To think the Chinese Teachers that taught in a English Comprehensive in Hampshire need to concentrate on their own countries problems.

[sunshield]

This experiment taken by BBC 2 ' Are our children tough enough' proves how far removed Chinese teaching methods are from , creating independent creative thinkers.

The Chinese teachers actually buy in to their 'state driven' dogmatic culture, that breeds total obedience to the state of china. They are also victims because they are unable to accept , that independent thinking is the key to a happy life.

China has abject poverty for 99% of the population, yet they decry a system that 'no matter that it is being altered ' still attempts to ensure no one starves on the street.

There is also another question to be asked about the PISA results , why do they only show schools from Shanghai ?. We could respond by only quoting results from Private or Grammar schools, because their results have been 'doctored'.

The quote we only have one type of syllabus in China 'survive or die' is typical of a state controlled workforce. This also shows they have no compassion for anyone who does not fit the norm though either academic intelligence or through Autism etc. The comment about not understanding the child who ran out of the class about 'One Direction' proves they have no understanding about teenage problems, whoever trivial.

The English education system needs to take no advice from the Chinese education system, despite what the baying mob think on the Daily Mail website think.

www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/16/accesstouniversity-private-schools

Ummm, follow the link I think you find that they do. I did also say OFTEN not always as well. Its hard for parents who pay for education take I know but, its there in black and white.

It also then goes along with the "glass floor" idea discussed last week, children who are privileged are more likely to succeed in careers because they are granted opportunities unavailable to their less lucky peers.

Olivers. That is because in China you are taught not to 'question' or think but to obey . However, regarding the little boy nearly drowning , did you hear about 7 Policeman standing about letting a 17 year old 'mentally' unbalanced boy drown in London .

Of course there are intelligent people all over the world, despite this you can bet that even highly intelligent Chinese paraphrase their governments position and not question anything ..

All of these shows follow the same recipe: make 2 groups of people with opposing values interact and watch the imminent explosion.
It's voyeuristic, sensationalist rubbish and won't teach anybody anything, other than "there are big cultural differences between China and the UK".
No shit, Sherlock.

I live in China and know plenty of people who question what their government says/does. There are tight controls here on the Internet and it's not easy to express those views, but to suggest the Chinese are mindless automatons who are just taught to obey is a naive statement.

sunshield - have you ever actually been to China?

So much overt racism on this thread.

I'm going to reserve judgement until I've seen the show, but one of the Chinese teachers is a former colleague of mine; she worked for a number of years in a school in South London. I'll be interested to see if her UK teaching experience is mentioned on the show or whether they present her as experiencing it all for the first time

Suns that's an unfair and untrue thing to say about what happened in East London last week

"The Daily Mirror's front page headline this morning, Friday 31 July, offers a definite conclusion - Police Refuse To Save Drowning Boy. No quotation marks, nothing to reflect our statement last night, Thursday, 30 July, that officers first tried to use a life aid and throw lines to him before an officer, who then needed assistance himself, entered dangerous water to try and save Jack’s life. Met divers also entered the water in a rescue operation to try and save Jack. I saw no mention of this." - Commander Lucy d'Orsi

Gosh, how this has gone from a discussion about teaching methods, to being racism is really difficult.I for one have not suggested the "automaton" and have repeated something that I have been told anecdotaly, but given a quick google search has actually been studied!

My automaton comment was directed at sunshield.

And. Thanks for putting me right on the drowning incident .

I got my info from LBC and the Newspapers, which shows you can't all- ways be sure of the full facts about an incident.

I am not Racist against any community or religion Shanghai.

There are things that are wrong with the English education system, we do not need telling we can have discipline problems in classes, though I doubt this was evident at this school in Hampshire.

The head teacher described the teaching as the 'most boring' and dull he had witnessed .
The teachers from China should have gone in to the class with the aim that the children 'enjoyed' as well as learned new things from their teaching.

Instead all they can say is negative things about the 'welfare state' that has nothing to do with behaviour .

Bohunt School is a no 'mecca' of welfare claimants ! 3.3% FSM 85% GCSE 48% high attainers, it is evidently a highly effective 'naice' middle class school.

The Chinese teachers could not even raise a smile for a photograph !

lurk you need to read the detail of the study , not pick the sentence which supports your prejudice.

