BRITAIN EXPERIMENTS WITH TEACHING MATHS IN A CHINESE STYLE

Culture is a big factor in the UK. Most kids want quick fame from pop music, celebrity status, or sport (primarily football). It will be interesting to see what effect this has, and why.

BEIJING — Educators around the world were stunned when students in Shanghai came first in their international standardized testing debut, in 2010, besting their counterparts in dozens of countries in what some called a Sputnik-like moment.

Now, some British schools will try to replicate that success by using translated textbooks that are otherwise all but identical to those in public elementary schools around Shanghai.

Starting in January, teachers in England will have the option of using “Real Shanghai Mathematics,” a series of 36 textbooks translated directly from Chinese into English. The only difference? The renminbi symbols will be replaced by British pound signs.

“All this time, Asians have been learning from the Western education system,” said Yong Zhao, a professor of education at University of Kansas. “Suddenly, it’s the reverse.”

Britain Turns to Chinese Textbooks to Improve Its Math Scores https://t.co/CcnGiwe1S3

— The New York Times (@nytimes) 5 August 2017