【加拿大环球邮报】中国开发新的出口机会：教育 [加拿大媒体]

China taps a new export opportunity: education

中国开发新的出口机会：教育

     【日期】2017年7月21日



In China, teachers use the ‘mastery’ method, ensuring each student has wholly grasped a concept before moving on – a method that has produced stunning results.

在中国，老师们使用“掌握学习法”确保每个学生在继续学习之前完全掌握了一个概念——这个方法产生了惊人的结果。

   When primary school administrators in the U.K. choose study materials for the fall semester this year, they will have a new option: math textbooks imported from Shanghai, a city celebrated as a global math power.

  今年的秋季学期，英国初等学校的管理者们在选择学习材料时将有一个新的选项：从上海进口的数学教科书。上海以数学实力全球闻名。

   In the books, the British pound will replace references to the Chinese yuan. But in just about every other way, the versions of Real Shanghai Maths available in London will be exactly like those used in China, the ideas, sequencing and methods kept intact.

   在书中，英镑将取代人民币元作为货币单位。但在其他方面，伦敦版本将与中国使用的数学版本保持一致，其理念、顺序和方法均原封不动。

   It is a remarkable admission by British education authorities that their own methods have stumbled, and that Chinese educators – after years of racking up world firsts in math scores – have developed something admirable enough to import in whole cloth.

  值得注意的是，英国教育当局承认他们自己的方法是不成功的，而中国的教育工作者——多年来在数学教学成绩方面创造了多个世界第一——已经发展出了可贵的成果，足以向外界输出。

   As best Colin Hughes can tell, “that’s never happened.

   正如科林·休斯所言，“这是从未发生过的事情。”

  “This deal that we’ve done is a recognition that they’re producing content that is of a fantastically high quality,” said Mr. Hughes, who is managing director for Collins Learning, the education division of HarperCollins, which is publishing the texts.

“我们达成的这项交易是对他们正在产出高质量内容的肯定，”休斯说。他是该教科书出版商——哈珀柯林斯出版社教育部Collins Learning的董事总经理。

   In China, it represents something more significant. The export of textbooks is a historic moment, as China stages a broad effort to become a superpower whose might extends beyond military and economic means.

   在中国，这件事具有更重要的意义。教科书的出口是一个历史性的时刻，因为中国正在努力成为超级大国，可能使用超出军事和经济之外的手段扩张。

   Education is a key element in that strategy, one that has brought a swell of Chinese investment overseas, through university campuses, children’s books and concerted efforts to revamp its own systems of instruction as it seeks to elevate its soft power.

   教育是该战略的一个关键因素，通过大学校园、儿童书籍以及在提升其软实力的同时努力改进自身的教育体系，从而吸引对中国的海外投资。

   Long derided for an education system that values rote over thought, the idea that others could covet China’s instructional methods runs counter to long-standing views on the country.

   长期以来，人们一直嘲笑中国的教育体系注重死记硬背而不是思想，而其他国家也会向往中国教学方式的想法则与这种由来已久的观念相冲突。

   But serious educational change in China began more than a decade ago, as functionaries and educators opened the door to experimentation in schools, eager to modernize a moribund education system built to manufacture engineers and bureaucrats.

   但中国严肃的教育改革在十多年前就开始了，官员和教育工作者向教育实验敞开大门，迫切希望让一个死气沉沉的教育体系现代化，而这个体系是为了培养工程师和官僚而建立起来的。

  “The government is well aware that there’s a crisis in education,” said David Moser, the academic director of an overseas studies program in Beijing.

“政府很清楚教育的危机，”大卫·莫泽说，他是北京的一个海外研究项目的学术主任。

  “The reason for the crisis, of course, is that China realizes that they are losing their best and brightest students to ... foreign universities,” he said.

  “当然，这场危机的原因是，中国意识到他们最优秀、最聪明的学生正在流失到…外国大学，”他说。

  “They really need creative minds and creative young people developing ideas to build the economy they want,” a future built on digital prowess and invention rather than concrete and steel.

