Does China Need High Test Scores?

An international standardized test, known as PISA, was held recently in many countries in order to survey the education attainment of students in math, science and reading. The top scorers of the chart, which seems to surprise many western educators, are students from Shanghai, China. According to the results of the test, Shanghai's 15-year-old students score higher in math, science and reading than developed countries such as Japan, Germany and USA.

How do I interpret this test score? Am I proud of it that my home country once again leads the world in another area? I am not sure.

So let's first acknowledge that what these top scores say about chinese students and some more general points about education in China. The stellar scores very likely come directly from the hard-working of the students taken the exam. Data shows that a chinese student in high school on average spend much more time studying than their western counterparts. Chinese parents value the importance of education to the point of obsession. Education is also highly valued culturally in the general society in China as well. Teachers are rewarded with rising wages and more respected social status. All of the above reflect the vision shared by both parents and students that knowledge is the key to succeed in the future competition.

Fair enough. But just don't forget one thing. Chinese students are trained to score in test. That's their jobs as good students. Being the only objective and fair way to select students for meritocratic education, examination has been the central part of the life of chinese students ever since kindergartens. You take exams to enter good elementary schools, then middle schools, then high schools, then colleges and even for jobs. So they really shouldn't be surprised with the top scores those shanghai students achieve. Let alone that this kind of "international competition" is another good chance to demonstrate how "successful" education in China has become, just like everything else. Imagine how hard the Shanghai authority would work to make sure that will happen.

So what do the high test scores achieved by these Shanghai students say about their abilities? First of all, in order to score highly in a standardized test, one need to memorize a lot of knowledge, and being able to quickly come up with solution to problems that are routine to them. That means, a high scorer in China's education system performs very well in solving problems which already have established answers, and is able to faithfully repeat what other people tell them to do. This kind of education can generate workers with high conformity, such as clerks and factory workers, or even low level technical staffs who can perform some advanced but established tasks.

What this kind of education can not generate, at least in large quantity, are innovators, entrepreneurs or leaders (IEL), who are exactly what China needs for its future.

There are 5 reasons why this test-oriented education can not generate IEL:

1. IEL requires independent, critical thinking, where you need to provide arguments to justify your answers, rather than tailoring your thinking to fit others' answers;
2. IEL requires extrapolating existing knowledge to look into uncharted areas, where no established answers are provided;
3. Instead of geting the same answers as others, IEL rewards arriving at a unique answer, and somehow making it work;
4. IEL, or pretty much all real world problem solving involves project-oriented solution: first identify a problem, and then divide it into smaller, more solvable sub-problems. Solutions to all the sub-problems are eventually optimized and linked into the solution of the whole project. However, a project is too big to put into a standardized test;
5. Innovations, especially in science and technology, require more than memorizing textbook knowledge and mechanically plugging numbers into equations. To truly innovate, one needs to understand the "spirit" of an existing knowledge, i.e. what problem that the knowledge is trying to solve? What are the assumptions behind the knowledge? What are the limitations? Unfortunately, challenging knowledge is not what a standardized test can evaluate.

Therefore, there is still a big gap between what the current, test-oriented education system in China, and what the future China's economy needs. High test-scorers are still a long way from the future innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders. The gap is not new to educators in China. But the fundamental question is, as long as the education resource is still behind the growing population who needs it, there's still a need to select students based on some sort of figures of merits. How can we make innovations, creativity and critical thinking a priority in education, while still maintain a measurable and transparent way to select students?