In August, the Chinese Ministry of Education released 10 Regulations to Lessen Academic Burden for Primary School Students Grades 1-3.
The 10 regulations, surprising to some in Western education circles, represent a significant government initiative to reform China’s education system. In addition to further reduction of academic content and lowering of the academic rigour of textbooks, China’s new approach seeks to expand criteria for education quality and improve teacher capacity.
The Chinese government has stated its intention to reduce “student academic burden” by eliminating standardized tests in primary grades and to eliminate written homework and “tracking” in those early grades.
For fourth grade and up, standardized testing is allowed once per semester for Chinese language, math and foreign languages. Other types of tests cannot be given more than twice per semester.
“Creative, entrepreneurial and global 21st-century education” are the kind of descriptors being used to explain China’s move toward education leadership, according to Yong Zhao, who heads the College of Education at the University of Oregon.
“The goal of this emphasis is to develop effective, highly regarded and influential leaders in educational practice, policy and scholarship in the context of globalization,” explains Zhao.
No surprise, then, to find that 27 administrators from five school districts in and around Beijing completed a six-month residency at Royal Roads University this summer.
What is surprising is the kind of 21st-century research these post-grad Chinese educators were working on.
Topics like “improving instructional strategies to promote student active learning” or “improving teacher effectiveness through the use of co-operative learning” were research topics that these students, who were completing master’s degrees in educational leadership and management, developed as projects.
The group also looked at “how the ‘flipped classroom’ model can be effectively used in high school.”
The term “flipped classroom” refers to a progressive teaching model that moves instructional sources and resources outside the classroom, allowing teachers to spend more one-on-one time in class with each student. Students then have the opportunity to ask questions and work through problems with the guidance of their teachers and the support of their peers — creating a collaborative learning environment.
While these progressive themes are reflected in B.C.’s Education Plan, critics fear that B.C.’s new plan will not be implemented easily or soon without significant financial commitment and teacher development.
Others are concerned that B.C.’s politically turbulent education environment could hobble the plan.
The Chinese Ministry of Education plan emerges from a very different system of government untroubled by such considerations. The 10 new regulations are expressed in stern imperative terms.
The Chinese government commitment to public education is huge. Chinese spending has grown by 20 per cent per year since 1999, now reaching more than $100 billion, and as many as one million science and engineering students graduate from Chinese universities each year.
As one of the Chinese educators explained in a Royal Roads class discussion: “China has shifted from a control economy to a free-enterprise economy, and this also requires a shift in educational thought from controlled to a more participative and flexible practice.”
But can democratic Canada’s tentative move toward progressive educational practices find a place in the Chinese one-party system?
Two things are clear: China has more students studying abroad than any other country, and about one-third return home after finishing their studies; and the number of foreign students from Canada and the U.S. studying in China has increased rapidly.
As Canada, nationally and provincially, takes stock of the value it places on its own system of public education, it might be timely to consider the succinct advice of 18th-century English-American author, political theorist and revolutionary Thomas Paine: “Lead, follow or get out of the way.”
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
