The Difference Of Education Between US And China

Differences between Chinese and American Education Systems
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Institution
Differences between the Chinese and American Education Systems
Education is viewed as a fundamental basic need for every child. It is facilitated by the governments under the law. The government is mandated with the responsibility of ensuring that the education system delivers the knowledge and skills required by its students. Education is considered as a backbone to the economic, social, and political developments of any successful nation. This is the reason why the Chinese and American countries highly value and support their education systems. The two governments greatly support their education systems in terms of infrastructure, finances, human resources and education equipment and stationeries. The education systems appear significantly different from each other in the two countries in many aspects (Big Dalian Weekend, 2007). This paper seeks to explore and discuss the differences between the education system in china and America in terms of their classroom sizes and organization, focus, discipline and methodology of teaching among others.
Main Aims of the Education System
Chinese and American education systems have different aims that each seeks to achieve. In China, education is viewed as a crucial foundation in one’s life. The students are taught how to accumulate knowledge, manage, and apply it in various environments. The understanding of the knowledge systems and structures is highly emphasized in the Chinese education system. On the other hand, the American education system focuses on cultivating their students’ creativity. This is done through providing knowledge and skills that help them to criticize and challenge ideas and create concepts from what they have learnt. The Chinese education is viewed as a foundation to students in that it imparts basic calculation skills and concepts to students to help them easily remember the entire learnt concepts. The teachers emphasize on strictness and precision in classes and academic works to improve the students’ retention capacity (Kilpatrick, 2014). The American education on the other hand, aims at improving the students’ assurance of what they know and do and boosts their self-determination and independence as vital skills applied in comprehensive and critical thinking. These reasons explain why Chinese students always win gold medals in Mathematics Olympic champions while the Americans win the Nobel prizes (Kilpatrick, 2014).
Concept Reception
The American and Chinese students are trained to receive knowledge differently. The Chinese students are taught to take notes and memorize concepts and ideas from their textbooks and teachers. The American teachers are more actively involved with their students. They teach and assess their students’ creativity, leadership and cooperation skills in their interactions with fellow students and the society. The teachers greatly emphasize these skills in their students and encourage them to be partakers in extracurricular activities and involve themselves in societal developments. The Americans believe in education as a part of life and thus they lay great emphasis in developing an individual academically and as productive members of the society (Big Dalian Weekend, 2007).
Education levels
The two countries have their education grading levels organized differently. The Chinese have the elementary level education system comprised of primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels. They operate on a 6-3-3 education system where the 1st to 6th grade, 7th to 9th grade, and 10th to 12th grades belong to the elementary school, middle school, and high school respectively (Ngan & Rao, 2010). The Americans on the other side operate on a different system where the first to the 8th grades are labelled by their years for example the second, 3rd, or 6th years. The high school and college classes are then classified as freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes where students are developed extensively on varied and wider academic concepts (Bowles & Gintis, 2011).
Education Requirement Levels
The Chinese and Americans have different requirement levels for which a student must undertake to qualify as learned. The Chinese education system requires their students to complete at least nine years in education after which they have the option of entering upper-secondary school, vocational secondary school or have a direct entry into the workforce. This gives them the choice of the maximum education levels they desire to achieve. The case is different for the American students, as they are required to stay in school until they attain 16-18 years of age. This is when they are considered mature and responsible individuals who are ready to contribute positively to the country’s economic growth through the knowledge and skills they have acquired in school (Victor, 2013).
Organization of Classrooms
Learning in the two countries is differently organized where the Chinese have an elaborate system in which students are organized into small groups where they are taught all the subjects together for the rest of their schooling period. The system is structured in a way that students remain in the same classroom and their teachers move from one class to the other to attend to their students. The teachers are also meant to move with their students to the next grades until when they exit the system. This creates a more personalised interaction between the teachers and the students (Li, Chen & Duanmu, 2010). The student...