tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/mastery-method-33017/articlesMastery method – The Conversation2019-01-28T14:50:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1101072019-01-28T14:50:26Z2019-01-28T14:50:26ZMaths: should English schools look to Switzerland rather than Shanghai for inspiration?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254992/original/file-20190122-100295-1yfl9lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to education, how countries rank against each other in league tables has become a big influence on education policy. And one of the biggest rankings is <a href="https://theconversation.com/pisa-results-four-reasons-why-east-asia-continues-to-top-the-leaderboard-69951">the Programme for International Student Assessment</a> – also known as PISA. This is a regular comparison of the performance of 15-year-olds in different countries, including in maths. </p>
<p>Increasingly politicians want to see their countries rise up the league tables, which has led to attempts to import ways of teaching from overseas. In England, many schools have adopted East Asian methods in maths teaching to try <a href="https://theconversation.com/maths-challenge-england-has-one-of-the-biggest-gaps-between-high-and-low-performing-pupils-in-the-developed-world-88678">to climb the league tables</a>. This has come be to be called the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-mastery-model-of-teaching-maths-25636">mastery maths</a>” model.</p>
<p><a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/what-is-south-asian-mastery-maths/">Singapore and Shanghai</a> both do very well in international PISA tests compared to England, but the way both places approach mastery is slightly different. The mastery method adopted in English schools has mostly been modelled on the Shanghai system – and has involved teachers from England going to Shanghai and having Shanghai teachers go to England.</p>
<p>We have spent the past four years researching whether the Shanghai exchange would lead to changes in teaching in England and whether this <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-maths-teacher-exchange-china-and-england">would lead to better test scores</a>. We found that in many of the schools that were involved in the first exchange in 2014-2015 there have been a lot of changes – and many adopted Shanghai-style maths teaching. These changes have involved slowing down the curriculum, using more learning by heart, more interaction between teacher and pupils, and using different ways of representing maths ideas. Schools have also adopted ways to give all children access to challenging maths.</p>
<p>But when we compared the test scores to similar schools who have not adopted the mastery method, we found there had been no change in the test results of 11-year-olds. For seven-year-olds we found a small change but nothing that would suggest a massive improvement in scores from the new mastery method.</p>
<h2>Importing education</h2>
<p>Perhaps this isn’t surprising though, because teaching methods are not the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pisa-results-four-reasons-why-east-asia-continues-to-top-the-leaderboard-69951">only reason for East Asian success</a>. And in some ways, Shanghai maths hasn’t yet had a fair test in England. UK teachers have been expected to adopt Shanghai approaches, but have not had the same amount of time for professional development or to plan lessons.</p>
<p>There’s also the fact that in Shanghai primary schools, children are generally taught by the same teacher for two to three years – so the teacher gets to know the pupils very well. Policies in China that have led to many parents only having one child also mean that young children get a lot of adult attention from parents and grandparents – which could also help their development.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/maths-challenge-england-has-one-of-the-biggest-gaps-between-high-and-low-performing-pupils-in-the-developed-world-88678">Maths challenge: England has one of the biggest gaps between high and low performing pupils in the developed world</a>
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<p>Although Shanghai maths imported to England has not had the effect on results that was hoped for, it does not meant that with more time it cannot lead to improvements. And there are particular ideas in the Shanghai maths approach – such as high quality mathematical talk and <a href="https://www.cambridgemaths.org/espresso/view/mastery-in-mathematics/">careful choice of how to represent maths ideas</a> – that do have <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/8/4/202">evidence for success in England as well as other countries</a>.</p>
<h2>Further afield</h2>
<p>If East Asian methods do not import easily because of other factors, then perhaps politicians should broaden where they look for ideas in maths. Switzerland, for example, was the top <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf">European performer in maths in PISA in 2015</a> – not far behind East Asian countries. </p>
<p>Canada also did significantly better than England. Though recently, Canadians have also started <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-canada-fails-to-be-an-education-superpower-82558">worrying about how their performance</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254994/original/file-20190122-100270-1lo642k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254994/original/file-20190122-100270-1lo642k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254994/original/file-20190122-100270-1lo642k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254994/original/file-20190122-100270-1lo642k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254994/original/file-20190122-100270-1lo642k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254994/original/file-20190122-100270-1lo642k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254994/original/file-20190122-100270-1lo642k.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">Children as young as two are grouped by ability in English nurseries.</span>
