A nation of engineers vs. a nation of slackers? According to popular belief, Chinese students ace all of the international tests while American students rank near the bottom with countries we have never heard of. The obvious conclusion, to these naysayers, is that the American schools are inferior to Chinese schools.

Certainly, there are differences between Chinese and American education. The most obvious difference is sheer numbers. China has about 200 million primary and secondary students compared to 50 million in the United States. Another is class size. The typical Chinese classroom has 50-60 students, even at the elementary level and especially outside major metropolitan areas. Finally, the teaching methods and emphases in China are different from those in the United States. Despite these differences, hundreds of hours of observations in Chinese and American classrooms ranging from kindergarten to college tell us that these two systems have a lot to teach each other.

We think that China can learn at least two things from American education. First, Chinese classrooms should be more student-centered and involve more active learning. The traditional Chinese classroom is teacher-centered where the teacher is like a movie actor and the students are the audience. The teacher presents information while the students listen quietly and intently. However, in the United States, the teacher is like a movie director and the students work as actors, sometimes even as co-directors…

Second, Chinese education needs to pay more attention to skill training and the real-world application of knowledge. Chinese students have an amazing ability to memorize a huge amount of information and solve problems from a book. This skill serves them well in the test-driven culture that dominates education in China. But, Chinese students don’t develop the creativity needed to be innovators…

Americans shouldn’t get smug because there are also things to be learned from China. First, American education should focus on building a mastery of core concepts, especially in math and science classes. Biology, chemistry, physics, algebra and geometry are required for high school graduation in China. In addition, textbooks, curriculum and teacher training are based on national standards in China…

In the United States, even though different academic disciplines have their own sets of national standards, they are not adopted, tested or integrated into teacher education programs nationwide. Second, schools in America cover too many concepts with too little depth. Compared to their Chinese counterparts, American teachers and students know a little about a lot of topics but not as much about the few important topics. Finally, students in China spend nearly twice as many hours studying as students in the United States…

Source: Daily Record
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