of China’s standardised curriculum and teaching, the national exam system, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/china-one-child-policy-dont-bank-on-a-baby-boom-just-yet-20458">one child policy</a>, teachers and parents in China have <a href="https://theconversation.com/copying-the-long-chinese-school-day-could-have-unintended-consequences-23398">big expectations</a> for their students from early on. There is a high degree of parental involvement and parents prioritise their children’s education, especially in maths, which is one of three core curricular in national exams.</p>
<p>A typical teaching period in primary schools is approximately 40 minutes, extending to 45 minutes in secondary school. Teachers often set at least half an hour of homework every day for primary school pupils and more for secondary pupils. So it’s normal for Chinese pupils, particularly secondary and high school students, to spend more than 15 hours per week on maths both in and outside the classroom.</p>
<h2>Made to understand</h2>
<p>A new compulsory mathematics curriculum was introduced in 2001 and revised in 2011, setting out standards for “number and algebra”, “space and graph”, “statistics and probability” and “practice and applications”. </p>
<p>The goal of maths education in China is to develop conceptual and procedural knowledge through rigid practice. In comparison, the UK maths curriculum is less focused and consistent. China uses whole-class instruction, engaging all students in the material and prompting feedback. This is different to the UK model teaching of maths, which is more focused on small groups and individual attention. </p>
<p>Chinese students are taught to understand numerical relationships and to develop and prove their solutions to problems in front of the whole class. This means students understand whole concepts of maths, allowing them to apply previous knowledge to help them learn new topics. </p>
<p>When a Chinese teacher introduces a new topic, they tend to use different kinds of <a href="http://www.merga.net.au/documents/MERJ_19_1_Lim.pdf">examples that vary in difficulty</a>. </p>
<p>This way of teaching with variation has been applied either consciously or <a href="http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/journal/lai.pdf">intuitively in China for a long time</a>. In class, maths teachers also emphasise logical reasoning, prompting pupils with questions such as “why?”, “how?” and “what if?”. </p>
<p>Chinese maths teachers also emphasise the use of precise and elegant mathematical language. In secondary school maths exams, if pupils do not write according to the mathematical format required, <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ776258.pdf">marks will be deducted</a>.</p>
<h2>Teachers’ time</h2>
<p>Nearly all Chinese teachers teach a single subject, rather than multiple subjects. Most of them teach only two classes per day in primary and secondary schools. But compared with their counterparts in the UK, most Chinese math teachers have to deal with larger class sizes without streaming for ability. </p>
<p>Chinese maths teachers usually spend a considerable amount of time each day writing out detailed lesson plans, or correcting homework and marking examination papers. They also have access once a week to locally-organised teachers’ research groups, where they can get suggestions for good lesson plans. </p>
<p>Compared with their counterparts in the UK, Chinese maths teachers are not very good at integrating concepts across the curriculum. Even though pupils spend 15 hours per week learning maths, teachers often complain that they lack time in their teaching schedule. They have to deal with frequent grade-level tests every two or three weeks and school level tests every term. </p>
<p>Some good maths teachers, particularly those who come from quality schools, encourage pupils to learn about the interrelationship mathematics has with daily life. They also give full consideration to meeting the individual needs of the students. They frequently use active participation to check for individual understanding during a lesson, and integrate methods and real life projects in teaching mathematics. </p>
<p>However, most pupils in rural areas have few chances to access to this high-quality teaching. Many Chinese teachers who face the pressure of an examination-oriented education system do not see a reason to do activities that connect maths to real-life. It’s easier to just give students the information required and teach them the process. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24380/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kan Wei does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Chinese students begin learning their maths facts at a very early age: maths textbooks begin with multiplication in the first semester of second grade, when children are seven years old. In order to understand…Kan Wei, Associate Professor, Beijing Normal UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/235452014-02-25T06:00:53Z2014-02-25T06:00:53ZWe’re letting down maths and students who need a better grasp of the subject<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42374/original/q86vc9wp-1393242056.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not as easy as 1,2,3. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kolett/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education minister Elizabeth Truss has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26228234">travelled to Shanghai</a> to find out the secrets behind Chinese pupils’ mathematics success. I suspect she will find that it’s a cultural phenomenon, impossible to import to British ways of being, doing and thinking.</p>
<p>In 1982, the government of the day published a report into the teaching of mathematics in schools, <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/cockcroft/cockcroft1982.html">The Cockcroft Report</a>. It drew on a range of research, including an exploration by a TV team at Yorkshire Television who went out onto the streets and asked passers-by “How many 7p stamps can you buy for £1?” One of the replies was “Yer wot?” Another asked “Are you serious?” Most of those asked could not work out an acceptable answer.</p>
<p>To quote <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/18/maths-more-pointless-than-latin-british-pupils-china">a recent column by the Guardian’s</a> Simon Jenkins, “It damns alike those who boast ‘I was never any good at maths’, and those who teach it so badly that millions loathe it.” And it appears not a lot has changed between 1982 and 2014.</p>
