East meets West every day in the principal鈥檚 office at Jindao Middle School.
A miniature Chinese flag is propped atop Principal Peng Guohui鈥檚 desk, its yellow stars and red background symbolizing the Communist party and revolution. Next to it sits a brightly colored jar of tea, this country鈥檚 ancient, omnipresent potion.
Above his desk, hangs a photo of Mr. Peng and Pedro E. Garcia, the superintendent of schools in Nashville, Tenn. In an adjoining photo, Mr. Peng stands alongside Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.
Mr. Peng has overseen this public school, located in Guangzhou鈥檚 churning Lin Wan district, since 1999. He says it was one of the city鈥檚 lowest-performing schools when he arrived鈥攈e once described it as 鈥渂ackward鈥濃�攂ut it has improved since then, most notably, the principal believes, because of the use of computer technology to supplement lessons in science, Chinese literature, and other subjects.
Last year, the Chinese middle school principal took part in a more personal form of educational advancement. He was selected to join a delegation of 14 principals from this southern Chinese metropolis to travel to Nashville to study American education and school leadership. The venture was organized by the Educational Leadership Learning Exchange program, which is run jointly by faculty members at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and South China Normal University in Guangzhou. It also arranged for a group of Tennessee principals to visit schools last summer in this sprawling city of 10 million people.
鈥淭his campus is small,鈥� Mr. Peng explained through a translator, gesturing with one hand toward a door that opened to the school鈥檚 courtyard. 鈥淎s principal, you have to have a global view and look at a lot more opinions.鈥�
Several Chinese principals who took part in last year鈥檚 Nashville trip offered similar views. Recently, the Guangzhou participants in the learning-exchange program gathered for a reunion at a high school in their city, where they shared stories with me and reflected on their trip.
鈥淓ducation is the sort of activity where you have to communicate with people,鈥� said Hong Wang, the co-director of the program and the executive director of a principal-leadership- development center at South China Normal University. An exchange program, she said, 鈥渃an open principals鈥� minds, it can broaden their visions.鈥�
Comparing U.S. and Chinese Schools
Cultural exchanges such as the principals鈥� program, which would have been unthinkable a generation ago, are now blossoming across China. At Guangzhou No. 109 High School, Principal Zhang Zhongqing now proudly displays the flags of Australia, New Zealand, and other countries when visiting groups of foreign students come to his campus, which is often. Students鈥� understanding of the United States and other countries, he added, has changed dramatically.
In the past, 鈥減eople would have had very absolutist views鈥� of Americans, Mr. Zhang said. 鈥淭he only thing we learned about the United States was that it was a powerful country, politically, economically, and militarily.鈥�
Today, at a time when American educators and elected officials are paying increasing attention to China鈥攑articularly how that nation teaches math and science鈥擬r. Peng came away from his trip to the United States with several clear impressions of the differences between Chinese and U.S. schools.
He agrees with critics who say Chinese schools rely too much on drills and rote learning, and do too little to cultivate students鈥� broader problem-solving abilities. He recalled visiting numerous Nashville physics and biology classes, in public and private schools, during his 2006 trip. He marveled at how biology teachers used plants and other simple organisms to integrate 鈥渞eal life鈥� examples into science lessons.
Again and again, he saw American math and science teachers demand that students come up with solutions on their own in class, rather than having it spelled out for them. 鈥淭he teachers were guiding them to resolve problems by themselves鈥攏ot just telling them,鈥� Mr. Peng recalled. 鈥淭his is very rare in the Chinese classroom.鈥�
But he also concluded that Chinese students are far more skilled in foundational math and science skills. In one middle school math class, he was surprised to see American students covering computation items that Chinese students would have mastered years earlier.
鈥淚t was too simple for grade 7,鈥� he said. Students with skills that low, he added, were not likely to develop the kind of creative-thinking skills Americans are famous for, he added, because 鈥渒nowledge acquisition is the basis for creativity.鈥�
Promoting Equity and Technology Use
Much of Mr. Peng鈥檚 work at Jindao is about promoting equity. The school鈥檚 students are mostly from poor families, with parents who were farmers, but have since moved to the city in search of work. Many of those families live in the dense Lin Wan neighborhood that surrounds the school. Row after row of apartments, its occupants鈥� laundry hanging on lines to dry, can be seen outside Mr. Peng鈥檚 office window.
Mr. Peng believes one effective way he can help students succeed is through the use of educational technology. Since he became principal, the Jindao school has added computers to many classes, including physics labs, where computers are built into students鈥� desks. The students use the computers to do lab simulations; one simulation I witnessed allowed students to test the flow of electricity on a circuit, under different conditions. With computers, students can manipulate experiments in ways that are more flexible than working with traditional lab equipment, Mr. Peng says.
Back in his office, he demonstrated another technology tool. The principal projected a computerized image on a wall of Lu Xun, one of the most prominent Chinese writers of the 20th century, which appeared on a password-protected Web site run by the school. Students taking the school鈥檚 Chinese literature courses can call up various written materials online and use the Web site to work on reading and grammar skills.
When we spoke during my visit to his school, however, Mr. Peng felt obligated to defend his school鈥檚 use of technology. He had recently read a story from an American newspaper about a federal study showing that the use of technology did not improve student performance in math and reading.
Why, he asked me, would this American study focus only on reading and math? 鈥淭his is not objective,鈥� he said, shaking his head for emphasis. Technology, he added, 鈥渃an help students learn more effectively, help teachers teach more effectively.鈥�
鈥淭he key point,鈥� Mr. Peng said, 鈥渋s you have to use technology in a proper way. Don鈥檛 just expect it to be colorful or fun.鈥�
That, undoubtedly, is a perspective shared by many educators in the United States.
