New York Times: Shanghai Secret by Thomas Friedman

yishun2009

SHANGHAI — Whenever I visit China, I am struck by the sharply divergent predictions of its future one hears. Lately, a number of global investors have been “shorting” China, betting that someday soon its powerful economic engine will sputter, as the real estate boom here turns to a bust. Frankly, if I were shorting China today, it would not be because of the real estate bubble, but because of the pollution bubble that is increasingly enveloping some of its biggest cities. Optimists take another view: that, buckle in, China is just getting started, and that what we’re now about to see is the payoff from China’s 30 years of investment in infrastructure and education. I’m not a gambler, so I’ll just watch this from the sidelines. But if you’re looking for evidence as to why the optimistic bet isn’t totally crazy, you might want to visit a Shanghai elementary school.

I’ve traveled here with Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America, and the leaders of the Teach for All programs modeled on Teach for America that are operating in 32 countries. We’re visiting some of the highest- and lowest-performing schools in China to try to uncover The Secret — how is it that Shanghai’s public secondary schools topped the world charts in the 2009 PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) exams that measure the ability of 15-year-olds in 65 countries to apply what they’ve learned in math, science and reading.After visiting Shanghai’s Qiangwei Primary School, with 754 students — grades one through five — and 59 teachers, I think I found The Secret: There is no secret.

When you sit in on a class here and meet with the principal and teachers, what you find is a relentless focus on all the basics that we know make for high-performing schools but that are difficult to pull off consistently across an entire school system. These are: a deep commitment to teacher training, peer-to-peer learning and constant professional development, a deep involvement of parents in their children’s learning, an insistence by the school’s leadership on the highest standards and a culture that prizes education and respects teachers.

Shanghai’s secret is simply its ability to execute more of these fundamentals in more of its schools more of the time. Take teacher development. Shen Jun, Qiangwei’s principal, who has overseen its transformation in a decade from a low-performing to a high-performing school — even though 40 percent of her students are children of poorly educated migrant workers — says her teachers spend about 70 percent of each week teaching and 30 percent developing teaching skills and lesson planning. That is far higher than in a typical American school.

Teng Jiao, 26, an English teacher here, said school begins at 8:35 a.m. and runs to 4:30 p.m., during which he typically teaches three 35-minute lessons. I sat in on one third-grade English class. The English lesson was meticulously planned, with no time wasted. The rest of his day, he said, is spent on lesson planning, training online or with his team, having other teachers watch his class and tell him how to improve and observing the classrooms of master teachers.“You see so many teaching techniques that you can apply to your own classroom,” he remarks. Education experts will tell you that of all the things that go into improving a school, nothing — not class size, not technology, not length of the school day — pays off more than giving teachers the time for peer review and constructive feedback, exposure to the best teaching and time to deepen their knowledge of what they’re teaching.Teng said his job also includes “parent training.” Parents come to the school three to five times a semester to develop computer skills so they can better help their kids with homework and follow lessons online. Christina Bao, 29, who also teaches English, said she tries to chat either by phone or online with the parents of each student two or three times a week to keep them abreast of their child’s progress. “I will talk to them about what the students are doing at school.” She then alluded matter-of-factly to a big cultural difference here, “I tell them not to beat them if they are not doing well.”

In 2003, Shanghai had a very “average” school system, said Andreas Schleicher, who runs the PISA exams. “A decade later, it’s leading the world and has dramatically decreased variability between schools.” He, too, attributes this to the fact that, while in America a majority of a teacher’s time in school is spent teaching, in China’s best schools, a big chunk is spent learning from peers and personal development. As a result, he said, in places like Shanghai, “the system is good at attracting average people and getting enormous productivity out of them,” while also, “getting the best teachers in front of the most difficult classrooms."

China still has many mediocre schools that need fixing. But the good news is that in just doing the things that American and Chinese educators know work — but doing them systematically and relentlessly — Shanghai has in a decade lifted some of its schools to the global heights in reading, science and math skills. Oh, and Shen Jun, the principal, wanted me to know: “This is just the start.”

又听一声干鹊

我想在我有生之年不会看到新加坡的老师在校时间100%的用于教学。

yishun2009

文中提到的上海蔷薇小学是一所在上海闽行区的小学, 可能是一所很普通的小学, 可能是很多没有上海户口的孩子上的学校。

yishun2009

文中提到那英语老师每周与每位学生的家长互动2,3次。如果不是吹牛的话, 那么这真是个很负责的老师。当然, 这位老师应该有时间花在这上面。

可能, 新加坡只有GEP班的老师才有这些"空余"时间。怪不得GEP这么受欢迎!

又听一声干鹊

yishun2009 发表于 26-10-2013 11:15
文中提到那英语老师每周与每位学生的家长互动2,3次。如果不是吹牛的话, 那么这真是个很负责的老师。当然,  ...

犬子上的英文补习班每个term都有家长会，家长不出席，老师还会电话通报情况。

又听一声干鹊

总的感觉就是儿子小学的教学质量不及幼儿园。

yishun2009

又听一声干鹊 发表于 26-10-2013 11:28
犬子上的英文补习班每个term都有家长会，家长不出席，老师还会电话通报情况。
...

好老师!

