Mingyuan Gu

The Innovative Leadership of China’s Excellent Principals

In “Zi Han,” Analects of Confucius, it is said that “The wise are not puzzled, the benevolent are not worried, and the courageous are not afraid.”

The Value of Education: Chinese Teachers’ Teaching and Pedagogy Research

Throughout teachers’ career development, what matters most is improving teachers’ abilities to educate people, impart knowledge and solve puzzles as well as problems. Occupational training is the main approach for that purpose, consisting of two forms: teaching research (TR) and pedagogy research (PR). Both of these methods play an irreplaceable role in implementing teaching plans, summarizing teaching experience, launching educational reforms, and facilitating teaching and research skills.

Chinese Students’ Collective Identity

Thousands of years ago, to guard against natural disasters and tribal attacks, the forefathers of human beings lived together in groups, creating a harmonious balance between individuals and the group. Later, in China’s feudal society, individuals were bonded with their clan by blood. Under such a system, family was the core of the society, and the society was an extended family. In this context, collective interests took on a paramount importance.

Introduction: Unveiling the Mystery of Chinese Schools

This quotation from Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities best describes the current situation of Chinese schools. Over the past three decades, despite being the world’s most populous country, China has ensured national access to nine-year compulsory education and has been amongst the first countries to meet the target of universal education. These achievements have attracted worldwide attention. School choice, a matter of education equity, has put mounting pressure on Chinese people.

Epilogue: Colorful and Dynamic Chinese Schools

This is a golden time for primary and secondary schools in China, as the scale of the education system, the universalization of compulsory education, educational facilities, and the overall teaching quality have reached advanced international standards.

A Long but Colorful Day

The timetable (Table 2.1) shows a typical day for Xiaoyang, a student of Grade 2 in a junior middle school in Haidian District, Beijing. From the moment he wakes up until the moment he falls asleep, most of Xiaoyang’s day is spent at school.

The Gaokao Experience of Chinese Students

The gaokao, as the buzzword of today’s China, has received both praise and criticism. Over the past decades, the gaokao has been depicted in three statements: (1) “A person’s destiny being determined by one exam”; (2) “Thousands of people struggling to cross a narrow bridge for success”; and (3) “The survivors of the gaokao tend to have high scores but low competence.” All these statements have at least conveyed a message, i.e., that the gaokao has distorted the targets of China’s elementary education.

Conglomeration as an Organizational Innovation in China’s School Education

Since the opening up and reform period began in the early 1980s, “key schools” were gradually replaced by “demonstration senior middle schools,” which became a policy in 1995.

School Choice: A Harsh Journey for Chinese Parents

School choice is the process by which parents use various methods to get their children enrolled into primary or middle schools with quality educational resources (Fan 1997).

High Quality Schools in China: Demonstration Senior Middle Schools

In the early years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese government proposed to build up a number of “key schools” with the pooling of resources in order to cultivate more talents at a faster speed.