China

From WAET

Xiaopeng Ni
Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia

Hong Feng
Department of Occupational Studies, University of Georgia

Xuchu ZhouZhuji
Experimental Elementary School, Zhejiang Province

Jianhua Luo
Experimental Elementary School, Southwest Normal University, Chongqing Province

Contents 1 History 2 Educational System 2.1 Structure of Schooling 2.2 School Statistics 2.3 Teacher Preparation 2.4 Classroom, Curriculum and Instruction 2.5 Educational Assessment 3 Information Technology in Education 3.1 Major Government Policies 3.2 Future of Educational Informatization 4 References 5 Case Studies 5.1 Chongqing 5.2 Zhejiang 6 Notes 7 About the Authors 8 Citation

China is the world’s largest country by population, about one-fifth of the world’s population—1.3 billion people. Geographically, China is the third largest country, about the same size as the United States. Worldwide, China is one of the fastest developing countries with a growth rate approaching 10% each year. However, the economic development is not balanced across the nation. China can be divided into the following three developmentally different economic belts: east, middle, and west. The east area is a highly developed and populous area; while the west area has a smaller population, more resources and remains economically underdeveloped and in need of growth. For example, according to Li, the leader of the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the national GDP in 2003 was 11669.4 billion RMB ($ 1400 billion) and the GDP per capita was about 1,000 dollars. In Xiaoshan, a city in the east area, the GDP per capita is over $4,000 dollars, while Anshun, a city in the southwest area, is only $400 dollars. The income imbalance is a main economic characteristic of China. This imbalance across the nation further influences the inequities of educational development and information technology use in education across the nation, as further discussed later.

History

China is also one of the oldest civilizations in the world - with more than five thousand years of continuous history. Culturally, the Chinese society values educated people and every family usually emphasizes children’s education. The traditional importance of education and the Chinese education system were greatly influenced by Confucius, a great educator and philosopher who lived 2500 years ago. In China, he is considered as the first professional teacher and the first person to establish private schools. His thoughts on education regarding morality, art, and social relationships were adopted by governments of each following generation and served as a cornerstone of traditional culture and the education system for the next 2500 years. The curriculum based on Confucianism focused on language, literature, art, and ethics. The last one hundred years has witnessed the introduction of western education which added a science curriculum, including subjects like chemistry, physics, and biology, resulting in a new modern educational framework. The focus of this chapter is on modern Chinese education, its structure and a case study which illustrates the impact of such implementation on an individual level.

Educational System

The most current ongoing educational reform has taken place since 1978, when China ended the Cultural Revolution and began to implement economic reforms and open policies. One important measure of educational reform is the increase of educational opportunities for children and the reduction of the illiteracy rate among the population across the nation. In 1986, the Compulsory Education Act, the first educational law, was established as a milestone for this educational reform. According to the Compulsory Education Act, all children over six years of age are required to have a nine-year mandatory education, including stages of primary school and junior secondary education. This education is essentially free, although students pay some small fees, like book fees, for example. By 2000, Chen (2002), the Minister of Education, claims that China has achieved the nine-year compulsory education and eliminated illiteracy among young adults. China has made tremendous progress in terms of the number of children who enter schools. The 2010 benchmark is to continue to work toward the nine-year compulsory education in more poverty-stricken areas and also to implement a twelve-year compulsory education in economically developed areas (Decision on Basic Education Reform and Development, 2001).

Structure of Schooling

The structure of China’s basic education (corresponding to K-12 in the US) is a 6-3-3 pattern, consisting of 6 years of elementary school, 3 years of middle school, and 3 years of high school (See Table 1 below for greater detail). K-12 schools have two semesters each year. The total school time is between 38 to 40 weeks per year with five school days each week. Generally speaking, curriculum planning and development in China is highly centralized and is governed by the Ministry of Education. As a result, schools across the nation use the same textbooks, syllabi, and curriculum settings. Although local level textbooks, materials, and syllabi have been encouraged more since 1986 (http://www.moe.edu.cn/base/zonghe/04.htm), the centralized educational framework still dominates and the general curriculum tends to be uniform nationally.

