英教育大臣呼籲學習中國課堂教學法

Schools are being urged to go back to ‘chAlk and talk’ teaching that was once widespread in Britain – in order to reproduce the success the traditional methods now have in China.

爲了重現當年英國普遍使用的傳統教學方法的輝煌成果，英國教育部部長鼓勵學校返璞歸真，迴歸目前在中國廣爲應用的板書授課教學方法。

Education Minister Nick Gibb said having a teacher speak to the class as a whole from the front was much more effective than children working on their own – the method which has become dominant in schools over the past 40 years.

英國教育部長尼克·吉布稱，比起讓孩子們進行自主學習，老師在全班同學面前講課的效率更高。而讓學生自主學習這種教學方法曾在過去的40多年裏佔據教學的主導地位。

Mr Gibb’s intervention, which will infuriate many in the educational establishment, follows a Government scheme in which more than 70 maths teachers from British primaries went to Shanghai to study the teaching styles of their Chinese counterparts.

吉布的說辭將會刺激教育界的許多神經。之前，英國政府實施了一項計劃，把70多名小學數學老師派到上海，學習中國老師的教學方式。

Researchers have found that children in China achieve marks in maths up to 30 per cent higher than English pupils of the same age.

研究者們發現，中國孩子的數學成績比同齡的英國孩子高出了30%。

In ‘whole class’ teaching, which was common in this country until the 1950s, the teacher instructs all the pupils together by using a blackboard, or its equivalent, while testing the children with questions.

50年代，“全班教學”在英國非常普遍，老師使用黑板或類似的東西給學生們授課，用提問的方式淳淳善誘來測試學生是否聽懂。

But progressive educationalists argued this was too authoritarian, and instead promoted the ‘child-centred’ approach that has been prevalent in primary schools since then. Under this system, pupils are encouraged to ‘discover’ knowledge by themselves, working at their own speed or in small groups, with the teacher offering them support.

但教育改革派認爲這種方法太過“獨裁”，從那時起“以學生爲中心”的教學模式開始在小學校中盛行開來。在這種教學系統下，學生們被鼓勵根據自己的學習進度、自己去“發現”問題、進行小組學習，而老師只提供輔助。

Mr Gibb told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I would like to see schools across the country adopt whole class teaching methods, particularly in maths and science. Research shows it is significantly more effective than other methods that concentrate more on personalised learning.’

週日，吉布先生接受《每日郵報》採訪時說：“我希望全國的學校都能夠採用整班教學方法，尤其在數學和科學這兩個學科上。研究顯示，這種方法比其它關注個性化學習的教學方法更有效。”

He said Shanghai schools topped international league tables, with 15-year-olds there three years ahead of their English counterparts in maths.

他說上海的學校一直在國際比賽排名中名列前茅，15歲學生的數學能力等同於英國18歲學生。

Mr Gibb added: ‘In Shanghai primary schools, whole class teaching with all pupils taking part in question and answer sessions is key to their success. All their pupils are taught the same curriculum and all are expected to reach the same high standard.’

吉布補充說：“在上海小學裏，所有學生參與課堂問答是他們取得成功的關鍵。所有的學生被教授以同樣的知識，老師期望所有的學生都能達到同樣的高標準。”

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: ‘English education was overtaken with progressive ideas in recent decades, which held it was better for children to learn by themselves and at their own pace.

英國白金漢大學教育與就業研究中心主任艾倫·史密瑟斯教授說：“近幾十年來，認爲讓孩子根據自己的節奏進行自主學習更好的激進言論佔據了英國的教育界。”

‘This was clearly madness, and it has taken 40 years to realise this.

“這很瘋狂，但人們耗費了40年時間才意識到這個錯誤。”

‘The trouble with the trendy methods is that the children are left to their own devices, including chatting to their friends, while the teacher is elsewhere. It is a very inefficient use of time and resources.’

“這種時尚教學理論的弊端是放任學生們根據自己的方式進行學習，包括跟朋友們聊天，而老師則在別處，既浪費了時間又浪費了資源。”

Mr Gibb’s comments have been backed by recent research, which concluded that the success of pupils in the Far East is largely down to teaching methods.

吉布發表這番言論基於近來的研究成果。一些研究得出結論，遠東地區學生成功的原因絕大部分取決於他們的教學方式。

Maths tests taken by 562 nine and ten-year-olds in classrooms in Southampton and Nanjing in China found that the Chinese pupils scored between 20 and 30 per cent higher than the English youngsters.

562名9歲和10歲的學生分別在南安普敦和南京教室裏進行數學測試，結果顯示，中國學生的數學成績比他們的英國小夥伴高出了20%-30%。

Researchers also used video to analyse what was going on in lessons and found that in the Chinese classrooms – where pupils sit in rows of desks facing the front – ‘whole class interaction’ was being used 72 per cent of the time, compared with only 24 per cent in England.

研究者們也利用視頻對課堂行爲進行了分析，他們發現在中國教室裏學生們一排排坐着面向講臺,“全班互動”時間佔72%，而在英國，這樣的時間只佔24%。

By contrast, the classes in England, where pupils are often grouped in clusters of desks, spent nearly half – 47 per cent – of their time in ‘individual or group work’, compared with 28 per cent in China.

相反的，在英國，學生們經常被分爲小組，他們花費了近一半的時間（約47%）在“個人或小組活動”上，而在中國，這樣的時間約爲28%。

The research, by Zhenzhen Miao and Professor David Reynolds of the University of Southampton, concluded: ‘Effective teachers spent longer time on interacting with the whole class rather than with individuals/groups or leaving pupils to independent seatwork.’

進行這項研究的南安普敦大學的繆珍珍和大衛·雷諾茲教授得出結論：“比起個人或小組學習、或讓學生獨立學習，教師花更多的時間與全班進行互動，更有效率。”

Prof Reynolds said he was disappointed that more schools were not increasing their use of the ‘whole class’ approach as it would improve results in most subjects.

雷諾茲教授說，目前他對更多的學校沒有跟進“全班教學”的方法感到失望，因爲這種教學方法對大多數學科非常有效。