mm[!

ft Sign in

Sport

Weather

Shop

Earth

Travel

Capital

More

0.

Search

Magazine

Should all countries use the Shanghai maths

method?

20 January 2017

Trump backs controversial oll plpellnes

By Harry low
BBC World Service

Top Stories

32 minutes ago

UK government loses Brexlt vote appeal

0:: Share

Magazine

1 hour ago

Top model reveals she ls lntersex

Shoursago

Features & Analysis

Taken
Frantic search for UK toddler snatched by
teens

When the Chinese city of Shanghai t ook part In the

three-yearly Pisa test of lS-year-olds' academic ablllty In

In today's Magazine

2009 and 2012 it topped t he table In maths, leaving

countries such as Germany the UK and the US and even

Singapore and Japan - tralllng in its wake. What Is Its
sec.ret?

Taken
The dental nurse who
became an alllgator catcher

Oscars 2017
A look at the best actress nominees

The life of a teacher in a Shanghai primary school differs

quite a bit from that of teachers in most other countries.
For one thing each teacher specialises In a particular
subject If you teach maths, you teach only maths.

Our cat In Havana

The policemen who dressed
as women to hide from IS

These specialist teachers are given at least five years of

training targeted at specific age groups, during which they
gain a deep understanding both of their subject and of how children learn.

Power brokers

After qualifying, primary school teachers will typically take just two lessons per day,
spending the rest of their time assisting students who require extra help and discussing

The men who made a long bet on Trump and

won

teaching techniques with colleagues.

"If you compare that to an English practitioner In a primary school now, they might have
five days of training in their initial teacher training year, if they're doing the School Direct
route, for example," says Ben McMullen, head teacher of Ashburnham Community School,
London.
"They might have some follow-up training during the first or second year of training - inset,
staff meetings etcetera but there's no comparison between the expertise of someone
who's had five years of training in a specific subject to someone who's had only a handful

Rebel with a cause

of days."

income plan

France's Hamon rouses left with radlcal

It's a similar story in secondary school, where teachers spend less time in the classroom
with pupils than they do on planning and refining lessons.

'Loved and loathed'

Bye, bye, Bernie. Fl's revolutionary, roguish
leader

AFP/Gl I IV IMAGES

There are other differences too. School days are longer - from 07:00 until 16:00 or 17:00.

'Help me find my famlly'

Man's appeal for Information on his birth
family leads to a huge response

Class sizes are larger. And lessons are shorter - each is 35 minutes long, followed by 15
minutes of unstructured play.
There ls no streaming according to ability and every student must understand before the
teacher moves on. In the early years of school basic arithmetic is covered more slowly than
in the UK, says McMullen, who has travelled to Shanghai in one of the groups of British
teachers sent every year by the Department of Education to watch and learn.
"They looked at our curriculum and were horrified by how much we were trying to teach,"

Sun-powered satellite TV

he says.

How solar Is connecting off-grid homes to the

world

"They wouldn't teach fractions until year four or five. By that time, they assume that the
children were very fluent in multiplication and division.
"This ls essentially a 'teaching for mastery' approach: covering less and making smaller
incremental movements forward, ensuring the class move together as one and that you go
over stuff again and again until It's truly understood."

My Perfect Country

Making a statement
The hotels using art to lure customers

In a world where a lot is going wrong there is also a lot going right. So what if you could
build a country with policies that actually worked, by homing in on ideas around the world
that have been truly successful?

Listen to My Perfect Country on the BBC World Service

Or download the podcast

6 Email the programme

Gator girl
The dental nurse who became an alllgator
catcher

It seems that other cities in mainland China may not be on quite the same level as
Shanghai. In the 2015 Pisa test Shanghai was bundled together with Beijing, Jiangsu and
Guangdong, and they jointly came fifth In maths, behind Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and
Hong Kong.

Most Popular

It's also been suggested that Shanghai's results in previous years could have been skewed
by the failure to include about a quarter of puplls In the city. However Pisa insists Its
results demonstrate that the children of menial workers in Shanghai outperform the

Read

Watched

Trump backs controversial oil

pipelines

Why are people talking about this

picture?

"The idea there is that effort brings rewards and so you will get this totally driven sort of

Court rules against government on

Brexit

idea but what you don't get - and what Chinese maths teachers are currently grappling
w ith - is this creative problem-solving that requires space and mulling and dwelling," she

Top model reveals she is intersex

US mattress conceals $20m in cash

McGregor pulls out of GMB

appearance

Oscar nominations 2017

Man robs Kansas bank to 'escape

wife'

Oscars 2017: The full nominations

children of professionals in the West.

This is one of the key attractions of the system - it helps poor children realise their
potential, Increasing social mobility. But there are also drawbacks, according to Henrietta
Moore of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London.

says.
"We're actually much better at this in the UK and they're trying to develop that and learn
from us."
Another criticism of the system is that parents work children too hard. An estimated 80%
of students receive private lessons outside school.
"One of the downsides of parental interest in education Is they get competitive - they're
more competitive than the children so they want to have all these extra classes," says
Moore.

China hits back at US over islands

GETTY IMAGE~

So is this a system other countries would do well to adopt?

"I would adopt the idea that anyone who teaches maths needs a deep understanding of
the conceptual building of maths and a deep understanding of how children learn that,"
says Anne Watson, emeritus professor of maths teaching at Oxford University. "I would
also want to take on board the idea of high expectations for everyone."
Online entrepreneur Martha lane-Fox is also a fan.
"Two things really appeal to me about this," she says. "The idea that everyone can be more
of a maths master than I think we believe here in the UK. I also really like the Incredible
attention to the micro-detail. I'm really interested in this notion of incrementalism and
moving things on in small chunks.
"The fundamentals of this policy are right and it's incredibly inspiring to think everybody
can become more freed up by maths."
Ben McMullen's primary school has already been borrowing some of Shanghai's ideas, he
says.
There is no streaming, pupils are interacting more and there is a "different atmosphere" in
class.
"The younger learners moving up the school have an incredibly robust sense of maths,
calculation and of concept," McMullen says.
And for teachers there is another great upside, he says - less marking.

Join the conversation find the BBC World Service on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow Harry Low on Twitter: @Harrylow49

Share this story About sharing

In today's Magazine
Taken
23 January 2017

The dental nurse who became an alligator

catcher
23 January 2017

Our cat in Havana

22 January 2017

The policemen who dressed as women to

hide from IS
21 January 2017

One solution to two big social problems

20 January 2017

Magazine >

Taken

The dental nurse who became

an alligator catcher

Our cat In Havana

23 January 2017

23 January 2017

Magazine

22 January 2017

Magazine

10