• GAOKAO: Students learn for the test (Burkhoff, 2015)
  • The Chinese system for college application consists of a national entrance exam called the gaokao that all students must pass in order to apply to Chinese universities. This entrance system affects the educational culture of students in secondary school, as preparation for the gaokao is one of the most important purposes of secondary school.
  • Many students focus on rigorous academic preparation with less regard to extracurricular activities, as compared to US students who are preparing for college entrance. This also means that critical thinking skills may be overshadowed by memorization and gaokao-taking skills. 
    
    
• Students "clump" for a reason
  • China is a more collectivist society and grouping behavior is more common. 
  • Challenges in understanding second-language instruction also contribute, as do barriers to integration into American college and university culture. 
    
    
• Academic Expectations
  • It is widely believed that plagiarism is more prevalent in China than in the Western world. Speculation is that this is due in large part to the ways in which Chinese children are educated: From grade school on, they are taught to memorize and repeat words from great scholars, often without knowing or caring who they are quoting.
  • The collective knowledge is much more important than the individual knowledge.
  • Intellectual rights have a different meaning in this context; in fact, quoting one’s own words can be seen as boastful and rude – how can you dare to know more than the scholars/leaders that came before you?
  • From this context, it is easy to see how difficult it might be for Chinese students to come to the United States and be able to fully understand and appreciate the value that is placed on honesty, academic integrity, and independent thinking.

The Chinese educational system can be understood at two levels- compulsory and non-compulsory. The first nine years of education are compulsory. At the end of this educational phase, students have three choices for secondary education: high school (senior secondary school), vocational school, or enter the work force. In China, high school is three years long and is fee-based, which means students of low SES have limited access to school.

Traditional Chinese classrooms differ from tradition U.S. classrooms in the following main ways:

• Chinese classrooms tend to be much larger than U.S., with an average of 55 – 60 in middle school in China, compared to 22 – 25 in the U.S. (OECD, 2012)

• Teachers are more authoritative and less facilitative; it is less common for students to ask questions or participate in classroom discussions in China. The teacher is the authority and questioning that authority by asking for clarification or stating an objection is seen as extremely disrespectful. (Pavlik, 2012)

• Exams tend to test rote-memory rather than critical thinking skills, and most teaching is done solely to help students do well on exams, the most important of which is the national college entrance exam, or the gaokao. (Kirkpatrick & Zang, 2011)

Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Most Unlike U.S.

• Individualism
• Long Term Orientation
• Power Distance
• Read more from Hofstede Insights

Implications for the Classroom

Chinese students may be more likely than U.S. students to:

• Work closely with their friends on assignments and misunderstand the implications of plagiarizing work, especially in the early years of their education
• "Clump" together in classrooms; this is likely a product of several things:
  • It is difficult to hear/understand everything said in a second langue and having another sets of ears hearing the same lectures will assist everyone in understanding better what is meant.
  • The community is vital to learning.
  • It is natural to gravitate to people who share similar experiences.
• Be hesitant to speak up in class
• Be less likely to challenge or pose a question to faculty
• Face initial difficulties in writing assignments: “Writing was hard to almost half of the participants not only because they had to write in a non-native language, but because they had to grapple with writing expectations different from China's.” (Redden, 2014)
• Face difficulties in adapting to American thought process: “Students distinguished between thinking like an “Easterner” and a “Westerner,” associating the former with intuitive and contextual thinking and the latter with critical and logical thinking. Students reported that their prior educations, which rewarded memorization over analysis, had left them ill-prepared for critical thinking, and several students described a lack of a specific understanding of logical argumentation -- which one subject defined as the "step by step" development of ideas -- as one of the factors that made essay writing difficult.” (Ibid)
• “Students reported needing time to collect and translate their thoughts into English before speaking, and described difficulty with the kinds of quick interjections needed to participate in (American) classroom discussions.” (Ibid)

Ako, J. (2011). Unraveling Plagiarism in China. US-China Today, University of Southern California.

Burkhoff, A. (2015). “One Exam Determines One’s Life”: The 2014 Reforms to the Chinese National College Entrance Exam. Fordham International Law Journal, Volume 38, Issue 5, Article 5.

Huang, J., Cowden, P.A. (2009). Are Chinese Students Really Quiet, Passive and Surface Learners? – A Cultural Studies Perspective. Canadian and International Education/Education canadienne et international: Vol. 38: Iss. 2, Article 6.

Kirkpatrick, R. and Zang, Y. (2011) The Negative Influences of Exam-Oriented Education on Chinese High School Students: Backwash from Classroom to Child. Language Testing in Asia, Volume 1, Issue 3, pp. 36 - 45.

Lin, Y. (2016). The Cult of Face | Chinese obsession with saving (and losing) face. Chinamike.com.

OECD. (2012). How does class size vary around the world? Education Indicators In Focus.

Pavlik, A. (2012). Teaching English Language Learners from China. Honors Theses and Capstones. 69. University of New Hampshire Scholars’ Repository.

Pfeifer, M. (2016). Root Causes of Plagiarism for International Students from China. The Cambridge Network.

Qi, L. (2015). U.S. Schools Expelled 8,000 Chinese Students. China Real Time Report, The Wall Street Journal.

Redden, E. (2014). Chinese Students in the Classroom. Inside Higher Ed.

Redden, E. (2015). The University of China at Illinois. Inside Higher Ed.

Zhou, Y. R., Knoke, D., Sakamoto, I. (2005). Rethinking silence in the classroom: Chinese students’ experiences of sharing indigenous knowledge. International Journal of Inclusive Education, Volume 9, 2005, pp. 287 – 311.