Ideas versus Skills? (+ 5 rational reasons for teachers to reject change)
Conceptual Evaluations of Teaching Quality (without standardized exams)
also:
Education in America & China
Each type of system — with heavy emphasis on testing (as in Europe & Asia, including China) or in America (complex, decentralized, tougher to define and understand) — offers different benefits.
An interesting perspective is Catching Up or Leading the Way (2009) by Yong Zhao, who grew up in China and is now at Michigan State.
GoogleBooks - description ("At a time when... by globalization and technology.") and sample pages.
ACSD - publisher's description ("This remarkable book...") & ToC with sample chapters (1 & 4, ...).
How is Creativity Killed? (quotes from Zhao, pages 91-95),
The Future of American Education? - review by Fred Ende,
I.O.U. - After #edchat, late tonight I'll find more links (reviews,...) about Zhao's book, and other related pages.
a question: What do people from China, and those who know them well, think about Zhao's descriptions of their education system (and its results) in Chapter 4 and elsewhere? Do they think his views are accurate? or maybe "partially accurate, but..."?
btw, I've known many people from China — in a "shared living" situation in Seattle, then many conversations & ESL classes & colleagues in Madison — and I almost always like them a lot, and they seem to be "creative" (they certainly are very intelligent, at least the ones I meet who are visiting USA) but I don't yet know much about the diverse effects of their education system. (or even the ed-system in America! everywhere, education is a complex mixture with many interacting factors)