作者/Jiang Xueqin
編譯/李明洋
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上海PISA奪冠的慘痛代價
中國上海在2009年首度參與了OECD每3年即針對世界各國教育體系進行調查的”國際學生評量計畫(Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA)”，而當上海的青年學子在數學、科學和閱讀的表現，都遠勝過美國、德國和日本的同儕時，世界各國莫不感到震驚與敬畏。
這樣的成就，比起2008年的北京奧運、上海的摩天大樓，抑或呈2位數成長的經濟表現還要傲人，(似乎)證明未來是屬於中國的天下。
本週公布的PISA 2012結果顯示，上海的學校仍然排名第1，但是，誠如我在2009年上海首度奪冠時所說的，這個勝利的代價實在太大了。
中國的學校教育採取”自相殘殺”和”勝者全拿”的教育思維，不僅讓孩子不快樂與不健康，而且還導致作弊和賄賂，塑造的是一個既不公正，也不公平的教育體系。
我們只需要到上海任何一所高中遊歷一圈，就會瞭解何以上海得以在PISA奪冠:即便學校可能過度擁擠，人滿為患，大廳卻總是窗明几淨，課堂上學生正襟危坐，專心聽講，會議室裡則坐滿了具大學學歷且動機十足的教師，彼此交換心得，討論如何設計出更好的45分鐘課堂活動。
績效獎金是促使學校教育獲致成功的因素，每個月高達1萬人民幣(約合1640美元)的薪資，使得教師在上海穩居中產階級的地位。
根據PISA的結果顯示，上海學生表現出”高度的韌性(a high level of resilience)”，意思就是家境貧困學生的表現超出了原本預期的好。這在很大的程度上，是因為上海政府致力於不讓任何一個孩子落後:當局公平地資助各校，高成就學校與低成就學校組成夥伴關係，而且只要表現低落的學校改革有成，有功的行政人員皆可快速獲得晉升。
在我參觀過的一所上海初中，放學後，教師還繼續留下來教導學業低落的學生，校長則是當眾針對這些教師的表現大表讚揚。因為只要學生的考試成績夠好，這些教師就可以獲得行政人員發放的紅利，所以許多教師有財力可以開奧迪(Audi)，然而，真正獲利，大撈一票的其實是接受感恩的家長金錢挹注的補習班。而且那位校長告訴我，依照她的經驗，最能預測學生學業成就的，其實是身家背景。她說，為貧困孩子補課只不過是治標，只是讓他們可以安然度過教育階段，好讓他們不至於拖累學校的整體表現而已。
因為上海的學校這麼的好，所以家長就得有所付出。上海的房價是舉世皆知的昂貴，辦學優良的公立小學周邊房價高得驚人，一般人根本就負擔不起。一旦買不到學區內的房子，家長就只好想方設法去賄賂校方，好讓孩子進到學校裡讀書。
此外，由於上海小學的教室人數高達30到40人，所以許多家長千方百計地邀請教師吃飯，送禮，希望對方能夠多多關照自己的獨生子女。在上海，對於家境富裕的家長來說，行賄是他們最具優勢的利器，遠勝過週末的鋼琴課、補數學、補英文、私人家教、到美國參加夏令營、到歐洲度假…等這些讓子女贏在起點的各種優勢。
對學生來說，這場(人生的)競賽就是要看誰能夠進入上海最好的兩所大學:上海復旦大學和上海交通大學。
驅使學生競相追逐(進入名校)的原因不只是因為將來可以獲得一份好工作，而是因為在上海，只要考試獲得高分就代表你贏得了尊嚴，而且也證明了自己的身分地位和自我價值。
有大量的社會科學研究的結果，包括Daniel Pink的暢銷書”Drive:The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”告訴我們，採取績效獎勵(performance-based incentives)的手段來激勵學生和教師是最差勁的方法。因為激勵不該是讓學生備感壓力、孤單與不快樂，而且那也將扼殺學生與生俱有的好奇心、創造力和學習熱忱。
如今，高利害關係考試業已造就了中國的作弊文化。去年，中國當局由於試圖阻止一場考試作弊，結果竟然引發暴動，因為家長憤恨大家都在作弊，何以單單只有他的孩子被抓。
就在人們為上海PISA的勝利而興奮莫名時，卻也往往忘了所該汲取的教訓，那就是何以芬蘭能夠成為世界教育改革的真正典範。
雖然芬蘭在PISA 2012的數學項目排名第12，而不是第1，但是從我造訪這個國家的經驗中，我知道芬蘭教育成功地培育所有學生具有知識經濟的能力，而且沒有犧牲孩子的童年、好奇心與創造力。
上海的孩子下午4點放學後，還要去補習班上課，直到就寢前還要寫家庭作業。恰恰相反的是，芬蘭的孩子則是中午就放學回家，然後玩整天。我們從芬蘭學生在PISA的表現幾乎和上海學生差距不大就足以顯示，較長的上學時間，到補習班補習，以及寫家庭作業並不是真正在幫助學生學習，那不過是在取悅極度焦慮、過度要求，以及到處和人爭長短的父母。
當然，真正關心孩子的幸福，而不是考試分數的中國父母，數量也在逐漸增加中。而那些深知上海PISA的代價如此巨大，接受過良好教育且家境又富裕的父母，則是移民國外或將子女送去讀私立的西式學校，這樣的情況在中國各大城市如雨後春筍般湧現。這對中國的教育改革來說，當然不是一件好事。
【作者介紹：Jiang Xueqin】
本文作者Jiang Xueqin(江學勤)為加拿大籍華裔學者，前北京大學附屬高中副校長暨該校國際部主任，現為清華大學附屬高中(Tsinghua University High School)副校長，著有”創新中國教育“一書。
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The costs of Shanghai’s education success story
In 2009, Shanghai participated for the first time in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the tri-annual survey of the world’s school systems.
