22nd October 2014 3:00
By Blue Tutors
Recent research has revealed that the government’s enthusiasm for copying the teaching methods of China and South Korea may be misplaced, after a study found that cultural factors beyond school play a significant result part in determining success. The education systems of China and South Korea have regularly topped international league tables, and have long been of interest to politicians who have attempted to implement measure emulating the school systems of these countries. However, the study by the Institute of Education has concluded that education systems do not account for the results alone, after finding that children of east Asian immigrants still significantly out-perform their peers even though they have been educated in western schools.
The study looked at the results of the children of immigrants from high achieving countries, and found that on average they were two and a half years ahead of their western peers by the time they were 15 year old. The study looked at the performance of thousands of children with immigrant parents and found that they performed around 18% better in GCSEs that their peers. In England, children of Chinese origin score the highest in GCSEs than any other ethnic group, with 78% achieving at least 5 A*-C grade GCSEs compared with the national average of 60%. Policy makers are keen to emulate the education systems of high performing countries, and the Department for Education has recently announced an £11 million initiative to bring 50 maths teachers from Shanghai to England in order to raise standards. The idea is to create centres of excellence across England.
The researchers conducting the study have said that policy makers cannot be guided by the results of the international Pisa tests alone, and must consider the cultural factors at work in determining children’s results. They warned that replicating teaching techniques may not have the desired effect, citing their findings that children of east Asian heritage also perform extremely well in western education systems which do not currently use similar techniques. The findings suggest that the attitudes and beliefs of students’ parents were very important in determining results. Student participating in the study were asked about their parent’s country of birth, and the attitudes they had towards education. Parents of east Asian origin were found to be more likely to value education and to do much to encourage their children to perform well. The study concluded the policy makers needed to investigate social and cultural barriers to achievement rather than focusing solely on emulating east Asian education systems.