How do other countries learn?

[Tamberly]

I'm really interested in how other parts of the world learn. I've only been educated in our public school system and it seemed like the only way - and so I've been attempting to replicate that at home. However, I realized that despite being a straight A student, I remember almost nothing! I'm starting to see that my daughter is the same - only unit studies and hands on projects stick with her (though she aces the tests). I'm looking to switch to some of those kinds of curriculum, but also really curious about the rest of the world. Any books on education throughout the world or personal stories? Curriculum suggestions also appreciated!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Singapore Math is the math used by the public school system in Singapore.

 

Right Start Math is based on the math used in the public schools in Japan.

 

Liping Ma has written an excellent book that discusses math education in a number of different countries. Her book is titled "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics".

[Tabrett]

Your siggy shows lots of text books. Have you looked at curriculums like MFW, HOD or TOG?

 

These curriculums veer away from straight use of text books and incorporate more "living" book learning and hands on activities.

 

It might be what you are looking for.

 

Edited:

I didn't answer your question! Sorry. It just looks like you need a less classroom school approach. You don't have to bring school text books home to teach;-)

Edited November 5, 2010 by Tabrett

[Guest]

I learned a lot from Japanese Lessons by Gail Benjamin; The Teaching Gap by James Stigler and James Hiebert; and Preschool in Three Cultures by Joseph Tobin et al.

 

I also learned quite a lot from dh, who went to boarding school in the UK, and my nephew and niece who were educated in Scotland. I did extensive research in Oxford for my PhD and was very interested in looking into how universities worked and what was expected of literature majors there. There are people on the boards who went to school in other countries who will have lots of information to share about their experiences too.

[Laura Corin]

My boys go to private school in Scotland; if you want me to ask them about what school is like, I can.

 

Laura

[Tabrett]

My boys go to private school in Scotland; if you want me to ask them about what school is like, I can.

 

Laura

 

:lurk5:

I'm not the original poster, but I would like to know what they say.:D

[Tamberly]

Yeah, we definitely are too textbook-y. My daughter doesn't mind, but I know she isn't excited about school as I would want her to be. It's me teaching for 10 minutes, her doing a worksheet for awhile (depends on if she can concentrate that day!) for every single thing (except spelling). I'm bored so I know she is! We need something with a lot of science - it seems most of these unit studies focus so heavily on history.

[kgreenaz]

I have just started reading the book, The Element, by Sir Ken Robinson Ph.D. I can already tell it will change all of our lives. I read it to my husband in the car on our road trip from Phx to Santa Fe and I'm so glad he agrees with it and me. I adore Ken Robinson. Find him on YouTube and watch anything he says. He's brilliant, IMHO.

 

Ahem. I had to throw out most of my curriculum this year due to ds8yo's learning glitches. Turns out that now my 4, 7, and 8 yo boys are THRIVING! They are learning so much just because of hands-on exposure. Not things that, even in great books, they hear and then forget. Tons of Lego robotics and nature walks and art museums and pottery class and Timez Attack on the computer. They have LOVED and learned and remember all the living books that we've been reading for our American history program through WinterPromise. We still talk about Sign of the Beaver and By the Great Horn Spoon and Pedro's Journal on a weekly basis. We were studying American Native people and pueblos and my husband had a business trip in Santa Fe NM so here we are! And today we toured two ancient pueblos!!

 

Anyway, all of this yakking to say that learning will occur when it's interesting and means something to the child. My kids beg for our daily hour of listening to our audio Bible. BEG. They LOVE it. They now LOVE our math after I switched from Singapore (because I was sure it was the best) to Teaching Textbooks (which I was sure was the worst). I find some way to make everything either fun or interesting or, guess what? I DON'T DO IT! Because, if the child has good nutrition and a stimulating environment, they.will.learn. And if they love what they are doing. They.will.learn.more.effectively.and.remember. I'm on vacation and it's late for me and I'm feeling punky with my periods. : ) But I stopped killing myself with worry and pouring over WTM for curriculum. WTM is a quicklink on the top of my browser. The For Sale listings. But I'm deleting it tonight.

 

I'd say run tomorrow to your library or look on your library's web site to see if they have The Element. Read it as quickly as you can then read it again just for kicks. I promise it will change your perspective. Well, I can't promise because I don't know you but it sure changed mine. I was very straight-laced, by-the-book, never met a worksheet I didn't like and force upon my children, Charlotte Mason was a wimp kinda home educating scary teacher. Now I'm still scary but am becoming more at peace with myself and what we're doing with our boys.

