Has Chinese education lost its creativity? Reasons for the lack of creativity

"Why do our schools fail to produce outstanding talents?" This is the famous "Qian Xuesen's question". Since the 13th Five-Year Plan was put forward, innovation has been a hot topic of social concern. In the era of innovation, to answer "QIAN Xuesen's question", we need to find a way out of China's training of innovative talents.

Giving students a free and open space for development is the key to cultivating innovative talents.

Many teachers have forgotten that educational activity is for students to understand the principles of "remembering to pass the test" education so that many students lose creativity. Through changes in the enrollment system and the concept of teaching, educational activities should be returned to their original purpose.

The academic burden hinders innovation

When it comes to innovation, the most symbolic is the Nobel Prize, which has long been a "heart disease" of our nation. As of 2014, Japan has won 20 Nobel Prizes, and another one this year. Pakistan has also won a Nobel Prize, and the number of awards in the field of science and technology is the same as that of China. This really makes Chinese people anxious, and everyone is asking: what is wrong with China's education?

Certain experts believe that Chinese children's creativity is low because they are overburdened, so how can they be creative? This burden is caused by the college entrance examination. Education reform is to "reduce the burden" and reform the college entrance examination.

But "reducing the burden" won't solve the problem of cultivating creative talents. A student's learning behavior in school should be encouraged, children learn more we should be happy, how to become a burden? In fact, the academic burden is a false issue. More knowledge cannot be the cause of diminished creativity.

Chinese and American students have different learning styles and goals

What we have found through our research is that there is a clear difference between Chinese and American students, and that is that they do not learn in the same way. Chinese children think that notes are too important, take notes, memorize notes, take tests, if you learn this way, why go to college for four years? American students don't seem to take it seriously. Not only do they not take notes seriously, but they keep raising their hands and saying Professor, I don't understand this place the same way you do.

The situation after class is the opposite. Teachers in the United States, after each class, have to give students more than a hundred bibliographies, which include both papers and monographs. I realized that very few Chinese kids were reading in the library, and the Chinese kids told me, "We're not going to read, why are we reading that, the exams aren't going to be about that?

Talking about the Chinese impression of American students, the American students asked: "Who told you that Americans don't take their studies seriously? We don't study hard enough to graduate, and we don't study hard enough to find a job! So there's only one way to go, and that's to study hard.

Why is there such a big gap, we found that the learning goals are different. Chinese children's learning goals are very clear: to pass the test, the defense, regardless of what I can do later. American employers don't care about this, they only have one criterion, can help me make money, I will hire you. Chinese children learn a door to test a door to lose a door, Americans are constantly discussing why they need to learn this in the study, how to use this.

Multiple curricula and open space for development to foster creativity

Slowly we are discovering a pattern, a lot of creative children, their primary and secondary schools are from non-public schools, such as private schools, charter schools, parochial schools and so on. We were shocked when we saw the private school programs. I downloaded a copy of an average private high school's class schedule, printed it off on A4 paper, and was surprised to see 111 pages printed in one ****.

Calculus, a subject that was devolved to high schools in China in the 1980s, was canceled for a while because it was too hard, and now that it's back, students are complaining that it's too hard. That's because it's hard when schools make every student in the class take calculus, and it's easy when they only let the top math students in the class take it. Some math geniuses in American high schools can continue to take college math courses in high school, and when the high school teachers can't teach it, they send the students to the next university to take it, and when they go to any American university in the future, the credit is valid and they don't have to take it again.

An American private high school will open the class of Earth and space science. The U.S. high-tech strength is definitely not a "load shedding" to reduce the ability to build space shuttles and spaceships, is to rely on Americans to learn from childhood. Cisco Microsoft certificate is our university computer science students to graduate to take the certificate, the United States high school students can test.

These programs give children the most room for development and completely open educational support. What is open is that there is no cap on the top and that students are given a wealth of choices. Can we say that Chinese education is fair when our curriculum, our teaching, excludes children who are gifted in subjects other than those on the test?