Fiona2004

美媒：上海的秘诀 - 小学办得好 世界领先
每次造访中国，我总是惊叹于外界对于中国未来的预测反差这样大。最近，一些国际投资人开始“做空”中国，认为不久之后的某天，随着房地产泡沫的破灭，中国强劲的经济引擎就会熄火。老实讲，如果我今天也要做空中国，那么肯定不是出于地产泡沫的原因，而是因为环境污染方面的泡沫。在中国最大的那些城市里，环境污染的泡沫正在迅速地膨胀。乐观者则看法不同：你要有心理准备，中国只是刚刚开始崛起，我们将要看到的是，中国过去三十年在基础建设和教育领域的投资，终于要获得回报了。我不是一个赌徒，所以我只会做一个旁观者。为什么这些乐观者并不完全是在说疯话？如果你想要一些证据，那么你或许应该去参观一所上海的小学。

我的旅伴之一是温蒂·柯普(Wendy Kopp)。柯普是为美国而教组织(Teach for America)的创始人。其他旅伴是美丽世界(Teach for All)项目的多位领导者。美丽世界项目构建在前者的基础上，现在已经在全球32个国家运转。我们造访了中国表现最好和最差的一些学校，想要找到个中的秘密——为什么上海的公立小学能够在2009年的国际学生测评项目(PISA, Program for International Student Assessment)考试中独占鳌头。这个测评项目对65个国家的15岁学生的能力进行测评，考察他们对于数学、科学和阅读能力的掌握。

我们造访了上海蔷薇小学。从一年级到五年级，这所小学共有754名学生，59名老师。访问之后，我觉得我找到了那个秘密。

其实根本就没有什么秘密。

当你坐进蔷薇小学的教室，跟学校校长和老师见了面，你会发现，他们无止境地强调那些造就优质学校的根本原则。这些根本原则我们都很清楚，但是想要在整个教育系统里持续地推广则非常有难度。它们是：下大决心给教师进行培训，教师之间相互学习，在职业上不停进行发展，在小朋友的学习过程中提高家长的参与度，学校领导坚持以最高标准要求学校，并且营造出重视教育、尊重老师的学校文化。

上海成功的秘诀很简单，就在于有更多的学校在更多的时间里执行这些基本原则。我们以教师职业发展为例。通过十年的努力，学校校长沈珺见证了学校由差变好的转变——特别是考虑到40%的学生都是没有受到过良好教育的外来务工人员的子弟——沈校长说，她的老师每周有70%的时间用在教学上，30%的时间用在发展教学技能和备课上。而这个比例要比一所典型的美国学校要高得多。

26的腾蛟(音译)是蔷薇小学的英语老师。他说学校早上8:35上课，下午4:30放学，一般每天会安排三节35分钟的课程。我旁听了一节三年级的英语课。滕老师备课非常仔细，没有浪费任何时间。他说，一天里剩下的时间会用来备课，接受网上培训或者跟同事一起培训，请其他老师听自己的课，指出需要提高的地方，并且观看特级教师是怎么上课的。

他说，“你会学到很多教学技能，可以用到自己的课堂上。”教育专家会告诉你，提高学校教育质量的方法很多，控制班级规模，采用高科技，控制上学的时间；但是最重要的是给老师时间来相互评价，给出建设性意见，观摩最好的教学过程，并对所教授课程加深认识和理解；这比任何一项投资的回报都要大。

滕老师说，他的工作还包括了“家长培训”。每个学期家长会来学校三到五次，学习电脑技能，从而更好地帮助自己的子女完成作业，并在网上学习。29岁的克里斯蒂娜·鲍(Christina Bao)也是蔷薇小学的英语老师，她说她每个礼拜都尝试着跟所有学生的家长打电话或者网上聊天，沟通两到三次，让他们清楚小孩的学习情况。她说，“我会告诉家长，学生在学校的表现如何。” 然后，鲍老师还郑重地提到，“我会告诉家长，如果学生表现不太好，千万不要打小孩。”这算是中美之间很大的一个文化差异吧。

安德里亚斯·施雷彻(Andreas Schleicher)是国际学生测评项目的负责人。他告诉我们，2003年，上海的教育系统还是非常“普通”的。“但是十年之后，上海的教育系统已经在世界领先，同时极大程度上缩小了学校之间的差别。”他也认为，进步背后的原因是，在中国最好的学校里，老师很大的一部分时间用来在同事之间相互学习，进行个人职业发展。而在美国，老师在学校的大部分时间都是用来教学。他说，结果就是，像在上海这样的地方，“整个教育系统有本事把原来一般的老师，变成非常有工作效率的老师”，与此同时，“教育系统再把最好的老师派往最具有挑战性的课堂上去。”

中国也有很多一般的学校，有很多问题亟待解决。不过好消息是，通过坚持那些中美教育者都明白，且肯定会奏效的基本原则，上海用十年时间，提高了学校的教育质量，一些学生已经在阅读，科学和数学技能方面处于世界领先地位。当然，他们在坚持基本原则方面相当系统，义无反顾。对了，沈珺校长还跟我说，“这只是一个开始。”(David)

妒风笑月

yishun2009 发表于 26-10-2013 11:22
文中提到的该学校的至胜之处是老师之间互相听课, 相互提意见建议, 互相帮助, 共同进步。这点太重要了! 这需 ...

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