Global Competence as New Literacy: Why, What, and How

1
Global Competence as New Literacy Why, What,
and How

• 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

2
Why
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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
6
1492 about 3 months
2009 about 13 hours
7
1858 17 hours
Glory to God in the highest on earth, peace and
good will toward men.
2009 less than 1 minute
8
1927 65 (about 1,000)
3 minute phone call
2009 about 0.02
9
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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(No Transcript)
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Its a Big Job to Make the Mini Global Supply
Chain
12
Yao Ming and Herbert Hoover Global Trade of
Talents
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Framework for 21st Century Learning (Partnership
for 21st Century Skills, 2007)

• Core Subjects (English, reading or language arts,
  World languages, Arts, Mathematics, Economics,
  Science, Geography, History, Government and
  Civics) and 21st Century Themes (Global
  awareness, Financial, economic, business and
  entrepreneurial literacy, Civic literacy, Health
  literacy)
• Learning and Innovation Skills (Creativity and
  Innovation Skills, Critical Thinking and Problem
  Solving Skills, Communication and Collaboration
  Skills)
• Information, Media and Technology Skills
  (Information Literacy, Media Literacy, ICT
  Literacy)
• Life and Career Skills (Flexibility
  Adaptability, Initiative Self-Direction, Social
  Cross-Cultural Skills, Productivity
  Accountability, Leadership Responsibility)

18
The European Parliament and the Council of
European Union (2006)key competences necessary
for personal fulfillment, active citizenship,
social cohesion and employability in a knowledge
society

• 1) Communication in the mother tongue
• 2) Communication in foreign languages
• 3) Mathematical competence and basic competences
  in science and technology
• 4) Digital competence
• 5) Learning to learn
• 6) Social and civic competences
• 7) Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and
• 8) Cultural awareness and expression.
• critical thinking, creativity, initiative,
  problem solving, risk assessment, decision
  taking, and constructive management of feelings
  are important across all domains.

19
Foremost amongst these global competencies are
the abilities to communicate effectively across
linguistic and cultural boundaries, to see and
understand the world from a perspective other
than ones own, and to understand and appreciate
the diversity of societies and cultures. Students
need to appreciate the interdependence of nations
in a global economy and to know how to adapt
their work to a variety of cultures (University
of Wisconsin-Global Competence Task Force, 2008,
p.3).
20
I define Global Competency as the knowledge and
skills that help people understand the flat world
in which they live, the skills to integrate
across disciplinary domains to comprehend global
affairs and events and to create possibilities to
address them. Global competencies are also the
attitudinal and ethical dispositions that make it
possible to interact peacefully, respectfully and
productively with fellow human beings from
diverse geographies (Reimers, Forthcoming).
21
According to Howard Gardner, pre-collegiate
education need to encompass the following skills,
abilities and understandings

• Understanding the global system
• Knowledge of other cultures and traditions, which
  should be an end in itself and a means to
  interact with others civilly and productively
• Knowledge of and respect for ones own cultural
  traditions
• Fostering of hybrid or blended identities
• Fostering of tolerance and appreciation across
  racial, linguistic, national, and cultural
  boundaries

22
Global Competences

• Culture Intelligence (CQ)
• Skills
• Attitudes
• Perspectives
• Values/identity
• Knowledge of the Globe
• Global economics
• Global problems
• Interdependence
• Human Conflicts
• Languages and cultures

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How
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Political Changes

• Definition of whats good education
• Issue of equity
• Accept the transformation
• Accept Global Competence as basic literacy

25
Institutional Changes
26
Schools as Global Enterprises
Unique qualities Creativity, passion R-directed
thinking skills Global Competences
Global products
Global resources
Global staffing
Global market
27
Instructional and Curricular Changes

• Courses
• Connections
• Integration

28
ASCD in September
29
http//internationaled.org
30
Over 10 million jobs lost due to automation in
last 10 years
31
OutsourcingAutomation
32
A New Hope
33
The eBay Phenomenon Expanded Market
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(No Transcript)
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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
36
Gold-farming and digital produce Digital
farmers market
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(No Transcript)
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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 Everybody a Broadcaster
40
Daniel H. Pink (2005). A Whole New Mind Moving
from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age.
New York Penguin.

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

Asia Automation Abundance

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

Can someone overseas do it cheaper? Can a
computer do it faster? Is what I am offering in
demand in an age of abundance?
41
Essential Aptitudes in the Conceptual Age

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

42
Across all the proposals

• Assumption 1 We must cultivate skills and
  knowledge that are not available at a cheaper
  price in other countries or that can be rendered
  useless by machines.
• Assumption 2 Creativity, interpreted as both
  ability and passion to make new things and adapt
  to new situations, is essential.
• Assumption 3 New skills and knowledge are
  needed for living in the global world and the
  virtual world.
• Assumption 4 Cognitive skills such as problem
  solving skills and critical thinking skills are
  more important than memorization of knowledge.
• Assumption 5 Emotional intelligence or the
  ability and capacity to understand and manage
  emotions of self and others are important.

