martin hainan
- 2015-01-27
Thanks for your comment. By relatively competitive I mean that the Gaokao test results are not distorted by widespread cheating or corrupt modification by teachers or administrators; the student grades are a fair reflection of their test performance, unlike tests and grades once they attend their university.
As you point out, the impact of the Gaokao on middle school and high school students is devastating.
Caring
- 2015-01-27
Although scores of Universities abroad are struggling to maintain their integrity and non-discriminatory practices, they have truly learnt about the Chinese students' habits/capabilities acquired in China. Moreover, they may have learnt that the Chinese habits/practices are acceptable in those students' hometowns which means those western degrees will more likely not fail there. This is surely unfortunate for our educational values but fortunate for those in countries such as China that clearly have a vision.
Caring
- 2015-01-27
How could such a perfect view on education end up with the Chinese high school entry test to the country's universities as "relatively competitive"? Isn't it the only test and test based on rote memorization? Doesn't the whole Chinese primary and secondary education turn around this "relatively competitive" test?
Anyhow, I don't mean to be confrontational but informational and caring.
Beth
- 2015-01-23
Three guesses who! The frankly hilarious overuse of the comma gave it away for me!
Welcome back, Somebody! Don't worry, you haven't missed anything! Same old tired rhetoric and generalised racism!
yu2fa3
- 2015-01-23
As the saying goes, you get what you spread.
I wonder who is hiding behind this malapropism?heh
hahaha! yes you do, i just accidentally spread myself a hideous Chinese food additive sandwich-comes of not turning the light on when you really want a Marmite sandwich (in same shaped jar) But you are right I kept telling him not to mix up his expressions. It's all part of his evolving English- sow and reap sounds a bit old hat to him. lol t mate only joking.
Somebody
- 2015-01-23
As the saying goes, you get what you spread.
I wonder who is hiding behind this malapropism?
heh
213432536924
- 2015-01-23
Yes that's why a number of Chinese students fail so hard when they go to study overseas, uni there won't pass them in order to save face. Those who pass usually cheated in a way or another, a growing number of universities in various Western countries recently began to automatically reject applications from Chinese nationals for two reasons, because they always cheat (although most of them don't get caught but everyone knows they cheated anyway) then later in life ruin the reputation of those universities when they fail miserably at doing their job, job that they got thanks to their degree with that big Western uni's name on it.
As the saying goes, you get what you spread.
martin hainan
- 2015-01-23
I've taught in universities that 'track' students in different levels, modifying the tests for each. I've seen students denied opportunity for scholarships based on strange requirements, but IELTS testing for overseas study has always been available for anyone who can scrape the RMB together.
Remember that the Chinese model of education is one where students are 'molded' by the institution into good citizens. Western education, at least traditionally, saw education as a personal journey of enlightenment. The Western university provides the environment and academic staff that offer an opportunity for the student to learn. The Chinese university is a state institution obligated to train a student. In China, a student's failure reflects on the university. In the West, the university student's failure is his own.
The lowest, third-level, Chinese universities graduate essentially all of their arriving freshmen. Foreign teachers are required to provide two versions of every exam. Students that fail the first are routinely given the second exam, monitored and graded by a Chinese teacher of the university's choice. In this way the foreign teacher's failure of students is meaningless, but he is given 'face' by the Dean who avoids specifically dictating that everyone must pass.
I find it particularly amusing that despite this system, Chinese teachers still place amazing energy and focus on teaching the test, all the while turning their back on rampant cheating and ensuring that everyone passes. Testing is truly a quasi-religious activity in China. High test results validate their success at having 'molded' the mind of the student.
Entry into the university through the Gaokao is still, however, relatively transparent and competitive.
In many schools, teachers are forced to pass all their students or face consequences. Being threatened or loosing a job over one's integrity isn't uncommon in the country, especially when one chooses moral uprightness over loyalty. More unusual than that may be the policy to ban lower grade students from their future tests opportunities, if their schools' higher grade students fail. In such schools, teachers may be even more obligated than ever to pass some of their unskilled or untalented students and that because of the effort or skill/talent those teachers see in their lower grade students. Seeing a few fine students disqualified for an opportunity, for example to study in a university abroad, is heartbreaking. Not punishing the ones, who cannot cope with academic programs or discipline, is despicable and perhaps criminally negligent in such cases as this one instance to say the least.