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OECD PISA test scores.







Billy the Fish

Technocrat
Oct 18, 2005
17,508
Haywards Heath
And re your last paragraph, does becoming more developed mean that you then don't have to have a basic understanding of simple arithmetic? How bizarre.

Of course it does. I'm no sociologist but you don't have to be a genius to see the difference between the incentive for a 15 year old to value learning in our consumer based economy and culture as opposed to the developing economies in Asia.
 


Goldstone Rapper

Rediffusion PlayerofYear
Jan 19, 2009
14,865
BN3 7DE
Say that in 15 years time when some of these charlies are working out your tax. :)

According to Malcolm Gladwell, many eastern cultures are naturally good at basic arithmetic because their counting system is different eg There is no word for eleven - it is 10 and 1. 10 + 10 = 2 lots of ten, rather than twenty etc.

And re your last paragraph, does becoming more developed mean that you then don't have to have a basic understanding of simple arithmetic? How bizarre.

In Cantonese, 11 is '10,1' 12 is '10,2' etc. '21' is '2,10,1'. Strangely the word for eight is the same as the word for hundred, so it's not simpler in every respect.

One of the advantages of the Chinese education system is that it has been rebuilt pretty much from scratch after the disaster of the Cultural Revolution was brought to an end. As a result, it's been focused on modern needs, and significantly refined every few years, rather than, say, the UK system which was created in an era long gone.
 




Goldstone Rapper

Rediffusion PlayerofYear
Jan 19, 2009
14,865
BN3 7DE
I'd bet the average UK teenager would fare much better in a more creative task than a Chinese student. I've taught Chinese and Vietnamese students and they might be very bright but suffer from a severe imagination/opinion deficit. This is directly caused by the rigorous but rigid education system.

For example, in a Vietnamese Literature course the standard format is to read the book, read what the experts say about the book then regurgitate it verbatim in the exam/coursework. Even the idea of paraphrasing is alien. This causes big problems for Asian students studying abroad as for the first time in their lives they asked to do some analysis themselves and offer a reasoned opinion.

Learning maths (or any subject) by rote may yield impressive exam results but it won't necessarily produce well-rounded individuals.

Interesting that a major document issued by the Chinese Ministry of Education in 2001 called for the following changes:

• to move away from pure knowledge transmission towards fostering learning attitudes and values.
• to move away from discipline-based knowledge, towards more comprehensive and balanced learning experiences.
• to move away from pure “bookish” knowledge and to improve relevance and interest in the content of a curriculum.
• to move away from repetitive and mechanistic rote-learning towards increased student participation, real-life experience, capacity in communications and teamwork, and ability to acquire new knowledge and to analyse and solve problems.
• to de-emphasise the screening and selective functions of assessments and instead to emphasise their formative and constructive functions.
• to move away from centralisation, so as to leave room for adaptation to local relevance and local needs.

Whereas Michael Gove would rather move towards this.
 




KZNSeagull

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
19,864
Wolsingham, County Durham
Of course it does. I'm no sociologist but you don't have to be a genius to see the difference between the incentive for a 15 year old to value learning in our consumer based economy and culture as opposed to the developing economies in Asia.

I sort of see where you are coming from, but only in as much as there is the welfare system if you do not do well at school for whatever reason.

I have to say that the method that my youngest son is being taught in maths is odd. They started doing "tower sums" and then have moved away from them again, only to pick them up later on. I am sure that there is method in there somewhere.
 








Trufflehound

Re-enfranchised
Aug 5, 2003
14,108
The democratic and free EU
Strangely the word for eight is the same as the word for hundred

No it isn't - they just sound a bit similar to untrained ears. The characters are completely different (in my random pictogram association, I think '8' looks like a volcano, 100 looks like a helicopter).
 