 

The book is about finding your passion in life and the passion in your children. Once you find that, I call it the calling that God has on our children's lives for careers, God will provide the rest. We've been praying since before our sons were born that God would show us what He wants the boys to do with their lives. If we discover that early, I might never have to worry about Latin or college. I'm just more of a relaxed homeschooler now and it's just so very, very helpful.

 

I hope I haven't scared you but, rather, encouraged you. You don't have to seek anywhere but right in your own home for what you're looking for, if you don't want to. And this is coming from someone who always wants to know if I'm doing it "right." Whew! What a change! Thank you, Lord.

 

Peace & Grace, Kim

 

BTW - WinterPromise has a science-based curriculum called Animals & Their Worlds. I did it when my boys were 6 & 7. Your daughter might like it.

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Element-Finding-Passion-Changes-Everything/dp/0143116738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289020180&sr=8-1

[saw]

I've got a ds9 in an excellent boarding school in England, two dds12 who were in secondary school in the Netherlands and now do a combination of Dutch internet school (following the same "national" curriculum they would there) and what I like, and a ds4 in a French public school. If you'd like to know more about these systems I could probably help.

 

Sophie

[Tiramisu]

I lived in Japan for many years. I know we hear a lot (or used to) about intense pre-schools in Japan that were geared to getting children into prestigious elementary schools, that would lead to presitigious middle schools and high schools. I didn't really see that after 10 years of living there in different locations. Generally, kids are meant to have fun and socialize in pre-school. None of the pre-schools my children attended were academic. And, I never heard children scolded or teachers use a harsh tone of voice with pre-school children. From preschool (yochien), children go into first grade in what would be April of what is first grade in the US. So real school starts quite a bit later that it does in the U.S. It starts very gently with very, very short school days.

 

In middle school and high school, children study hard and go to juku, or cram school, in the evenings. Because they often travel by public transportation to a school a distance away, they might not come home to much later in the evenings and don't always get to eat dinner with their families everyday. They are often at school six or even seven days a week with classes and/or club activities. When I was first there, the academic school week was M-F with a half day Saturday. Then it went down to 2 Saturdays a month, on the way to phasing out Saturdays. I don't know what they are up to now.

 

I taught at colleges and universities for many years. College and university students usually take it very easy.:001_smile:

 

Generally, in Japan, children are rather spoiled when they are young. This is completely opposite from some Americans parents who feel they have to be really strict in the early years to bring up their children well and form them into good people. Of course, there are significant socio-economic reasons for the differences in both societies, but the Japanese method of indulgent child-rearing doesn't seem to have led to wild, out-of-control adults as their crime rate overall is much lower than the what we see in the US. At the same time, I think the approach that is used in Japan now may not have been the way it always was.

Edited November 6, 2010 by NJKelli

[Nan in Mass]

I would love to hear more, if you are willing to take the time.

-Nan

[Crimson Wife]

What a timely thread! I'm currently reading The Learning Gap: Why Our Schools are Failing and What We Can Learn From Japanese and Chinese Education by Harold Stevenson & James Stigler. It's a bit dated now as the book was written in 1992 and the comparative studies it was based on were done in the 1980's. But if anything, some of the cultural differences the authors noted are even MORE pronounced today.

 

Definitely read the book, it's a fascinating look at the Asian approach to elementary school.

[mcconnellboys]

Japan:

 

http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/ResearchToday/98-3038.html

 

South Korea:

 

http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2008-11-18-korea-education-usa_N.htm

 

I wish I had done this for K, and maybe for 1-3, too!

 

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art12183.asp

 

(German Forest Schools)

 

More on this:

 

http://cedarsongnatureschool.org/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=10

 

Okay, one more and then I'll stop. I just think this is the ultimate in nature study for younger kids:

 

http://www.grugapark.de/english/nature_school.html

 

Swedish school models:

 

http://www.camb-ed.net/pbyp_news/item/can_swedish_school_success_translate_to_an_english_context/

 

TIMMS testing:

 

http://4brevard.com/choice/international-test-scores.htm

 

How Singapore does it:

 

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Singapore+schools+held+up+as+models.(Schools)(Education%3a+Teachers+in...-a096585073

 

And how the Netherlands does it:

 

http://www.fcpp.org/pdf/FB16%20Dutch%20School%20Model.pdf

[mcconnellboys]

I agree that learning will be more fun with living books, rather than text books! You can still add in some worksheets or testing, if you feel the need for it, but I'd do that more sporadically, especially for the elementary years....

