I was interviewed yesterday by a reporter from Deutsche Welle asking me about a recent study of stress and depression of Chinese elementary school students. One of the questions was why.
“Two reasons, “ I said, “first there is intense competition among students. In China, what is considered good or successful is a comparative judgment. That is, it is not so much how well you do but how much better or worse are you compared with your peers. And the students are constantly reminded through all kinds of means of their …

China’s Peking University (or Beida) has been under fire for trying to answer the nation’s call for more innovative and creative talents. In an attempt to attract more “unusual or extraordinary students” who may not do well on standardized testing, in this case, China’s infamous Gaokao (College Entrance Exam), Beida, one of the two most sought-after universities, decided to admit a very small number of (less than 3%) students based on recommendations of high school principals. Although these recommended students would still take the College Entrance Exam and go through …

On October 28, the New York Times reported a federal study that finds that nearly a third of the states in the U.S. lowered their academic standards in recent years, a phenomenon called  “Race to the Bottom” by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. A day later, the same paper reports a story about a New York City school principal being accused of tampering with student grades in order to boost graduation rates in the school. Stories like these are not new. There have been many other reports about schools, states, …

China has been working on another round of major education reforms. A national team of government leaders, education officials, and education leaders have been working on a mid and long term strategic plan that will guide education development in China for the next decade or so for over year now. The team is led by China’s Premier Wen Jiabao. The team issued a national call for comments and suggestions in the summer and has received tens of thousands of them online and through traditional means.
I was in China last week. …

To those who want to learn more about innovation and creativity in China, I suggest that you listen to to read the transcript of this series produced by PRI and reported by The World’s Asian Correspondent: Mary Kay Magistad. While it is very consistent with what I have written in my book, Catching Up or Leading the Way, it draws on different sources.
Part III of the series examines “the ways China’s educational system thwarts innovation.” Here are some of the highlights:
“Innovation comes not just from infrastructure and investment – it …

In a recent interview, I criticized the misperception that somehow Americans are less interested in the education than their Asian counterparts. American parents have been said to be not as devoted to their children’s education as Asian parents, so have been American teachers, and the American public. In the interview, I said, I believe barring some exceptions, all parents, Asian and American and African and European, are all interested in their children’s education because all we are genetically programmed to want the best for all off-springs. After all, they are …

What is happening in China? and why I disagree with Bob Compton and his film 2 million minutes?
Just returned from a 10-day trip to China:
August 17, lecture at the training program for directors of Confucius Institutes in Beijing, flew to Kunming, Yunnan
18-19, meeting of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching in Kunming, back to Beijing.
20, Presentation about Zon and trends of online language learning at Hanban, flew to Shanghai
21-22: Meetings with East China Normal University Press, Institute for Curriculum Research, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission’s …

While the US is pushing for common standards and a more uniform curriculum, China has been working to infuse more flexibility. According to a report by China Education(the report is in Chinese), the national daily education newspaper, Hubei, a province in central China, just unveiled its new high school curriculum implementation plan. Beginning this fall, the 400,000 high school freshmen in the province will be following the new curriculum. Unlike their predecessors, who took the same courses and used the same text books for all three years of high …

Thanks to teacherken, the video I did for Mobile Learning Institute has generated some very interesting discussions on Daily Kos
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Ed Week Post about this video: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2009/08/michigan_scholar_questions_com.html
Will more standards, accountability, and higher test scores make American students more globally competitive? In the video, Yong Zhao retells his personal story and questions the wisdom of current US education policy. He argues that global competitiveness comes from a diversity of talents and recognition of individual passions and creativity. This is part of a film series produced by the Mobile Learning Institute’s called “A 21st Century Education”

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