Beyond Teaching to the Test

Another week, another news report detailing the achievements of Chinese students' remarkable exam-taking achievements. I opened up my inbox yesterday to a New York Times article reporting on how students from Shanghai have astonished the international education community with their top performance on the OECD-administered PISA test, which measures educational achievements in industrialized countries.

Such results are nothing new. Chinese test-takers routinely outperform their peers in rich and poor countries alike, invariably raising concerns about the future labor competitiveness of current global leaders like the US.

Yet despite its overwhelming success with exams, China’s education system still lags in a number of areas, not the least of which is its ability to teach analytical thinking. Focusing almost solely on preparation for benchmarking tests and entrance exams, the Chinese classrooms I visited in my previous work in China offered few interactive learning and problem-solving opportunities, and student-led extra-curricular activities remain relatively rare. Students I encountered in both rural and urban areas of China were often extremely bright, yet many struggled to verbalize their own opinions or respond to questions that probe beyond the factual level.

The consequences of this are no secret to China’s students or its policy-makers, and both groups are hungry for opportunities to fill this gap. As a young migrant worker I interviewed for my bachelor's thesis at Macalester College explained, “We know what the stereotypes about Chinese students are, but if we want to succeed we really just have to focus on these exams. It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not good for us – there are so many more useful skills that we should learn to prepare us for the future!” While government officials may be unable to overhaul China’s exam-centered system in the near term, they, too, know that transforming China from the world’s factory into an innovation powerhouse will require a few adjustments to education policy.

This is one of the reasons why I’m so excited to be working on the Student Journalism in China Program, an IREX-implemented initiative that helps Chinese students and educators establish high school newspaper programs and empowers student journalists to produce objective, analytical newspapers in line with international standards. Based in the largely rural, northwestern province of Gansu – far from the well-funded education centers of Beijing and Shanghai – the program has already attracted nearly 250 student participants since its roll-out earlier this year, and hundreds more are expected after the completion of the current pilot phase.

The program’s innovative curriculum provides a fresh departure from conventional lecture-based learning, yet it also builds upon the requirements of Chinese university entrance exams to ensure buy-in from students and teachers who know their success depends on exam performance. Within the collaborative atmosphere of these student newsrooms – in which student writing is not graded by the teacher, but is critiqued in peer discussions – students are gaining a rare opportunity to be a part of a cooperative and interactive learning environment and to voice their own opinions about issues in their community.

While many more such programs and curriculum changes will be needed to serve the millions of students progressing through China’s education system, I’m energized by the response we’ve received for this program from the student participants, their teachers, and even the local government. With continued support for initiatives that introduce youth to the power of their own ideas, Chinese students can become more than stellar test takers – they can learn to respond to changes in their communities as the informed, analytical citizens of an emerging world power.