What Knowledge is of the Most Worth: Education for the Global Economy

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What Knowledge is of the Most Worth Education
for the Global Economy

• Yong Zhao, Ph. D
• University Distinguished Professor
• Director, US-China Center for Research on
  Educational Excellence
• College of Education
• Executive Director, Confucius Institute
• Michigan State University
• zhaoyo_at_msu.edu

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American education has been said to be in
crisis.And it threatens the nations future.
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Inside photos showed Alexei doing complicated
experiments in physics and chemistry and reading
aloud from Sister Carrie.
Stephen, by contrast, retreated from a geometry
problem on the blackboard and the caption
advised, "Stephen amused class with wisecracks
about his ineptitude." Seated at a typewriter in
typing class, Stephen tells us "I type about one
word a minute."
1958
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Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged
preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and
technological innovation is being overtaken by
competitors throughout the world.
The educational foundations of our society are
presently being eroded by a rising tide of
mediocrity that threatens our very future as a
Nation and a people.
We are raising a new generation of Americans that
is scientifically and technologically illiterate.
1983
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1995 TIMSS Grade 8 Mathematics Performance
1995
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Two Million Minutes, vividly reveals that
American students are no longer at risk of
falling behind -- they are now clearly behind
even Third World students in India and China, in
addition to being in 24th place among developed
countries.
By comparing how these students prioritize their
time (approximately four years or two million
minutes of high school), the film demonstrates
that the typical student in the U.S. spends much
less time on his/her education and gives less
thought to future career opportunities than
his/her global peers in India and China. --2
million minutes
Source http//www.2mminutes.com/pressblog6.html
2007
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U.S. treading water in reading Bloomberg News
ServiceRussia, Hong Kong and Singapore shot to
the top of 45 countries and provinces
participating in a fourth-grade reading test,
while England fell below the United States,
according to results released yesterday.
(Honolulu Advertiser, November 29, 2007)
U.S. Students Fall Short in Math and Science
Teenagers in a majority of industrialized
nations taking part in a leading international
exam showed greater scientific understanding than
students in the United Statesand they far
surpassed their American peers in mathematics.
(Education Week, December 4, 2007)
2007
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But
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http//www.weforum.org/pdf/Global_Competitiveness_
Reports/Reports/gcr_2007/gcr2007_rankings.pdf
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(No Transcript)
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Why?
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The First International Mathematics Study (FIMS)

• Year data collected 1964
• Target Population 13 year olds
• Participating Countries Australia, Belgium,
  England, Finland, France, Germany (FRG), Israel,
  Japan, Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, United
  States.
• US finished second to last (Sweden)

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Jefferson told us where to look to see if a
nation is a success.He did not say to look at
test scores. Instead, he said to lookat life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. --Keith
Baker (2007)
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40 years later Wealth

• FIMS scores in 1964 correlate at r -0.48 with
  2002 PPP-GDP. In short, the higher a nations
  test score 40 years ago, the worse its economic
  performance on this measure of national wealth.

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40 years later Rate of Growth

• The nations that scored better than the U.S. in
  1964 had an average economic growth rate for the
  decade 1992-2002 of 2.5 the growth rate for the
  U.S. during that decade was 3.3. The average
  economic growth rate for the decade 1992-2002
  correlates with FIMS at r -0.24.
• Like the generation of wealth, the rate of
  economic growth for nations improved as test
  scores dropped.

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40 years later Productivity

• There is no relationship between FIMS scores and
  hourly output, r -.03. In 2004, the average
  hourly output of those nations that outscored the
  U.S. in 1964 was 3.4 lower than U.S.
  productivity, though the three nations with
  higher hourly output all had higher test scores
  than the U.S.

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40 years later Quality of Life

• The average rank on the Quality of Life Index
  for nations that scored above the U.S. on FIMS
  was 10.8. The U.S. ranked seventh (lower numbers
  are better). FIMS scores correlated with Quality
  of Life at r -0.57.

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40 years later Democracy

• On the Economy Intelligence Units Index of
  Democracy, those nations that scored below the
  median on FIMS have a higher average rank on
  achieving democracy (9.8) than do the nations
  that scored above the median (18). Once again,
  the U.S. scored higher on attaining democracy
  than did nations with higher 1964 test scores.

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40 years later Livability

• An alternative to the Quality of Life Index, the
  Most Livable Countries Index, shows that six of
  the nine countries that scored higher on FIMS
  than the U.S. are worse places to live.
  Livability correlates with FIMS scores at r
  -.49.

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40 years later Creativity

• The number of patents issued in 2004 is one
  indicator of how creative the generation of
  students tested in 1964 turned out to be. The
  average number of patents per million people for
  the nations with FIMS scores higher than the U.S.
  is 127. America clobbered the world on
  creativity, with 326 patents per million people.
  However, FIMS scores do correlate with the number
  of patents issued r .13 with the U.S. and r
  .49 without the U.S.

