From the Vancouver Sun:

Some Canadian educators, and researchers like Mengwei Su and Laura Harrison of Ohio University, say the intense concentration of Chinese students in Western schools brings with it drawbacks, however, mainly for the students themselves.

Even though Western universities welcome Chinese students as “a particularly lucrative market,” Su and Harrison found many of the young Chinese struggle with English and integrating into Western culture — partly because they are ending up in classrooms and living situations dominated by other students from China.
Continue reading “Chinese Kids at Canadian Universities: Isolated” →

Parenting changes over generations, always, everywhere. But some eras/places have faster change than others. Parenting in China is in a period of rapid change.

From my friend Chris, I saw this blog. What would you do if your child drew all over your brand new couch, in crayon?

Continue reading “Great Moments in Parenting” →

Today the US State Department issued an updated travel advisory about China.

1. How does this affect education efforts?

It makes it a bit harder to recruit American teachers to go to China.
Continue reading “Today’s China Travel Advisory” →

From the Straits Times:

China has ordered local authorities and parents to “reduce the burden” of primary and secondary school children by giving them less homework, supervising their use of electronic devices, and ensuring that they get sufficient sleep.
Continue reading “New Chinese Law: Less Homework” →

From Quartz:

Uganda’s education ministry is planning to add Mandarin language lessons to its secondary school curriculum at 35 schools
Continue reading “Ugandan High Schools To Require Mandarin” →

In Chinese international schools, you can meet school leaders who describe their curriculum, and then see classrooms where that curriculum is not being followed closely.

If I ask the school leader about what I just saw, I often get a puzzled denial.

If I ask a school leader in the USA, though, I often get an exasperated, knowing acknowledgement. “Yep, such is life.”

So what is happening?

Stanford’s Larry Cuban explains in a 4 part framework.
Continue reading “Intended Curriculum Versus “Real” Curriculum” →

If I’m lucky enough to help start a school in China, I hope to help create some breakthroughs around professional development.

Traditional professional development is venerated in China. But what we know from the USA: it doesn’t work. A mirage.

Why?

This is not an education sector problem. See Peak. It’s true of adult development.

What’s one culprit of this PD failure?
Continue reading “Rethinking P.D. in China” →