43
Feasibility

• Individual differences
• Nature
• Nurture
• The limitation of schooling
• Time
• Influence outside schools

44
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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Your Child's Strengths, Discover Them, Develop
Them, Use Them, by Jenifer Fox, M-Ed. (Viking,
2008) http//www.strengthsmovement.com/
The Strengths Movement
47
What American schools need to add?

• Culture Intelligence (CQ)
• Knowledge of the Globe
• Foreign languages and cultures
• Understanding of interdependence

48
Digital Competencies

• 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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USA 2008 Five Steps Toward Building Globally
Competitive Education Systems (National Governors
Association Council of Chief State School
Officers) Action 1 Upgrade state standards by
adopting a common core of internationally
benchmarked standards in math and language arts
for grades K-12 to ensure that students are
equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills
to be globally competitive. Action 2 Leverage
states collective influence to ensure that
textbooks, digital media, curricula, and
assessments are aligned to internationally
benchmarked standards and draw on lessons from
high-performing nations and states. Action 3
Revise state policies for recruiting, preparing,
developing, and supporting teachers and school
leaders to reflect the human capital practices of
top-performing nations and states around the
world. Action 4 Hold schools and systems
accountable through monitoring, interventions,
and support to ensure consistently high
performance, drawing upon international best
practices. Action 5 Measure state-level
education performance globally by examining
student achievement and attainment in an
international context to ensure that, over
time, students are receiving the education they
need to compete in the 21st century economy.
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USA 2009 President Obama In a 21st-century
world where jobs can be shipped wherever there's
an Internet connection, where a child born in
Dallas is now competing with a child in New
Delhi, where your best job qualification is not
what you do, but what you know -- education is no
longer just a pathway to opportunity and success,
it's a prerequisite for success. And yet,
despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in
the world, we've let our grades slip, our schools
crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and
other nations outpace us. Let me give you a few
statistics. In 8th grade math, we've fallen to
9th place. Singapore's middle-schoolers
outperform ours three to one. Just a third of our
13- and 14-year-olds can read as well as they
should. Now, this is an area where we are
being outpaced by other nations. It's not that
their kids are any smarter than ours -- it's that
they are being smarter about how to educate their
children. They're spending less time teaching
things that don't matter, and more time teaching
things that do. They're preparing their students
not only for high school or college, but for a
career. We are not. Our curriculum for 8th
graders is two full years behind top performing
countries. So let's challenge our states --
let's challenge our states to adopt world-class
standards that will bring our curriculums to the
21st century.
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Achievement Gaps
52
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 USSR
53
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 Japan
54
1995 TIMSS Grade 8 Mathematics Performance
1995 Singapore
55
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 China India
56
But
57
http//www.weforum.org/pdf/Global_Competitiveness_
Reports/Reports/gcr_2007/gcr2007_rankings.pdf
58
(No Transcript)
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Why?
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Achievement Gaps
61
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)

62
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)
63
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.

64
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.

65
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.

66
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.

67
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.

68
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.

69
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.

70
Baker, Keith (2007).Are International Tests Worth
Anything? Kappan, October, 2007
71
(No Transcript)
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What Matters?
Diversity of talents Creativity Entrepreneurship P
assion
73
Not everything that can be counted counts, and
not everything that counts can be
counted. --Albert Einstein
74
Schools have not necessarily much to do with education. - Winston Churchill
The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school. - George Bernard Shaw
What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook. - Henry David Thoreau
My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school. - Margaret Mead
75
What American schools can offer?(at least BN)

• School Talent Shows
• Value individual talents
• Inspires passion and responsibility
• Tolerate deviation
• Cultivate entrepreneurship
• Children are pop-corn
• Respect individual differences
• Have faith in every child
• Second, third, fourth chances

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(No Transcript)
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New Challenges
78
Personalization
Foundation
Foundation
79
Personalized Learning
the drive to tailor education to individual need,
interest and aptitude so as to fulfill every
young persons potential (Department for
Education and Skills (UK), 2004)
80
Nine Gateways(Hargreaves, 2004)