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Baker, Keith (2007).Are International Tests Worth
Anything? Kappan, October, 2007
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In the first place, God made idiots. That was for
practice. Then he made school boards. - Mark
Twain
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bureaucratization of education
discrimination
narrows curriculum
cheating
kills creativity
demoralization
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Campbells Law The more any quantitative social
indicator is used for social decision-making, the
more subject it will be to corruption pressures
and the more apt it will be to distort and
corrupt the social processes it was intended to
monitor.
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Not everything that can be counted counts, and
not everything that counts can be
counted. --Albert Einstein
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The current movements are destroying our
strengths to meet the new challenges.
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New Challenges
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HD TV
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Swanni's Annual 'Best Worst' HDTV List

• 1. Teri Hatcher2. Demi Moore3. Donald Trump4.
  Heather Locklear5. David Letterman6. George W.
  Bush7. Ray Liotta8. Sandra Bullock9. Bill
  Clinton10. Clint Eastwood

• 1. Jessica Alba2. Eva Longoria3. Anna
  Kournikova4. Ben Affleck5. Ashton Kutcher6.
  Marcia Cross7. Halle Berry8. Jessica Simpson9.
  Nicole Kidman10. Angelina Jolie

http//www.tvpredictions.com/fall2005hd092605.html
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Technology redefines talents
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"Say bud, can you tell me where the illiterate
club is?"
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Industrial Revolution
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What knowledge is of most worth?--Herbert
Spencer, 1859
Science!
Whats taught in schools
Latin
Theology
Chemistry
Chemistry
Greek
Religion
Biology
Greek
Physics
Latin
Biology
Grammar
Physics
Grammar
Technology
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The emergence of two new worlds
Global
Local-Physical
Local-Physical
Virtual
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The global
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??
Diversity
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??
Inequality
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??
co-existence
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change
??
History of Colonization and Decolonization
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As electrically contracted, the globe is no more
than a village. Marshall McLuhan, 1964
Honey, I confided, I think the world is
flat. Thomas Friedman, 2005
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By almost any economically relevant metric,
distances have shrunk considerably in recent
decades. The shrinking globe has been a major
source of the powerful wave of worldwide economic
integration and increased economic
interdependence that we are currently
experiencing. But the full implications of these
developments for all aspects of our lives will
not be known for many years. --Ben S. Bernanke,
chairman of the U. S. Federal Reserve 2006
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When I was growing up, my parents told me,
Finish your dinner. People in China and India
are starving. I tell my daughters, Finish your
homework. People in India and China are starving
for your job. ---Thomas Friedman, 2005
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Its a Big Job to Make the Mini Global Supply
Chain
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Yao Ming and Herbert Hoover Global Trade of
Talents
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The eBay Phenomenon Expanded Market
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Today, Indian engineers make 7,500 a year
against 45,000 for an American engineer with the
same qualifications. If we succeed in matching
the very high levels of mastery of mathematics
and science of these Indian engineers an
enormous challenge for this country why would
the worlds employers pay us more than they have
to pay the Indians to do their work? They would
be willing to do that only if we could offer
something that the Chinese and Indians, and
others, cannot. --New Commission on the Skills
of the American Workforce (2007). Tough Choices
or Tougher Times
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Therefore we need to move into niche areas where
they will not be able to completely replace us
for quite some time. ---Lee Kuan Yew, 2007
In the global economy, our students careers are
global. Where can they find employment depends on
their niche talents.
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Daniel H. Pink (2005).A Whole New Mind Moving
from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age
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A Whole New Mind

• Information Age
• L-Directed Thinking
• Sequential
• Literal
• Functional
• Textual
• Analytic

Asia Automation Abundance

• Conceptual Age
• R-Directed Thinking
• Simultaneous
• Metaphorical
• Aesthetic
• Contextual
• Synthetic

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Essential Aptitudes in the Conceptual Age

• Design
• Story
• Symphony
• Empathy
• Play
• Meaning.

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Implications for Education
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Are we preparing citizens for the globalized
world?

• Unique talents
• Creativity, Imagination, and Passion
• Cross-cultural competencies
• Understanding the globe
• Foreign languages
• Understanding other cultures
• Global responsibilities

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The Virtual
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Virtual marriage 2nd Life Socializing
virtually
Anshe Chung has become the first online
personality to achieve a net worth exceeding one
million US dollars from profits entirely earned
inside a virtual world. --Business Week, May,
2006
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Gold-farming and digital produce Digital
farmers market
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Real-money trade of virtual items (RMT) I
estimate the total worldwide RMT volume to reach
2,090M Virtual Economy Research Network
http//virtual-economy.org/blog/how_big_is_the_rm
t_market_anyw
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YouTube and podcasting Running your own show
Currently staffed by 67 employees,1 the company
was named TIME magazine's "Invention of the Year"
for 2006.2 In October 2006, Google Inc.
announced that it had reached a deal to acquire
the company for US1.65 billion in Google's
stock. The deal closed on 13 November 2006.3
Podcast Users Expected To Reach 60 Million In
Five Years The number of podcast users in the
United States is expected to increase nearly 15
fold over the next five years, a research group
says. Information Week, May 15, 2005
With the 100 millionth account being created on
August 9, 20064 and a news story claiming 106
million accounts on September 8, 2006,5 the
site reportedly attracts new registrations at a
rate of 230,000 per day.
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Hackers and Thieves Morality and Crimes in
CyberSpace
In the UK, Sasser forced staff at the Maritime
and Coastguard Agency to return to manual map
reading because computer systems were made
unusable by the worm. Check-in for some British
Airways flights was also delayed thanks to
Sasser. Around the world, the Australian
Railcorp trains stopped running because computer
problems caused by Sasser made it impossible for
drivers to talk to signalmen. In Taiwan, more
than 400 branches of the post office were forced
to use pen and paper because Sasser crashed
desktop PCs. Anti-virus firm Sophos estimates
that 70 of all the virus infections in the first
half of 2004 could be blamed on Mr Jaschan's
creations. Statistics gathered by Sophos show
that in the first six months of 2005 there were
four variants of Netsky in the top 10 viruses and
they accounted for 25.5 of all infections.
Unlike many other viruses, Sasser made its way
from
What can an 18 year old do?
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Digital Citizenship

• Living in the digital world
• Consumers
• Citizens
• Community leaders
• Making a living in the digital world
• Digital workers
• Global workers
• (Re)Creating the digital world
• Innovators
• Entrepreneurs

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Finally,Lead Schools as Global Enterprises