Going to School in Taiwan

IES Abroad

(The Institute for the International Education of Students )

Going to School in Taiwan

Professor, Cheng-chi University, Taiwan Email: iaezcpc@nccu.edu.tw

You are going to share with me about

Taiwan…

• Why you need to know about Taiwan’s education? • What are the major features in Taiwan’s schools? • How you can compare these educational issues

with other Asian and American counterparts?

GNP per capita

2007 (US$)

Taiwan

17,252

America

46,029

Japan

35,424

Korea

20,045

Singapore

33,919

• Population (2008 estimate)

• 305,556,000 (3rd)

•

Density

31/km² (

180th

)

80/sq mi

• Current Events that will affect Educational

Policies in the USA and Taiwan

• The US presidential campaign has entered

the closing stretch with the two candidates

making their final appeals for votes.

China vs. Taiwan

1. Cross-Strait Warming

2. Taipei - Taiwan and China are to hold a second r ound of ... thank his Taiwanese hosts. Chen, hig hest- ranking Chinese official to visit Taiwan sinc e 1949, ...

Senior officials from Taiwan and China are sche duled to hold high-level talks this week ... of war ming ties between the traditional rivals. Beijing's top negotiator Chen Yunlin is set to ... agenda ar e food safety issues after tainted Chinese milk pr oducts sickened at least three Taiwanese

• Government and elections

• Parties, ideology, and politics

• Native Americans and European

settlers

Demographics

• Race/Ethnicity (2007) • _White80.0%

• African American12.8%

• Asian4.4%

• Native American and Alaskan Native1.0%

• _{Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander0.2%} • Multiracial1.6%

Education in the USA

P

ublic education

is operated by state and l

ocal governments.

Children are required in most states to atte

nd school from the age of six or seven unti

l they turn eighteen (the end of

high school

);

About 12% of children are enrolled in

parochial

or

private schools

. Just over 2%

of children are

homeschooled

.

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) standard

s-based education reform,

which authorized federal programs aiming to impro ve the performance of U.S. primary and

secondary schools .

1. To increase the standards of accountability for

states, school districts and schools (standardized te st).

2. Parents’ school choice program

3. An increased focus on reading and re-authorized th e Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965

• Debates

• Centralized and standardized test

• Accountability

Spot Light : Taiwan

• Area :36,000 square kilometers

Population: 23 million

Capital : Taipei City

Language :

Mandarin/Taiwanese/Hakka/Indigenous

Languages

Religion :

Demographics

• Population : 22.9 million (2005)

• About 98% of the population is of Han Chinese e thnicity.

• 86% are descendants of early Han immigrants k nown as "native Taiwanese"

• The most recent immigrants from mainland Chin a after 1949.

• Recent foreign spouses from Vietnam, Indonesia , Thailand and the Philippines

• Transnational marriages now account for

one out of six births.

• The other 2% of Taiwan's population,

numbering about 458,000, are listed as

the Taiwanese aborigines

• Literacy rate: 96.1%

• Men 97% • Women 95%

• Enrollment 5,384,926

• • Primary 2,153,717

• Secondary

1,676,970

• Post-secondary 1,270,194

Major problem: a drastic declining birth rate

since late-1990s

• Educational Implication

• The New Generation/Sons of Taiwan with

foreign mothers

• Disadvantaged SES Background

• Learning disadvantages

• Preschool Education

• Nine-Year Compulsory Education

• Senior High and Vocational Schools

• Special Education

• Higher Education

• Teacher Education

A SCHOOL DAY(10

Grade)

Class period Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

7:10–7:20 Clean campus

7:20–7:50 Morning homeroom 7:50∼8:10 Morning meeting

8:10–8:55 Chinese Science English Geo. Chinese 9:10–9:55 Chinese Chinese Science Chinese Art

Performance 10:10–10:55 Science English Math English Math

11:05–11:50 Math Health & P.E. Integrated & Activities Math Art 11:50–12:30 Lunch break

12:30∼ 13:10

Nap time 13:20–

14:05 meetingSchool Civics Chinese reading History conversatiEnglish on

14:15–

15:00 meetingClass I & A Music omposi-tiEnglish c on Science 15:00– 15:25 Clean campus 15:25–

16:10 Clubs I & A and P.E.Health omposi-tiEnglish c on

Health & P.E.