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<p>There’s also more that can be learnt from PISA and other international tests. It seems, for example, that all high-performing education systems have some common features. These include: supporting teachers with good pay, conditions and status. Teachers that are given the freedom to decide what and how to teach with support from researchers but without political interference, also seems to be another contributing factor. As does having an emphasis on good outcomes for everyone – not just the highest performing children – most high performing countries do not group children by ability from a young age, as often happens in England.</p>
<p>In any case, different tests tell different stories. Another international test – <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/timss/">Trends in Maths and Science study</a> – shows England’s results in maths have been <a href="https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/28040/1/TIMSS_2015_England_Report_FINAL_for_govuk_-_reformatted.pdf">steadily improving for the past 20 years</a>. Perhaps then, the most important lesson from England’s mastery experiment is to stop worrying so much about <a href="https://theconversation.com/international-pisa-tests-show-how-evidence-based-policy-can-go-wrong-77847">international league table positions</a> – and for schools to focus on encouraging all pupils to be the best they can be.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Boylan receives funding from Department for Education, England and the Education Endowment Foundation for research in areas related to this article.</span></em></p>The Shanghai maths method is considered to be one the best in the world for teaching students mathematics, but it doesn’t necessarily translate well into English schools.Mark Boylan, Professor of Education, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/886782017-12-15T11:14:26Z2017-12-15T11:14:26ZMaths challenge: England has one of the biggest gaps between high and low performing pupils in the developed world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199038/original/file-20171213-27555-xl6o5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">England’s top performing maths pupils achieve a very high standard but the bottom performers lag far behind.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to maths, many primary school children in the UK are struggling to achieve their potential, <a href="https://epi.org.uk/report/world-class-primary/">according to new research</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://epi.org.uk/report/world-class-primary/">The recent report</a> from the <a href="https://epi.org.uk/report/world-class-primary/">Education Policy Institute</a> and UCL’s Institute of Education shows that England has one of the biggest gaps between high and low performing students in the developed world. Only New Zealand and Turkey have a bigger disparity.</p>
<p>So while England’s top performing maths pupils achieve a very high standard, the bottom performers lag far behind – with this gap well established before pupils reach secondary school.</p>
<p>It’s not surprising then that “mastery” has become something of a buzzword in the UK in the last five years. <a href="http://www.nama.org.uk/Downloads/Five%20Myths%20about%20Mathematics%20Mastery.pdf">It’s a word with lots of different meanings</a>, but it’s usually linked to how mathematics is taught in East Asia – particularly in Shanghai and Singapore. Both of which are very successful in <a href="https://theconversation.com/pisa-results-four-reasons-why-east-asia-continues-to-top-the-leaderboard-69951">international league tables such as PISA</a>.</p>
<p>In Shanghai and Singapore the mastery method involves whole class <a href="http://beyondlevels.website/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Mastery-differentiation-and-fixed-ability-thinking-M-Boylan-Learning-first-Sheffield.pdf">interactive teaching as the main approach</a>. The idea is that by using teacher questions, step by step progression, diagrams and carefully designed practice exercises, all pupils progress together. And daily intervention is also used to support those pupils who need extra tuition.</p>
<h2>The maths gap</h2>
<p>Interest in adopting East Asian approaches to maths have recently been made an educational priority by the UK government. In the recent budget, the chancellor Philip Hammond announced <a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/budget-2017-hammond-announces-cash-for-computing-and-maths-mastery/">plans to invest £27m in the expansion</a> of the Teaching for Mastery maths programme to a further 3,000 schools. </p>
<p>The government has previously issued funding for a teacher exchange with Shanghai along with a whole raft of other measures to boost the uptake of the mastery approach to British schools. As part of my research, colleagues and I have been <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/666450/MTE_third_interim_report_121217.pdf">evaluating the teacher exchange programme with Shanghai</a>. </p>
<p>We discovered after the initial exchange, responses were quite varied in the 48 schools that sent and hosted teachers in 2014 and 2015. Some teachers decided the method wasn’t for them, others adopted some practices, while some completely changed their teaching methods. </p>
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<p>Schools adopting a mastery approach often follow the official guidance of the <a href="https://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources/47230">National Centre for Teaching Mathematics</a> – but there are lots of other influences. Not only the <a href="https://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources/49739">Shanghai exchange</a> but also independent curriculum and professional development organisations – such as <a href="https://mathsnoproblem.com/">Maths No Problem </a> and <a href="https://www.mathematicsmastery.org/">Mathematics Mastery</a>. On top of all this, “mastery” is also the latest catchphrase for suppliers of resources and educational consultants. </p>
<p>The outcome is often lots of experimentation and variation in schools – and ultimately, lots of different versions of mastery. But overall, the types of changes we saw schools make after the exchange are ones mathematics educators have advocated for a <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/maths-ks-two-three/">long time and are backed by research</a>.</p>
<h2>Mastering mastery</h2>
