Thai students well below global average in reading, science and maths: study

[DrTuner]

8 hours ago, Traubert said:

It's around 60 hours a week including homework. And trust me, the homework gets done.

Compare this to Finland that was the top country for a while, before immigration lowered the scores. They spend about 6-7h a day in study, that's 30-35h/week. The Chinese method is brutal and leads to lack of creativity.

[simtemple]

On 12/5/2019 at 3:06 PM, HeyHeyHey said:

China cheated their way to 1st place as they always do

 

I certainly don't see the intelligence when I happen to accidentally book a 4* or 5* hotel frequented by Chinese

You have evidence that the Chinese cheated? I studied with Chinese students and found them to be extremely dilligent. The cheats were invariably lazy Europeans from wealthy families. 

[Stokakrishna]

Keep them stupid. Easier to control them

 

[puipuitom]

A combination of several factors:
(a) Status & Loss of face.
b) Being able to buy diplomas and appointments (e.g. as a teacher); knowledge and skills of minor importance.
c) National pride, which makes it impossible and unwilling to see one's own mistakes & shortcomings.
(d) Dislike of foreigners ( xenophobia)
e) Far too little knowledge of what is happening abroad (see Thai TV news: 5 minutes the royal family, 5 min. the prime minister, 5 min. the government, 5 min. Bangkok, 5 min rest of Thailand, 3 min Asia, 2 min rest of the world).
(f) Always the way of the least resistance:  "mai pen rai..., mai ruh, "

 

[todlad]

I spent some time this afternoon reading the PISA report we have been discussing. I worked on some of the maths, science and financial questions, too.

 

Generalisations and preconceived ideas are all very well but there are THREE very extensive reports to read as well as a lot of supporting information.

 

I cannot claim to have read everything but we would all benefit enormously by reading at least the individual Thailand reports. There is so much more in there than just raw scores.

 

Many of the points that have been made here are valid but better balance is needed.

 

Anyone with family members going through schools here need to work to make sure ministers, civil servants and all educators are aware of what these reports say because clearly some action is needed both in and around the classroom.

[HaleySabai]

parenting strategies

On 12/5/2019 at 8:53 PM, Selatan said:

The average Chinese is cleverer than the average farang. Proven by many IQ tests. Of course every country has lots of dumb people, all Western countries included. And of course China has more dumb people than almost every country (except India, average IQ:82, China average IQ:106) because it has 1.4 billion people. 

Talking about dumb people - the recent PISA test had shown that the bottom-scoring 10% of China students performed better than the OECD average. That should tell you something.

It's interesting that many University graduating classes of the higher academic core in Canada will be at least 75% Chinese. This is not because Chinese possess a higher IQ disposition but a simple consequence of superior parenting strategies and family culture that puts blood ties(internal) first and community(external) second. The cultural tenets derived from Taoism and Confucius are in their DNA.

 

[cdemundo]

On 12/5/2019 at 6:04 AM, Selatan said:

Chinese students were not good? Only good at cheating? Haha. Did you know that Malaysia has a branch campus of China's Xiamen University? Mostly mainland Chinese and local ethnic Chinese Malaysians students study at this university. I can tell you this - we ethnic Chinese Malaysians were no fight against these mainland Chinese students. They were really, really good.

Or maybe you didn't know this - up to 80% of students taking STEM subjects in U.S. universities were Asians - mostly students from China and India.

80%? Wow, it seems hard to believe.  Very hard to believe.

 

[todlad]

8 minutes ago, cdemundo said:

80%? Wow, it seems hard to believe.  Very hard to believe.

 

Let's build up the Chinese. A friend of mine, highly qualified accountant, practitioner and trainer went to China to lead a one week revision course for ACCA students. He had sent out materials in advance. He arrived to find they had all got a copy of the materials, they had all gone through them, used marker pens to highlight and done all of the practice questions. By the end of day one, they had gone through his entire week's materials as they had all prepared so well. Four sleepless nights for Liam as he had to create something pretty smart for the next four days.

