Cleverlands

The secrets behind the success of the world’s education superpowers

Lucy Crehan

• Publisher: Unbound
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781783524914, 9781783522736
• eBook ISBN: 9781783522750
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

As a teacher in an inner-city school, Lucy Crehan was exasperated with ever-changing government policy claiming to be based on lessons from 'top-performing' education systems. She resolved to find out what was really going on in the classrooms of countries whose teenagers ranked top in the world in reading, maths and science.

Cleverlands documents Crehan's journey around the world, weaving together her experiences with research on policy, history, psychology and culture to offer extensive new insights into what we can learn from these countries.

Endnotes

1 Charlemagne. Some remedial lessons are needed for European leaders. 2006. Available at: www.economist.com/node/5655172 2 New York Times; 6th December 2000; Available at: www.nytimes.com/2000/12/06/us/worldwide-survey-finds-us-students-are-not-keeping-up.html; Date accessed: 27th May 2016. 3 Coughlan S. Pisa tests: UK stagnates as Shanghai tops league table. 2013. Available at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25187997 4 Bita N. PISA report finds Australian teenagers education worse than 10 years ago. 2013. Available at: www.news.com.au/national/pisa-report-finds-australian-teenagers-education-worse-than-10-years-ago/story-fncynjr2-1226774541525 5 Sjøberg S. PISA, politics, problems. Recherches en Education 2012;14(4):1–21. 6 Helsingin Sanomat. As translated in: Chung J. An Investigation of Reasons for Finland’s Success in PISA. PhD thesis. University of Oxford. Oxford, 2001. 7 Mahoney J. Canadians ace science test. 2007. Available at: www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadians-ace-science-test/article18150672 8 The eighth grade sample is defined as: ‘All students enrolled in the grade that represents eight years of schooling counting from the first year of ISCED Level 1 (beginning of formal education), providing the mean age at the time of testing is at least 13.5 years.’ 9 Bergesen OH. Kampen om Kunnskapsskolen. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 2006. As translated in Sjøberg (2012). 10 Thrupp M. When PISA meets politics – a lesson from New Zealand. 2014. Available at: theconversation.com/when-pisa-meets-politics-a-lesson-from-new-zealand-26539 11 In case you worry that this is what I’ve done, please be reassured that I changed this whole section just one week before my final draft was due in, in response to coming across some convincing evidence that did not support what I’d previously said. I’ve taken the same approach across the book. 12 Barber, M., Donnelly, K., & Rizvi, S. (2012). Oceans of innovation: the Atlantic, the Pacific, global leadership and the future of education. Institute of Public Policy Research. Barber, M., & Mourshed, M. (2007). How the world's best-performing schools systems come out on top. McKinsey & Company. Mourshed, M., Chijioke, C., & Barber, M. (2010). How the world's most improved school systems keep getting better. McKinsey. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2013). Strong performers and successful reformers in education: lessons from PISA 2012 for the United States. OECD, Paris, France. Stewart, V. (2012). A world-class education: Learning from international models of excellence and innovation. ASCD. Tucker, M. S. (2011). Surpassing Shanghai: An agenda for American education built on the world's leading systems. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. 13 An exception to this is Amada Ripley's engaging book on the experiences of American exchange students in schools in Finland, Korea and Poland:Ripley, A. (2013). The smartest kids in the world: And how they got that way. Simon and Schuster. 14 For more information on my methodology, go to my website:
www.lucycrehan.com. 15 OECD. Learning Beyond Fifteen: Ten Years After PISA. Paris: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2014. 16 Whitebread D. The Importance of Play. London: University of Cambridge, 2012. 17 Kupiainen S, Hautamäki J, Karjalainen T. The Finnish Education System and PISA. Helsinki: Ministry of Education Publications, Helsinki University Print, 2012. 18 Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Malta, Mauritius, Samoa, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago. 19 Suggate S. School entry age and reading achievement in the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). International Journal of Educational Research 2009;48:151–61. 20 McGuinness C, Sproule L, Bojke C, Trew K and Walsh G. Impact of a play-based curriculum in the first ...

Table of contents

• About the Author
• Foreword
• PISA, Politics and Planning a Trip
• Kindergartens, Parables and Professionals in Finland
• The Finnish Comprehensive Consensus
• Purpose, Mastery and Trust in Finnish Teachers
• Authority, Resilience and Not Bothering Others in Japan
• Samurai, Meritocracy and ‘Education Mamas’
• ‘Relaxed Education’, Lesson Study, and the Japanese Approach to Problem-Solving
• Dynamic Intelligence, Eugenics and Streaming in Singapore
• Private Tutors, Public Pressure
• Attraction, Career Ladders and Working with the Psychology of Motivation
• The Confucian Mindset
• Chinese Legends, Guanxi and Migrant Workers
• Memorisation, Deep-Fried Chicken and the Paradox of the Chinese Learner
• Diversity, Relationships and the Limits of Individualism
• Universal Standards, Answerability and Streaming Up
• Beyond Knowledge
• Five Principles for High-Performing, Equitable Education Systems
• Trade-Offs?
• Endnotes
• Glossary
• Acknowledgements
• Supporters