And when Shanghai’s teenagers proved their math, science, and reading were much better than their peers in the United States, Germany, and Japan, the world was shocked and awed.
Here, much more so than the 2008 Beijing Olympics or Shanghai’s skyscrapers or China’s double-digit growth, was proof positive that the future belonged to China.
READ: Shanghai teens top international education ranking
The latest PISA results released this week show that Shanghai schools are still number one, but, as I argued after Shanghai’s first placing in 2009, the triumph comes at too great a cost.
The dog-eat-dog and winner-take-all mentality of China’s school system isn’t just making children unhappy and unhealthy — it’s also causing cheating and bribery, leading to an unfair and unequal school system.
The teachers
A tour of any Shanghai junior high school offers an easy explanation as to why Shanghai placed first on the PISA.
They may be crammed and overcrowded, but the halls are clean and tidy, classrooms packed with attentive and focused students, and meeting rooms filled with university-educated and highly-motivated teachers trading notes on how to better design their 45-minute lesson.
The incentives to succeed bind the school together, and guide it. Teachers are paid about 10,000 yuan a month ($1,640), which makes them solidly middle-class in Shanghai.
In their PISA performance, Shanghai’s students show “a high level of resilience,” which is to say that poor students do better than expected.
READ: Why Asian schools succeed
That’s in large part because the Shanghai government is committed to leaving no child behind: It funds all schools equally, partners high-performing schools with low-performing ones and offers fast-track promotions to administrators who can turn around bad schools.
In one Shanghai junior high school I visited, teachers stayed after school to tutor failing students — and the head teacher there honored those teachers in school assemblies.
But these teachers can drive Audis if their students do well enough on tests: Yes, administrators can give teachers bonuses, but the real money is in grateful parents and moonlighting at for-profit cram schools (after school tutoring programs).
And the head that honored teachers who tutored failing kids told me that in her experience, the best indicator of a student’s school performance is his/her socio-economic background. She said the tutoring of poor kids is just a bandage, a way to get them through the system and not have them drag the school down.
The parents
Because Shanghai’s schools are so good, Shanghaiparents have to pay — even if it’s not exorbitant tuition fees.
Shanghai’s real estate market is notoriously expensive, but it’s downright unaffordable in the neighborhoods of Shanghai’s very best public elementary schools, and when families can’t use real estate to buy into the best schools, they try to bribe their way in.
This culture of bribing public school officials means I can’t maintain friendships, make new ones, and date — a girl I dated in 2010 told me she’d give me 200,000 yuan ($32,800) to get her sister into my school.
And because Shanghai’s elementary school classrooms have 30 or 40 students, parents trip over each other in the mad rush to take teachers out to dinner and offer gifts in the hope that their only child gets a little more attention.
The bribery is on top of every other advantage that Shanghai’s wealthy parents have bestowed upon their only child: Weekend piano, math, and English classes, private tutoring, summer camp in America, vacations in Europe and above all a born-to-succeed attitude.
The students
For the students, the race is to see who can enter Shanghai’s best two universities — Fudan University and Jiao Tong.
But it’s just not the prospect of a good job that drives students on. Scoring highly on tests in Shanghai is like scoring a lot of touchdowns in Texas — it’s what wins you social respect, and soon comes to define your identity and self-worth.
There’s substantial social science research — popularized in books such as Daniel Pink’s Drive — that suggests performance-based incentives are bad for students and teachers.
Incentives do not just make students stressed, lonely, and unhappy — they also kill student’s innate curiosity, creativity, and love of learning.
And high-stakes testing has led to a culture of cheating in China. Last year, when authorities tried to stop cheating, a riot broke out — parents were angry that their children were being singled out when everyone was cheating.
The best model?
In the excitement over Shanghai’s PISA victory we tend to forget the real lesson to be learned: How Finland can be the real model for education reform in the world.
Finland, which ranked 12th in the 2012 math rankings, may not be number one, but, in my experience from visiting the country, it’s succeeded in equipping all Finnish students with the tools to succeed in the knowledge economy without sacrificing their childhood, curiosity and creativity.
After Shanghai children leave school at 4 p.m., they go on to cram school and do homework until bedtime. In stark contrast, when Finnish children leave school at noon, they just go play for the whole day.
That Finnish students do almost as well as their Shanghai peers on PISA suggest that long school days, cram schools, and homework are not really about helping students learn — it’s more about pleasing anxious, demanding, and hyper-competitive parents.
Of course, there’s a rising tide of Chinese parents who care more about their child’s well-being than his or her test score.
And these wealthy and well-educated parents who understand the costs and sacrifices of Shanghai’s PISA victory are emigrating abroad or opting for new private Western-style schools that have sprung up in major Chinese cities.
That’s bad news for Chinese education reform because those who are in the best position to make a stand are instead voting with their feet.
【Author：Jiang Xueqin】
Deputy principal of Tsinghua University High School
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圖片來源：flickr@Tzuhsun Hsu
原文刊登於《CNN》，經作者Jiang Xueqin授權編譯，未經許可不得轉載
