Firstly, personally I think Chinese students spend several hours engrossed in books, and this is a major factor that makes them a paragon of education.
I also know from personal interactions with Chinese friends that they read dictionaries and basically they go the extra mile.

OK Randall - now how can you turn what you think and what you have personally experienced into scientific findings on this topic? That's the question.

That is a very difficult question to answer.

The human mind just like the individual is unpredictable. Thus, it defeats one of the principles used in garnering data; results obtained from testing hypothesis must be easily replicated.
With that said, I believe a way to overcome this would be to use a wide than usual test subject. This HAS to be even more than what is considered enough in the natural sciences.
I think the Chinese, by virtue of their culture, are more suited to being on top. Example in focus, the abacus. They learn its use so early that its frightening. Thus, they exercise their mental muscle at an earlier age compared to your average British kid who would use a Casio for calculations.

I agree with Kwaw, in that the ways in which Chinese children are brought up and their culture contributes significantly to their performance. I think that in order to investigate why and how the Chinese do better, one would have to take into consideration the ways these students are taught as compared to the ways the other students in their respective countries.

Addressing the last sentence of Randall's comment, i would like to ask that if the Chinese Student is willing to go the extra mile, what stops and Australian or German student from also going that extra mile? (Assume that they all do IB with the same workload)

My contribution is based mainly on a conversation I had with an Asian friend of mine. He told me about a day in the life of the average Chinese student. The Chinese student goes to school at 7:00am and school closes at 4:00pm. After school he/she goes for activities such as piano or violin lessons till about 6:00pm. He/she then goes back to school and has classes till about 10:00pm, after which he/she has prep till 2:00am the next day. Such a demanding routine I must say. However most of them are used to it. Their bodies have grown accustomed to this practice and they see it as the norm. However, implementing such a system in a country such as Ghana would be disastrous considering the fact that we are used to an average of 9 hours of academic work a day whilst the Chinese are used to about 16 hours. My argument may not be scientific since it is simply based on my interaction with a friend, but I do believe it does, to a large extent, explain why Chinese students are so intellectually advanced. I don’t think it has anything to do with IQ levels.

I think that what Martey has said may be true, seeing how their they have such demanding schedules.
However, do you think it would make a difference if a Ghanaian would go through the same schedule and yet, turn out to be as smart as the Chinese kids?
Even though a gene for intelligence has not been discovered yet, I feel that aside their academic schedules, the Chinese people associate themselves with activities that help to develop the brain such as music which enhance concentration in the brain.
Have you ever wondered why Chinese people often tend to play classical music instruments? I was once told that people who often listen to this genre of music happen to be the smarter ones.
May that be the case in this scenario?

I think Chinese students perform better at school because of the way they are brought up and culture as adjoa said. Some of them maybe have to know something at certain age. You can hear that 8 year old Chinese boy made bicycle, why so? Because the way the way their parents bring them up is quite different from maybe Ghanaian parent. Some parents want their children to know certain things when they are still young, therefore they expose them to various things around the world. Also they are more advanced compared to Ghana but if we compare them to other students from maybe USA, I can say is because of competition. Different countries need experienced people therefore they have to train the young generation.

Amanuel Nigussie

I also agree that it has nothing to do with IQ level or it is not because they are Chinese and they are smart or different. Rather it may be because they practice and read a lot in their free long time that they get in their home because of they are the only child in their family own to, one child policy. I think this may generate same fine circumstances for them to learn and to read extra but very important things.

Mabel (sorry for not including my name on the first post)
Before we try to figure out why Chinese student do better than others, we must firstly ask ourselves. Are they a more superior human race? Is it that they put more effort, energy, concentration and go the extra mile in their academic life? Or is it possible that the Chinese race have “an extra intelligent gene” which makes them more brilliant than others? From biology, we learn about variation among living things and we can also agree that the growth of an individual is influence by cultural factors based on the environment he finds himself. Genetics can also be another factor. Thus, taking into concentration that china is one of the most technologically developed countries, it is reasonable to deduce that as a result of the sufficient availability of educational technological gadgets to the extent that one familiarizes with the use of technology at a very early age, backed by the probability that the Chinese race is one full of curiosity, it is evident that Chinese student will use this to their advantage and thus, get an outstanding performance in academics compared to other students.

Amanuel...to a great extent, i diagree with you. Are you suggesting that the rest of non-chinese students in the world are a bunch of lazy students who do not spend as much time with their books as the chinese students do? also, i dont see why the "one child policy" should be the reason for thier excellence in school.what would you think the outcome will be if a hgic student who comes from probably an extended family, and a single child from one of the normal high schools in ghana, be? taking into consideration the technological advantage and the serenity in hgic.