Educational Reform in Taiwan

• 1987-88 :

the external and internal

environmental factors resulting in a series

of nation-wide education changes

• 1989-93 :

when the legislators passed many

education bills and acts to ensure the

reform policies to be based on throughout

the country

• 1994-98 :

the Committee of Education

Reform under the Executive Yuan drew

many representatives from all walks of life

to design the theme, framework and

progress of the reform, etc.

• 1999 to date :

the numerous negative public

opinions against the educational reform

programs. The increasing gaps between the

urban VS. rural and the rich vs. the poor.

4 Major Educational Issues

• Globalization VS. Localization

• Gender Stereotyping

• Equity of Educational Opportunity

• Family Educational expenditure on

Cram Schools:

• Cram schools

• With the intense pressure placed on students to achieve, many students enroll in private

after-school classes intended to supplement their regular education.

• Popular subjects in cram schools include

English, mathematics, and the natural sciences. • Classes are generally very orderly and

controlled, with class sizes as high as 200 or so students.

Education Features

PISA 2006 Ranking

Math Science Reading Literacy Taiwan 1 4 16 Hong Kong 3 2 3 Japan 10 5 15 South Korea 4 10 1 US 24 20

TIMSS (2003)

(13-year-old's average score, International Math and Science Study)

Countries:

(sample) Globalrank _ScoreMath_{Rank Score}Science_Rank

Singapore 1 605 1 578 1 Taiwan 2 585 4 571 2 South Korea 3 589 2 558 3 Hong Kong 4 586 3 556 4 Japan 5 570 5 552 5 England 10 498 18 544 7 United States 12 504 15 527 11

As the provision of higher educational

opportunities becomes increasingly international, institutional comparison becomes more in

demand.

The two most frequently cited rankings ：

 Shanghai Jiaotong University

 Times Higher Education Supplement, London

WHAT CAUSES THE GLOBAL

RANKINGS AND WHAT THE

IMPLICATION TO EDUCATIONAL

PRACTICES?

• The "Impact of Globalization "

• Borrowing and lending reform strategies

• In comparative education, there is a great

need to examine how local reactions are

to these external global forces .

• In policy studies, a new paradigm for

• What can be learned and imported from

elsewhere? (borrowing)

• What can be taught and exported

elsewhere? (lending),

• The phenomena of cross-national policy

attraction and educational borrowing

• Global and international convergence in

education at the expense local needs and

cultural diversity

• Taipei - Taiwan and China are to hold a second r ound of high- level talks in Taipei for five days fr om Monday November 3 to 7. Following is a sch edule of main events:

• Monday - China's top negotiator with Taiwan, Ch en Yunlin, leads a 74-member delegation to Tai wan on a weekend charter flight. Check in at Gra nd Hotel, and his deputies will hold preparatory t alks with their Taiwanese counterparts in the aft

ROC (Taiwan) vs. PRC (China): A

Comparison

• Taiwan is formally known as the Republic of C hina (ROC). The ROC is Asia's first constitutiona l republic, founded in 1912. When the Chinese C ommunist Party established the People's Republ ic of China (PRC) on the Chinese mainland in 19 49, the ROC government, led by the Kuomintang

(KMT), relocated to Taiwan, where it maintained jurisdiction over Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Mats

The two sides of the Taiwan Strait have since been governed as separate territories and

developed separate identities.

• In the realm of political development, Taiwan has grown into a free and vibrant democracy. The government lifted martial law in 1987 and launched a series of political reforms to expand

the democratic process. In 1996, the people of Taiwan completed their first direct presidential election. The presidential election of 2000 and 2008 were peacefully transferred power between

• In contrast, the advancement of

democracy in China has stagnated, and

the PRC remains a one-party Communist

A Statistical Comparison (2001)

TAIWAN (Republic of China)

13,969 square miles pop: 22.42 million • US$ 12,000 (14,000)

Global growth competitiveness7th / 75

Mobile phone penetration rate 96.6%

CHINA (People’s Republic of China)

3,706,566 square miles

Pop:1.27 billion

Per capita GNP US$840

Education in 2020

• What will happen to the next generations of

China, Taiwan and the USA after a series

of nation-wide educational reforms?

• What are the follow-ups and outcomes?

• Who benefit and who suffer as a result of

these reform programs ?

• Thank you for your attention.

• God Bless!

• Chuing Prudence Chou ( 周祝瑛 )

Professor, Cheng-chi University, Taiwan Email: iaezcpc@nccu.edu.tw