Putong Pedagogy

Tommorrow I am leaving for 5 days on an immersion program at a rural high school outisde of Beijing. I will be attending classes and living with the students there. It should be insane! This is an essay I wrote for history class about the last time I attended a Chinese high school over our travel trip in Yunnan. Enjoy! Post about the immersion program should come after I get back on Sunday.

The Chinese class started with a four tone descending bell, indicating that the break period was over. Students wearing navy blue uniforms with red and white stripes piled back into the classroom. This class had 37 students in total and four foreign visitors (one being me). The classroom was filled with grey metal desks stacked with state provided textbooks on the top and filled with even more textbooks inside. A blackboard hangs in the front of the classroom on the half white, half pistachio green walls. Above the blackboard a slogan read “Improve your health, work hard and persevere”.
The teacher walked in and stood behind her large, elevated desk. In unison, the students stood and in a monotone voice said “lao shi hao” (greeting the teacher). The teacher acknowledged their greeting and told them to sit. A student stood up and moved to the front of the room. Textbook in hand, she shouted out directions and page numbers, and then started to read a passage from the textbook. The rest of the students wrote frantically in little blue books, transcribing the characters which were being dictated. After about three minutes, they were done. Students in the front of every row stood up and collected the blue books, then returned them to the teacher. The teacher took over and read out loud from a textbook, she projected her voice so that those in the back of room could also hear. Students opened their textbooks to the same page and followed along as she lectured them on what they needed to be doing to prepare for the Gaokao, the grammar they were misusing, and words they were pronouncing wrong. She progressed to a practice test, reading out loud a reading comprehension passage and then read out the answers as students followed along on their own sheet. The teacher read; the students listened. Not once during the class did a student raise their hand to ask a question, nor does the teacher stop to make sure everybody understands what she is teaching. The bell rings again and the class is promptly ended.



This is how classes look all over China. The Chinese education system and teaching style in much different than that of the US. The classes I attended were at Jing Hong City Number One High School, a typical Chinese high school in Yunnan. Contrast this class room with a typical American class room. In an American classroom, discussions are held and expression of opinion is encouraged. Teachers are not greeted, but are questioned by the students. The list goes on. The Chinese education system has a many fundamental differences from the American system.
One of the biggest differences in the Chinese system is that the curriculum is dictated by the government. The entire curriculum is based around the government created National College Entrance Exam, also known as the Gaokao. Started in 1977, the Gaokao is one of the hardest tests on the planet, because of both its breadth and its depth (Mullins). Compared to the American SAT, which just covers Math and Language, for the Gaokao “Students take three compulsory subjects, namely Chinese, English and Mathematics. Then they choose a combination of History, Geography and Politics, or Physics, Chemistry and Biology” (Mullins). Not only does the Gaokao cover more topics, but the material is incredibly difficult. “Senior three teachers put their heart and soul into preparing their students for the Gaokao. When the coursework has been covered, it’s revised again and again. Extra study sessions and classes are put on at the weekends, and are mandatory” (Mullins). While students in America will sometimes take multi week SAT courses and get private tutors, the Chinese preparation for the Gaokao is a lifestyle for high school seniors.
To see just how difficult the notorious Gaokao is, I took part of an English test from a previous year. As a native English speaker I found it to be almost as difficult as the SAT Reading comprehension section (and don’t forget that English is these students second language). China has a history of administrating incredibly hard tests. While China was under dynastic rule, the Imperial Civil Service Exam tested students in their knowledge of Confucian Classics. The test lasted days but required many years to study for. Only those with the most intimate knowledge of the classics could pass, which would guarantee a place in government (how good a job you got was directly related to how well you did on the test). Given the historical context of having to pass a hard test to become an intellectual, the insanity that is the Gaokao starts to make a little bit more sense.



