How the World Learns

Comparative Educational Systems

By: The Great Courses, Alexander W. Wiseman

Narrated by: Alexander W. Wiseman

America's blueprint for mass education has been followed across the globe - yet international student assessments show that achievement varies sharply, with the US and much of Europe typically scoring average at best. Not surprisingly, this state of affairs has sparked anxieties about an educational crisis. Adding even more fuel to the fire: many cite a growing disconnect between what schools teach and the needs of a rapidly changing market.

The problem, if there is one, is highly complex, and in these 24 thought-provoking lectures led by an associate professor of comparative and international education, you'll take a meaningful look at education around the world to understand why.

You'll go beyond prescriptions for quick fixes to engage in a detailed comparison of teaching methods and student achievement, from the focus on STEM instruction and the intent of morals education to the role of preschool and the importance of creativity. You'll discover why Finland and South Korea rank as the two best educational systems despite having diametrically opposed approaches and consider the unique challenges facing schools from America to South Africa.

You'll use internationally comparative data to identify strengths and weaknesses and to see how this information is used - and sometimes misused - to enact policies. The data and systems are not studied in a vacuum, however. Instead you'll explore how cultural, religious, socioeconomic, and historical contexts may influence these methods and whether one nation's best practice could backfire in another.

Along the way you'll contemplate questions about the goals of education and the ways teachers may help students reach them, from whether standardized testing is the best way to measure what a person is capable of to whether teachers should have a role beyond presenting academic content.

©2015 The Great Courses (P)2015 The Teaching Company, LLC

More than I was expecting

I couldn't stop listening. I was excited to learn about education in places like South Korea and Finland - who do well on international tests and Saudi Arabia - who tends to do poorly.

What I wasn't expecting, but found indespensible, was the information on how to understand these school systems and why we can't just copy them in different contexts.

Truely a fantastic listen for those interested in education and education reform.

Good Overview of Various Educational Policy

Where does How the World Learns rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is good Great Course on global educational policy; however, the title is a bit misleading. I was hoping to hear more about actual teaching and learning philosophies and approaches in the classroom. Much of the policy information I knew. As someone who has taught international students at the university level, I am interested in learning more about the various processes of learning across countries and cultures and how knowing this can shape ones teaching. This course had some of this information but was really more about policy.

What did you like best about this story?

The real comparisons in the classroom between cultures, parental attitudes toward teaching and learning.

Repeats the same concept over and over

Interesting subject, but when it gets to details, it repeats the same concept with different words and similar examples so many times that I feel like listening the first chapters world have given me the same level of knowledge.

Great listen!!

As an educator myself, who's curious as to how other parts of the world deal with education, this one has been very illuminating!

Mandatory reading

This course should be mandatory for any leader who wishes to influence educational policy. Take this course and look like a star at your next debate!

Interesting, but...

Would you consider the audio edition of How the World Learns to be better than the print version?

I think the print version would might me easier to follow the jargon.

What did you like best about this story?

Very useful global to local comparisons and clear stated limitation of comparisons. In other word very honest.

Any additional comments?

This is very interesting information and the professor does have some personnel bias, but does provides data when able to support opinions. However some of the long worded technical jargon, especially at the end of the book can make it a little difficult to follow. All in all very useful information for any one voting on school issues.

A good overview from different angles

Would you listen to How the World Learns again? Why?

Yes, because it brings me more point of views into my knowledge

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The sequence of analysis

What about Professor Alexander W. Wiseman’s performance did you like?

his analysis and opotunity to reflect with the teachers

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The challenge of learning

Any additional comments?

great

A book I thoroughly enjoyed litening to

Any additional comments?

Here are my key learnings from a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading--one I did not want to finish quickly.

First, why would anyone learn about other countries’ education systems? I think it is important for any parent or educated citizen. For one, education is maybe one of the most common institutions around the world; you and anyone around the world know the classroom experience, or the anxiety before exams, for example. For another, education, in my opinion, is the best means by which societies transform their economy. Prosperous economies tend to have not only a better standard of living but also better societies—that is, being civil or having fewer crimes, and so on.

In his book “How the World learns: Comparative Education Systems,” Alexander W. Wiseman argues that education is not only about school factors—that is, the curriculum, school buildings, and teachers’ credentials—but is equally about non-school factors that are more difficult to change. The most important of these are parents’ income and socio-economic status. This is why it is unwise to borrow another country’s education system and copy it exactly without accounting for different social, cultural, or economic differences. As a result of the results of international standardized tests, many countries tried to copy Finland’s education system, but the benefits were very limited.

To illustrate this point further, we can compare the education system of Finland and that of Taiwan. Both countries’ students are always at the top of international standardized tests rankings, but they couldn't be more different. Finland’s education system is individualized. The emphasis is on developing a long relationship between the teacher and the students, by which the teacher can identify students’ strengths and weaknesses. They have no or few standardized tests that affect a student’s ability to go from one grade to the next. Taiwan’s education system, by contrast, is a high-stakes system in which students must achieve high scores on exams to move from one grade to another or from elementary school to intermediate school. Students’ job opportunities are also affected by their scores on standardized tests. As such, teachers focus their instruction on exam preparation and best ways by which students can pass exams. It is clear that Finland’s and Taiwan’s education systems are very different, which is also good news in that there is no one and perfect way to fix a country’s education system. However, it is important to benefit from those systems that share similar social and cultural factors and pay attention to the country’s background, that is, its unique values and belief system, for example.

A successful attempt to benefit from a successful education system is one by the UAE, in which they started slowly by opening two Finnish schools in Abu Dhabi. They recruited 50 or so Finnish teachers, and the school was under Finnish management. Local teachers were still teaching students courses in Arabic, religion, and ethics, but the Finnish pedagogy was employed, and local teachers were sent on a regular basis to continuing education programs, similar to what Finnish teachers normally receive in Finland. This experience is successful in many ways. For one, it benefits from Finnish pedagogy. Second, it takes into account the UAE’s unique culture. Third, Finland was chosen carefully as it shares a number of factors with the UAE, for example, the standard of living.

What is good about this book is that not only does it teach about the different methods by which different countries learn but also the importance of context. Not only in education, we tend to try to copy successful people’s ways without accounting for differences that cannot, sometimes, be altered. If you’re to start a new traditional or online school in Saudi Arabia, you can’t copy any successful model; it is important to emulate those that share a good number of cultural, social, and economical factors. A good example of this is Ali Baba’s success. Unlike the Western model of effective websites, Ali Baba accounted for Chinese preference for flashy colours and Chinese insistence on communication with the seller before buying. After struggling for a few years, Ali Baba sales exceeded those of eBay in China, a feat that no one expected.

Repetitive

Anedotal supplemented with superficial statistics. The same tenants were repeated throughout the course. A few interesting thoughts sprinkled as the exception.

A fine course

This is a fine and thoughtful course and there is an Oklahoma connection. That is nice to see in a course about International learning methods.