A Comparative Study on High School Students Between the United States and China
A Comparative Study on High School Students Between the United States and China
With the development of global economy, the competition in education is becoming an important part of the international competitions. Students all over the world are competing with not only the students in their country but the students in the world. To some degrees, the future competitiveness of a country relies on how great their students are. As for students, their high school time is the critical period in their life, when they form their outlook on life and find out what they want to do in the future.
High school students in both the United States and China have huge differences in their school life.
First, curriculum. Students in American high school are required to take Science, Mathematics, English, Social sciences, Physical education and other electives such as Computers, Foreign language etc. Nearly 40 percent of U.S. high school students do not take any science class more challenging than general biology. And 55 percent of students do not take any math courses beyond two years of algebra and one year of geometry. While in China, the academic curriculum consists of Chinese, Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, History, etc. The requirement to Chinese students in Mathematics & Science is considered to be quite high.
Second, time on studying. According to the research conveyed by BPP production team, American students spend 302,400 minutes in school during their high school time for 4 years while Chinese students spend 583,200 minutes. If adding that to the time spent doing homework and studying after school, by the end of the high school, Chinese students have spent twice as many hours studying as American students. But even though Chinese students spend more time studying, it seems that their homework can never be finished. Thus, Chinese students try their best to enhance their learning efficiency in order to squeeze more time.
However,
With the development of global economy, the competition in education is becoming an important part of the international competitions. Students all over the world are competing with not only the students in their country but the students in the world. To some degrees, the future competitiveness of a country relies on how great their students are. As for students, their high school time is the critical period in their life, when they form their outlook on life and find out what they want to do in the future.
High school students in both the United States and China have huge differences in their school life.
First, curriculum. Students in American high school are required to take Science, Mathematics, English, Social sciences, Physical education and other electives such as Computers, Foreign language etc. Nearly 40 percent of U.S. high school students do not take any science class more challenging than general biology. And 55 percent of students do not take any math courses beyond two years of algebra and one year of geometry. While in China, the academic curriculum consists of Chinese, Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, History, etc. The requirement to Chinese students in Mathematics & Science is considered to be quite high.
Second, time on studying. According to the research conveyed by BPP production team, American students spend 302,400 minutes in school during their high school time for 4 years while Chinese students spend 583,200 minutes. If adding that to the time spent doing homework and studying after school, by the end of the high school, Chinese students have spent twice as many hours studying as American students. But even though Chinese students spend more time studying, it seems that their homework can never be finished. Thus, Chinese students try their best to enhance their learning efficiency in order to squeeze more time.
However,
References: Net 1 BPP production team. 两百万分钟考察中美印教育差异. [DB/OL] http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/83732476-2036021381.html, 2012-08-17 Net 2 Wikipedia. Education in the People’s Republic of China. [EB/OL] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_People 's_Republic_of_China#Secondary_education, 2013-06-13 Net 3 Wikipedia. Education in the United States. [EB/OL] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States#Secondary_education, 2013-06-13