Unlike in America, colleges in China do not look at grades in classes or extracurricular activities. There is no writing of personal essays to let the colleges get to know you a little bit. Similar to the Imperial Civil Service Exam, those who score on highest on the Gaokao go to the best schools. You list the colleges you want to attend right on the test and they tell you where you are going once it is graded. This system creates an incredibly competitive schooling environment. Students at Jing Hong Number One High School attended classes from 7:30 AM to noon, had a siesta until 3PM (many take naps during this time, it’s too hot to do much else), then attended class from 3-5PM and then from 6:45-10:30PM. Plus they have three hours of homework per night. The scary part is that Jing Hong Number One High School is not considered a particularly good or competitive school in China. Students at Beijing Normal University Number Two High School, the school I attend in Beijing, are considered to be some of the best in the country. They essentially study nonstop. I was lucky enough to chat with a couple of students in Jing Hong about their view of the Chinese education system and teaching style.
The first time I bought up education with students was while we were having dinner together at a local western food restaurant called Meimei’s. It was around 6 PM on a warm evening. Some friends and I decided it would be fun to treat the students we met at Jing Hong Number One High School to some western food (which they had never eaten before). We took two second year students (there are only three years total in the Chinese system) because the third year students had classes at night. One was named Wang Yu, and the other was named Li HuiLin. Both were girls, Wang was from the Yi ethnic minority and had short ear length hair and was wearing red glasses. Li was from the Ah Ni minority and had longer hair. They were 17 and 18 respectively. I began by asking them “What do you think of the teaching style at your school?” They responded that school the teaching style is very strict and emphasizes book content. The strictness is something I noticed while attending their classes. When the teacher entered, the students greeted them in unison and bowed. Classes were regimented; quizzes were given at the beginning of class and then the teacher quickly transitioned into the material for the day. Classes ended promptly when the bell rang. In American schools, quizzes rarely take less than 15 minutes and there is always a lag between transitioning from the quiz to the material for the day. The emphasis on book content is something that can be seen by looking at the sheer number of books each student has. A student at the school told me that they had six or seven textbooks for every class. This teaching style stresses memorization over creativity, “the standard teaching method is that they lecture in an extensive and explicit manner in which all things are well organized and explained to students. Everything is made quite clear and detailed in lectures. Many teachers do not attempt to interact actively with students” (Qi). Contrast this with the Western style, about which the same source says that “students in the West have long been accustomed to the reconstructionist teaching style. Typically, the instructor gives a lecture, raises questions for them to ponder, has them read classic writings intensively, and then organizes discussion class. During this process, students are expected to understand the lecture by reconstructing the intuitive logic underlying it” (Qi). These differences explain why stepping into a Chinese classroom can be a strange experience for westerners.