• Curriculum More choices
• learning to learn Love and ability to learn
• workforce development PD
• assessment for learning Formative
• school organisation and design Structural
  changes
• new technologies
• student voice What do I want?
• advice and guidance
• mentoring Personal relationships

http//www.clusterweb.org.uk/docs/HargreavesPerson
alisedLearning.pdf
81
Four Deeps

• Deep learning
• Deep experience
• Deep support
• Deep leadership

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Schools as Global EnterprisesRe-imagine
Education in the Age of Globalization
83
Schools as Global Enterprises
Unique qualities Creativity, passion R-directed
thinking skills Global Competences
Global products
Global resources
Global staffing
Global market
84
Never Send a Man to Do a Machine's
JobReconsider the Human-Machine Relationship in
EducationYong ZhaoMichigan State University
85
Software's Benefits On Tests In Doubt Study Says
Tools Don't Raise Scores --The Washington
Post Major Study on Software Stirs Debate On
whole, school products found to yield no net
gains --Education Week
Test Scores Were Not Significantly Higher in
Classrooms Using Selected Reading and Mathematics
Software Products. --IES Study on the
Effectiveness of Computer Software
(2007) http//ies.ed.gov/ncee/pdf/20074005.pdf
Readers are advised to scrutinize the findings
carefully, as even ED states that the study
'was not designed to assess the effectiveness of
educational technology across its entire spectrum
of uses. --CoSN, ISTE, and SETDA As this
study recognizes, proper implementation of
education software is essential for success.
Unfortunately, it appears the study itself may
not have adequately accounted for this key
factor, leading to results that do not accurately
represent the role and impact of technology in
education. -- The Software Information Industry
Association (SIIA)
86
Why are we unhappy?
87
(No Transcript)
88
What if?
89
Are we sending a man to do a machines job?
90
Reconstruct the Relationship

• Fragment the education process
• Treat technology as equals
• Do what you do best
• Let technology do its best
• Create technology to do what you dont want to do

91
machine
man
(wo)
Vs.
and
Online Chinese Language Courses
New Era Interactive English, Tsinghua University
Press
Personal Response System
92
Input-based Accountability
Physical environment
Leadership
Learning facilities
Teacher quality
Student voice
Diverse opportunities
Global connections
Tolerance
93

• http//confucius.msu.edu
• http//enterzon.com

94
http//confucius.msu.edu

• http//www.ssat-inet.net/

95
Schools have not necessarily much to do with education. - Winston Churchill
The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school. - George Bernard Shaw
What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook. - Henry David Thoreau
My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school. - Margaret Mead
96
Teachers and TechnologyMaking the Connection
Problem 1 Unwilling Solution Mandate
Problem 3 Lack of access Solution More
technology
--Office of Technology Assessment, 1995
Problem 4 Lack of content Solution More content
Problem 2 Unable Solution Professional
Development
97
Impact of ICT (outside education)

• Industry (2002)
• Cost-savings of 155.2 billion to U.S.
  organizations adopted Internet solutions
• Revenue increase 444 billion
• .43 percentage points of the future increase in
  the annual U.S. productivity growth rate
• Public organizations (2004)
• 45 improvement in efficiency
• 40 in service volume
• 25 in financials
• 55 in citizen satisfaction

98
Impact of ICT (outside education)

• New industries
• Apple
• Microsoft
• Google
• Amazon.com
• New way of living
• eBay
• Skype
• Messenger
• New vocabulary
• Web
• Email
• Chat

99
Typical morning at a middle school connected to
the information superhighway might begin as one
group of students arrives early to update the
school's home page on the World Wide Web. This
home page signals to other schools that also have
electronic access to the Web that they have a
sister school here whose students and teachers
are interested in exchanging ideas about world
events and other educational topics. At the same
time, another group of early arrivals works with
the vice principal to prepare the morning
broadcast. Each school day formally starts with a
live television presentation about the day's
events these presentations are written,
directed, and produced by rotating teams of
students and broadcast internally to all the
classrooms. In the quiet minutes before this
broadcast airs and classes start, a young
language teacher is using his desktop computer to
access an electronic bulletin board to see how
language teachers from schools across the state
have responded to his question about the best
ways for explaining prepositions. Meantime, the
principal is reviewing the electronic mail that
parents sent her the evening before, prior to
sending voice mail to all her teachers suggesting
a schedule for the upcoming parent-teacher "open
house. Later in the morning, in a first-period
modern history class, the same video technology
that carried the local morning broadcast now
enables this class to tour the Smithsonian's
aerospace museum. In the classroom next door, the
subject is anthropology. Students are grouped in
teams of 3 and 4 around the classroom's
computers, engrossed in a computer simulation
that allows them to play the role of
archaeologists on-site in Egypt, exploring
ancient Egyptian culture as revealed in its
artifacts. In a classroom down the hall, each
individual student is working math problems
pitched at exactly the pace and level of
difficulty appropriate for him or her, and
getting immediate feedback on the answers, thanks
to interactive software. At the same time,
students in a writing class are drafting an essay
assignment on their computers and employing
electronic mail to get rapid feedback on their
work from their peers....(McKinsey Company,
1996)
100
Where is the teacher?
101
Why hasnt technology transformed education?
102
We shape our buildings thereafter they shape
us.--Winston Churchill
103
Reconstruct the Relationship