School Statistics

China has high attendance rates in national schools as shown in Table 2. Currently, there are about 200 million students in the elementary and middle schools, and there will be 200 million more entering schools in the next 10 years (Chen, 2002). This group of the population has exerted enormous pressure on the limited resources and funds, and also negatively impacted information technology adoption in schools. For example, in 2002 the total educational funding was 548 billion RMB (around $66 billion US). Among this, the national expenditure on education is 349. 14 billion, which is the 3.41 of GDP (the objective is a 4% GDP) (http://www.edu.cn/20040107/3096922.shtml).

Table 1. Basic Statistics of Regular Schools in China by Level & Type from China Education and Research Network

	Schools	Graduates	Enrolment	Total Students at Schools	Teachers & Staff
Total	825973	4836.63	6819.56	24399.87	1487.40	1194.52
Graduate Education	738	5.88	12.85	30.12
Inst. of Higher Educations	415	5.48	12.14	28.39
Research Organizations	323	0.39	0.71	1.73
Reg. Inst. of Higher Ed. Undergraduates	1041	94.98	220.61	556.09	111.28	46.28
University	599	68.70	150.82	414.24	92.69	37.08
Non-university Teritary	442	17.85	48.69	10087	17.50	8.66
Undergraduate Classes Branch Schools		8.43	21.10	40.98	1.08	0.53
Reg. Secondary Schools	93935	2302.26	3103.24	8518.46	611.84	473.37
Specialized Sec. Schools	3646	150.72	132.59	489.52	48.81	25.64
Sec. Technical Schools	2963	119358	111.57	412.54	39.80	20.38
Teachers Training Schools	683	31.14	21.02	76.98	9.01	5.26
Skilled Worker Schools	4098	66.25	51.55	156.05	26.98	15.03
General Sec. Schools	77268	1908.60	2735.99	7368.91	491.10	400.55
Senior	14564	301.51	472.69	1201.26		75.69
Junior	62704	1607.09	2263.30	6167.65		324.86
Vocational Schools	8849	176.28	182.66	503.21	44.69	32.00
Senior	7655	149.92	150.39	414.56		28.18
Junior'	1194	26.36	32.27	88.64		3.83
Correctional Work-study Schools	74	0.40	0.44	0,77	0.27	0.15
Primary Schools	553622	2419.18	1946.47	13013.25	645.49	586.03
Special Education Schools	1539	4.34	5.29	37.76	4.37	3.20
Kindergartens	175836		1531.11	2244.18	114.43	85.65

Teacher Preparation

The teaching force in China primarily comes from professional teaching schools, teachers colleges, and universities. In most areas, a college degree is still not required to be a teacher in elementary school. In rural or poverty-stricken areas of China, an elementary school teacher could be someone who graduates from any specialized professional training high school. A specialized professional high school trains teachers for elementary school for a period of four years. The first three years are for pre-service teachers to learn the content knowledge and the last year is for teaching practice or internship. In the developed areas of China, some elementary school teachers hold an associates degree. They attend specialized teacher training colleges for two or three years to earn a degree and certification for teaching. For middle school teaching, a two or three year associates degree is usually required, and many young teachers have four-year bachelors degrees now. To teach in high school, a bachelor’s degree is required although increasingly young teachers possess master’s degrees. Of course, the requirement for teachers may vary across regions due to the economic conditions and availability of education and training facilities.

Classroom, Curriculum and Instruction

An average class size in China is approximately 40-50 students. The ratio of students to teachers in K-12 schools is around 15-20:1. The classroom is usually occupied with limited space for students to walk and to play. There are usually 4 to 10 classes per grade, depending on a school’s enrollment.

Influenced by a former Russian educator, I.A. Kairov, a teacher-centered lecture method is the major teaching approach. The instructional process usually follows this pattern: organizing instruction – reviewing – delivering new content – enhancing knowledge learned – giving assignments.

Courses in K-12 schools include Chinese, English, math, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, history, citizenship education, politics, PE, arts, music, and computer science. Some provinces and cities have recently attempted to integrate physics, chemistry, biology and part of geography into one course simply called science, and history, citizenship education, and part of geography into another course called social science.

Educational Assessment

Examination is the primary assessment tool in China. Before the 1990s, the most important assessment for elementary school students was an exam that included Chinese language arts and math topics and was held at the end of the sixth grade. This exam determined whether or not the students could graduate and move into middle schools to continue their studies. Later, due to implementation of the Compulsory Education Act, that exam [for admission into middle schools] was gradually made obsolete. Today students are usually assigned to the school district nearest their homes. Perhaps due to limited educational resources, examination is still a principal method used for determining if middle school students can gain entrance to a better higher school and for high school students to enter a higher ranked college. As such, administrators, teachers, and families usually pay great attention to student test scores each semester. This examination system is one of main factors influencing technology integration and new instructional model adoption in China.

