How different is a Chinese classroom?

There are usually vast differences in every aspect between education systems from different country. One of many reasons of these enormous differences is influence coming from the cultures and traditions of difference countries. In this blog entry, I show you how different the Chinese education system is compared to the Australia one – by looking at the differences of features of classrooms.

Most Chinese classrooms have very traditional teacher-centred education environment. In these traditional classroom environments, there less freedom and more disciplinary power from teachers. For example, there are usually some strict rules like ‘absolute silence when teacher’s talking’, ‘no questioning until the end of the class’ and etc. In addition, I would like to have a look of one of the unique architectural structure of most Chinese classrooms.

As part of his understanding of correct training, Foucault (1979) believes “The success of disciplinary power derives no doubt from the use of simple instruments, hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment and their combination in a procedure that is specific to it, the examination" (p.170). In my opinion, this idea can be seen as how disciplinary power is applied in a traditional classroom.

As an international student, I have spent my first 9 year of education (primary and junior high school) in China. The architectural structure of classrooms of most primary and high schools in China has some unique features that demonstrate Foucault's thought.

      

The classroom doors (as shown in the drawing) of schools in China is unique. There are usually two doors in one classroom -- a front door, and a back door, both facing the main corridor in the school building. In each door, there is a small window allowing monitoring the situation inside the classroom. Students in the same school year are divided into several 'classes'. Students in each class have lessons, play, and live together every day. There is a head teacher in each class who is in charge of the daily routine of that particular class, such as monitoring the process of study and the communicating with the parents. What was happening when I was studying in China is that sometimes, the head teacher 'sneaks' to the back door of the classroom during a class (when the other teacher are giving a lesson), looking through the small window in the back door quietly for a few minutes, records the misbehaviours of students and leave. 

In my opinion, the window in the door of the classroom is the use of simple instruments which allows the process of hierarchical observation, normalizing judgement as an examination (of behaviours). Through those windows, the teacher can apply hierarchical observation to the students by monitoring the situation inside the classroom. If there is any misbehaviour, the head teacher can apply normalizing judgement to the students via penalising or by contacting their parents. The two parts together can be seen as a kind of examination to maintain behaviour regulation.

 

It is very different when you compare those classroom to the Australian classrooms. In my high school (I have been study here since my year 11), there are no windows in the door of classrooms and the classroom is much more active than those in China. From the above, it is possible to sense that the difference of the main focus of the two difference education systems, the Chinese one has much more disciplines and focus more on the process of passing knowledge whereas the Australian one has much more freedom and focus more on the creativity and independent thinking.

Reference:

Michel Foucault, (1979). Discipline and Punish. Ringwood, Penguin.