Another aspect of the classroom I was struck by was the class size. The class I attended had 37 students. Many American private schools won’t allow more than 18 students per class at the very most, and strive for 14 or 15 students per class. American public schools are known to go over 30 students per classroom, but it is usually in violation of a law concerning class sizes and is viewed as a problem. However when I asked these students about the size of their class, they seemed surprised. They told me that 37 students was pretty good, and was much less than poorer schools, which they said sometimes had 60 or 70 students per class. They also said that big classes aren’t such a big deal in China. The teaching style can be effective in larger classrooms, a place where the American teaching style falls short.
American high school curriculums often require student’s opinionative and argumentative essays. In 6th grade at my school we were require to write an essay called “I Believe”. We were told to pick a topic and give our opinion in the form of a 5 paragraph essay. I decided to argue that online file sharing should be legalized, and although I didn’t provide a very compelling argument, it started to teach me how to express my opinion through writing. This doesn’t happen in Chinese classrooms (maybe because file sharing laws aren’t enforced in China). I asked Wang and Li if they were ever given creative writing assignments, and again they seemed surprised. Wang Yu informed me that for the essays they write, the teacher picks the topic and how students should argue it, and sometimes even provides students with evidence for the topic. “Students never design their own experiments, never take an art class, never take a creative writing class, much less written their own poems or stories, or been encouraged to express themselves artistically or scientifically” (Hanmer). Wang Yu admits that although this teaching method does reduce creativity, it allows for more content to be covered in a given time. The waitress showed up with ice cream, and we decided to move on to a different topic.
The next time I talked to a student about school life was 8:30 on a Wednesday night. I was walking with Li JianLin, a third year student (the American equivalent of a senior) from the class I attended at Jing Hong Number One. He had just gotten his hair cut, and it was sticking out in all directions with that “I just got electrocuted” style that is incredibly fashionable in China. He was wearing camouflage pants, a purposefully torn beige shirt, and thin black glasses, a stark difference from the baggy blue uniforms students are required to wear at school. When asked about school, Li repeated Wang Yu and Li Hui Lin’s sentiments about the Chinese system being both hard and strict, but also added that he didn’t like it very much. Despite this, he told me that it is a suitable system for China and that there is not a good alternative. This point may have some merit. An article from the American Philosophy Association noted that Confucianism may play a role in the differences in teaching styles “Few Chinese students are willing to expose themselves to public attention in class by, say, responding as individuals to the instructor’s questions. Instead, they have become comfortable with being allowed less personal freedom due to their perceived ‘lower-ranking’ status compared to that of the ‘higher-ranking’ professor. Thus, maintaining satisfactory class harmony, practicing obedience, and showing respect to the teacher are expected in accordance with this hierarchical system” (Qi). This may account for the lack of participation in classes, the lack of opinionative essays, and the bowing to the teacher at the beginning of class. Because teachers hold an infallible position in Chinese society, a Western style of teaching, which often encourages arguing with and questioning the teacher, may not be as work as well in China as it might seem.
The third student I talked to about the Chinese teaching style and school system was a third year girl named Zhou QiuYu. We were walking with a bunch of her classmates back from the Jing Hong Natural History Museum. She was about 5’ 6” tall and was wearing a fake leopard print Gucci dress. Again, I heard how strict and difficult the Chinese teaching style was. I asked her about her view of the essays they are assigned. She replied that even though the teacher assigned the topic, she really liked this method of teaching. I asked her more about the extensive use of textbooks in Chinese classrooms, and she replied that she really didn’t mind that either. These answers surprised me, I know that personally I would be frustrated with the limited possibilities for essays and heavy focus on using textbooks to learn. “Teachers come to class and often read directly from these textbooks, occasionally writing on the blackboard. Most Chinese teaching methods involve lectures, readings, call and repeat, and repetitive drills” (Hanmer). Coming from a Western style education I find these methods tedious, but for Zhou, who has been taught this way all her life, it seemed to work fine.
My next question focused on a subject that has plagued me daily since coming to China. In order to ensure students retain the massive amount of content they are required to memorize, teachers often start the class with a tingxie. A tingxie (literally translating to “listen, write”) is when a word is read aloud and the students must write the Chinese character in a little blue notebook. While I studying Chinese in China, the tingxie proved to be incredibly irritating and stressful, but in the end probably beneficial for the improvement of my Chinese. I asked which classes and how often teachers give ting xies. Zhou told me that tingxies were given in every day in History, English, and Chinese classes. This system differs greatly from the American system, where quizzes are few and far between and tests are given about every three weeks. This means that those who fall behind in a Chinese classroom will immediately suffer on their tingxies, whereas in American classes it can easily go unnoticed. We arrived at a local park and topic of our conversation turned to the boats available for rental.
I said goodbye to my friends from Number One High School late at night on the streets of Jing Hong. We exchanged email addresses and promised to keep in touch. They would go back to school in a Chinese environment, tasked with the memorization and regurgitation of information from their textbooks. I would go back to a system of opinionative essays and pondering questions. I will take the SAT when I want to apply to college, a test I will spend maybe 10 hours preparing for. They will take the gaokao, a test they have spent three years in high school preparing for. The differences between the Chinese and American education system are numerous, but as Li JianLin said, it works for China.

Works Cited
Hanmer, Janel. Project Janel. 2001. 5 3 2009
http://projectjanel.org/china/methods.html.
Mullins, Richard. China Today. 6 3 2009 http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/english/e2005/e200506/p34.htm.
Qi, Xuetai. APA Newsletters. Fall 2008. 5 3 2009 http://www.apaonline.org/publications/newsletters/v08n1_teaching_02.aspx.