• Fragment the education process
• Treat technology as equals
• Do what you do best
• Let technology do its best
• Create technology to do what you dont want to do

104
machine
man
(wo)
Vs.
and
Online Chinese Language Courses
New Era Interactive English, Tsinghua University
Press
Personal Response System
105
What Does it Require?

• Shit focus from teachers to system
• Re-imagine education outcomes
• Re-imagine education processes
• Re-imagine education locations
• Re-imagine education learners

106
Achievement Gaps
107
Achievement Gaps
108
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 USSR
109
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 Japan
110
1995 TIMSS Grade 8 Mathematics Performance
1995 Singapore
111
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 China India
112
But
113
http//www.weforum.org/pdf/Global_Competitiveness_
Reports/Reports/gcr_2007/gcr2007_rankings.pdf
114
(No Transcript)
115
Why?
116
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)

117
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)
118
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.

119
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.

120
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.

121
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.

122
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.

123
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.

124
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.

125
Baker, Keith (2007).Are International Tests Worth
Anything? Kappan, October, 2007
126
As a result
127
But other countries
128
China 2002 In December 2002, the Chinese
Ministry of Education issued a policy designed to
reform assessment and evaluation in elementary
and secondary schools. This document, entitled
Ministry of Educations Notice Regarding
Furthering the Reform of Evaluation and
Assessment Systems in Elementary and Secondary
Schools, calls for alternative assessments that
go beyond simply testing academic knowledge. It
specifically forbids ranking school districts,
schools, or individual students based on test
results or making test results public.

• China 2005
• High school curriculum reform
• Among the problems targeted by the reforms
• Overemphasis on knowledge transmission
• Too many required and uniform courses, which
  limited students individual development
• Too much overlapping content, resulting in
  excessive coursework burden on students
• Overemphasis on the value of individual
  discipline, resulting in too little
  interdisciplinary and social integration
• Remedies
• Credit system
• More electives, fewer required courses
• Local subjects/school based curriculum
• Integrated studies
• New subjects (art, environment, technology, etc)

129
Japan

• Since 2001, Japan has been working to implement
  its Education Plan for the 21st Century, which
  has three major objectives
• The first is enhancing emotional education,
  that is, cultivating students as emotionally
  well-rounded human beings.
• The second objective is realizing a school
  system that helps children develop their
  individuality and gives them diverse choices by
  moving towards a diverse, flexible educational
  system that encourages individuality and
  cultivates creativity.
• The third is promoting a system in which the
  schools autonomy is respected through
  decentralizing educational administration,
  enhancing local autonomy, and enabling
  independent self-management at the school level.
  (Iwao, 2000)

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Singapore

• Since 1997, Singapore another frequent high
  flyer in international comparative studies, has
  engaged in a major curriculum reform initiative.
  Entitled Thinking Schools, Learning Nation, this
  initiative aims to develop all students into
  active learners with critical thinking skills and
  to develop a creative and critical thinking
  culture within schools. Its key strategies
  include
• The explicit teaching of critical and creative
  thinking skills
• The reduction of subject content
• The revision of assessment modes and
• A greater emphasis on processes instead of on
  outcomes when appraising schools.
• In 2005, the Ministry of Education in Singapore
  released another major policy document Nurturing
  Every Child Flexibility and Diversity in
  Singapore Schools, which called for a more varied
  curriculum, a focus on learning rather than
  teaching, and more autonomy for schools and
  teachers (Ministry of Education, 2005).

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• Korea 2000
• Revised 7th National Curriculum
• The ultimate goal is to cultivate creative,
  autonomous, and self-driven human resources who
  will lead the era's developments in information,
  knowledge and globalisation.
• Promote fundamental and basic education that
  fosters sound human beings and nurtures
  creativity
• Help students build self-leading capacity so that
  they well meet the challenges of today's
  globalisation and information development
• Implement learner-oriented education that suits
  the students' capability, aptitude and career
  development needs
• Ensure expanded autonomy for the local community
  and schools in curriculum planning and operation.

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Not everything that can be counted counts, and
not everything that counts can be
counted. --Albert Einstein