 

I replied, below, regarding different models of education in some other world countries that lead in test scores....

[Deb in NZ]

New Zealand PS is quite different from American schools. Dd & ds#1 went to PS for some of primary school & ds#2 is enrolled to start PS in February for highschool. What specifics do want to know about education here?

[Laura Corin]

:lurk5:

I'm not the original poster, but I would like to know what they say.:D

 

Structure of class? Materials? School atmosphere? Teaching style? Other things?

 

Laura

[Tamberly]

Thanks for the links and resources so far! And yes, what Laura the previous poster said - that kind of thing is what I am looking for. Mostly do they all sit down and stare at dry textbooks all day that they will forget later?? If not, how do they learn?

[Rosie_0801]

Over here (Victoria, things might be a little different in other states,) the norm is primary school for your equivalent of K-6 and secondary school from 7-12. There are Prep-12 schools and there are 7-10 and 11-12 schools, but basically the primary years are Prep-6 and secondary is 7-12.

 

Teaching to the tests is a huge problem here these days, and high school, for me, was a lot of staring at text books and copying notes off the board. Dh went to a private school and that seems to have been less "chalk and talk" and more discussion based. We did have science in labs, and did an experiment of some kind each week. They were better than staring at textbooks or "chalk and talk" but they weren't much good. There was limited time so you had to get the experiment to work properly, and there was no time for interest in why it mightn't.

 

And worksheets. And more worksheets. And more worksheets. Some things don't change. Even back then I understood that worksheets were testing my knowledge, not teaching me anything.

 

Primary school was a while ago, but I remember using base ten blocks and abacuses for maths in the early years. We had an old fashioned teacher in grade 5 who had us doing dictation. Everyone loved him and nearly all the parents wanted their kids in his class. They read aloud to us in primary school, even in grade 6, but they certainly weren't reading classics. We had art, library and music every week, but the music was a lot of rot. Anyway, I remember sitting on the floor of the staff room with my class in grade prep, just beginning to learn to read music. The next year, they fired the chap because he wasn't a teacher, only a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra :glare: After that, music involved singing stupid songs that hurt my juvenile intelligence ;) and I never liked music again, even though they started letting us muck around with merimbas and cymbals and whatnot in about grade 4 or 5. They must have got a funding boost for that. It was still pretty crappy though, because only the teachers pets got to have much of a go on it.

 

In primary school, composite classes are very common. In high school, electives are introduced at year 9, for most. For VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) which is the "academic" version of years 11 and 12, the only compulsory subject is English. It's not so easy to get straight As, but to fail, you'd need to try pretty hard.

 

These days, they are trialling having the same teacher for all the core subjects in years 7-10. I don't know much about it, but my young friend didn't seem to care about it one way or another. He used to show me some of his homework assignments, but even in year 9 a lot of the assessments were making posters. He could get As without actually writing an essay.

 

That's all I can think of just now. You're asking for a comparison with American schools and I have never experienced them, so I don't know what differences to highlight. :)

 

Rosie

Edited November 7, 2010 by Rosie_0801

[Anne in CA]

I have done many mission outreaches to Nepalese schools and they are VERY different from US schools.

 

Any 16yo who has a high school diploma can teach pre school or kindergarden there, and Kindergarden had 2 levels. The Nepalese spend Kindergarden learning to read and write both English and Nepalese. The goal is the by first grade school would be mostly in English. This doesn't really work this way in most schools, but they come pretty close.

 

School is mostly rote memorization in the early grades and student who do not pay attention are smacked in the face with a long bamboo stick that all Nepalese teachers seem to carry. Don't worry, they are not smacked hard, but it is not uncommon for a 3yo Nepalese student to be hit more than 10X in a day. That really might upset some posters here, but I am not defending it, it just is how it is and the kids take it pretty well and start paying attention.

 

The pre school kids usually take a nap or put their heads down in the middle of the afternoon, but they all go to school from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. I assume India is similar, but I haven't been there.

[Melissa in Australia]

I really have no idea what schools are like in America to compare, but I am currently studying to be a primary school teacher, and half of the university text books used so far are American, so I would think the differences are minor.

[MagnaSky]

One of the bigest problems with the American curriculum is the "mile wide and an inch deep" nature of it. You are covering topics, but realy not mastering the concepts. Any curriculum that will give you more than an inch depth is what you want to look at. You have here some very good links suggested.