Is Exam Hell the cause of high academic achievement in East Asia? The case of Japan and the case for transcending stereotypes
Is Exam Hell the cause of high academic achievement in East Asia? The case of Japan and the case for transcending stereotypes
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考试地狱是东亚人取得高学术成就的原因吗？
DOI：
10.1002/berj.3468
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发表时间：
2018
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Jeremy Rappleye
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Hikaru Komatsu;Jeremy Rappleye
东亚学生的高成绩通常被解释为该地区竞争激烈、压力大的高考的结果。这种“考试地狱”驱使学生比世界各地的同龄人学习更长时间、更努力，毫无疑问，这种竞赛导致他们在国际学生评估项目（PISA）等国际比较中获得更高的分数。然而，这场竞争也付出了相当大的代价：心理压力、失去的童年、死记硬背的制度、缺乏创造力以及补习班的私人支出。在这篇文章中，我们试图通过关注过去三十年日本教育的变化来驳斥这种过时的叙述。我们首先分析了日本研究人员进行的三次纵向调查中关于学习时间的定量数据，结果表明日本高中生的学习时间在1980-2000年间有所下降（研究1）。然后，我们转而分析2015年的PISA数据，显示现在日本学生的学习时间比主要英美国家（美国、英国和澳大利亚）的同龄人要少（研究2）。这些发现与学术界和通俗文学中经常出现的陈旧形象背道而驰。为了帮助消除对东亚教育最顽固的刻板印象之一，我们试图帮助人们看到东亚学生成绩的其他解释。
High student achievement across East Asia is often explained as an outcome of highly competitive, stress‐inducing college entrance exams across the region. This ‘exam hell’ drives students to study longer and harder than their peers worldwide, a race that leads—unsurprisingly—to higher marks in international comparisons such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Yet, the race comes at a considerable cost: psychological pressure, forfeited childhoods, regimes of rote memorisation, lack of creativity and private outlays for cram schools. In this article, we seek to refute this outdated narrative by focusing on changes in Japanese education over the past three decades. We first analyse quantitative data for learning time based on three longitudinal surveys conducted by researchers in Japan to show that learning time for Japanese upper secondary students declined during 1980–2000 (Study 1). We then turn to analyse PISA 2015 data to show that now Japanese students study less than their peers in major Anglo‐American countries: the USA, the UK and Australia (Study 2). These findings run counter to well‐worn images frequently rehearsed in both the academic and popular literature. In helping to remove one of the most persistent stereotypes about East Asian education, we seek to help make visible other explanations for East Asian student achievement.