4 ms·

"...suggesting local teenagers are roughly three years ahead of the OECD average." I don't find this all that surprising. I've done casual comparisons of Chine

by AlanYx 7y ago

"...suggesting local teenagers are roughly three years ahead of the OECD average." I don't find this all that surprising. I've done casual comparisons of Chinese curricular materials for math vs. Canadian (Ontario) materials, and there is about a 3 year difference in content level being presented to the students at equivalent age levels. Of course, there could be other elements like selection bias, etc. playing into the results, but there is actually an underlying divergence in terms of the basic curricular material.

Consultant32452 7y ago
I'm interested in your thoughts on this. You noticed a grade differential in raw math concepts. Is it possible to notice things like creativity, communication, and imagination as applied to mathematics? https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/11/more-on-chinese-and-american-schools/415596/ https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/11/more-on-chinese-an... >In many cases, the teachers would like to take a lesson from American schools and concentrate more on imagination and resourcefulness. They say it is the parents who want to keep the focus on objective assignments, drills, and tests to prepare students for exams. >Any understanding of Chinese culture has to begin with how a "repeat after me" education focused entirely on objective tests affects communication skills, analytic thinking, teamwork, creativity, imagination and initiative.
- AlanYx 7y ago
  My expectation was that the Chinese curricula would be more rote, but that was not entirely true. There is more structured work in the Chinese curriculum, but also a considerable amount of high-level problem solving. It's a lot like the JUMP Math approach, if you're familiar with that curriculum, but pushed ahead a couple of years. Creativity understood more broadly is a tough thing to shoehorn into a math curriculum, because average teachers have difficulty with mathematically creative material that is sufficiently in-depth. The Discovery math curriculum that's popular in North America is emblematic of that; there is a huge amount of time devoted to finding multiple creative ways to visualize/deconstruct basic operations, but actual, profound mathematical creativity like exploring various ways to prove interesting theorems is largely absent.

by AlanYx 7y ago

Consultant32452 7y ago

I'm interested in your thoughts on this. You noticed a grade differential in raw math concepts. Is it possible to notice things like creativity, communication, and imagination as applied to mathematics? https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/11/more-on-chinese-and-american-schools/415596/ https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/11/more-on-chinese-an... >In many cases, the teachers would like to take a lesson from American schools and concentrate more on imagination and resourcefulness. They say it is the parents who want to keep the focus on objective assignments, drills, and tests to prepare students for exams. >Any understanding of Chinese culture has to begin with how a "repeat after me" education focused entirely on objective tests affects communication skills, analytic thinking, teamwork, creativity, imagination and initiative.

AlanYx 7y ago
My expectation was that the Chinese curricula would be more rote, but that was not entirely true. There is more structured work in the Chinese curriculum, but also a considerable amount of high-level problem solving. It's a lot like the JUMP Math approach, if you're familiar with that curriculum, but pushed ahead a couple of years. Creativity understood more broadly is a tough thing to shoehorn into a math curriculum, because average teachers have difficulty with mathematically creative material that is sufficiently in-depth. The Discovery math curriculum that's popular in North America is emblematic of that; there is a huge amount of time devoted to finding multiple creative ways to visualize/deconstruct basic operations, but actual, profound mathematical creativity like exploring various ways to prove interesting theorems is largely absent.