I seem to have a problem with Human sciences actually finding out anything substantial. Yet in this situation I must say that observation of the work patterns of these students i.e. the number of hours they spend on their academic work, the number of hours they spend socialising, their sleep patterns and their response to failure can help us find out why Chinese students are academically superior. The observation process must not only be limited to the Chinese students however. It must be extended to students from all the stated countries, so that comparisons can be made and some sort of conclusion drawn.

To stretch things a bit, we could resort to the natural sciences and through one sort of technology or the other observe how fast nerve connections are made in the brains of Chinese students as compared to non-Chinese students. To make this more effective, both types of students may be asked to perform the same task, e.g. listening to classical music, whilst the rates of the nerve connections are observed for each student.

I totally disagree with Martey and Adjoa. It's not a matter of how long you work or learn, it's about the quality of what you do. There are thousands of Ghanaians who go through similar rigorous schedules- don't get it twisted. If you don't see this in hgic(which i am VERY surprised you don't), ask those in Botwe, ALA, AIS LAGOS, Gey hey..they also go through hours and hours of academic activity..but or minds should be focusing on the value of the activities and the methods of learning and the environment.

Here are some interesting pieces I saw during my 'research':

'Megan Watkins, from the centre for cultural research at the University of Western Sydney, addressed a recent forum hosted by the state Education Department that explored why children of Mandarin-, Cantonese- and Vietnamese-speaking backgrounds generally outperformed other students at school. Her studies of children of Chinese, Pacific Islander and Anglo-Australian backgrounds show the importance of forming solid homework habits at a young age. Such study habits could help explain why students of Chinese backgrounds tended to outperform students of other ethnic backgrounds.'

(http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/chinese-students-top-the-tests-out-of-habit-not-ethnicity-study-shows-20101228-199bq.html)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/07/chinese-children-school-do-well

I also believe that their educational system is very impressive and cavernous. It encourages chinese kids to be well-rounded and well-versed in chinese, usually two foreign languages, two instruments, a sport, math, sciences, environmental science. The Jamaicans say: 'if the root is strong, the fruit is sweet.' The Chinese begin studying from very early stages and this stimultates their quest to know in the latter stages.

I must say that in ten years time a post will read :

'Why do African children perform better at school?'

Watch out for us!!

The Ashkenazi Jews (Jews from Europe who now constitute 80% of world Jews) are thought to be the smartest human beings on the planet scoring an average IQ of 107 to 115, well above the average 100 for ‘other humans’. In 20th century America they constituted only 3% of the population but won 27% of Nobel Prizes and 25% of the prestigious Turing Awards for computer science.
How can this be explained? Could it be genetic or can it be explained culturally and historically? What are the implications if it proves to be genetic? How reliably can we measure intelligence anyway?

s kidane i think its genetic. people can inherit certain genetic characteristics from their family members. so i think it is something that is revolving around the Ashkenazi jews family, if they have won such prizes.their relatives were more experienced than them therefore they definately passed it over it to their children. i think intelligence vary from different people as we are specialized in different subject areas or knowledge. therefore i dont think saying that this kid is intelligent just because he/she is good in computer science makes another kid who is good in mathematics not being intellince. i dont think is that reliable we just have to be specify the kind of intelligence we are measuring.

I totally disagree with Linder. I have never heard of an intelligent gene being passed on from a parent to their offspring. If there is something like that please enlighten me, since enlightenment is an aspect of TOK, anyway.

Back to the question, what I know about the Jews is that they are generally very hard-working and devoted to their families, themselves, their religion and their careers. This I believed stemmed from their history. The Biblical history of the Jews mostly involves them toiling and working the ground to provide for themselves and their families, and building massive buildings with their bare hands, examples being when they were held captive in Egypt, and when Nehemiah decided to re-build the temple. Looking at this history, we see the trail of a group of very hard-working individuals, who by no doubt passed on these traits to their descendants, hence explaining the assiduous and ambitious nature of the Jews even in this present age. No wonder the Germans, around the time of the Second World War, and even before that, were antisemitic (prejudiced against the Jews), mainly because the Jews who were immigrants and very few in population, were acquiring the top-most positions in Germany and most of the antisemitic countries, leaving the natives to hold low-income jobs or even rendering them jobless.

Basically, the point I'm trying to make is that the Jews are very tireless, persevering and assiduous people, probably accounting for their numerous successes. This may be the same case for the Chinese. Who knows?

