Western schools envious of East Asian scores on global exam may change teaching methods
Western educators hope to emulate the success of Asian schools in a global performance ranking. But exam results only tell you so much
It's inevitable: a school system comes top of international rankings in performance, and the limelight shines. Education experts and government policymakers descend from around the globe, hoping to glean the secret of success so that they can emulate the very best.
Crucially, however, many Western nations have so far been unable to translate effectively into their own systems the successes of places such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa).
Dr John Jerrim, a researcher at University College London's Institute of Education (IoE), said "everyone has a different reason" why East Asian countries perform so well in the mathematics, science and reading literacy tests, but "we don't really know the answer."
Western policymakers who have begun to "look east with an envious glare" cannot expect an easy way to replicate these students' extraordinary success. While Pisa is effective in comparing students against a benchmark, it is unable to explain the reasons for their success, Jerrim told a seminar of education experts, members of Parliament and policymakers on March 25 in London.
Education experts at the seminar to examine how results of highly performing East Asian countries in the Pisa tests translate into policy, acknowledged that Pisa results have a powerful influence.
"Pisa is taken as a proxy measure on education quality," said Paul Morris, professor of comparative education at IoE.
