More+notes+on+Yong+Zhao

MASSCUE 8:30 Keynote Yong Zhao from U Oregon posed many great questions in comparing education in the USA to many countries with high performing students on standardized tests:

*Do we teach too much? *In USA, are we over confident but not smart enough? Asian countries who already teach less are cutting their Curricula. *Are we talking about things that don't matter? *Why do Chinese rank low on creativity--China wants to know, “How do we get kids to be creative and happy?”

*We make guesses about the future for “employable skills”. Education doesn't come with warning labels like medicine! *We should ask ourselves “What are the side effects of education? *We shouldn’t go against creativity-we need to preserve the ability to ask questions

*When test scores rise we may be sacrificing creativity- The current US focus on standardized testing may cause us to lose our focus on creativity *Test scores are our new god--we worship them

*Other countries have more focused curriculum *American kids too broad a curriculum *USA always bulks policies around fear of other countries_ They are going toke us over!!!

*Shanghai is new Mecca for educators!

*We have to keep students focused on “What's your dream?”

*American Education may be based on test scores, but we are Consistently improving from bottom of list! *But still, we're most productive, have more innovators, have largest economy, and are the most prosperous for past 40 years--Many countries are banking on US

*How did USA remain strong and have innovators? Immigrants? Not enough! Bad test takers have made us strong!

*Are their gaps in Education that don’t matter? Time on task is best indicators of performance

*We have benefited by a diversity of talents The Stone Age didn’t end because they ran out of/stone we need new ideas!

We are successful in education because:

1. We use multiple criteria to judge talents- we allow geeks and jocks to survive! We have diversity of talents

2. We respect individual differences We learn to experiment

For the Future: *Things change and will continue to change with Global competition *No company stays forever The future will automate *Anyone is waiting for any job possible! *We need to teach something different and compete on quality *We produce different quality of talents like Lady Gaga

*American schools spend 10-20 thousands of dollars on students with including other activities that add to the value of education *We can't destroy our strengths *We need to create more Lady Gagas!

*Use technology to connect globally and enable every school to connect globally

*In sum, don't try to catch up in areas that don't matter

**We need to “Cultivate dreams, creativity, and confidence and not test scores!!!