  “他们真的需要创造性的思维和创新性的年轻人来发展他们想要的经济，”一个以数字技术和发明创造而不是混凝土和钢铁为基础的未来。

  “Whether or not China succeeds will determine China’s fate for the next 20, 30 years,” said Jiang Xueqing, a Harvard researcher who also consults for Chinese schools on creativity.

     “中国是否成功，将决定中国未来二三十年的命运，”Jiang Xueqing说，他是哈佛大学的一名研究员，也为中国学校提供关于创造力的咨询。

At the same time, as China rises in influence, “it realizes that it can actually one day challenge American hegemony,” Mr. Jiang said. One way to do this is to make places like Peking University and Tsinghua University “the epicentre of China’s soft-power push.

    与此同时，随着中国影响力的上升，“她意识到实际上有一天会挑战美国的霸权，”江先生说。一个方法就是让北京大学和清华大学这样的地方成为推动中国软实力的中心。

    “The top priority of the Chinese school system is to bring in the future leaders of the world, and being able to indoctrinate them in a way that Oxford indoctrinates the future leaders of the world.”

  “中国教育体系的首要任务是引进未来世界的领导人，并能够以牛津教导世界未来领导者的方式向他们灌输思想。”

    One Chinese school is even physically setting up in the U.K.

    中国的一所学校甚至在英国开设了分部。

    Earlier this year, Peking University, long the most elite name in Chinese education, bought a medi campus in Oxford to serve as the overseas branch of its business school. The school called it a “milestone” in “the development of China’s higher education. … China is opening its higher education market to the world.”

    今年早些时候，一直是中国精英教育代名词的北京大学，在牛津大学买下了一个中世纪的校园，作为其商学院的海外分支。学校把它称作“中国高等教育发展的一个‘里程碑’。……中国正在向世界开放其高等教育市场。”

    Other schools are going elsewhere. Last year, Xiamen University began educating the first students at an enormous $411-million campus it is still building not far from Kuala Lumpur. Tsinghua University last fall opened a “global innovation exchange,” a research partnership in the Seattle area.

    其他学校也在“开疆拓土”。去年，厦门大学在距离吉隆坡不远的一个巨大的耗资4.11亿美元的校园里开始了第一批学生的教育。去年秋天，清华大学在西雅图开设了一项叫做“全球创新交流”的研究项目。

    There are major obstacles, Mr. Jiang said. A university like Tsinghua remains rigid and hierarchical. A friend of his once compared it to West Point, the U.S. military academy.

   江先生说，这些项目存在着主要的障碍。像清华这样的大学仍然是僵硬和等级森严的。他的一位朋友曾将其与美国军事学院西点军校相提并论。

    “It’s just not enough to reach out. You need to actually have values and a system in place that appeal to the world’s future leaders,” he said.

   “仅仅把手伸出去是不够的。真正需要的是价值观和合适的体系来吸引世界未来的领导者，”他讲到。

    But opening campuses abroad, he said, offers a chance for China to “reverse-engineer creativity.”

    但他表示，在海外开设分校，为中国提供了“逆向工程创新”的机会。

   At home, meanwhile, the country has poured money into education, hiring foreign experts and wooing foreign youth. China now counts four universities in the QS World University Rankings top 100, and local schools have brought in people from all over the world, with some 440,000 overseas students in China last year. That is not far off the 523,700 Chinese students abroad in 2015.

   与此同时，在国内，该国投入了大量资金用于教育，聘请外国专家和吸引外国青年。根据QS世界大学排名，中国现在有四所大学排进了前100名，而当地的学校也吸引了来自世界各地的学生。去年在中国有44万名留学生。这与2015年在海外的523700名中国学生相差不远。

   It is creating new materials for export, too.

  中国也在为出口创造新材料。

   Han Yuhai, a language and literature professor at Peking University, has written a pair of children’s books on Mao Zedong and Karl Marx that have been translated into English, Dutch, Nepali and Italian, with 100,000 copies sold.

  韩毓海是北京大学的语言和文学教授，他写了一本关于毛泽东和卡尔·马克思的儿童书籍，这些书已经被翻译成英语、荷兰语、尼泊尔语和意大利语，销量达10万册。

   China is led by the Communist Party, and students around the world would do well to learn more, Prof. Han said. His books are meant to answer questions like “What role did Marx and Mao’s thinking play in China’s development? What do they mean to China today?”

