标签： BBC

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

It’s about language and culture, dude

中文无废话版在这里

It came to me as a complete surprise that the BBC documentary Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School got so much attention, and the debate over which is better, the Chinese way or the British way, actually got so heated up.

So I just spent 2 hours watching it on Youtube and here’s what I think.

First of all, I’d say the heated debate and all the furious comments on which way of teaching is better are mostly not based on the video itself. Because what the documentary shows is not a meaningful comparison. All the Chinese teachers simply failed miserably in managing their classes from the very beginning, due largely to, in my humble opinion, cultural conflict and language barrier. So I’ll base my comment on the program and maybe comment on the debate over this program in a separate post.

The Experiment

I don’t know who organized this. I think it’s a fantastic idea in terms of cultural exchange. But if the goal is to compare the Chinese way of teaching to the British way of teaching,  it cannot be taken seriously.

Teaching involves extensive interaction between the teachers and the students. Language barrier and cultural difference cannot be overlooked. Stories of foreign teachers got frustrated in Chinese classes because Chinese students were inactive have been around since 20+ years now. Why should we expect the Chinese teachers not to be shocked in a British school? This cultural shock should be expected and extra time should be planned for both the teachers and the students to adapt.

继续阅读It’s about language and culture, dude