What the study shows is a fairly damning indictment of the state school system.

At the least selective universities state schooled pupils do better. No shock. A student gaining, say CCC from a private school is probably not that able, whereas a state school pupil may well have underachieved and perform brilliantly at degree level.

At the most selective end if HE we see almost no difference in degree result but what there is in the favour if state schooled students. Again no shock. A state schooled pupil gaining A*AA is going to be an exceptional one.

What this study tells anyone involved in outreach is that too many pupils are underachieving. No huge surprise to any of us.

I think it should be a case of pitting one flawed system against another flawed system, as though there were some sort of binary choice and nothing else.

I think that the Chinese education system has plenty of issues, as does China itself.

I also happen to agree with the teachers in question that British school students are not terribly hard-working as a general rule, and are also, in many cases, extremely rude and disrespectful.

Funnily enough I heard snippets about it on LBC and that's one reason I knew the alternative version!

"What the study shows is a fairly damning indictment of the state school system."

Utter drivel, it shows that students from state schools that achieve similar grades to their privately educated counterparts are more likely to get higher grades and complete their degrees.

There are several other studies which show that state educated students , if they get to uni, are likely to perform better. Mostly as a bi-product of being more self sufficient and less hot-house learning.

What it is an indictment of is the state of meritocracy in this country.

As for issues like "critical thinking"--look, when we actually have a good working definition of "critical thinking," then perhaps we can have a meaningful debate about which countries are best at it.

At the moment, though, nobody seems to be able to define very clearly even what CT is, let alone who is best or worse at it.

It is certainly true that some societies innovate more than others, but there is more going on here than the type of education system countries have or the way teachers engage with their classes.

"Utter drivel, it shows that students from state schools that achieve similar grades to their privately educated counterparts are more likely to get higher grades and complete their degrees.

There are several other studies which show that state educated students , if they get to uni, are likely to perform better. Mostly as a bi-product of being more self sufficient and less hot-house learning."

Look: Students who get very good grades from state schools are likely to be somewhat exceptional people from the get-go-- it shouldn't be any surprise that they, on average, do somewhat better than private school kids who get the same grades.

However, if those high-achieving state school kids HAD gone to a private school, most of them probably would have done even better, due to being exposed to a more "stretching" curriculum and having less lesson time wasted through disruption.

I am generalizing hugely, needless to say. There are some mediocre and rubbish private schools as well, of course, and some very good state schools.

lurk your reading of that study is at odds with my colleagues involved in widening participation.

But I'll let then know they're wrong . That the state system is superior to the private system.

Perhaps the kids at Eton could start to receive contextualised offers.

Didn't mean to de-rail this thread with that, but agreed NS.

I wonder what Chinese students would make of the facilities and types of teaching provided at most British schools? Surely the class sizes and range of learning activities would interest them a little!

I just spent some time with a group of South Korean teenagers. They were so bright and also wanted to be bright and do their best.

Shegotalldamoves, and it rings true with my own experiences of it, I'll let you know when patronising "widening participation" practices actually get anywhere, particularly when Eton gets more visits from Oxbridge colleges in one year recently than the whole of my borough has managed in a decade.

There is widening participation and there is making the right noises about it but not actually doing anything about it really.

Is this a slight against the 'English Comprehensive in Hampshire'?

"independent thinking is the key to a happy life"

Is it though?

I have lived in China for nearly a decade (a first tier city) and I know more happy people than I did when I lived in the UK.

A nation's education system is a product of its government, and is a method of control. Anyone who doesn't realise this needs a lesson in global politics and economics. China's education system is working pretty well in controlling over a billion people and keeping the nation at the forefront of world economics.

OP, your post is racist. You can't make such damming generalizations about an entire race based on one TV program.

I work with many Chinese people. Very bright, and well able to think for themselves. Most are great to work with.
The Chinese I work closely with are well educated in a broad array of subjects, are interested in so many things, and certainly have their own opinions.

And they do question things, just not in as blunt a manner as I'm used to, they tend to allow the other person to 'save face'. But believe me, they are well able to convince me that a proposed solution won't work and give viable alternatives.

Agree Caonima

I know plenty of blissfully ignorant people.