The OECD organized an international assessment of the science, reading, and math skills of the 59 nations whose residents produce 90% of the world’s economy. The test focused on science but included separate reading and math assessments, the results published and analyzed in the PISA, Programme for International Student Assessment.
All three tests were comprised of tiered questions aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy, and the test results, rather than simply providing average scores for each country, identified the percentages of students in each country who scored proficient at each level from one to five or one to six. This particular set of data is surprising. Korea scored at or near the top overall in all three tests. However, the level percentages in Korea were relatively clustered in the middle range with below average numbers of students scoring at the very top and very bottom levels in science. In contrast, the US, which scored lower than Korea overall in all three tests, placed higher than average percentages of students in both the top and bottom levels, with three times as many students in the bottom level as in the top.
The study also examined correlations between socioeconomic background and test score ranges. It found that there was very little correlation between SES and test score differences in Korea, but a high correlation in the United States. In plain English, the education gap between America’s most prosperous and most disadvantaged students is yawning while in Korea, educational achievement is relatively an equal opportunity.
A similar international assessment is TIMS, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Unsurprisingly, the usual suspects, Korea, Taiwan, Finland, Canada, and New Zealand among others, consistently rank at or near the top in this study, too. It’s not specified in the link, but from what I recall about US achievement in TIMS, American students score high in fourth grade in both math and science yet fall behind by eighth grade.
HT to commenter at askakorean.
42 Comments
So does this mean that hakwon teachers really are just glorified babysitters?
Maybe all that cheating in Korea is skewing the results.
I was a little league coach for a season trying to teach 10 year olds how to catch and hit a ball… I knew for a fact that I was a baby sitter…
I mean:
“I knew for a fact that I was, in reality, just a baby sitter…”
Koreans have traditionally done well on the PISA rankings. The only country that did better overall I believe was Finland.
It’s too bad they can’t carry that level of academic achievement over into university.
I don’t think the results are surprising at all. Korea always scores high in problem solving, reading, and math. In addition, their scores are always clustered around a certain range. I would speculate this relates to similar test taking strategies taught in Hagwons and schools, and the fact that good performance on these tests is emphasized regardless of SEC.
Likewise, in America, the regard which the lower classes have for education isn’t even comparable to a Korean national in a similar SEC. In America, it is considered an achievement if 16 year old Billybob from the trailor or Tyrone from the hood can read or if he even graduates.
I’d also like to mention that though Korea’s adolescent scores are always near the top in the world, it by no means justifies the enormous amount of hours these kids endure to achieve these marks, or is any kind of reflection of pedagogical efficiency. For example, in Finland the kids start school at 7 years of age, have a moderate school day, and are usually ranked alongside Korea in math, reading, and science, even though they spend half the time, and start primary school 2 years later.
Problem solving? Korea scores high in problem solving? Okay, now I know for sure this site is meant as comedy.
Forget about Maths and Science, I’d like to see how Koreans rank in skills such as:
1. Crossing the street
2. Ability to stay behind a white line
3. Getting into an elevator
4. Boarding a train and/or bus
5. Using your finger to flick the indicator stalk when driving (this one seems to be a major intellectual challenge).
@7 You can’t really teach “test-taking skills” for the highest levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, so seems these kids deserve some credit.
“indicator stalk” would be a great euphemism for penis.
Penis.
“Forget about Maths and Science…”
Too many Americans already have.
I’m looking at a technical staffing company and they are making a killing on the Boeings and ITW’s of the world who are struggling to find engineers and other technical staff in this country. It’s a good thing so many Patels and Chens come to the U.S. and decide to live there.
You are absolutely right, cmm, that test-taking skills, not to mention rote memorization, would be insufficient to score at the higher levels of the test. I think the top scores demonstrate which countries have consistently high educational achievement although as Knox noted, the amout of time invested in formal learning varies considerably among those countries.
Instead of using multiple guess tests (community efforts, studying from a copy of last year’s test) give Korean students tests where they actually have to show their work. You’ll see what their real ability or lack thereof is.
I have a decade of experience teaching Korean kids, and know what I am talking about, before the Pawis of the board jump on me for being ‘racist’. I don’t give any credence to these results, as the Korean education system is seriously lacking in ALL areas, except teaching the kids that they need to keep the bloodline pure.
# 14,
I don’t know much about the Korean education system. What I do know is that kids immediately from Korea who go to a U.S. school are a year or two ahead in math and science subjects than their peers.
Finland leads the world in education. Nice Economist article on what set’s it apart.
http://www.economist.com/displ.....N=39998504
However, for supposedly being so smart, the Fins gave the world this monstrosity:
http://www.starwreck.com
#15
Yes. That is true…and not just Korean students but most Asian and European students.
However, at the university level, it’s quite different…especially at the graduate level. They equal out and actually, most of them fall behind their American counterparts.
“I have a decade of experience teaching Korean kids”
Well, your educational experience obviously failed you too.
Yes… that’s where it equals out… in college.
The U.S.’s primary education system is shit terrible. But the college system is world class and a degree from a good American college is a very valuable commodity in the rest of the world.
I would like to see Singapore’s score, but they’re not in this year.
Poland, Estonia and Slovenia are kicking butt. Poland is very interesting as they have a massive educational push in the country that appears to be paying off. The days of the Polish plumber problem are turning into the Polish programmer.
