Job Discussion Forums

wailing_imam · Joined: 31 Mar 2006 Posts: 580 Location: Malaya

The premise is that a group of 5 Chinese teachers come to a UK secondary school to show us the marvels of a Chinese education. For one month the UK kids are taught in exactly the same way as mainland Chinese kids are. The Chinese teachers are all from top schools in China. The idea is that apparently, UK kids are way behind Chinese kids in some areas of assessment (grammar, reading).

In the UK the Chinese teachers have a horrific time, face huge class discipline issues, are shocked at the behaviour of the children. UK kids don't deal well with lessons where teacher talks and students copy notes. The UK headmaster is shocked by the lessons delivered by the Chinese teachers.

I have taught mainland Chinese kids for over a decade. The students I have taught generally come from a privileged background. However, I am always shocked by their lack of intellectual curiosity, general knowledge and staggering levels of ignorance. These league tables are clearly nonsense.

Chinese education is clearly poor, old fashioned and without much merit.

Discuss. [/code]

mmcmorrow · Joined: 30 Sep 2007 Posts: 143 Location: New Zealand

I wouldn't mind seeing some of that. The outcome seems a bit predictable though - like an educational version of 'Wife Swap'.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Teaching a class of teenagers in a UK State School is not a job to be taken on lightly.

wailing_imam · Joined: 31 Mar 2006 Posts: 580 Location: Malaya

This is in solid middle class Berkshire. The most outrageous it got was a kid bringing in a kettle into the room to brew tea. He guessed that with 50 students in the room, his tea drinking wouldn't be noticed. He got away with it too, until he kicked the mug over by mistake.

The Chinese teachers rely heavily on social conditioning and Confucianism in terms of their expectation of classroom behaviour. It simply doesn't work out of context and the teachers themselves admitted they do not know how to manage classrooms.

kpjf · Joined: 18 Jan 2012 Posts: 385

By the way, this was already posted on Thursday: http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=111821 but, I guess you didn't see it as it was posted in the China section.

Like you say this cannot work out of context and the premise of the programme is deeply flawed and I'd say very naïve, or maybe the BBC is just doing it for exploitative reasons for some ‘edutainment’?

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Schools in the UK seem to have given up on teaching HARD subjects like Foreign languages, Music, Maths and Physics.

When was the last time you came across someone learning a tough language like Russian or German ?

wailing_imam · Joined: 31 Mar 2006 Posts: 580 Location: Malaya

The schools haven't given up on teaching these subjects. The approach taken towards teaching the subjects is markedly different to 20 years ago. Anyway, as one of the pupils says, "when am I ever going to use trigonometry in real life? I need to be able to find a job." Quite right. More skills based classes are what is needed.

The Maths teacher is teaching at a posh school in China, where it seems English (of an American type) is used for some if not all of instruction. It would seem likely that these children come from extremely comfortable backgrounds (check out the seating arrangement in that particular Chinese maths classrooms. Pods! In China!!!) and experience education in a quite different manner to the average kid in Ningxia or Hunan.

I quite like Miss Yang. She has something Bjorkish about her. I reckon I might quite fancy her after 4 pints.

"PHOEBE!!"

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Dumbing down continues in the UK systems.
I would welcome any insights into how you teach Russian Grammar or Euclidean Geometry by the "Discovery Method".

You can bet your bottom dollar that the children of our ruling elite at Eton and Gordonstoun are still doing it the old-fashioned way.

wailing_imam · Joined: 31 Mar 2006 Posts: 580 Location: Malaya

Don't think so chum

http://www.etoncollege.com/TeachingMethods.aspx

wailing_imam · Joined: 31 Mar 2006 Posts: 580 Location: Malaya

Don't think so chum

http://www.etoncollege.com/TeachingMethods.aspx

If this old fashioned and profoundly uninspired Chinese teaching approach actually works, why does it produce such brain dead students?

reddevil79 · Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 3:18 pm Post subject:

For those interested, here's the first episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypT6c4NZ6jk

I've downloaded the second one to watch today Wink