National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) is where Chinese students go there to take a test to see if they can get a place in college. However, with the students shouldering a huge amount of pressure, some of them suicide because China's education system says "one exam can determine a student's fate". A professor called Lan talked about how it was easier in America than in China because in America, they can take the SAT more than once, but in China, there is only one chance for the students to get a place in the colleges. There's only a little amount of seats in colleges available for the whole country's students.
This article shows how the educational system in China puts large pressure on the students and that relate to my topic of interest in China's educational system. It also show how China's culture of having one chance determines the student's fate have created such large problem in the suicidal rate.
I think it is because of the pressure thrown on the students and the one chance to take the test takes a huge toll on the students to study as much as possible. But if they keep thinking that they can't take the test, then they would feel that they would have a bad position in society, which then could lead to suicide. In the article it said that our ability to endure psychological pressure is quite low and in China, it is hard for the students to relieve their stress. That's why there should be more psychological counseling for the students and a change in the way the government should put the national test out. It also show how (quite) extreme the Chinese culture has on testing and the "future" paths. When I read the article, I feel that I am more lucky that I can have three tries in the SAT and I don't really feel pressure if I didn't do that well. It shows the student pressure difference between China and America and it relates to half of my topic about the students' lives in China and how the China education affects heavily on the students future.
In Japan, Even Toddlers Feel the Pressure to Excel
The article talks about how parents are putting their kids, even though they are less than six years old into cram classes/intense schooling to get into a prestigious, great kindergarten school. Japan believed that nurturing should be start on the early age and parents fuss about how to have their children go into the greatest school so their future would be good. Though this puts a lot of pressure to the children because they have classes everyday, and when they get home, they would sit on their desks to study. In Japan, there's "examination hell" where kids who want to enroll into a good school have to take the examination and its quite harsh for the young kids.
However, if they do get in, then they can rest at ease until they get into colleges/universities.
This article relates similar to the article above how both China and Japan education systems are quite gruesome and putting a lot of pressure onto the kids. It also relates to my topic of searching about the two countries educational system and how that affects the students/kids. How does being in cram school and having an all day schedule affect the kids' youth and maybe their happiness. It might be fun to be playing when they are young but as they get old and reaching for a higher school, it seems their fun times are disappearing because of the studying and pressure. It can be compare how China and Japan have the same problem in dealing with how testings affect strongly on both the parents and children.
Exploration of the Learning Expectations Related to Grades 1-8 Algebra in Some Countries
by: Chen Jung-chih, Cai Wang-ting [Eric]
This essay is about a study that analyzes the learning expectations of algebra from grades 1-8 in U.S: Minnesota, Missouri, and California, and Asian countries: Singapore, Taiwan and Japan and see how they differ from each other. It also compares the curriculum to the learning expectations. I think this essay can be used as evidence in my paper to show how the mathematical level that the Asian countries have and compare them (though the evidences and comparisons in tables and graphs were quite confusing, I hope it will be understandable).
Through this essay, I can see that the math curriculum from the official documents compared to the learning expectations are quite different because all the students are not the same and that with different countries, different level of math topics are included. Because the field is algebra, the grades that the countries that were compared was in elementary and middle school. Additionally, when I look at the evidences, I see that different topics within the algebra unit are separated throughout the grades and repeated back and forth. Even though this essay is comparison between America and Asian countries, there are evidences in which Singapore and Taiwan versus Japan has such as that Singapore and Taiwan's learning expectations are larger than Japan. It could be comparison and similarity between China and Japan and how their curricula work.
Goals of Education in Asian and American Cultures
by Alexandra Cummings [Eric]
Alexandra Cummings talks about the education that Asian countries, typically China versus the education in America and how they can learn from each other and use each other to provide, thus grow a better environment/learnings for the students. Although Cummings does not give a definite answer in how they should learn but through reading the essay, one can see that both Asian and America cultures can built from one another.
The essay emphasize a lot on how Chinese cultures and other Asian cultures go by the motto of "hard work" and to have diligence. Additionally the Chinese education and teachers give a lot of work for the students to memorize and in the conclusion, Cummings wrote about Confucius who said, "The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar". This relates to my topic of China educations and how with the work constantly assigned to the students, how would that affect their mind. The essay also talks about how the Asian countries does better in the mathematical level than America but America's education provides more nurturing for the students than having the students memorize almost everything like the Chinese teachers make the students memorize each chapter of the book they read.
Culture has a lot to do with how the education of that country works and China and Japan is a good example. They follow more of what Hirsch is saying, to know the basic knowledge but the students there put a lot of time into doing the problems/assignments given and that made them score better in subjects such as math and science. Even though I agree that the Asian's education is better but like Cummings said, it would be much more better if there was something nurturing involve with the China education and that would create more developed thinkers. This gives me the idea that China gives knowledge to the students but as for developing deeper or making inquiries, they should make more of that.
Values - A Study of Teacher and Student Perceptions in Four Countries [Bangladesh, Japan, USA and Germany]
Shamsul H. Mahmud, Judith R. Warchal, Ayumi Masuchi, Rafiq Ahmed, and Axel Schoelmerich [Eric]
The paper was comparing about the values that the four countries give and using students and teachers as surveys/evidences to show what kind of values that these four countries have in common (more common than different). The paper first address how judging and the way we appeal to others are important because it is human condition and values are part of the many aspects that affect our lives and give us to evaluate the situations/goals. It connects to my topic about Japan and in the paper, it expresses about how Japanese students are like with their values such as "Japanese place a higher value on a well organized and routinized life and on systematic approaches to relatively well-defined goals". The Japanese students have functional values such as fatalism, self-direction, security, pro-social and etc rather than dysfunctional values such as narcissism (especially), conservative, power over others, achievement and other worldliness.
Unlike the article above, Japanese students have a high value for self-direction which is independently thinking for themselves about the situations, analyzing it and reaching decisions. Because of that value, it can be shown that thats how the Japanese have "well organized and reutilized life". This connects to my topic as it shows how Japanese way of educating themselves and how their cultural values affect how the students live their lives. Additionally, it can be seen that the Japanese, after self-direction, that it is followed by narcissism, to fulfill personal gratification. Rather than "fulfillment of the basic needs", they go for personal gratification and "positive approach for national development". I'm not sure if it is a similarity or difference if I compare the narcissism percent in Japan and China but reading this paper (even though there's no China) has help me to see that there are more similarities in both of the countries. As well as their values are quite similar. It is also seen that culture, the environment and economy have a lot to do with how the education works and the values that are given to the students that led them to how the country's education is and how that affect their lives.
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