Two cultures, two ways to learn
Print Edition
AN English country village seemed the most unlikely of places to try to compare the education systems of two nations a world apart in culture and customs.
But a team of five high school teachers from China was up to the challenge. Could they take 50 typical English students and expose them to the rigorous classroom regime of China?
The experiment took place at Bohunt High School in Liphook, Hampshire, a village that once served as a staging post for horse-drawn coaches travelling between London and the seaport of Portsmouth.
Initially, the challenge looked doomed to failure. The British students became rebellious over 12-hour school days, morning exercises, flag-raising ceremonies and strict classroom discipline.
After four weeks of intensive lessons, it was time for the final exam that would compare the achievements of this class of 50 with the scores of Chinese students back home.
“As head teacher, I will be absolutely gutted if the Chinese way wins,” said headmaster Neil Strowger. “That will be a bitter pill to swallow.”
The pride and reputation of the education systems of China and England rested on a four-hour exam covering science, math and Mandarin. At stake was a competition between two completely different styles of education.
Later, as Strowger held the unopened envelope with the results, he told those assembled at the “graduation” ceremony, “This envelope could change the course of history. I’m quite nervous and don’t even know if I want to open it.”
But open it he did and the results were conclusive. The Chinese system won hands down in all three categories.
Strowger said there were lessons to be learned, especially in the way students in China show respect for their teachers and in their willingness to study.
“This has been one of the weirdest yet most amazing experiences we have ever had,” said a Liphook student identified only as Rosie. “I can speak for all of us when I say we will never forget it.”
The competition between the two education systems was aired in a three-part series in prime time on Britain’s BBC. The show, which was also shown in China, triggered renewed debate about what’s best in educating young people.
The Chinese teachers who participated in the challenge said they found classroom discipline the most difficult part of the experiment. At the start, the English students suffered a cultural shock and had trouble adjusting.
Teachers in Shanghai said they can understand why the British students started at a disadvantage.
“They felt lost, confused, repelled and frightened,” Lu Huiwen, principal of Shanghai United International School, told Shanghai Daily.
Yu Zhen, principal of the No. 2 Penglai Road Primary School in Shanghai, agreed.
“They are British children who are growing up in British culture and have been educated in the British way,” she said. “It is natural for them to feel uncomfortable when they are abruptly placed in a ‘Chinese’ school setting. The same sort of disorientation would occur if British teachers took over a Chinese class and started using British methods of teaching.”
Toward the end of the experiment, however, the British students were beginning to adapt to the Chinese teaching methods. They listened more carefully, took notes and actively participated in question-and-answer sessions. Rebellion had disappeared.
Shan Fang, a math teacher at No. 2 Penglai Road Primary School who was invited earlier this year to teach math in a British primary school, said her UK students weren’t as undisciplined as those in the BBC program.
“My students were polite and respected us,” Shan told Shanghai Daily. “They did not sit up properly straight or raise their hands and stand up to answer questions as our students do, but they listened intently and discipline was not a problem.”
The debate over Chinese vs. Western education styles usually ends up with lists of advantages and disadvantages for both systems.
“The Chinese way of education is based on a well-organized system of subjects, which leads to high class efficiency and teaching quality,” Lu said. “But it lacks interdisciplinary connections and connections between disciplines and real life.”
The Western approach is more learner-oriented, and curricula take into account student interests, stressing interdisciplinary studying and connections with real life, Lu said.
“But it lacks efficiency, and there is a large gap between well-educated and poorly educated students,” she added.
Lu said Chinese students may show a higher average level than their Western peers, but fewer of them emerge as outstanding talent.
Shan said Chinese teachers tend to not “give up” on slow students and will help them as much as possible to catch up with others.
“I found British teachers and students less pushy,” she said. “The students weren’t required to correct wrong answers in their homework. In China, we would press the right answers again and again until they were absorbed.”
Lu said it would be difficult to devise an education system that combines the two methods of education into one.
“If you want to cultivate innovation in students, you have to pay the price of lower efficiency and larger gaps in student performance,” she said.
Educators from both China and the West have something to learn from one another, Lu said.
“For me, the Chinese way is best for teaching of basic knowledge and skills,” she said. “But I would recommend adopting Western strategies to pursue diversity and innovation.”
British education authorities have been keenly observing Chinese elementary education after 15-year-old students from Shanghai topped the rankings in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment measurement for reading, math and science.
Last year, a team of UK educators visited Shanghai to observe teaching practices close up. They were particularly interested in math. The UK has invited hundreds of math teachers to teach in British schools, and an English-language translation of the standard Chinese math textbook has been published in the UK.
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