Bakero

Languidly clinical
Oct 9, 2010
13,805
Almería
Interesting that a major document issued by the Chinese Ministry of Education in 2001 called for the following changes:

• to move away from pure knowledge transmission towards fostering learning attitudes and values.
• to move away from discipline-based knowledge, towards more comprehensive and balanced learning experiences.
• to move away from pure “bookish” knowledge and to improve relevance and interest in the content of a curriculum.
• to move away from repetitive and mechanistic rote-learning towards increased student participation, real-life experience, capacity in communications and teamwork, and ability to acquire new knowledge and to analyse and solve problems.
• to de-emphasise the screening and selective functions of assessments and instead to emphasise their formative and constructive functions.
• to move away from centralisation, so as to leave room for adaptation to local relevance and local needs.

Whereas Michael Gove would rather move towards this.

Interesting. Forward this to Gove.
 


El Presidente

The ONLY Gay in Brighton
Helpful Moderator
Jul 5, 2003
39,715
Pattknull med Haksprut
70% of the students I teach are Chinese. Their work ethic shames the locals , but they do not like going off piste in terms of their learning as everything is rote based. Once they've cracked the latter issue the 21st century is theirs.
 




Husty

Mooderator
Oct 18, 2008
11,995
Well that was piece of piss, staggering to think that only 3% of 15 year olds can add together two fractions and multiply them by 4.
 


Nibble

New member
Jan 3, 2007
19,238
Who cares how good at maths they are, ugly race of people with no tits.
 








matildaseagull

New member
Aug 12, 2003
304
Good Old Sussex
Agree with Michael Rosen 100%.

Thoughts on OECD and PISA data

As the PISA and OECD tables talk reaches its expected frenzy, stand by for reductive lying crap about how our economic performance depends on where a country sits on the table. This is a neat way to sidestep questions of eg investment in manufacture, corrupt , crazy and incompetent banking, levels of immigration, price of and availability of raw materials, inequality - all of which have powerful bearings on economic performance.

Worse: the OECD data accept 'competition' (between countries in this instance) as the key determinant of success. If nothing else this shows us that this is indeed the dominant way in which our ruling class thinks. They are unable or unwilling to see the world through the prism of need and use. In a rational world, we'd be a) developing goods and services based solely on principles of need and use and b) we would be sharing our 'successes' in finding or inventing these with everyone else.

Instead, OECD tables are symptoms of a crazy world in which huge amounts of time, resources and wealth are wasted (see advertising, PR, duplicate production etc) in order to steal a march over the next company, the next country or the next continent.

With OECD data, children are being used as the cannon fodder in this competitive frenzy. The education system is used in the same way that generals complain about guns not working - without stopping for a moment and wondering why they are at war.
 


matildaseagull

New member
Aug 12, 2003
304
Good Old Sussex
I'd bet the average UK teenager would fare much better in a more creative task than a Chinese student. I've taught Chinese and Vietnamese students and they might be very bright but suffer from a severe imagination/opinion deficit. This is directly caused by the rigorous but rigid education system.

For example, in a Vietnamese Literature course the standard format is to read the book, read what the experts say about the book then regurgitate it verbatim in the exam/coursework. Even the idea of paraphrasing is alien. This causes big problems for Asian students studying abroad as for the first time in their lives they asked to do some analysis themselves and offer a reasoned opinion.

Learning maths (or any subject) by rote may yield impressive exam results but it won't necessarily produce well-rounded individuals.

This is true
 






Uncle C

Well-known member
Jul 6, 2004
11,684
Bishops Stortford
Once again, the UK lags behind many, many countries in maths tests results.

Only 55% of 15 year-olds could say which was the smallest number from the following list:

1.79
1.796
1.82
1.783

:nono: I honestly despair.

Top of the class? China (Shanghai, as opposed to Hong Kong) with 89%.

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/form/

I can understand why people get this wrong. When asked which is the smallest number the answer could be either of those with 3 digits.

The question should be 'what is the lowest number?' then it would be 1.783.
 


Barrel of Fun

Abort, retry, fail
I can understand why people get this wrong. When asked which is the smallest number the answer could be either of those with 3 digits.

The question should be 'what is the lowest number?' then it would be 1.783.

Then they have an inherent misunderstanding of decimals and numeracy.
 


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