Cleverlands

Chinese students have higher levels of autonomous motivation because they have internalised the cultural and familial goals, and made them their own. They are less externally motivated despite the pressure from parents and teachers because the pressure is to pursue goals that they themselves believe in

Chinese parents tend to play down their children’s successes, because they see it as their role to promote effort in their children, and fear that emphasising their achievements might lead to a lack of motivation to learn. For similar reasons they are more prone to highlight their children’s failures, but this isn’t always as harsh as it sounds to the Western ear

In all my school years, when we had a quiz or exam in class, the teacher frequently asked the most hard-working student, not the highest-achieving one, to stand up to receive applause from peers for his or her great learning virtue.’151 This praise for effort rather than achievement is one of the most effective methods of promoting a growth mindset in children, according to the marvellous Carol Dweck

Learning does not privilege anyone, and neither does it discriminate against anyone. Everyone is capable of seeking and achieving knowledge regardless of one’s inborn capacity and social circumstances

Learning enables one to become a better, not just smarter, person. The ultimate purpose of learning is to self-perfect and to contribute to others at the same time

According to Confucius, the path to virtue included self-improvement through knowledge. Learning is a goal to be achieved through personal striving to perfect oneself. So working hard and persisting through challenging times are important not only because of what one can gain through doing this, but are a fundamental part of being a moral or virtuous individual

However, international evidence suggests that starting formal schooling when the children are a little older makes no lasting difference to children’s later reading ability. Two cross-country reviews have been done in this area that make the most of the fact that different countries start formal schooling at different ages, ranging from age five (24 countries, including 15 small island nations18), through age six (143 countries) to age seven (38 countries)

Shanghai’s 15-year-olds had outperformed teenagers in every other education system in tests of reading, maths and science, and I wanted to know how

It was funded directly by readers through a new website: Unbound. Unbound is the creation of three writers.