Comments on: Chinese “education”

By: Tweets that mention Silk Road International Blog » Chinese “education” -- Topsy.com

Wed, 19 May 2010 13:07:53 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by andreasmoeller. andreasmoeller said: Alot of good points made here by David Dayton in the China Education – Culture – Business divide. http://ow.ly/1N1uI [...]

By: AM

AM — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:30:14 +0000

Having recently finished a MBA semester at BeiDa i must say that I completely agree. It was alot harder than finishing our reports to actually get the Chinese students involved in our projects.Often they would not have time for meetings because they had to play computer games. Or expected to be excempted for duties because the foreigners had better english so we could maybe get a better grade. They offered to provide “some idea” and the rest would be done by the visiting students. I have never experienced such a lack of pride or interest in the project being done. It almost seemed like they completely didnt care about neither result nor the opinion about theur efforts from the group mates perspective. With a grading system that leaves everyone with a nice pass and decent point square no matter what this makes sense. I was happy to realize though that there will still be alot of work to be done here by expats in many years to come!

By: Jesse Covner

Jesse Covner — Wed, 19 May 2010 02:50:02 +0000

Great post, although I do think that most of this has been observed and covered in other places ten years ago. The difference between now and 10 years ago is that it is mostly worse now. The depressing thing is that most Chinese people understand how bad their education system is , and they just say “mei banfa”. Or if they have money, they immigrate to Canada.

I would like to add that good hiring procedures which include psychometric and critical thinking tests as well as behavioral interviews and assessment tests (like role-plays, case studies, in-box/outbox tests) can greatly increase the chances that your new employee will be someone who has good thinking skills and a proactive attitude.

By: Michiel V

Michiel V — Wed, 19 May 2010 02:46:34 +0000

Hi David,
I really enjoy reading your articles, for which I thank you. I’m sad to say I agree 100% with what you say about the Chinese education system. My experiences as a boss, teacher and parent in China are pretty similar.
It took many months to teach my employees that it is okay to interrupt me, ask questions and tell me when I’m wrong, after which productivity and quality goes up dramatically.
Teaching college was a mostly ‘disappointing’ experience, with half of the students sleeping, another 35% playing with their phones, and 15% paying attention, of whom half ‘get it’, ask questions and participate. Come exam time, 92% of the work is a verbatim copy of the answers of the 8% who really studied, including copied mistakes and smudges. Several kids sent email admitting they paid no attention in class and copied all the answers, but would I please give them good marks for their exam anyway, because they really wanted a good score….
When I first enrolled my kid in a Chinese school, I was presented not with a curriculum, but with a lunch menu. Progress reports prominently featured my kids’ eating habits, how many bowls of rice she ate, etc. So, now she’s at an international school, where the emphasis is on learning, playing, developing, but she has to bring her own packed lunch.
Nevertheless, I would not want to live anywhere else but here in China (Suzhou), if only because there is still so much to achieve…