   韩教授说，中国是由共产党领导的，世界各地的学生都应该学习更多的知识。他的书旨在回答诸如“马克思和毛的思想在中国的发展中扮演了什么样的角色? 他们对今天的中国意味着什么?”之类的问题。

   Even so, China’s elite students often reject their country’s education system. Top scorers in China’s annual gaokao college placement exam regularly are educated in Hong Kong, which is seen as having better schools. Only 15 per cent of Chinese doctoral graduates of foreign science and engineering programs return home full-time, although that number has risen.

   即便如此，中国的精英学生往往也会拒绝本国的教育体系。在中国一年一度的高考中，高考状元经常在香港接受教育，而香港被认为拥有更好的学校。在中国，只有15%的外国科学和工程专业的博士毕业生回国全日制工作，尽管这个数字已经上升。

   “The very best people are either not coming back, or they’re coming back part-time,” said David Zweig, a scholar at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology who is writing a book on the subject.

“最优秀的人要么不回来，要么回来兼职，”香港科技大学的学者大卫·茨威格说，他正在写一本关于这个主题的书。

   In math, however, China has won international plaudits. Its teachers use the “mastery” method, ensuring each student has wholly grasped a concept before moving on – a method that has produced stunning results. In 2009 and 2012, Shanghai students led the world in global math testing from the Programme for International Student Assessment.

   然而，在数学方面中国赢得了国际赞誉。它的老师使用掌握学习法，确保每个学生在下一步学习之前完全掌握了一个概念——这个方法产生了惊人的结果。在2009年和2012年，上海学生在国际学生评估项目全球数学测试中引领世界。

   The city’s success has prompted the U.K. to stage a major turn toward China on math, sending British teachers overseas and then inviting a few dozen Shanghai teachers to take over British classrooms.

   这个城市的成功促使英国在数学方面向中国做出了重大转变，派遣了英国教师到海外，然后邀请了几十名上海教师接管英国的课堂。

   The British government has allocated $71-million to train teachers in the methods used in Chinese schools.

    英国政府已拨出71亿美元，用于培训中国学校使用的教学方法。

   To provide them with material, HarperCollins has pursued two projects to source Chinese learning materials, one to replicate the Shanghai textbook and another, working with East China Normal University Press, to adapt Shanghai’s “One Lesson, One Exercise” workbooks that use Chinese methods and the British curriculum.

   为了给他们提供材料，哈珀柯林斯出版社已经在两个项目中寻找中国学习材料，一是复制上海的教科书，另一个是与华东师范大学出版社合作改编上海的“一课一练”作业本，使用中国的方法和英国的课程。

    In total, 63 books are being prepared for use in British schools. (Oxford University Press has also created books for the U.K. based on the Singaporean math program.)

   总共有63本书准备在英国学校使用。(牛津大学出版社还根据新加坡的数学课程，为英国制作了图书。)

   Still, even Chinese math experts have doubts about how well their system can be exported. In Shanghai, math teachers from primary school onward are specialists who are expected to conduct their own research, regularly confer with colleagues to share ideas and enjoy classrooms filled with students already prepped by private tutors.

   不过，即使是中国的数学专家也对他们的体系能否出口存疑。 在上海，小学数学老师都是专家，他们希望进行自己的研究，定期与同事交流想法，并享受由私人教师授课的学生课堂。

    Merely translating a Shanghai textbook into English stands to “bring many difficulties” for students in the U.K., said Ni Ming, a commissioning editor at East China Normal University Press, and one of Shanghai’s top experts on math instruction.

  “仅仅把上海的教科书翻译成英文，就会给英国的学生带来很多困难。”华东师范大学出版社的委托编辑倪明说，他是上海顶尖的数学教学专家之一。

    He sees more promise for his company’s adapted workbooks, and is already beginning to convert Shanghai junior high school materials for use in the U.K., even as he looks at other subjects, such as physics and chemistry, where other countries might be interested in Chinese methods.

