Asia tops biggest global school rankings - BBC News
I'm not surprised past results like PISA score is a good indication for future performance. Where is PRC china in the ranking?
Learning cities in East Asia were the outcome of instrumental policies by government bodies to mobilize citizens’ learning that enhanced personal development, economic prosperity, and social inclusion.
In Japan, the learning city policies were boosted in the 1990s by the Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Trade and Industry in the context of a bubble economy. In the Republic of Korea, the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 suddenly called for the active role of lifelong learning and learning cities as a main policy instrument. To build a new concept of regional self-governance, learning cities were designated in the 2000s and 2010s. In China, rapidly growing metropolises and the shadow of social discrepancies in cities stimulated the introduction of community rebuilding and adult education programmes to promote citizens’ participation in community activities, mainly in the 2000s and early 2010s.
Most of all, the experience of learning city programmes in this region had a clear connection with placating the discontent of what citizens had perceived as the outcomes of the process of industrialization and post-industrialization. Especially in the Republic of Korea and China, large metropolitan cities sought a new image to become environmentally safe and culturally dignified. Learning was perceived as a solution to the social problems occurring in overwhelming processes of modern industrialization that distorted the city image into merely a money-making machine.
The distinctive features of the Asian type of learning cities can be characterized as a community relations model, which is different to the European individual competence model in the sense that learning is fundamentally an individual process, and learning city programmes aim to enhance individual competence as their contribution to communities and workplaces. A typical statement in a learning city strategy implemented by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) or by a European country is along the following lines:
“the coordination of work oriented and general / leisure oriented education and training in a way that allows all citizens easily to relate their development as individuals to their development as workers.”
By contrast, the Asian perspective in learning cities underlines the problems of social conditions and identities , cultural discontent and conflicts within the cities as well as various intergenerational and gender tensions, etc. Social exclusion and conflict in a society are more focused here, and therefore, cultural and liberal learning dominates the curriculum in the context of community activities. We call it a community relations model, a unique Asian perspective of lifelong learning and learning cities, which emphasizes more of the “mode of relations” and group learning activities. More or less, over time, the emphasis on social and collective aspects has always been part of the social history of Asian countries, especially Northeast Asian ones: Japan, South Korea, China.
The three cases of East Asian learning city experiences show distinctive as well as collective characeristics : Japanese experience shows that the concept of learning cities needs to incorporate the previous tradition of learning communities run by the “KOMINKAN”. With some contrast , Korean learning city experience shows that it can be ignited by state leadership, allied with active reformation of individual cities with local autonomy and supporting politics. The rapid adaptation of learning city policies in contemporary China shows new possibilities of developing the learning city as a cultural tool in managing urban administration and recovering stability.
Four main characteristics can be derived from these cases:
1) The ideas and implementation of Asian learning cities have been triggered by global circumstances and uncertainties which threatened and dismantled the traditional social stability and cohesion of each society.
2) Second, it was social rather than economic drivers that made the cities cope with their own circumstnaces. The policies of learning cities in East Asian region have been shaped to meet the challenge of increasing instability. The metaphors of the “knowledge society” and personal competency development , major icons of learning city policies in Europe have been less obvious than the issues of social inclusion and community rebuilding.
3) East Asian learning cities are built based upon a “community relations model” which focuses on more activities to heal and stabilize social issues and foster cultural unity. The Japanese “KOMINKAN” in this respect, can be considered a core learning city programme; the Chinese “SHEQU EDUCATION” contributes to the empowerment of the autonomy of community groups, and the Korean lifelong learning centres help local government build social capital among residents.
4) Major educational program provision is mostly non-vocational, such as liberal arts, and cultural learning. Culture and art education with liberal learning has proven to be the most popular programmes. The autonomous self and community identity were the key learning outcomes in this vein.
In Sum, the CONFUCIAN tradition, in this sense, can be reconsidered as linking the modern experience to the historical heritage. In the CONFUCIAN tradition , learning has been especially defined as a main social device for weaving the social texture and life of the people. Learning by its nature was not solely for individuals who learn, but was also seen to reside in the nature of the social modes and relationships that learning creates.
Reference:
Han, S. l., & Makino, A. m. (2013). Learning cities in East Asia: Japan, the Republic of Korea and China.
International Review Of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift Für Erziehungswissenschaft,
59(4), 443-468.
Don't take this kind of data too serious, please.
2CH and Yahoo Japan will be good channels. I'd like to share you my points about Japan and Japanese. Japan is a developed country, I admire their achievements. Japan has middle to long term strategy to become a 'normal country' which means Japan some day have to fight China and USA, yes USA. I do not like average Japanese's personality - easy to be provoked and easy to be misled and some of them who talk good, done evil. A very few of them could be your friends. It comes from my own experiences. That's the reality.
