An antidote to the so-called Chinese way of teaching

As I said before, I don’t think there is a single “Chinese way of teaching”. In addition, the Chinese ways of teaching are also changing. However, there are characters that are commonly agreed to be associated with Chinese ways of teaching: emphasis on discipline and order, rely primarily on repetition and memorization.

In the discussion provoked by the BBC documentary, “Are our kids touch enough: Chinese school”, I’ve seen a lot of people praising these characters. Well, here’s an antidote to the obsession of academic achievement:

Mind you, I don’t see this as a full argument against Chinese way of teaching. I’d love to get more cases like Gillian Lynne from Mr. Ken Robinson. However, this talk at least challenges us, reminds us to look further, wider, beyond academic achievement, in education. I’ll provide a Chinese translation to the transcript in another post.

Advantages of Chinese Teaching

OK, I use this title just to bring attention.

After watching all 3 episodes of the BBC documentary, Are our kids tough enough, Chinese School,  in my opinion, there is one aspect of British kids that really needs to improve: coping with competition and failure.

When British kids were in the PE class, they were very upset that they might fail. Philippa actually sobbed on not passing one item. And she said:

“I just don’t think comparing yourself to others is a good, healthy life style.”

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Philippa is not alone. In the 1st episode, we saw another boy sobbed during PE class.

Well, I have to agree with Philippa that it is not a healthy life style. But competition is part of life. Ranking students all the time with different measures is of course too much, but exposing them to a certain dose of competition is essential to their development. To Philippa, I’d say it’s equally not healthy if young people are so scared of competition that they sob on a failure in just one PE preparation. I don’t want my daughter to be so fragile.

So this is the advantage of Chinese teaching. Put all the drawbacks aside, this is probably one thing Britain should learn from Chinese teaching: To get the kids used to competition.

教学方式差异还是文化差异

BBC的纪录片“Are out Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School”,中文名“我们的孩子足够坚强吗?中式学校”一下子就火了朋友圈了。上网一搜,各种评论铺天盖地。赶快花了两个小时找到看看,免得落后时代太远。下面的我的感想和评论:

首先我要说,其实很多网友的评论发挥的太远了,跟这个节目本身关系不大。其次,从节目中我看到的是语言障碍和文化冲突,教育理念和方法的差异并为充分展现,被展现的部分也主要是文化差异的衍生物。

实验设置

没注意看这活动是谁组织的。我觉得主意非常好,不同文化的师生交流可以成为一个观察文化差异的绝好窗口。但是要说对比中式教育和英式教育的优劣,这题目就太大了。

首先,无论是中式教育还是英式教育,都是不断变化的。节目中的五位老师很难说有代表性。要参加节目,总要英语过得去,又要过去教学记录好,最终的结果很可能是在教学方面不见得能真正代表中式教育,在语言方面不见得能理解西方文化。在节目中我看到的就恰好就是这样。

教学是师生之间的互动,语言障碍和文化差异不可忽视。从我最早在报纸上看到外教抱怨中国学生不参与课堂互动,到现在该有20多年了。中国老师去英国当然也会遇到类似的困境。考虑到这一点,在实验安排上理应留出一段时间给老师和学生进行磨合适应。

继续阅读教学方式差异还是文化差异

小人书!

小摊上看到,挑了一些古代人物和故事的。看上去挺新,但是印刷质量一般,疑心是盗印的。不过重点是内容不错,尤其是文字自然平实,简练流畅。给小朋友看再好不过。贴一下照片:

唐伯虎:上海人民美术出版社
文:夏振亚
图:王义秋

Tang Bohu
cover image of story book “Tang Bohu”.

满江红:人民美术出版社
文:范钧宏 吕瑞明 任梅
图:墨浪

Man Jiang Hong
Cover page of storybook “Man Jiang Hong”

八仙过海:中国旅游出版社
文:李源 任宝贤
图:韩亚洲 范世评

Ba Xie Guo Hai
Cover page of story book “Ba Xie Guo Hai”

海瑞罢官:上海人民美术出版社
文:吴晗 李大发
图:黄全昌

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陆游:上海人民美术出版社

继续阅读小人书!