Chinese education has traditionally measured student success through standardized test scores and students’ abilities to play by the rules. But it is now an archaic practice…
Now, the emphasis is to change the rule of the game and focus on what the modern economy demands. Chinese education system goals and dimensions are changing and the Chinese are looking to incorporate elements like innovation, flexibility and creative thinking into the curriculum. Perhaps, this is why in China, improving students’ creativity is becoming an important goal of modern colleges and Universities specifically in the domain of science and technology. The efforts to make it work is not limited to just in- classroom efforts and activities but take forward activities and competitions beyond the four walls of classroom or limits of school.
The best part is, all its steps are strategic and it is not shying away to take help from other nation’s prestigious Universities of the US to teach Chinese lecturers how they can guide the Chinese students to become more creative in their endeavor and thought process. US as a nation is highly popular for encouraging students in free-wheeling thought.
The Chinese higher education institutes have started to invest heavily on creativeness and innovativeness in education. The reason why it is so is because without creativity of human mind, there will not be any creative practice or creative results. For any innovation or invention, the one thing that’s regarded as highly important is creativity. So, if Chinese investments have gone up to develop creativity in students’ it is perhaps going in the right direction to nurture the young minds.
Various Initiatives Taken Up By China to Develop Creativity Among Students
The nation’s schools are striving to build citizens character in an all-round way, gear their efforts to each and every student to achieve vibrant student development and liberate students to pursue more fulfilling paths in a country where jobs are no longer assigned. So, let’s take a look at some of the initiatives to develop creativity among students.
Before we move on our discussion as to what initiatives are taking place in China to develop creativity among their students, see how Chinese student inventors showcase creativity at 2018 Lepine contest in the video below
Hack-Schooling is Working up Towards Fostering Creativity in Students
In a report undertaken by the Research Leap, there is a clear mention about the role of hackschooling or homeschooling on student’s life and education in China.
Basically Hack schooling is all about, it is a combination of in-school, after school and extracurricular time where students from several high schools in Denver, CO solve community problems through empathetic design and engineering solution.
The school is bringing in free and direct access to technology to over 1000 students at North High School, STRIVE Prep- Excel, and other high school age students who live nearby. The group of 30 core students are devoted to solving the world’s challenges through technology.
Students are striving hard to foster creativity in schools through project based learning facility. These help derive authentic learning options. Reality based learning methods assists in delivering some authenticity and a greater purpose. The reality-based learning method helps one find real problem that affect real people and then allow them to create real solutions for those people. In fact for the Hackschool students, a test is not a bubble sheet. For Hackschool students, a test is when a community uses a student’s creation to successfully solve a community problem. When a student’s creation solves the community problem, one finds success and if it doesn’t, they redesign with this new information.
The skills that students learn through Hack school helps them to over-prepare them for STEM in higher education and enable students to do real engineering work long before graduating from university. The reason why hack school matters is because there has been a black hole of STEM opportunities for young women and people of color. But with hack school’s creation of amazing programs, such is possible.
The Other Ways Adopted By China to Foster Creativity
In China, the University Education of Scientific and Technological Innovation (STI) began its operation in the eighties and thereafter in 1989, 31 Universities comprising of Peking University and Tsinghua University jointly held “Challenge Cup” the extracurricular scientific activities and technological exchanges. Here more than 1000 colleges and Universities participate to conduct activities and programs for the students. In the same league is another University called College NOC (Network Originality Competition) that hosts extracurricular STI activities to encourage students to think with an open mind.
In fact, the idea behind conducting such activities and innovation programs is an attempt to encourage the Chinese students to open up mind and get a vital chance to work with inspiring teachers- having rich experience and knowledge on rich topics. The topics are mostly derived from day today life that are of extreme importance and allow students to come up with innovative themes and devote a high degree of social concern. The entire exercise is invigorating because it demands students to do something new in the process of analysis and problem solving innovation.
Bringing Creativity – A Major Chinese Education Reform
The Chinese Government is all up to develop their creative industries through education reform by moving away from test-focused and rote instruction to student centered creative practices. It has stepped into incorporating cooperative learning, discovery methods and project based learning activities.
State & local governments and teachers are given more control over development and selection of textbooks along with a say in the development of a flexible curriculum. Following in suit are attempts such like, to introduce an innovative model for training skilled personnel to meet the needs of both national and social development; following the laws of education and the laws governing the growth of talent, pay attention to combining learning with thinking, integrating knowledge with practice, teaching students according to their aptitude and many more other approaches that help foster creativity through education.
Thus China, has reaffirmed its targets of becoming a moderately prosperous society by 2020 and this they are targeting by bringing in growth through technological convergence and innovation. In order to sustain its growth trends, it is making sure that, the talents in China are nurtured with quality education that fulfills the demands of modern economy and do not have to depend on the talents of other nations. The report prepared by World Bank will give you a better idea on this. Click here for the report.
Have we missed out any other initiative taken up by China to develop creativity in Chinese students? Please let us know if you know of any other step taken up by China and which are exemplary to develop creativity and innovation in students.