[cdemundo]

On 12/9/2019 at 9:02 PM, todlad said:

Let's build up the Chinese. A friend of mine, highly qualified accountant, practitioner and trainer went to China to lead a one week revision course for ACCA students. He had sent out materials in advance. He arrived to find they had all got a copy of the materials, they had all gone through them, used marker pens to highlight and done all of the practice questions. By the end of day one, they had gone through his entire week's materials as they had all prepared so well. Four sleepless nights for Liam as he had to create something pretty smart for the next four days.

Absolutely, the grim childhood of a lot of Chinese kids is very apparent where I live.  I live in an area with a large ethnic Chinese population, every corner strip-mall has an "after-school school" where the poor kids go after their regular school day is done.  They are very hard working I am not disputing that.  What I found hard to believe is that 80% of students in American STEM programs are ethnic Chinese or Indian.  That is a pretty high percentage and I am skeptical, I wonder if that number was pulled out of thin air or pulled out of the poster's ass (as the expression goes).

[metisdead]

A post containing a screen shot of a new site with no substantiating link to a specific news article has been removed as well as the replies. 

[Chazar]

Ah but what was the score in marching up and down and reciting the national anthem? thats the real critical stuff

[Chazar]

On 12/7/2019 at 3:56 AM, Traubert said:

Traditiona Chinese medicine

"theyre  great"  said the Tigers.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/06/herbal-medicines-can-have-dangerous-side-effects-research-reveals

 

Herbal medicines can have dangerous side effects, research reveals. Herbal medicines can cause kidney failure and liver damage in some consumers because they contain toxic chemicals or heavy metals, or react harmfully with other drugs, a study has found.Feb 5, 2017

[ilms]

Regarding the "logic" of hiring Filipinos to teach English in Thai schools:  The Thai government high school where I worked paid the Filipino English teachers 20% less than the Farang ones to do the exact same job. I've been told by Filipino teachers that this dual payment structure is common practice in Thai schools.

 

Most of the Filipino teachers I spoke with got their visas through Thailand-based agencies, which also would take a cut of their salaries. There are some other factors that I can see which would make hiring Filipino teachers more attractive than hiring Farangs, but the principle one is money.  

[Older and Wiser]

On 12/5/2019 at 3:10 PM, HeyHeyHey said:

Philippines worse?

 

Everyone including the low level workers - ie gardener, house-keeper, or security guard speaks good English. I also never see the 80 year old gramma in middle of nowhere tiny shop using calculator to count 20+10

 

Thailand is as they want it to be. Hard to keep feudal system with educated public.

Sorry, but having lived in the Philippines for more than 20 years and 2 kids in school, I would venture to contradict your opinion.

 

Some of the low level workers may speak some English in Manila, but this is not the case in many of the provinces. Even those who can speak English, often cannot understand English, especially when pronounced correctly. For example, ask someone for scissors with normal English pronunciation, they won't understand, but try "seesaws" with long vowel sounds and bingo.

 

School education, excluding international or the best private schools, is poor and too much time wasted, public holidays, fiestas, teachers conferences (though kids exams are often on Saturday), 3 month summer holiday, 3/4 weeks at Xmas, parades for any conceivable excuse, all of which require many hours of practice dancing/performing. Poor quality teachers, even worse text books, riddled with mistakes. Cheap private schools get teachers straight from college, they're cheaper. As soon as they have a couple of years under their belt they go to public schools were the salaries are higher (or so I'm told).

 

They also have to use calculators for the simplest of calculations, that you can work out in your head in a second or two. I often do this and give them the correct amount before they have finished calculating, then they look at you like "how did you do that?"

 

 

[ParkerN]

On 12/5/2019 at 2:12 PM, z42 said:

Absolutely dreadful. It is hard to pin the performance on 1 single factor, but in all my years as a teacher & teacher trainer i've never seen anything as ghastly as the "no fail" policy that is in force in LOS.

 

As for the plan to get Filipino teachers or barely qualified NES teachers to magically boost English to super high levels, it is doomed to failure as daily exposure to English language outside the main tourist areas is almost nil.

Agreed in toto. If there are no failures, whay do they sit for exams at all?

 

The logic of that eludes me. perhaps because I'm not as bright as most Thais. I'm sure it will become clear to me in time...