Attached are photos of the two campuses at Shanghai Normal University which is the University for Teacher Training. One campus is south of the city at the end of the subway line in Xuhui and the other is 30KM further south in Fengxian; this is reached by shuttle bus. I have visited both campuses. Dr. Huang is the Associate Professor at the Research Institute for International and Comparative Education. He explained during my meeting that the course to train as a Maths Teacher is four years long and students need to have achieved a mathematics qualification at 18 to teach Maths in primary as well as in secondary. To teach at primary school, students only need to attain the lower Maths qualification at 18 but for secondary they must attain the higher qualification.
I asked Dr. Huang why he believes Shanghai outperform the UK in Maths in the Pisa Tests. He explained how he has written a paper on this following his visit and observations in the UK. The two main points he made were:
Culture – He believes the children in Shanghai are under more parental pressure than those in the UK and are expected to do significantly more homework. His own son who is in Year 8, finishes his homework at 10pm every night. He also believes that Maths teachers in Shanghai put themselves under significant pressure as they do not want to be deemed to be ineffective by their school or education board. It is paramount that their students achieve in Maths. He said that is hard for teachers and for pupils.
We also discussed how capable Chinese students are at applying their knowledge and understanding into different contexts. I made reference to this BBC article I had recently read:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36550128
On the country however, he was aggrieved by how it is often reported on the BBC that children in China only learn by rote. This is not what I experienced and is certainly not how Dr Huang perceives it.
Text Books – He also explained that in his opinion it is very hard for British teachers (particularly new teachers) because of the lack of consistent teaching materials. He showed me the pupil text books but also the textbook materials which all teachers use to plan and resource their lessons. These text books are consistently used by all teachers. He was shocked by the time teachers in the UK spend planning and resourcing lessons independently.
I had lunch with Dr Huang and two of his students at Fengxian Campus. We had a traditional Shanghai dish – Hotpot.
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