China Rules?

Recent studies by the OECD 2013 again show that China outranks all other countries in school education. Similarly, Chinese Universities are within the top 10% of the world where many educators hold a PhD.

Australia just makes in the top 10 for reading and science and falls miserably to 19 in mathematics. The widespread belief that Chinese education is based on rote learning and lacks creativity is not reflected in their increasing academic performance.

                                      Chinese Classroom   |  Australian Classroom

Class sizes in Chinese primary schools average 38 children and secondary school over 50. This is compared to Australia’s approximately 24 per class in both settings.

Although a different system, Chinese schools are producing such successful and academic students that the statistics are hard to ignore. Can the international community learn from the Chinese experience rather than criticise it?

The thing that make China stand out from Western educational institutions is the cultural support they have. Education is highly valued as the means to success. The Chinese government sees education as an investment in its future and have enacted laws and huge amounts of money into teacher training and institutions, and have legislated to keep children in schools and universities longer.

As a society, it is obvious that Australian children are not raised with the same amount of pressure when it comes to education. We value good education and appreciate it, however, it is commonly enforced in our schooling system that individuals”can be whatever you want to be”. This is in contrast to an academic-only mindset enforced through the Chinese education system.

One of the major criticisms China receives on the back of their education system is that they are lacking in creativity and open minded thinking. A professor at Eastern Michigan University and online blogger Alane Starko writes about her experiences exploring creativity in Chinese primary schools. She noted that from her perspective they “sometimes confused attractiveness with creativity, particularly in the arts.” Starko further went on to say “Students who color worksheets beautifully, or paint a mask as directed, or fill a pre-printed outline with varied seeds, produce attractive results, but their opportunities for flexible thinking are very limited. The displays looked wonderful, but the opportunity for creativity was more on the part of the teacher who designed the activity, rather than the children who completed it.”

Australians have thrived on free thinking and creativity, and this is encouraged not only in school, but also in the workforce. We may not want the longer school and university hours here but academically, the Chinese experience is beginning to attract global attention to re-think international educational practice.

Sources:

Creativiteach. 2012. China, Creativity and the Dangers of Flash. [ONLINE] Available at:http://creativiteach.me/2012/05/16/china-creativity-and-the-dangers-of-flash/. [Accessed 15 August 14].