School reform is an interesting topic. A recent book came out by ASCD called "Catching Up or Leading the Way" by Young Zhou. The book compares the U.S. and Chinese education systems and draws some interesting conclusions. We often here how far behind we are. How are jobs are threatened etc. It's interesting though how China is in the act of reforming their educational system to look more like ours. Why? It turns out our system in the end can produce some interesting results. As Americans we hold more patents than any other country on Earth. We're considered to be the most creative group of people and still in terms of higher education we are the global leader for excellence.
Zhao points out the the Chinese system is under fire for focusing on drill and kill teaching styles, overly burdensome busy work type assignments, and a crushing focus on testing. A mile wide and an inch deep with a minimal focus on critical thinking, a lack of collaborative problem solving, and the absence of inquiry based learning hasn't produced citizens with the skills China now demands to move beyond being the world's factory. These teaching styles are great for producing assembly line workers but not for creating the types of citizens that will push China past being the world's cheap source for manufactured goods. China has higher aspirations and the government is pushing educational reforms which will make their schools more like the U.S. system.
At the same time China is trying to become more like the U.S. , the West is focusing on creating national standards and an even more intensive focus on testing. Arne Duncan and the boys at the Department of Education are hard at work on national standards.
A presentation summarizing the work of Zhao is below. It's rather lengthy but its worth a look.
Here's another article about Chinese students flocking to liberal arts colleges in droves? Why? Because they are known for teaching critical thinking.
Link to Zhao Video
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