I believe just like the natural science, the human science can conduct an experiment to explain why the Chinese do best academically as compared to other economically and technologically advanced countries.
First of all, the “experiment” must be controlled, and this can be done using students of for example, within the same age group who pursue this curriculum or live with both parents or not or even their parent’s financial status. This then permits the comparison of the dependent variables such as what the Chinese do that the other students in the other countries do not do. This can mainly be done by observation, interviews and administering of questionnaires.
I agree that there is an immense level of uncertainty related to this method as humans are unpredictable. However, to curb this error, the “observer or scientist” can perform this undisclosed.
In my opinion, I believe the main reason why the Chinese are best in because of the nature of their curriculum and their attitude towards what they do. A documentary I watched some time ago revealed students of ages 6 to 10 performing mental calculations which in Africa will be saved for a student in grade 6. The secret I believe is the development of the SKILL at a very early age and less emphasis on the GRADE. Also, they do not just learn the SKILLS but also put it to PRACTICAL use: creating programs and toys to be used for learning. One reason Africa is not even on the list is because of the curriculum and lack of educational resources. How many times did I hear and read of the reaction between a carbonate and an acid producing water, carbon(iv)oxide and salt without performing the experiment myself to verify these results. But again do you think a change in curriculum will permit an African country to even get on the list? I think we need more than that.

Crystal, am not saying that parents pass intelligent gene to their children. What I mean is that there are some people who actually inherit some characteristics from their parents.e.g your parent can be good in something then later you can also become specialized on the same thing.

kk i reckon that a well educated chinese man recognises approximately 6,000-7,000 characters and to read a news paper in Main land you need at least 3,000 characters. Now just like we had to recite 26 alphabets in Nursery they have to recite like thousands in that early age. I think this makes their brains alert at a very early age.

I totally agree with Goretti. The chinese performing better at school because they have to learn over 6,000 characters is an example of how language affects thought. These chinese at a very tender age are able to memorise these characters, by doing this they are sharpening their brains.

The topic is rather controvertible and to a large extent I agree and disagree with many of the comments made. Martey and Adjoa, the number of hours used in study is not an accurate measure of their 'intelligence'(so to speak).In fact it is not even a measure at all. Consider the fact that the human species, as varied as it is, is characterized by genetic variation- we are all different and I think BIO S.L students from today's class and Mr. Kitching's emphasis will understand what I am talking about. We all learn at very different rates, given our variations and a simple observation of this can be made in our immediate surroundings, the classroom. There are some students, who can spend an hour revising an entire syllabus and get a perfect score, whereas others may spend the whole night to be able to make a score of 100%. So the time isn't the issue here.Therefore Abigail, measuring the speed of nerve-transmission wouldn't be necessary, because the variation cannot explain their performance/ intelligence.
Moreover, can we accurately conclude that their 'out-performance' is as a result of their time-tables? I am considering the Ghanaian academic timetable, which is also, as Efua said, also very rigorous. In fact, so rigorous to the extent between the junior high years from JSS1 to JSS3, students are compelled to attend pretty intensive classes both on saturdays, and during the summer holdidays. Now that's a lot of learning within a year so I'm not too convinced that the timetable is a good enough reason. What is to say the avearge European is not equally a strenuous.
Lastly, let's not make this an issue of intelligence because performance is not and has NEVER been a measure of how smart one is or not. To justify this, consider the many people, even around, who are naturally both intelligent and knowledgeable. A lack of studying maybe due to laziness or whatever other reason may result in their under-performance, however clearly it is not representative of their intellect.
direct a question to me small eh? :) Lol

The topic is rather controvertible and to a large extent I agree and disagree with many of the comments made. Martey and Adjoa, the number of hours used in study is not an accurate measure of their 'intelligence'(so to speak).In fact it is not even a measure at all. Consider the fact that the human species, as varied as it is, is characterized by genetic variation- we are all different and I think BIO S.L students from today's class and Mr. Kitching's emphasis will understand what I am talking about. We all learn at very different rates, given our variations and a simple observation of this can be made in our immediate surroundings, the classroom. There are some students, who can spend an hour revising an entire syllabus and get a perfect score, whereas others may spend the whole night to be able to make a score of 100%. So the time isn't the issue here.Therefore Abigail, measuring the speed of nerve-transmission wouldn't be necessary, because the variation cannot explain their performance/ intelligence.
Moreover, can we accurately conclude that their 'out-performance' is as a result of their time-tables? I am considering the Ghanaian academic timetable, which is also, as Efua said, very rigorous. In fact, so rigorous to the extent between the junior high years from JSS1 to JSS3, students are compelled to attend pretty intensive classes both on saturdays, and during the summer holdidays. Now that's a lot of learning within a year so I'm not too convinced that the timetable is a good enough reason. What is to say the avearge European 's timetable is not equally as strenuous?
Lastly, let's not make this an issue of intelligence because performance is not and has NEVER been a measure of how smart one is or not. To justify this, consider the many people, even around, who are naturally both intelligent and knowledgeable. A lack of studying maybe due to laziness or whatever other reason may result in their under-performance, however clearly it is not representative of their intellect.
direct a question to me small eh? :) Lol

In the past, it was the myth of Why do Chinese students do well in math and science and then it came to technology and now it is a generalization of why Chinese students really perform well.