<h2>Not just for scientists</h2>
<p>Students in many subjects are arriving at university without the basic mathematical skills they need for their course. Loughborough University <a href="http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/mec/">Mathematics Education Centre</a> (MEC) runs two drop-in support centres to which any student in the university, any day in the week, can bring a mathematical problem or difficulty and get one-to-one help from a mathematician in the centre. </p>
<p>The students who afford themselves of this help come from mathematics, science and engineering studies, of course, but, perhaps more surprisingly from arts, humanities and social science programmes as well. </p>
<p>Students who are highly qualified (they have been accepted for an academic degree programme) and believe that they left mathematics behind after GCSE – breathing a big sigh of relief in many cases – find themselves needing number, symbolic and representational skills for use in their own subject areas. For many it is a shock.</p>
<p>These highly qualified students have been let down by a school system that has allowed them to escape with a paucity of mathematical expertise. For students who also have some kind of learning difference, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia or Asperger’s syndrome, it is a serious concern.</p>
<h2>Creativity in the classroom</h2>
<p>In his column, Jenkins wrote, “For Britain’s pupils, maths is even more pointless than Latin.” For these undergraduates it is certainly not pointless -– its lack is a severe deficiency. Jenkins continues, “Of course children need to be taught the rudiments of number, proportion and probability, as they do to read and write.” </p>
<p>He is right, but what a way of putting it. Better to say children need to know and understand and be able to use and apply number, proportion and probability as well as algebraic and spatial reasoning. I would add that all children have the right to enjoy learning number, proportion and probability, while they develop understanding of these concepts, and that the teaching should be skillful, knowledgeable and creative. </p>
<p>The words “need to be taught”, assume that such teaching is straightforward and unproblematic. It is not.</p>
<p>For teaching to be of the quality that pupils deserve, we have to fund the skillful, knowledgeable and creative education of teachers, not only prior to their work with pupils, but during their entire teaching career. </p>
<p>Loughborough is currently extending its mathematical work to offer a Postgraduate Certificate of Education in mathematics. This is at the same time <a href="https://theconversation.com/counting-the-costs-of-moving-teacher-training-out-of-universities-23157">as our government is running down many such programmes</a>, expecting that schools will take on this provision. </p>
<p>But schools in general are not qualified to teach teachers, they do not have the time, expertise or funding. A consequence of such moves is that over-stretched and underfunded schools will be blamed for yet more of the deficiencies of the British educational system.</p>
<p>Jenkins writes: “Schools should turn their attention to creativity and social and emotional capacities”. I agree. These aspects of education are just as important in mathematics as in any other subject area. But his argument that maths “is easy to test, and thus to measure, unlike vague, slippery humanities” is just plain wrong. </p>
<p>One of the problems that schools face in teaching mathematics effectively is that it is tested in a system that reduces it to what can be tallied and measured. It is such reductionism that turns pupils into rote handle-turners and teachers into “mind-trainers”. GH Hardy (quoted by Jenkins) is <a href="http://www.math.ualberta.ca/mss/misc/A%20Mathematician's%20Apology.pdf">famous for the words</a>: “A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a master of pattern”. In our educational system we need more of the likenesses to painters and poets to produce students confident in mathematics.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">France is going faster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kouks/889330876/sizes/o/"> KouK's</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>As an addendum, the next generation of high speed trains in France will travel at more 300 miles per hour. The French network is being expanded into the rest of mainland Europe. Thousands of engineers – mechanical, civil, electrical, materials, computer – will be involved in the design, development and production. There are massive technological challenges they are trying to overcome. All these engineers need much more than a very rudimentary knowledge of number, proportion and probability. </p>
<p>At Loughborough, we are highly skilled in the mathematics education of engineers. Elizabeth Truss and her colleagues could learn more about British culture and its educational mores related to mathematics by coming to talk to us, rather than taking a trip to China.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23545/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara Jaworski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Education minister Elizabeth Truss has travelled to Shanghai to find out the secrets behind Chinese pupils’ mathematics success. I suspect she will find that it’s a cultural phenomenon, impossible to import…Barbara Jaworski, Head of Department, Mathematics Education Centre, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/233982014-02-24T15:27:07Z2014-02-24T15:27:07ZCopying the long Chinese school day could have unintended consequences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42213/original/bp3q2hh6-1392997861.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Must do better. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanye/3612267205/sizes/o/"> AlanYe</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Chinese pupils are once again at the top of international education rankings. Recent <a href="http://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/02/18/china-39-s-poorest-children-outperform-uk-39-s-wealthiest-in-international-maths-tests.aspx">further in-depth analysis of results</a> from the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, have now shown that it’s not just pupils from Shanghai and Beijing coming top of the class. Children from rural areas and disadvantaged environments of China also outperformed peers in other countries. </p>