Information Technology in Education

Educational technologies are experiencing rapid growth in today’s China. The term "educational informatization" is used herein to refer to the general use of computers in education. Educational Informatization is equivalent to information technology in education. According to Zhu (1999), East Asian countries use the term because of
Oriental language format and thinking habit. Since 1994, the government began to set up China education and research network (CERNET), a national infrastructure to provide the Internet connection for universities, K-12 schools, and other educational institutions. By 2002, more than 26 thousand schools were connected via local area networks ([1]). About 90% of high schools, 65% middle schools in the medium and large cities, and about 10% of elementary schools had introduced information technology curriculums (Zhu, 2003) at that same time. Some economically-advantaged schools have also begun to create wireless networks.

Meanwhile, according to Zhu (2003), over 5.8 million computers were installed in Chinese schools by 2002. The average ratio of students to computers is 35: 1. Schools in the economically developed east have a higher ratio than that of the west which is economically-disadvantaged. For example, Shanghai and Beijing, respectively, have a 16:1 and 14:1 ratio of students to computers . Other provinces in the west like Yunnan, Guizhou, and Ganshu the ratios have 170:1,118:1 and 93:1 respectively ([2]). These numbers clearly illustrate the increased access in the east and the urban areas over the poorer western rural areas. The regional imbalance of educational technology is the most significant “digital divide” in China. 
2003 funding for educational technology for the K-12 system reached approximately 20 billion RMB ($2.4 billion US), representing about 4% of the total educational funding in China. China implements a centralized educational system, and almost 80% of the funding for technology comes from the government, including the department of education, local government, and educational administration. However a small portion of funding comes from company donations or technology fees from students. Sixty to seventy percent of funding goes to hardware and networking equipment ([3]). These figures illustrate an existing tendency to invest heavily in hardware, while too little is devoted to software and professional training.

Major Government Policies

Education Informatization is viewed as a driving force for educational modernization and Quality Education (one major trend) by government in China according to the current national plan called The Tenth Five-Year Plan for National Education (2000). The Ministry of Education established two main measures for the process of the introduction of Educational Informatization: to accomplish the Xiaoxiaotong project and to generalize information technology as a mandatory course in K-12 schools. 
The goal of “Xiaoxiaotong” project is to improve the information technology infrastructure, facilities, and information resources for schools (Ministry of Education). One concrete objective is to have 90% of K-12 schools connected to the Internet in the next 5 to 10 years. Given the regional imbalance, the policy allows different deadlines for the eastern, central, and western regions. In some economically developed areas and cities, most schools have already set up Internet connections. For poor, rural, and/or more remote areas, the government gives support via policy as well as finance, and also encourages collaboration and funding from private entities and corporate sponsors. In the few areas unable to connect to the Internet, schools are still encouraged to get equipped with some technology, like multimedia computers, projectors, CD ROMs, etc.

Another important measure for education Informatization is to establish information technology into the curriculum as mandatory course (Chen, 2000). Three stages were set up according to a given school’s economic condition. By 2001, most high schools and middle schools in larger and medium-sized cities should have provided an information technology course. Currently, most economically developed areas and cities have created an information technology course. By 2005, all middle schools and elementary schools in cities and economically developed areas should have established an information technology course. By 2010, more than 90% of the schools nationally should have information technology courses for students.

In addition, technology integration with other subjects is also encouraged. Now there are many kinds of exemplary lessons using multimedia and the Internet network shown in national conferences. However, most exemplary lessons remain in the teacher-centered model. In order to promote learner-centered technology integration, a collective training project called Intel® Teach to the Future was adopted by the teaching education bureau in the Ministry of Education in collaboration with Intel. The Intel® Teach to the Future was launched by Intel in 2000 for worldwide teachers to effectively integrate technology into the classroom and to enhance student learning using computers ([4]). By 2002, about 105,000 K-12 teachers in 18 provinces attended the training (2002, [5]). Since its paradigm is different from the traditional Kairov teacher-centered paradigm, the training may open an opportunity for K-12 teachers to consider new instructional models and perspectives that encourage more learner-centered and constructivist pedagogies.