After reading an article by Anna Patty, it is of no doubt that research shows that the reason for the high performance of these children is because of the habit they have cultivated since they were small. As the saying goes a "Habit once cultivated can never be stopped." They have cultivated the habit of learning from every experience and at anytime.

However, another article I came across suggested that the reason for the high performance of Chinese students due to some genetic background.

For me, the studies showing genetics and habits may or may not be true. But it is important to note that these conclusions came as a result of some observations and experimental analysis of different people. I dare not conclude that these facts are not precise.

Yet, I believe that to make conclusions on the performance of Chinese kids it will be appropriate to consider other kids and the trends of study in the different continents. This may seem like a large scale sampling. But for the purpose of accuracy this will be necessary. If a good research is being undertaken some categorization in terms of age, social status or continent like the above should be considered without any exceptions.

The Chinese people take years to learn the basics and many more to comprehend a full range of characters the biggest dictionaries have more than 60,000 of them. I want to pose a question to Goretti and Nana Abena. Therefore, Should we Africans teach our kids Chinese? And maybe just maybe the generations to come will be as intelligent as the Chinese people.
The Chinese people have high Intelligence Quotient (IQ). Their hard work, determination and the attitude towards what they do make them do better in school. The kids are exposed to different practical work at a very tender age. If we decide to do the same we might be as intelligent as them.
Maybe it is just not in the African blood to be as intelligent as the Chinese, we should also be content with the little intelligence we have.

I disagree with Joy when she says Africans should be content with the little intelligence they have. Africans should be able to persevere to acquire more knowledge so that they also become one of the leading continents in the world. I do believe this because they do have equal potential to be as knowledgeable as the Chinese youth. With China in this era we can for sure say that they are becoming a really powerful economy, also in terms of technology in the world which could probably also is a factor of having so many intelligent people there. If the Africans stay in the tiny puddle of knowledge they find themselves in, the scorching knowledge of advanced countries will dry the little they have thus leaving them to suffer in the future years to come. So I do not think that Africa should be comfortable with what they have but see what advancing countries are doing so they proceed to higher heights and have a better form of education for the youth.

Joy I dont think we should make our future children learn Chinese but rather teach them to be as hardworking as the Chinese are. I also disagree with you when you say that we should be content because I believe in Africa. Lastly, you talked about the smartness not being in our blood so do you believe that this has got something to do with gene as mr. Kidane had asked before?

I completely disagree and stress that performance is not an accurate measure of intelligence. Hence let's not get into a comparison between the Chinese and African Intellect.
The learning of several different characters, I also think, is irrelevant to the topic of discussion. An ability to recollect characters does not guarantee intelligence. And if such arguments are being made about the Chinese, then we should also take into consideration the Arabs or even the Ancient Egyptians- both of whom were involved in the study of complex, language in comparison with that of the English Language.
I still continue to think that their out-performance is partly a result of their strong, relentless, and determined work ethic, which maybe we could compare with the likes of Africans. The Chinese are known to have the capacity to work optimally in the least conducive environments, despite the rewards that lay ahead. This , I think, we can agree are different from the African

I'm a little late on this one but I must say its an interesting discussion going on here. But i'd like to direct us to the original question and put a few twists to it:

How could you start to find the causes of this phenomenon (Chinese excellence) in a way that would be scientifically acceptable?

I believe that if there is to be found a way of finding the causes to such a phenomenon, its methodology should stem in the Natural sciences. They are generally a better way of measuring things; a better way of thinking, I believe.

I may seem biased but I share Abigails view point: "I seem to have a problem with Human sciences actually finding out anything substantial." This is because they seem to base a lot of their findings on assumptions and can never have anything under control. Even controlled experiments involve a lot of factors. Humans in general are too complex to be the area of study and I believe our methods to studying the human sciences should be heavily reviewed.

Another way to look at the problem: Can we really measure intelligence? Looking back at the theory of Multiple INtelligences, which I believe is closer to reality, can we really say that Chinese are smarter? Maybe their good at being math and science wizzes, but is that intelligence? Can we come up with a universal method of measuring intelligence which wouldbe undisputable?

