Reflection on High Expectations and PISA Data on China

China's ranking compared to other countries

China is ranked quite high in Science and Mathematics, #10 in Science and #6 in Math, but that is only related to 4 major provinces in China, while there are 22 provinces in China. The major issue in Chinese education right now is a high urbanization of certain areas and high labor migration. (China Power Team, 2016).

(China Power, 2016)

According to this table, we see why labor migration is so high and there is a high difference in access to qualified teachers. In regions, there are less-qualified teachers per student, as most of them migrate to Urban and higher paid areas like Beijing and Shanghai. The Chinese government is trying to fix this problem by providing cheaper housing and employment in other provinces in China, however, China is a huge country and such change will take some time to implement. 

Chinese students rank quite high, not as high as Singapore since Singapore is the leader in all three content areas in PISA data. However, what is very interesting is the students' happiness level is very low, both in Singapore and China students report high school-work related anxiety, Singapore being the leader in this area too. It's true for China, Singapore, and Japan, where students report high levels of school-related stress. Earlier this month in China 12-year-old girl jumped out of the window because she did not submit her homework on time. (Daily Mail, 2018). She was rescued luckily and recovering now. Education-related suicide remains high both in China an Singapore and remains an alarming issue in both societies. (Jelita 2017). In both countries, the pressure to succeed is put on students at schools as well as their families, without addressing their emotional learning and emotional maturity. Those students who cannot cope with the level of stress end up committing suicides. 

Compared to Switzerland, that also ranks high in Math (#8), students report low school-work related anxiety, higher life satisfaction, and high sense of belonging at school. 

(OECD, 2015)

I think the major difference between Chinese and Swiss education is in population size related competition, China is the highest populated country in the world. and Curriculum models are very different as well. Swiss curriculum is based on cultural and linguistic diversity and the schools provide students enough time and freedom to do the work, while in China students have a large amount of homework every day and very little time to do it. In my school in China, for example, the students study until 9 pm and have only about 1,5 hours every day for homework, after school. While in a public school in Switzerland the school day is from 8.30-16:00 with a 2-hour lunch break, leaving students enough time for homework and possibly for extracurricular activities. In China, most of the public schools are boarding schools and have much longer school days. Though Swiss schools also set very high academic and behavior expectations for students, and it is entirely skills-based, where students are expected to become independent and self-sufficient from very early age. That is why International Baccalaureat (IB) Curriculum was created in Switzerland. For example, my niece who is 6 years old walks to kindergarten alone and comes back home by herself every day in the suburb of Zurich. Public Swiss schools are free and provide high-quality education and the possibility for high academic performing students to enter prestigious universities for free as well. In China public schools from grade 1-9 are free, however since the best schools are located in Beijing and Shanghai they are not accessible to people without Beijing registration (Hukou), so all labor migrants if they relocate to Beijing from other provinces, they cannot send their children to public schools in Beijing, a lot of them leave their children behind in the provinces with grandparents. This phenomenon is called "Left Behind Children". 

(Picture retrieved from CNN website, 2018)

Parents and Teachers Expectations in China

A lot of the education-related stress in China is due to high expectations of parents from their children, as due to one child policy many families only have one child to fulfill all family's dreams. This puts teachers under pressure as well, the schools expect teachers to prepare students for best universities in China, and the number of students who got enrolled into prestigious universities can affect that teacher's pay. It is unofficial, and not written in employment contracts but it is informally expected from teachers of High Schools. Students and their parents care very much about university rankings, this is true for local universities as well as universities abroad. They highly value the rank of the university they are applying to. When I taught High School in China, I always advised students to ignore the rank and choose a university based on the quality of the department they are applying to. 

All schools public and private constantly compile students' ranking after each test, and Math and English scores are extremely important and always discussed at parents' meetings, which are another source of stress for students, even if they have fallen two points from the previous test, this could cause a lot of disappointment and pressure from their parents. I personally always stay late after such meetings to talk to stressed parents and reassure them that the school is the place to fail and make mistakes. While failing well strategy will remain important for me, it is hard sometimes to reassure students about how failures teach us important lessons when their parents have other expectations from them. 

My Thoughts on the Role of a Teacher in Setting High Expectations

In the school where I teach the students spent most of their time at school, many of them live at school the whole week and go home on Friday afternoon and return on Sunday afternoon for homework sessions. Some live at school all year if they come from distant provinces. Therefore, students spent more time with teachers then they spend with their own families. The role of teachers in students lives is crucial if we set the right academic and behavior expectations, that's how they will do in life, we are the ones that deal with their everyday activities, problems of growing up and emotional issues. Tuition in this school is very high, and parents have to work a lot in order to afford for their children to study here, but on the other hand, a lot of students are very unhappy because they feel abandoned by their parents. As educators, we need to know these details to know our students better. When setting high expectations we also need to integrate SEL as much as we can in classes, to improve the happiness level of our students, because when students feel happy and feel the sense of belongingness to the school (especially in the case of alienated family), they will perform better academically and behaviorally. My school is now doing that as they are adapting the IB curriculum, and we are on the right track. 

References:

China Power Team. (November 15, 2016). How does education in China compare with other countries? China Power. Retrieved from: https://chinapower.csis.org/education-in-china/

Jelita, A. (2017, September 21). The downsides to Singapore’s education system: streaming, stress and suicides. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from: http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/2111822/downsides-singapores-education-system-streaming-stress-and

Lo, T. (2018, March 1). Chinese girl, 12, is saved by an air cushion after plunging 15 storeys. Daily Mail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5449719/Chinese-schoolgirl-saved-plunging-15-storeys.html

Nanling Fang & Katie Hunt. (February 4, 2018). Photographer documents the plight of China's left-behind kids. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/04/health/china-left-behind-kids-photography-intl/index.html

OECD (2015). PISA Country Comparison. Retrieved from: http://www.compareyourcountry.org/pisa/country/chn?lg=en

Swiss Education. (2018). The Swiss Education System. Retrieved from: http://swisseducation.educa.ch/en/swiss-education-system-3

TIMMS&PIRLS International Study Center. (n.d.) [ PDF of TIMMS and PIRLS Scores and Analysis]. As global study TIMSS turns 20, new results show East Asian student continue to outperform peers in mathematics. Retrieved from http://timss2015.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/T15-Press-Release-FINAL-11-29.pdf