Future of Educational Informatization

China has many uncertainties, many issues and many hopes. China is growing rapidly in terms of economic development - around 8% each year. China has an enormous population. Many factors need to be considered in the process of educational information and technology. Four key factors are worth considering: the imbalanced regional economic situation; the single traditional Kairov model of an instructivist nature; an examination driven assessment system; and teachers’ lack of information literacy.

First, due to the unbalanced economic climate, the implementation of an educational information technology plan requires attention to local economic levels and conditions. Given that China adopts a centralized administrative framework, it is especially important to consider local characteristics in order to effectively transform a national plan into a local plan.

Second, the traditional teacher-centered paradigm may prevent effective technology integration. Most teachers were taught under the Kairov pedagogy, and this model has dominated Chinese education for approximately fifty years. The most common use of computer technology in a classroom is to use Power Point to present instructional notes. Basically, technologies are used as teachers’ tools. In order to rebuild a new education and use technology as learners’ tools, multiple instructional models should be encouraged and adopted in teacher education and training.

Third, the current examination-oriented education system is a great barrier for technology integration in schools. Due to limited resources, examination is still the only gateway to a student’s access to better educational opportunities; therefore, academic test performance is unconsciously weighted. The test performance generally refers to performance on language arts, math, science, politics, etc., while other performances, like information literacy, research skills, and so forth are considered as secondary performance levels. China continues to increase educational opportunities and the examination pressure has begun to be transferred to employment pressure. These changes will require schools to focus more on students’ whole ability and to construct a new assessment system. Hopefully, some focus shift will provide more space for technology integration using a learner-centered paradigm, and technology will become recognized for its potential as a student tool.

Fourth, teacher qualification regarding information literacy is inadequate. Information technology integration into the curriculum in K-12 classrooms has not been fully achieved. Teachers do not have enough information technology training. Moreover, most teachers still see themselves as preparing students to pass examinations and to enter a better school. To give 10 million K-12 teachers professional development on both technology literacy as well as new instructional models remains a mammoth challenge.

To rebuild a new education is not just depending on a simple variable, say, technology variable, but depending on many variables in a dynamic social system. The factors discussed above need to be considered in educational Informatization process as well as Quality Education in China.^[1]

References

A Birdseye View of Beibei. (n.d.). Retrieved Nov.16, 2004, from http://qiaoky.myrice.com/

Beibei Education Net. (n.d.). Retrieved Nov. 16, 2004, from http://www.bben.cn/

City Guide: Chongqing (n.d.). Retrieved Nov. 16, 2004, from http://www.china-travel-agent.com/city_guides/list.php?city=chongqing

Ministry of Education. (2001a). Decision on basic education reform and development. Retrieved November 12, 2004, from http://www.moe.edu.cn/base/zonghe/01.htm.

Ministry of Education. (2001b). Notice on implementation of Xiaoxiaotong project in k-12 schools. http://www.edu.cn/20020327/3023655.shtml

Chen. Z. (2000). To generalize information technology course in K-12 Schools. Retrieved November 10, 2004, from http://www.edu.cn/20020327/3023659.shtml

Chen. Z. (2002). Report on implementation of nine-year compulsory education. Retrieved November 10, 2004, from http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2002-06/26/content_457712.htm

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Zhu. Z. (1999). Information technology and creative education: A perspective of technological philosophy. In Ding. G. (Ed.) Innovation: educational tasks in the new century. Beijing: Educational Science Press.

Zhu. Z (2003). Development of informatization in China basic education. China Educational Technology, 9.

Case Studies

Chongqing

Focuses on a primary school, attached to the Southwest Normal University, close to the city of Bebei in the Chongqing province.

Zhejiang

Discusses the case of Lucy, a student in a school in the city of Zhuji, Zhejiang province.

Notes

About the Authors

Xiaopeng Ni is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology at the University of Georgia. Prior to come to US, he got his bachelor degree and master degree in Educational Information Technology at the East China Normal University and worked in the educational technology center at the Suzhou University in China. His current research interests are focused on project- based learning, technology integration, and professional development for instructional designers

Citation

APA Citation: Ni, X., Feng, H., Zhou, X., & Luo, J. (2005). Educational technology in today's China. In M. Orey, T. Amiel, & J. McClendon (Eds.), The web almanac of educational technologies. Retrieved <insert date>, from http://www.waet.uga.edu/