On a lighter side, they probably just look smarter because they have a large population so they have a lot of the smart people :D

Phoebe, by measuring the nerve connections, I did not mean to say that the transmission of information across neurones should be measured. What I meant was that the rate at which neural connections which permanently link various parts of the brain together are formed should be measured. These conditions make it easier for a person to find the link between various subjects and thus make things easier to understand since the brain finds it easier to draw links between past and present, new and old, etc.

Marilyn and Abigail, I agree with you that the best method of investigating the cause of Chinese excellence is observation. This observation would take into account factors such as the learning facilities available to Chinese students, their teachers’ manner of teaching, the students’ learning style and level of seriousness, and the country’s active policy on child education. The same observation would be carried out in the other countries involved in the study, and the findings compared. Based on this comparison, possible reasons for this phenomenon can be suggested.
My only problem with this kind of investigation is that would be quite difficult, or maybe impossible, to find a sample size that would produce sufficient results that would be a true reflection of these factors for different categories of students and accurate enough to be used to make a general deduction about the cause of the smartness of Chinese students. For example, would 50 poor Chinese students be observed and 50 rich ones? Would we observe 70 from extended families, and 70 from nuclear ones? Definitely, the time and resources available to a researcher affects the sample size of his experiment, but which sample size is the best? Considering this while carrying out the investigation would improve the investigation’s quality.

I read around to find other researchers’ findings on this topic. Some of them are quite interesting:
i. "It's mostly the parents. Chinese parents tend to push their children a lot, and have really high expectations.” (Jessie Tang)
ii. "Our main argument is that families of Chinese heritage see taking education seriously as a fundamental pillar of their Chinese identity, and a way of differentiating themselves not just within their own group, but from other ethnic groups as well." (Becky Francis: professor at King’s College London and director of education at the Royal Society of Arts)
However, I’m sure that parents of other countries in the study are equally pushy, and that the children are also equally serious. But how do we measure the level of “pushiness” or “seriousness”?
You can view the full article on http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/07/chinese-children-school-do-well.

I want us to model a null hypothesis and also test this knowledge acquired by induction. As would have been done with the natural sciences.
Are there any unintelligent chinese children?
Do they belong to a family where they have smart brothers and sisters?
How exactly was the data in this study collected.
These I pressume would be some knowledge issue to lead us on in this area of investigation.
Michael Djan

I think Chinease students happen to be more intelligent because they are amusingly curious about certain things especially in the sciences.Therefore certain accademic issues come easily to them than any other non chinease student because they not only want to learn them because they are relevant but also b'se they are intrested in them.I also agree with the comment made earlier by Crystal that these students are usually hardworking which ofcourse comes with intrest.

This is very late. I agree with Olivia. They just happen to lean towards scientific knowledge and discoveries. It's what interests them. The situation would be the same anywhere else if most of that country's children were interested in sciences.

I also agree with Olivia when she says Chinese people are extremely curious. Even though I have not been around that many chinese people, the ones i always intercat with always seem to be very curious about everything. They love to know what this is about and what that is about.
This may obviously enable them increase their knowledge genrally about issues.
Last year, I had the opportunity to visit my older sister in college and as she was giving me a mini tour of her college, we came across a group of Chinese children who roughly looked the ages of 15 and below, also being given a tour a woman. They seemed to be very fascinated and intrigued and excited. I watched as they asked numerous questions, took pictures and chatted away. This incident also confirmed my ideology that Chinese people are curious people!
I think that if from an early age most Chinese students are excited about college and things, they might have the drive to work hard and to be in these schools.
Some people who have researched on this issue tell us that most Chinese children are deeply routed in their culture and in their culture the Chinese generally are hard workers,especially the men who are hard working farmers. Therefore, this is passed on to the young ones who keep up the hard work in the classrooms and end up performing better in school. It was also said that American children have have not been established in a proper culture yet like the Chinese. This may be one of the reasons why. This link has some more intersting reasons.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/chinese-students-top-the-tests-out-of-habit-not-ethnicity-study-shows-20101228-199bq.html

I also agree with Kweiba, Dzifa and Olivia. However, besides the fact that they are curious about things, they are also taught in very unique and interesting ways, their experiments seem more challenging. Also, the students start learning more mind-boggling stuff at a very tender age,so as time goes on, the amount of things they may know will surpass that of others. They are also very focused on what they want and know the consequences of not being able to achieve their goals. Chinese Students are generally willing, have the ability and desire to know more and explore whether that topic is related to academics or not.