爲什麼中國的教育方法在西方學校無效?

The BBC billed it as a battle between Chinese and British styles of education, and after a month of long study hours and the rapid-fire delivery of maths and science, the British pupils in the "Chinese School" won.

英國廣播公司對中國和英國的教育模式宣戰。經過一個月的長時間學習，高速的數學和科學知識輸入後，英國學生在“中國學校”取勝。

At least, that was the conclusion of the school-based reality show Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School, which has captured the imagination of chat forums across China for demonstrating Chinese superiority and the ill-discipline of lippy British teenagers and their ambivalent attitudes towards hard work.

至少，這是基於學校實際情況產生的結論，它表明“難道我們的孩子不堅強嗎？“中國的學校通過佔據中國論壇輿論，證明了中國教育的優越性，英國叛逆青少年的不良紀律性和他們對於努力學習的矛盾態度。

Five teachers from China (some already teaching in Britain) were invited to deploy a harsh Chinese regime on a class of 50 students in Bohunt School in Hampshire.

五名來自中國的老師（有些已經在英國任教）被邀請在新罕布爾什Bohunt學校由50名學生組成的班級中推行嚴苛的中國教育管理制度。

The show culminated in a contest to reveal which approach was better, based on exams sat by the "Chinese School" and the rest of Year Nine, and the conclusion that more of the Chinese approach was needed in Britain. The exams were overseen by an academic at the University College London Institute of Education. Behind this programme is a battleground. This is not between Chinese and British education, but what can and can't be learned from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Programme of International Student Assessments (Pisa) and the wisdom of trying to plant features of one model of schooling into a completely different context.

這場表演以揭示哪種教學方法更好的測驗結束，這場測驗由“中國學校”命題。結論表明，英國需要更多的中國教育方法。考試由倫敦大學學院教育學院的學者監考。這是一場沒有硝煙的戰爭。這場較量無關乎中國和英國的教育，而是我們能否從經濟合作與發展組織的國際學生評估項目中學到些什麼，以及嘗試將一種學校教育模式的特徵移植入另外一種完全不同的內容。

The programme was inspired by Pisa results that suggest students in Shanghai are, on average, three years ahead of their British peers in mathematics. It swallowed the British government and OECD line that such tests are a valid indicator of the health of an educational system; that they test what is important in education for individual students and the wider society (in terms of the skills needed to compete in the global economy); and that practices in Shanghai and other such Pisa leaders can be replicated elsewhere. At best, the outcomes demonstrated that pupils who studied twice as long and focused on preparing for an exam did better in that exam.

該項目由國家學生評估組織發起，其結果顯示，上海學生在數學方面平均要領先其英國同齡人三年。該結果被英國政府接受，國家學生評估組織強調，這樣的測試是國家教育體系健康性的有效指示器。該測試旨在檢測什麼在教育中對於個體學生和社會大衆（就全球經濟所需技能而言）重要。在上海和其他地方的實踐可以在任何地方被複制。除此以外，結果顯示，那些在學習上花費更多的時間並且專注準備考試的學生在考試中表現更好。

These conclusions have resulted in not only this TV "experiment", but also a new British policy to import curriculums, textbooks and even teachers from Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong.

這些結論不僅導致了這場電視“實驗”，也促成了英國從上海，新加坡和香港引進課程，教科書甚至老師的政策。

However, many academics take an alternative view: that the performance of Chinese children is reinforced by the expectations and discipline they are exposed to at home and in society; that high scores on these tests are not the be-all and end-all of education (especially when the results are more complex than often suggested); and that imposing Chinese practices in a British classroom won't address the challenges facing many schools and might be detrimental to their strengths.

然而，很多學者卻有不同的看法：中國孩子的表現是由他們在家庭和社會中的期望和紀律所固化的。高分並不是教育的開始和結束（尤其當結果比平時所顯示的複雜的多時）。在英國課堂中使用中國教育實踐並不能解決許多學校面臨的挑戰，而且可能會對學校的優勢有所威脅。

Indeed, deeper research on the Pisa results shows that ethnic Chinese students perform just as well in these tests whether they are in Shanghai, Australia or Canada, regardless of the methods used to teach them.

事實上，國家學生評估組織的進一步研究結果顯示，無論用什麼方法，中國學生在上海，澳大利亞或者加拿大的測試成績一樣優秀。

This type of experiment, constructed around crude ethnic stereotypes, is not the way to go about cultural and educational exchange. The TV producers were, first and foremost, seeking drama. The Chinese teachers told Chinese media they had been goaded into enforcing extra-long study hours and the type of drills they would no longer do back home.

這種基於原始民族特性的實驗，並不適用於文化和教育的改變。電視製片商是第一個從中尋找戲劇性的人。中國教師向中國媒體說，他們被激勵延長學生學習時間並且不讓他們回家。

Yang Jun, the science teacher, delivered messages such as "Discipline is really important. Without discipline, you don't learn", and that "Chinese education is not only teaching subject knowledge. Chinese education is cultivating human beings." Who would disagree with either of those?

科學教師楊軍傳遞出這樣的信息“你們沒有認識到，在無紀律時的紀律非常重要，中國的教育不僅僅是傳授學科知識，更是培育人格。”誰能夠否認這個觀點呢？

The problem in Britain is that the deeper purpose of education is getting lost in the competition with Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore in the Pisa league. Britain needs a more profound reflection on what students should be learning and how to achieve that goal, involving the whole community.

在與上海，香港和新加坡的競爭中，英國教育的問題是教育深層目標的迷失。英國需要更進一步反思，學生應該學習什麼，怎樣達到目標，包括整個社會。