The difference in quality is reflected more in the students than in the systems. Only 35-40% of high school graduates continue on to tertiary education. A four-year degree now takes five years for a majority of students owing to rising expenses, and high dropout rates and long enrollment periods are a concern with non-competitive schools.
Please come and visit Hong Kong to see people who are even more challenged than Koreans, at least on points 3 and 4.
I like this list idea. I stayed up all night to see if I can make one for Americans.
1.Electing Bush.
2. Letting box-cutters onto passenger planes.
3.Jumping out of tall burning skyscrapers without dying.
4. Electing Bush again.
5. Losing its global hegemony as a result of reactionary responses to the effects of 2.
Based on 4+ years experience in public schools here, I believe Korean schools have tried hard to equalize the playing field, with regards to the sciences, math and some general subjects. But the same cannot be said about English education and the role that English plays in Korean society. It has become the means by which the economic elite in this country have found a way to tilt the field in their favor.
And so although you may have more clustered score on these international tests the same cannot be said for the English test scores in the college entrance exams and specialized school admission tests.
Oops, I accidentally typed post on that comment, it was not intended for public publication but was in fact part of an email I was sending to my mother.
My apologies to anyone who may be offended by the post. I would appreciate somebody deleting the comment as it could be construed as offensive by some people.
I don’t think anybody really thinks Americans are very good at # 3 so I would need to redraft that one before sending the list to my mother.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
@23
hey 이석왱
1, 2, 4, and 5 were funny. But 3, although quite clever, and it’s follow-up in post 26, make you look like a insensitive, despicable piece of shit.
I spent all day at work to see if I can make one for swlee.
1. Getting dumped by his Korean girlfriend for a foreigner over a less than *satisfying* relationship.
2. Remembering on any given Korean holiday exactly which country they gained independence from.
3. Learning English because no other country uses his third-world language.
4. Trolling expat blogs due to his complex caused by #1.
5. Living in Australia because his own country sucks @$$ and he knows it.
(None of what I said in #28 applies to Won Gon or CMM.)
Yes,cmm, one of the reason I want to replace it is so people dont think of me as ‘insensitive, despicable piece of shit’. Laughing at america getting its ass whipped does not make for good comedic material. And also its the only negative one on the list, the other ones all answer in the positive.
All ideas are good ideas
I’ll ignore that NES because it appears as a kind of personal attack, but pretty good attempt all the same.
List making is fun!! ^.^
I’m not surprised by these numbers.
If kids in the US were made to study as much as Korean kids, the numbers would probably be better. Koreans and their rote learning, well…
Kids in the US have much more freedom than Korean kids do and that inspires creativity.
Teachers in the US also don’t beat their students if they perform poorly.
The majority of parents in the US aren’t ashamed if their kid wants to become a carpenter or electician like a Korean parent would be.
Apples and oranges really.
석왱, since you don’t like NES’s list, I made a different one for you^^
1. sending an email to their mom without f@#$ing it up
2. telling a good lie to cover up for the fact that one is a disingenuous troll
3. not being a disingenuous troll
@31
Personal attack?! I thought I was bringing up your finer points… ^^
Interesting results. It’s nice to see that UK children are doing OK, not great but OK. My teacher friends back home are always going on about what a bloody mess the system is. It seems it’s not that bad in comparison to other systems. Just average.
Korean students are trained to take tests, I teach HS and generally they seem to concentrate on test prep. They really lack creativity. Asking a question that requires a creative-imaginative answer and they’re usually stumped.
The lack of critical thinking is also a big problem here. Which explains how easily they’ve been manipulated over this ‘mad cow’ bollocks.
It’s just too bad that real-life decisions aren’t structured like the ones on tests. Oh, and I’m not sure that U.S. primary education is “shit terrible” per #19. IMO private schools and public schools in middle- or upper-class areas (as well as urban magnet schools) are world-class and offer many opportunities (teaching quality, facilities, extracurriculars, etc.) that outpace those of even most Korean universities. On the flip side, of course, the schools that serve poorer neighborhoods usually suck.
It’s just too bad that real-life decisions aren’t structured like the ones on tests. Oh, and I’m not sure that U.S. primary education is “shit terrible” per #19. IMO private schools and public schools in middle- or upper-class areas (as well as urban magnet schools) are world-class and offer many opportunities (teaching quality, facilities, extracurriculars, etc.) that outpace those of most Korean universities. On the flip side, of course, the schools that serve poorer neighborhoods usually suck.
Come now, let’s focus on what really merits hating–the French!
And so let us have a test that measures ability to:
1. work
2. not capitulate to strikers
3. not capitulate to Germans
4. speak a language that matters in the 21st century, like English or Chinese
5. bathe
Janus: I am almost offended, except I am too busy laughing… Reminds me why I left France! I managed to do 1 & 3 at the same time: I sold French wine to a German company. How’s that?
/me smells armpits. So far so good.
A quick, silent suicide?
Not surprising given the narrow focus on memorization and multiple choice academic achievement. Why do we never hear about testing for skills related to research, critical analysis, composition, debate and logical inference, where Korea lags the industrialized world?
pisa done every 3 years, and most recently in 2006. what’s the relevance of announcing the results two years late?
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