SSAT’s 2nd Annual Chinese Lecture (UK) – 1st March 2011 – The reaction of The Chinese Staffroom

The SSAT held a prestigious 2nd Annual Chinese lecture on the 1st March at the Barbican. The speaker was the Secretary of State for Education, Rt Hon Michael Gove MP. The Chinese Staffroom identified 3 key themes, each of which are reported below along with informative relevant links:

1. Learning from Chinese Education System principally through PISA, an assessment started in 2000 that ranks countries education systems.  As many reports in the UK and USA  talk about, the UK and the USA have fallen down the rankings whereas China came out top in the latest assessment. Importantly, and not mentioned by Gove at the lecture, is both the Institute of Education’s constructive critique of  the method given the complexity of making cross country comparisons and the fact that the study does  not support competition between schools, something Gove promotes. Last to provide a balance in the reporting of PISA , China itself worries about what the report does not say about creativity, which is arguably a national competitive advantage that the UK and USA possess, supported by innovative teaching in those nations’ schools.

2. Culture as well as Language: Michael Gove did point out the unique value of learning Chinese, not just as a way of speaking Chinese but as a way, if not the way, of accessing the modern and ancient culture of China, which has huge socio-economic implications for the UK and USA including social mobility as reported by Luke Bozier who also attended the event. Gove commented too on studies that show how learning Chinese, such a different language from English and indeed other European languages, develops different areas of the brain and provides insights into dyslexia. A downloadable article on the teaching implications of these differences between Chinese and European languages is available here. The cultural value of learning Chinese has to be the way forward as exemplified by schools such as New Line Learning use HanBan  FLAs to work in Maths classes using the abacus, a non-native teacher, Simone Haughey, using ICT to teach Mandarin having only just learnt it herself  at Robin Hood Primary School in Birmingham and Ashcombe's Primary Outreach work whereby Jennie Clarke, working with Theresa Munford, took primary children in the area to China on an exchange.

3. English Baccalaureate: Michael Gove’s Education White paper introduces the concept of awarding an English Baccalaureate whereby schools are measured on how many pupils gain an A*-C in a broad range of subjects including English, Maths, a science, a humanities subject (geography or history) and a language. He talked of the importance of learning a language as part of the English Baccalaureate. A view that can only help to boost the teaching and learning of Mandarin Chinese in secondary and primary schools in the UK.

We thank the SSAT for hosting this event. Following the lecture Michael Gove awarded certificates to the new Confucius Classrooms supported by the SSAT as a Confucius Institute. A letter from Madame Xu Lin was read out again supporting the development of Chinese in the UK through the SSAT, Confucius Institutes and HanBan.

Finally, speaking to the many Headteachers and Mandarin teachers at the event it was encouraging to see how many Confucius Classrooms were increasing their outreach programmes and providing Mandarin and Chinese cultural opportunities to schools in their vicinity.