This morning the hotel dining room was filled with WCCES attendees. I met up with a young professor who had worked at the University of Sussex (where I have applied for a 2018 Fulbright),
and we walked the short distance to Beijing Normal University (BNU) together for the opening speeches and keynotes.
The first keynote, by Prof. Yingjie Wang of BNU, discussed the complexities of collective society in China mixed with the competitive of the gao coa, the National University Entrance Exam. This test is all-encompassing both to jr/sr students and to their parents. He also discussed the pressures on teachers and principals for the students to pass. I found myself thinking that I would want to be neither a teacher nor a parent if I lived in China. With the "one child policy," parents become subservient to their "little emperors." Teaching is considered a "hazardous profession."
Andreas Schleicher from the OECD also presented an excellent talk about skills needed in the near future, presenting the point that memorization of facts is insufficient and mostly unnecessary. He talked about the importance of numerous skills - critical thinking, problem solving, but also things like innovation, creativity, confidence, communication skills, generosity, etc. He discussed the need to get beyond the dominance of economics to consider other ways to think about one another. He frankly surprised me, coming from the OECD with a talk that went beyond the need for job skills.
Afternoon panels were equally interesting. After them, I rushed back to the hotel to get ready for an evening acrobatics performance in Beijing. Prior to the show, the speakers were pulsing out vaudeville music from the 1920s. The show began, and ended, with a clown. In between, the acts included contortionists, and feats of remarkable balance, coordination, and strength. We enjoyed it.
However, traffic in the city is absolutely harrowing! I've seen scary driving in Kampala, but this made Kampala look tame and orderly. People drive outside their lanes, squeeze into lanes, come within an inch of one another at speed. I can't figure out the rules at lights. While generally green means go and red stop, it looks more complicated than that. Certainly the green pedestrian lights do not guarantee that a vehicle will not come at you and beep. It is just crazy!
Tuesday was another full conference day for me. To learn more about the Chinese system, I attended a couple sessions about Chinese education. It sounds very stressful. And yet, it does not seem all that different from the US system with high-stakes testing. Parents will move as they can to places in which their kids have access to better schools. But then they are regarded as outsiders, and teachers pay more attention to local children. That doesn't sound much different from US teacher attitudes towards migrant children. Another similarity is that wealthier families have more school choice. Teacher descriptions reminded me of early US history - teachers are to be virtuous and moral, dignified and authoritative, sacrificing themselves to this sacred profession. In China, they are also required to conduct research.
In the evening, we went to the Black Sesame Kitchen, a restaurant I saw advertised on TripAdvisor. It was not easy to find (our cabbie got lost), down a narrow hutong lane, but it was so worth it. Coco only serves 10 people/evening, all seated at one table. There was one other US couple, and three other couples representing Australia, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and England. We had a terrific conversation, and the food was the best I have had here for a very reasonable price. You could watch the food being cooked by looking into a mirror hung from the ceiling. Great night!
and we walked the short distance to Beijing Normal University (BNU) together for the opening speeches and keynotes.
The first keynote, by Prof. Yingjie Wang of BNU, discussed the complexities of collective society in China mixed with the competitive of the gao coa, the National University Entrance Exam. This test is all-encompassing both to jr/sr students and to their parents. He also discussed the pressures on teachers and principals for the students to pass. I found myself thinking that I would want to be neither a teacher nor a parent if I lived in China. With the "one child policy," parents become subservient to their "little emperors." Teaching is considered a "hazardous profession."
Andreas Schleicher from the OECD also presented an excellent talk about skills needed in the near future, presenting the point that memorization of facts is insufficient and mostly unnecessary. He talked about the importance of numerous skills - critical thinking, problem solving, but also things like innovation, creativity, confidence, communication skills, generosity, etc. He discussed the need to get beyond the dominance of economics to consider other ways to think about one another. He frankly surprised me, coming from the OECD with a talk that went beyond the need for job skills.
Afternoon panels were equally interesting. After them, I rushed back to the hotel to get ready for an evening acrobatics performance in Beijing. Prior to the show, the speakers were pulsing out vaudeville music from the 1920s. The show began, and ended, with a clown. In between, the acts included contortionists, and feats of remarkable balance, coordination, and strength. We enjoyed it.
However, traffic in the city is absolutely harrowing! I've seen scary driving in Kampala, but this made Kampala look tame and orderly. People drive outside their lanes, squeeze into lanes, come within an inch of one another at speed. I can't figure out the rules at lights. While generally green means go and red stop, it looks more complicated than that. Certainly the green pedestrian lights do not guarantee that a vehicle will not come at you and beep. It is just crazy!
Tuesday was another full conference day for me. To learn more about the Chinese system, I attended a couple sessions about Chinese education. It sounds very stressful. And yet, it does not seem all that different from the US system with high-stakes testing. Parents will move as they can to places in which their kids have access to better schools. But then they are regarded as outsiders, and teachers pay more attention to local children. That doesn't sound much different from US teacher attitudes towards migrant children. Another similarity is that wealthier families have more school choice. Teacher descriptions reminded me of early US history - teachers are to be virtuous and moral, dignified and authoritative, sacrificing themselves to this sacred profession. In China, they are also required to conduct research.
In the evening, we went to the Black Sesame Kitchen, a restaurant I saw advertised on TripAdvisor. It was not easy to find (our cabbie got lost), down a narrow hutong lane, but it was so worth it. Coco only serves 10 people/evening, all seated at one table. There was one other US couple, and three other couples representing Australia, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and England. We had a terrific conversation, and the food was the best I have had here for a very reasonable price. You could watch the food being cooked by looking into a mirror hung from the ceiling. Great night!
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