iblog

I read an interesting article today about the differences between the mathematical ability of Science undergraduates here and in China. The UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry has shown examples of entry-level questions from both countries, and I admit the difference looks staggering. Here is a sample question from a unnamed respected British university, and here is one from a University entrance exam in China. The latter is obviously very complex compared to the first simple GCSE-level question, and the difference has caused a lot of concern as Britain’s future economic prospects are being threatened by much more able scientists in China.

Personally I think it’s rather hasty to draw any conclusions about China’s education being in any way “better” than ours. Firstly, the results show only one part of one subject: no doubt, there may be many other subjects which are valuable and are often seen as better here. Also, there’s the fact that students in China are often overworked in the first place, with surveys showing that many are under intense psychological pressure. I mean, sure British people can make Maths teaching more intense and difficult, but is that really the way to go?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 12:41 pm and is filed under Culture, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.