    他似乎更指望出版社改编的练习本，并已经开始转化上海的初中学习材料以期在英国使用。尽管他在研究其他学科，比如物理和化学，其他国家可能对中国的方法感兴趣。

   HarperCollins has engaged in a similar process. “We’re asking ourselves, where is the best science pedagogy in the world?” Mr. Hughes said. He expects other foreign markets will also be interested in the Shanghai math textbooks, pointing to elite schools in the Middle East and India as potential buyers.

  哈珀柯林斯出版社也在从事类似的工作。“我们在问自己，世界上最好的科学教学法在哪里?”休斯先生说。他预计，其他外国市场也会对上海的数学教科书感兴趣，指出中东和印度的精英学校是潜在买家。

   He acknowledges that schools and teachers may balk at the idea of importing an entire foreign system.

   他承认，学校和教师可能会对引进整个外国体系的想法犹豫不决。

   “I know that I’m taking a gamble,” he said.

  “我知道我要赌一把，”他说。

   But he is convinced that those who bet on the translated textbooks will come out winners.

     但他确信，那些押注于翻译教科书的人将会成为赢者。

   “They will actually find that their students will outperform the U.K. national curriculum quite significantly,” he said.

   他说:“他们实际上会发现，他们的学生在英国国家课程上的表现将大放异彩。”

   With a report from Yu Mei


BobinCalgary
1 day ago
The Mastery Learning Model has been researched and implemented in various forms across North America for over 30 years. It is good model. But as with any model of teaching it requires a great deal of work by teachers who will diligently follow its precepts. However, it appears that there are many other factors in the Shanghai system which suggest that transposing these methods to British classrooms will have the same mediocre impact that the model has had in North American schools. The North American experience has been plagued by a lack of mathematical background by teachers, inadequate provisions for cooperative planning among teachers and lacklustre adherence to the principles which undergird the model.

“掌握学习”法已在北美各地进行了30多年的研究和实践。它是一个很好的模式。但是，就像任何教学模式一样，教师需要花大气力遵循其原则。然而，似乎还有很多其他因素表明，把上海体系转移到英国课堂将会产生与北美学校一致的平庸化影响。北美的经验一直受到教师缺乏数学背景、合作规划，以及墨守成规的困扰。

Ollie1202（回复BobinCalgary）
1 day ago
So true. The vast majority of elementary school teachers have humanity back-grounds and have their own math-phobia and weaknesses. It would make a huge amount of sense to try math specialists at the elementary level and see if you get measurable differences. Not likely to fly with the unions though.

非常正确。绝大多数小学教师具有人文背景，他们有自己的数学恐惧症和弱点。在初级阶段尝试投入数学专家，看看能否得到可衡量的差异，这是很有意义的。（最后一句不懂）

Ultimate187
1 day ago
In the Chinese system, the students are very motivated, the teachers are very knowledgeable, and the curriculum is very rigorous. It is a formula for training anyone to have an excellent proficiency in basic mathematics. However, just having the materials is not enough. There must be a culture of excellence, and that can't be easily replicated or exported.

中国的体系下，学生积极性高，老师学识渊博，课程设置严格。这就像一个公式，可以训练任何人熟练掌握基础数学。然而，仅仅有这些学习材料远远不够。必须创造出一种卓越的文化，不易被复制或出口。

2iconoclast
1 day ago
To those who think math can be taught by rote learning, try solving the following sample problems from the International Math Olympiad (China is the most dominant player):
1. Prove that there are infinitely many positive integers which are not representable as a sum of cubes of two other positive integers
2. Is there a tetrahedron such that its every edge is adjacent to some obtuse angle for one of the faces?
3. Show that a positive integer is divisible by 9 if and only if the sum of its digits is divisible by nine
4. Solve the following equation in integers:

对于那些认为数学可以通过死记硬背学习的人来说，试着解决下列国际数学奥林匹克竞赛的问题(中国是最具统治力的选手):
1.证明有无穷多个正整数它们不能被表示成两个正整数的立方和
2.是否有一个四面体，它的每条边都与某个面的钝角相邻?
3.证明一个正整数能被9整除当且仅当它的数字和能被9整除
4.用整数求解下列方程:

Doctor Demento
1 day ago
What is the evidence that the reported method of teaching math is the best way to nurture a citizenry that uses creativity and lateral thinking to produce useful new ideas and solutions?
If you want a fast trip to rote-like math accuracy you can turn on the calculator application in your electronic device...