<p>In our evaluation, we found a number of ways schools are implementing the mastery method into their classrooms. For some schools, this has meant using an <a href="https://mathsnoproblem.com/">East Asian inspired textbook</a>. For others, they have continued to select from a wide range of resources, but think more about mastery methods in everyday teaching. </p>
<p>We have seen how schools involved in the exchange have made much greater use of concrete and visual models to support abstract thinking. Equipment that previously might only have been used with young children or those struggling with mathematics, has been dusted off and integrated into teaching more generally – <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/maths-ks-two-three/">which has been shown to help children’s understanding</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199042/original/file-20171213-27555-1m0n63s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199042/original/file-20171213-27555-1m0n63s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199042/original/file-20171213-27555-1m0n63s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199042/original/file-20171213-27555-1m0n63s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199042/original/file-20171213-27555-1m0n63s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199042/original/file-20171213-27555-1m0n63s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199042/original/file-20171213-27555-1m0n63s.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">If England is to be considered world class at primary in maths, the performance of pupils at the bottom must be improved.</span>
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<p>We have also seen more schools <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/how-make-mixed-ability-work-let-children-take-control-lesson">teaching in “mixed ability” sessions</a> (the Shanghai way) with teaching at a pace whereby children don’t get left behind – if children don’t “get it” in the lesson, they are given daily catch up support.</p>
<p>But we have found that many of the schools involved in the exchange have been less keen to adopt the mastery way of seating pupils in rows and daily homework. In these schools, pupils are more likely to face the front only some of the time, and instead of daily homework, time is used each day for maths practice within school. </p>
<h2>Making it add up</h2>
<p>But despite many British schools now adopting some form of mastery approach to mathematics, there still tends to be scepticism around the approach with lots of <a href="http://www.nama.org.uk/Downloads/Five%20Myths%20about%20Mathematics%20Mastery.pdf">myths about mastery emerging</a>. </p>
<p>Mastery sceptics point to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/09/east-asian-school-success-culture-curriculum-teaching">cultural factors</a> and <a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-minister-admits-shanghai-maths-teachers-only-do-two-lessons-a-day/">very different working conditions of East Asian teachers</a> as underpinning their success. And there is also concern over <a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/what-is-teaching-for-mastery-in-maths/">whether the fastest learners will be held back</a>.</p>
<p>The sceptics might be proved right, but the way maths is taught in many English schools is changing. So if benefits for pupils are shown, then conversations may well shift from “whether” to implement mastery, to “which” aspects of East Asian teaching are most useful when adapted for the Western classroom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88678/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Boylan receives funding from the Department for Education, England for evaluating the Mathematics Teacher Exchange: China-England. </span></em></p>But could the influences of Shanghai and Singapore help?Mark Boylan, Professor of Education, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/699512016-12-06T15:12:27Z2016-12-06T15:12:27ZPISA results: four reasons why East Asia continues to top the leaderboard<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148725/original/image-20161205-7995-1ybsdoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hands up if you're top of the class.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The results speak for themselves. The latest <a href="http://timss2015.org/">Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study</a> (TIMSS) and the <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Programme for International Student Assessment</a> (PISA) have been released – and, once again, East Asian countries have ranked the highest in both tests. </p>
<p>Over recent years, other countries’ positions have gone up and down in the tables but East Asian education – which includes China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan – continues to dominate. And the gap between these countries and the rest of the world is getting wider. </p>
<p>The reasons why East Asian countries are way ahead of the pack as far as education is concerned <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-east-asian-children-get-so-far-ahead-of-their-classmates-32703">has long been debated</a> – but it essentially seems to come down to the following four factors.</p>
<h2>1. Culture and mindset</h2>
<p>There is a high value placed on education and a belief that effort rather than innate ability is the key to success. <a href="http://dro.dur.ac.uk/15069/1/15069.pdf">East Asian researchers</a> usually point to this as the most important factor for this regions high test results. </p>
<p>The positive aspect of this approach to education is that there is an expectation that the vast majority of pupils will succeed. Learners are not labelled and put into “ability” groups – as they are in England, where this is the norm even in many primary schools. So, in East Asian countries, everyone has the same access to the curriculum – which means many more pupils are able to get those high grades. </p>
<p>Formal schooling is also supplemented by intensive after-school tuition – at the extreme this can see children studying well into the night – and sometimes for up to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25187993">three hours of extra school in the evening</a> on top of two hours of homework a day. </p>