<p>UK education secretary <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/experts-to-visit-shanghai-to-raise-standards-in-maths">Liz Truss is leading a visit to China</a> with a group of teachers to observe why. But she should be mindful of copying a system that is being questioned by some Chinese researchers for the stress it puts on children.</p>
<p>Chinese pupils spend more time in school than British children. School days are longer and holidays are shorter. On average, under the current system the length of the secondary school year is 245 days. Chinese pupils get around four weeks off in winter, and seven weeks in summer, including weekends and all kinds of traditional festivals. That’s a total of 175 days off, 37 days fewer than UK pupils. </p>
<p>Primary school starts at age six for pupils in China. In the country’s mega-cities, like Beijing and Shanghai, pupils go to school from 8am to 3pm with an hour and a half for lunch. But in most areas around the country, there’s a break from school for lunch and, often, a lunch-time nap at home. </p>
<p>In secondary school, the competitive pressure mounts to get into top high schools, considered as stepping stones to the famous universities. Even at this stage, parents start investing money in math Olympiads or English classes in cram schools for children whose test-scores might make them borderline candidates for acceptance at these sought-after high schools. </p>
<p>The workload ratchets up. Pupils spend from 7:30am to 8am at school reading, either in English or Chinese. School ends at 4pm, but most secondary school pupils in mega-cities then rush into tutorial classes to cram for important exams.</p>
<p>More than 45% of pupils spend up to four hours a week in after-school lessons in mathematics. An additional 20% more pupils in Shanghai spend more than four hours a week on maths, English and Chinese classes. Usually, this is not the end of the learning day. Once pupils come back from their tutorial, they have to complete their homework before going to bed. According to <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-05/30/content_12608282.htm">a recent survey</a>, pupils in cities are facing problems of sleep deprivation. </p>
<p>Compared with their counterparts in mega-cities, pupils of secondary schools in secondary cities and rural areas who attend public boarding schools far from their hometowns, also have to spend at least four hours learning on top of the school day. Their learning time begins at 6pm. Pupils stay at their own classroom for “evening sessions,” which function like study halls or tutoring periods. They do homework and study, while teachers assist them. After dinner, evening sessions conclude at 10:30pm.</p>
<p>A <a href="%E2%80%8Ewww.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pdf">recent study by the OECD</a> shows that on average, pupils in Shanghai aged 12-14 spend 9.8 hours on learning in the classroom, and 3 hours finishing their homework each day, averaging 13.8 hours per week. This is far more than the OECD average of 1.2 hours per day. More than 65% of pupils get up between 6am to 6:30am and go to bed between 10pm to 11:30pm.</p>
<p>But the key question being asked by many in the UK and elsewhere is whether more learning time at school translate into better pupil attainment. In my view, the answer is no. Simply increasing the number of teaching hours, shortening the school holidays, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-singapores-school-system-so-successful-and-is-it-a-model-for-the-west-22917">copying East Asian educational experiences</a> cannot improve pupil performance. After all, there are tremendous differences between the education systems, social features and historical background of UK and China. The East Asian educational experience comes as a package, so increasing pupil’s learning time has questionable merit just on its own. </p>
<p>One of the important elements of Chinese school is teachers’ instruction in and after class. There has been a lot of effort to improve Chinese teaching, through teacher professional development, teacher collaboration, or school leadership. </p>
<h2>High expectations</h2>
<p>Education has always been considered the most important path to success in Chinese culture. Parents recognise achievements in core subjects, which include maths, Chinese and English at secondary school level, are vital for success in the new society. They strongly encourage their children and have high expectations of them to fulfil their own dreams. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.emis.de/proceedings/PME29/PME29RRPapers/PME29Vol2CaoEtAl.pdf">Studies have shown</a> Chinese parental influence encompasses two important aspects. Part is the direct involvement of parents with homework and difficult problems, and part is these parents’ attitudes to learning. Familial expectations are the main motivating factors for Chinese pupils. Combined with high-stakes exams at various points in the educational system, this means that pupils are pushed by these external motivations. </p>
<p>Researchers in the UK and China overestimate the advantages of a longer school day. Chinese pupils have sound basic skills, but lack some of the creativity of English students. Recently, criticisms of this have been made by <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-levy/what-i-learned-from-china_b_872126.html">observers of the Chinese school system</a>.</p>
<p>But UK educators envy Chinese pupils’ outstanding performances in the PISA rankings. Some commentators <a href="http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/832208.shtml#.UweNK85e8e">point out</a> that even though Chinese pupils do well in PISA, they are not being taught to compete in an innovation economy. They argue that the current school curriculum and teaching methods are robbing pupils of their curiosity, creativity, and childhood. We must be realistic in our self-estimation, neither being conceited nor belittling ourselves. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kan Wei does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Chinese pupils are once again at the top of international education rankings. Recent further in-depth analysis of results from the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, have…Kan Wei, Associate Professor, Beijing Normal UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.