作者/ Ian Morgan
編譯/ 李苾琳
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東亞國家PISA表現優異的真相：壓榨學生的課外生活
自從上海在國際學生能力評量計畫(以下簡稱PISA)奪冠後，越來越多呼籲澳洲和其他西方國家效法東亞的聲音出現。
凱文‧唐納利(Kevin Donnely)是澳洲天主教大學的教授，他在英國新聞網站The Conversation主張澳洲學校應再次採用老師主導課堂的填鴨式教法，這番言論隨即被轉載到美國華盛頓郵報和中國南方早報。
凱文把東亞國家的成功歸因為他們獨特的教育系統，然而，這些國家的教育系統本身是很多樣化的，不單單只使用填鴨式或是其他特殊的教學方法。
倫敦大學學院教育研究院(UCL Institute of Education)比較了在原國籍生長的東亞學童和在澳洲長大的東亞學童的學業成就，提出另個可信度較高的解釋：東亞學生卓越的學業表現可能跟他們承諾認真努力有關。
英國倫敦大學的研究也發現父母為東亞裔的學生在數學方面的表現優於父母為澳裔的學生。 在澳洲就學的東亞裔學童在PISA得到跟上海學童差不多的分數，遠高於香港、日本、南韓、新加坡和台灣學生的成績。顯然地，不是因為東亞國家有什麼厲害的教學方法，真正影響的因素是長達數小時的課後學習。
不能輸在起跑點，所以學齡前就要開始寫功課，上學後功課只會越來越多。從PISA2012的數據我們可看出東亞學生參加課後輔導的比例遠遠高於澳洲學生，他們一般也花更多的時間埋首書堆。這種緊繃的學習模式在澳洲讀書的東亞學生身上不曾間斷。由此可知，文化背景影響東亞學生的學業表現遠大於長期受西方教育。
東亞學生表現優異是因為深信成功在於用功，而非有好的老師或特別的教學方法。
如果東亞學生的優秀表現是文化展現的教育成果，我們捫心自問是否該仿效東亞父母和學校的教育方法。大幅度的進行文化改革在合理的時間框架下是可行的，但我有兩個質疑這是否為明智之舉的理由。
首先，我們先以東亞為借鏡，大多數的東亞國家都不滿意他們的教育成果。他們認為自己無法培育出能靈活思考的新創家，老是認為西方的教育系統比較好。
其次，我們也該看看東亞國家教育體系帶給孩子的壓力，伴隨而來的心理健康問題和近視疾病。PISA表現優異的東亞國家幾乎都存在上述問題。
東亞國家約有80%的學生在中學時罹患近視，之中約有20%屬重度近視，將來喪失視力的風險偏高，這些視力問題跟長時間的室內苦讀有關。東亞教育的成功背後是耗費龐大的人力成本。
總之，我們能從東亞教育身上學的東西不多。儘管評論家與政策制定者循著這路線，對東亞國家來說，他們意欲仿效的西方國家如芬蘭、加拿大、甚至澳洲和紐西蘭都比較好。這些西方國家在追求教育成果時，不忘留意學生的身心發展，而且也沒有近視的流行。
[作者介紹：Ian Morgan]
澳洲國立大學和中國中山大學訪問學者。
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Claims of East Asia’s ‘chalk and talk’ teaching success are wrong, and short-sighted too
Since Shanghai, China, emerged at the top of international league tables of educational performance such as the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), there have been repeated calls for Australia and other western countries to learn from East Asian countries.
One of the more recent comes from Kevin Donnelly, recently published in The Conversation and picked up by The Washington Post and the South China Morning Post. This article advocated that we should learn from the “chalk and talk” teaching methods reported to be used in Shanghai, where a teacher directs instruction from the front of the class, and revive these in Australian schools.
The problem with such calls is the assumption that the success of East Asian countries is due to specific features of their education systems. Even at first glance, this assumption would seem to be dubious. The school systems in these countries are quite diverse and are certainly not universally characterised by the use of chalk and talk, or any other specific teaching method.
It was always possible that the success of East Asian students was primarily due to their commitment to educational success through hard work. Recent work has demonstrated that this alternative explanation is probably correct. This work compares the performance of children of East Asian ethnicity growing up in their country of origin with similar children growing up in Australia.
It is obvious that in migrating to Australia, these children did not bring their schools, their teachers and their teaching methods with them. So, if they continue to be high performers, what they left behind cannot provide the explanation.
Educational success in East Asian countries is based on a culture of hard work, not chalk. Shutterstock
The University of London study found that Australian students with East Asian parents outperform those with Australian-born parents in mathematics by the equivalent of nearly three years of schooling. The results of students of East Asian ancestry in Australia were statistically similar to the average score of Shanghai students (613) and significantly higher than scores in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Thus students of East Asian ancestry in Australia perform highly without access to the teachers and schools in their country of origin.
There is a lot of evidence pointing to the real factors involved, in particular long hours of out-of-school study. Homework starts early, often as early as pre-school, and increases as students proceed through school. Data from PISA 2012 show that a higher percentage of students from East Asia participate in out-of-school coaching classes than in Australia. They generally spend much longer on homework and study at home as well. These intense study patterns are continued by students of East Asian ancestry growing up in Australia.
A smaller study published in the Journal of Education Policy found similar results. It concluded that:
cultural background appears to be more consequential for the educational attainment of Chinese immigrant students than exposure to the educational systems of Australia or New Zealand.
This success comes with costs Australia doesn’t want
If the greater success of students of East Asian ancestry, both in East Asia and Australia, is a matter of cultural commitment to education, we need to ask if we should emulate the educational pressures imposed by East Asian parents and schools. There are two reasons for doubting that this is a sensible way to go, even if such a substantial cultural shift was feasible in a reasonable time-frame.
Firstly, while we may look to East Asia for lessons, most countries in East Asia are dissatisfied with their educational outcomes. They believe that they are not producing flexible and creative thinkers, and often look to western education systems for a lead.
Secondly, we also need to look at the impact of the educational pressures imposed in East Asia on the children. There are many reports of mental health and attitudinal issues associated with these pressures. One of the best documented is the emergence of an epidemic of myopia, or short-sightedness, in precisely those countries in East Asia that score highly on both educational outcomes and out-of-school coaching and homework in PISA data.
In East Asia, around 80% of students completing secondary school are short-sighted. Around 20% have such severe myopia that they are at a markedly increased risk of irreversible vision loss later in life. Studies have linked these vision problems with extended periods of time spent indoors studying. The human cost of East Asian educational success is very high.
All in all, there is not a lot for us to learn from East Asia on educational success, despite the commentators and policy-makers who follow this line. Instead, it may make more sense for East Asian countries to look at western countries such as Finland, Canada and even Australia and New Zealand. They manage to combine reasonably high educational outcomes with more rounded and balanced development of students, and without an epidemic of myopia.
【Author：Ian Morgan】
Visiting Fellow, Research School of Biology and Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, CHina at Australian National University
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圖片來源：《The Conversation》
原文經合作媒體：《The Conversation》授權編譯，未經許可不得轉載
