POST 3 - Math and Science Teaching in Northeast Asia: Do They Do It Better?

Introduction:

Math and Science Teaching in Northeast Asia: Do They Do It Better?

At a meeting sponsored by the Asia Program, Division of United States Studies Program on Science, Technology, America and the Global Economy, and the Division of the United States Studies, in November of 2007, 4 experts on international education spoke on the subject of teaching math and science in the United States verses Northeast Asia.  The meeting was introduced by Mr.  Mark Mohr, Asia Program Associate.  The podcast of the meeting can be found at:

http://wilsoncenter.org/ondemand/index.cfm?fuseaction=media.play&mediaid=5B039C90-0FBC-3AE3-91CD4F2D9AB55840

 

This is my third post with regard to this subject.  The first two posts which summarized the first two professor's presentations can be found at the following locations:

http://uwo1.blogspot.com/2010/11/math-and-science-teaching-in-northeast_06.htm

http://uwo1.blogspot.com/2010/11/post-2-math-and-science-teaching-in.html

The third speaker on the panel was Hyunjoon Park, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.  Professor Park is most interested in how the South Korean educational system deals with disadvantages students so they can achieve the minimum level of academic skill standards, but provided important insight to the topic of the differences between Asian students versus Western counterparts on standardized tests.

Professor Park stated that Korean students did better on international science, math and reading tests than their peers in the United States and other Western countries. Some United States educational policy makers believe there is a lot to learn from understanding Korean teaching methods.  However, these methods may not be directly transferable due to differing social aspects, cultural differences and diversity of students in the United States.  Other United States educational professionals and policy makers believe that the Korean students excel due to rote memorization.   However, as Professor Park explains, the international tests do include exercises in creativity and problem solving, and the Korean students excel in these questions as well.

What do we actually know about what contributes to the higher testing results for the Korean students?  Professor Park states that to answer this question, we have to “step back” and take a broader look at what educational factors may play a role.   First, Professor Park shows a slide that demonstrates that not only do the highest achieving students do better than their Western counterparts; the lowest-scoring Korean students also obtain higher scores than the lowest-scoring Western students.

Interestingly, there is no differentiation of students up to the middle school level.  All students of all levels, regardless of their academic abilities sit in the same classrooms and study from the same text book.  Only in high school are the students divided into vocational high schools (approximately 30 % of the students) and academic high schools (approximately 70% of the students).   It is counter intuitive as one would expect that the highest achieving students may not achieve their highest potential because they are being taught aside lower achieving students, but this does not seem to be the case.  Every student learns from the same textbook, from the same teacher in the same class.  Advanced students are not offered advanced learning classes.

Professor Park also looked at socioeconomic factors that might play a role in Korean academic excellence.  He looked at the level of education achieved by the mothers of the highest and lowest achieving students in both Korea and the United States.  The data showed that in both the United States and in Korea, there was a correlation between a student’s academic achievement level and the highest educational level achieved by their mother.  For example, the higher achieving students had a higher percentage of mothers who had tertiary educations.  However, the data gap for the Korean students was much smaller than in the students from the United States.  For example, the students whose mothers did not have a college education did much worse than their Korean counterparts. 

So why do Korean students do so well academically?  According to Professor Park, their success is a result of Korea’s highly standardized system.  All students, regardless of their ability use the same textbook and have the same teacher.  The curriculum standard (national standard) provides a core academic curriculum to all students, which in turn decreases the socioeconomic inequality.   The standardization requires that all students across the board receive the same level of instruction and are required to master the same literacy skills.

This conclusion is very similar to that of the second speaker in the panel, Tadanobu Watanabe who attributed high academic achievement for Japanese students to nationally standardized core curriculum and standardized, concise textbooks.