An interesting look at Shanghai's school system!

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Excellence in Education

Shanghai's secondary school students were the top performers in the PISA 2009 tests. Chinese society as a whole is committed to excellence in education, and Shanghai's education authorities consistently seek ways to help low-performing schools and students improve their results.

Programme for International Student Assessment (2009)[1] (Top 10; OECD members as of the time of the study in boldface)
Maths	Sciences	Reading
1.  Shanghai, China 600 2.  Singapore 562 3.  Hong Kong, China 555 4.  South Korea 546 5.  Taiwan 543 6.  Finland 541 7.  Liechtenstein 536 8.  Switzerland 534 9.  Japan 529 10.  Canada 527	1.  Shanghai, China 575 2.  Finland 554 3.  Hong Kong, China 549 4.  Singapore 542 5.  Japan 539 6.  South Korea 538 7.  New Zealand 532 8.  Canada 529 9.  Estonia 528 10.  Australia 527	1.  Shanghai, China 556 2.  South Korea 539 3.  Finland 536 4.  Hong Kong, China 533 5.  Singapore 526 6.  Canada 524 7.  New Zealand 521 8.  Japan 520 9.  Australia 515 10.  Netherlands 508

ABC News takes a look at education

Definitely a good look into what the successful countries such as China and Finland are doing in terms of educating their children.

The problem with Math...

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I completely agree that most parents expect the schools to teach their kids everything. In fact, I know a lot of parents who don't go through the homework with their children, expecting their children, who are as young as 6 or 7-years-old to be independent when it comes to school work. Children need to be nurtured and it needs to be of a combined effort of both parents and teachers. As your child see that you value their education, they too will come to place their education of a higher importance.

In the case of Math, I see a couple problems in the U.S. education system. First, our schools do not have enough qualified teachers to teach Math. Since Math teachers do not get paid any more than other subject teachers, the ones who are qualified to teach Math often head into other Math-related industries to seek a higher paycheck. I believe that college students in the elementary and secondary education majors need to have specific emphasis in the areas and subjects they teach. Just as doctors, lawyers, and engineers have specific specialities, the same should go for teachers.

Second, we are not engaging our students in a systematic approach of teaching Math. We are also not using the best methods and technologies that are available to teach them Math. There are countries out there who are constantly seeking the best approach to teaching Math. I believe this is due to the lack of Math expertise our teachers hold.

Third, many parents and children alike are "afraid" of Math. Ask any adult out there, and you will get the majority telling you they were bad at Math or hated Math when they were in school. Since there are very little tools out there to assist parents to teach their children Math, this subject is often times shoved aside as a "difficult" subject everyone just has to go through to pass it not excel in it.

We need to change the way we teach Math in the United States. Already, we are seeing the downside of not teaching Math properly in our schools and homes. We have a shortage of Engineers, Scientists, technology-related personnel, and so on. Any thoughts on what we should do?

A visit to Finland...

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A whilst ago, I did a posting on Finland ranking #1 in Math + Science in PISA. I was extremely interested to learn more about Finland and I was excited when NBC paid Finland a visit to learn more about their education system. It is amazing to learn that just 40 years ago, Finland's education status was no way near where it is now. Their smart government saw where technology was heading and decided to change things around. Although 40 years seem like a long time, I find it impressive that the country has turned its eductaion system 360 degrees in such, my opinion, a short span. I believe too, that is is not only important, it is vital that our teachers should also have a master degree. Why? Not only will this help us find a pool of more qualified tecahers for our children, it will also weed out a lot of teachers, who are simply getting a teaching degree because it is easier and less time consuimg than most other majors. We need to start looking for teachers who are truly passionate about teaching. I also find it important that we need to have teachers who teach the same group of students for a few years in a row. As a tutor myself, it takes a while to get to know each child well and to find out what their strengths and weaknesses are. It is even more difficult to learn how to motivate them with such short interaction with them. I believe that we will find that teachers will be able to drastically improve their students' scores and capabilities if they were to stay with them longer. That being said, before that can be done correctly, we must first improve the qualifications and quality of the teachers we are recruiting. I wouldn't want my child stuck with the same teacher if he/she wasn't passionate about teaching them. The U.S. is starting to head towards the same direction but there are still miles and miles for us to travel vefore we will get to a good stage in improving our education!

Finland ranks #1 in education for PISA

Finland was recently ranked #1 in the world for PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). PISA is an international comparison of students in the subjects of reading, literacy, mathematics and science. This worldwide test of scholastic perforamce of 15-year-old teenagers is conducted once every three years starting in 2000. The United States ranked #21. (Do note that there are quite a few international ranking systems. This is just one of them. We will cover the other ranking systems in later posts.)

Here are some interesting facts of Finland's educational system:

1. Teachers are required to have a Master's Degree from a qualified university.
2. Because the teachers are highly qualified, they are autonomous as they can coose how to teach their own students.
3. 6% of Finland's gross domestic product goes towards education. As such there are very few private schools and the private schools receive little or no government subsidy.
4. Books and school meals are free.
5. About 96% of Finnish students have a very strong interest in continuing with secondary and higher level education after the compulsory nine years primary school.
6. Outside the schools, the country has strong municipal libraries in every suburb that provide practical benefits for children's studies, while business enterprises contribute innovations to promote students' learning.