<p>But while this intensive after school study can get results, it’s important to recognise that in many East Asian countries, educators worry about the quality and influence these “crammers” have on the mental health and well-being of children. And many studies looking at pupils’ experiences in these schools have reported <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1005160717081">high levels of adolescent stress</a> and a sense of pressure to achieve – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/22/china-education-exams-parents-rebel">for both the students and their parents</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148726/original/image-20161205-8023-1t9w7cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148726/original/image-20161205-8023-1t9w7cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148726/original/image-20161205-8023-1t9w7cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148726/original/image-20161205-8023-1t9w7cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148726/original/image-20161205-8023-1t9w7cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148726/original/image-20161205-8023-1t9w7cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148726/original/image-20161205-8023-1t9w7cd.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">The crème de la cram.</span>
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<h2>2. The quality of teachers</h2>
<p>Teaching is a respected profession in East Asia, where there is stiff competition for jobs, good conditions of service, longer training periods and support for continuing and extensive professional development. </p>
<p>In Shanghai, teachers have much lower teaching workloads than in England – despite the bigger classes. And they use specialist primary mathematics teachers, who teach two 35-40 minute lessons a day. This gives the teachers time for planning – or the chance to give extra support to pupils that need it – along with time for professional development in teacher research groups. </p>
<p>In Japan, “lesson study” is embedded in primary schools. This involves teachers planning carefully designed lessons, observing each other’s teaching, and then drawing out the learning points from these observations. And lesson study also gives teachers time to research and professionally develop together.</p>
<h2>3. Using the evidence</h2>
<p>Ironic though it may be, much of the theoretical basis for East Asian education has been heavily influenced <a href="http://www.mathsnoproblem.co.uk/singapore-maths">by research and developments in the West</a>. For example, Jerome Bruner’s theory of <a href="https://bruners-stages.wikispaces.com/Bruner%27s+Stages+of+Representation">stages of representation</a> which says that learners need hands-on experiences of a concept – then visual representations – as a basis for learning symbolic or linguistic formulations. </p>
<p>This has been translated in Singapore as a focus on <a href="http://math.nie.edu.sg/wkho/Research/My%20publications/Math%20Education/Yew%20Hoong%20et%20al%20(Final).pdf">concrete, pictorial and abstract </a>models in mathematical learning. For example, this might mean arranging counters in rows of five to learn the five times table, then using pictures of hands that each have five digits, before writing multiplication facts in words, and then adding in numerals and the multiplication and equals signs. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148733/original/image-20161205-8013-b9nuqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148733/original/image-20161205-8013-b9nuqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148733/original/image-20161205-8013-b9nuqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148733/original/image-20161205-8013-b9nuqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148733/original/image-20161205-8013-b9nuqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148733/original/image-20161205-8013-b9nuqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148733/original/image-20161205-8013-b9nuqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&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">Teaching is a highly respected job in East Asia.</span>
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<h2>4. A collective push</h2>
<p>In the 1970s, Singapore’s educational outcomes lagged behind the rest of the world – the transformation of Singaporean education was achieved through systemic change at national level that encompassed curriculum development, national textbooks and pre-service and in-service teacher education. </p>
<p>Similarly in Shanghai and South Korea educational change and improvement is planned and directed at a national level. This means that all schools use government approved curriculum materials, there is more consistency about entry qualifications to become a teacher and there is much less diversity of types of schools than in the UK.</p>
<p>The success of East Asian education has turned these countries into “reference societies” – ones by which policymakers in the UK and elsewhere measure their own education systems and seek to emulate. Interest in East Asian education in the UK has informed the current “mastery approach” <a href="https://theconversation.com/east-asian-maths-teaching-method-boosts-english-childrens-progress-by-a-month-43418">which is used in primary mathematics</a>. Teaching for mastery uses methods found in Shanghai and Singapore and has been the basis of many recent research projects – some sponsored by <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-maths-teacher-exchange-china-and-england">government funding</a> and others promoted by educational charities or commercial organisations. </p>
<p>But of course, only time will tell if some of the success of these two education systems can be reproduced in the UK, while avoiding some of the negative experiences – such as stress and burnout – associated with the East Asian approach to education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69951/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Boylan receives funding from The Department for Education, England, to evaluate the Mathematics Teacher Exchange: China-England, a programme of teacher exchange between England and Shanghai.</span></em></p>East Asian pupils continue to outpace their counterparts in Western schools.Mark Boylan, Reader in Education, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.