有证据表明报导中的数学教学方法是培养一个利用创造力和横向思维来产生有用的新思想和解决方案的公民的最佳方式吗?
如果你想要快速见识一下数学机械般的准确性，你可以在你的电子设备上打开计算器应用程序。

Ollie1202（回复Doctor Demento）
1 day ago
The trouble is that you can't do complex problem solving in novel and creative ways if you don't have a thorough understanding of basic concepts committed to long-term memory for instant access. Cognitive learning experts are now championing "learning to automaticity" ("rote") as a key element to deeper understanding. And so the pendulum swings back again....

问题是，如果你没有对需要长期记忆的基本概念进行彻底的理解，你就不能用新颖和有创造性的方法来解决复杂的问题。认知学习专家现在支持“学习自动性”(“死记硬背”)，这是加深理解的一个关键因素。所以钟摆又摆回来了。

Kevka（回复Doctor Demento）
1 day ago
That kind of thinking is what led to the whole "Discovery Math" curriculum, which has been a disaster because kids aren't actually getting a solid grasp of the fundamentals. Learning the basics of math is not about creativity. It is about fundamentals and abundant repetition to get comfortable and proficient with the material being taught. You can't build a house without a good foundation. You can't run unless you have first learned to walk.

这种想法导致了整个“发现数学”课程的出现，这是一场灾难，因为孩子们并没有真正掌握基本的知识。学习数学的基础不是创造力，而是关于基础知识的大量重复，使你能够熟练掌握所学知识。打好基础才能盖房。先会走路，再学跑步。

2iconoclast（回复Doctor Demento）
Math is about problem solving, not rote learning.

数学是用来解决问题的，不是用来死记硬背的。

Doctor Demento（回复Doctor Demento）
16 hours ago
Ollie and Kevka, I think you kind of missed what my post was implying.
This article is about specifically the importation of a Chinese teaching method for math.
I was not arguing against teaching math well. I was asking what the evidence is for specifically this Chinese method.
So I ask again, what is the evidence, in the context of the question that I asked?
See, thing is, look, you are arguing for a thorough teaching of math in schools. Fine. But you realize, right, that there WAS such a system running in England and Germany and France and America from around 1850 to 1970? Right?
And last time I checked, those countries in that period were doing a pretty good job at churning out creative inventors and scientists and technological pioneers.
So back to my question: What is the evidence the Chinese system is better than those from back then?

Ollie和Kevka，我觉得二位对帖子的重点有所遗漏。
这篇文章特别介绍了中国的数学教学方法的输出。
我并不是在反对教好数学。我问的是这个中国教学方式的证据所在。
所以得再次强调，在我所问问题背景之下，证据是什么?
看，问题是，你在为学校的全面数学教学而争论。很好。但是你意识到了，对，从1850年到1970年，英国和德国，法国和美国都【有】这样一个体系在运行吗? 对吧?
上次我查过，那个时期的国家在培养创新的发明家，科学家和技术先锋方面做得很好。
所以，回到我的问题: 有什么证据证明中国的体系比当时的体系更好?

wind_stopper
1 day ago
From experience with my own kids;
Ontario end of grade 3 - kids can't do proper times tables and are far from confident in the number-space leading up to 1000. Even compared to schools in Germany, Ontario kids are 2 years behind in Math - most will have trouble making up for this.
Ah, and not to mention proper spelling, but that is another issue.

根据我自己孩子的经验：
在安大略省，上完了3年级的孩子们不能得出正确的乘法表，对1000以内的数字缺乏自信。即使与德国的学校相比，安大略的孩子们在数学方面落后了2年——大多数人将困于弥补这一问题。
啊，更别提合适的拼写了，但这是另外一回事了。