英語(yǔ)文化隨身帶

by Cathy Manson

Whenever anyone measures educational success， East Asian countries are always top scorers. But in a recent league table， a European country， Finland， was top of the class. South Korea was still in second place， though. Britain was at number six. What is the secret of Finland and South Koreas success？ Time to do some homework.

In Korea the school day is long—typically seven or eight hours， followed by hours of private tutoring in the evenings. All this hothousing leaves Korean students so tired， they sometimes fall asleep[入睡] in class next day. Worries about the effects of late night cramming led the government to force cramming schools to close by 10 p.m.

Finnish children spend the least time in class in the developed world， often finishing just after lunch， with about one hour of homework a day. Private tuition is uncommon. The British school day is quite long in comparison[比較]， around six hours， and

只要談及教育成就，東亞國(guó)家總是傲視同儕。但最新的排名卻驚現(xiàn)芬蘭這一歐洲國(guó)家榮登榜首。韓國(guó)依然穩(wěn)占第二位，英國(guó)則排名第六。芬蘭和韓國(guó)有何成功秘訣呢？是時(shí)候做做功課了。

在韓國(guó)，學(xué)生的學(xué)習(xí)時(shí)間很長(zhǎng)——基本每天上七八個(gè)小時(shí)的課，緊接著晚上還要進(jìn)行幾個(gè)小時(shí)的私人補(bǔ)習(xí)。這種溫室強(qiáng)化式的拔苗助長(zhǎng)令韓國(guó)學(xué)生身心疲累，有時(shí)導(dǎo)致他們?cè)诘诙斓恼n堂上打瞌睡。政府也擔(dān)心補(bǔ)習(xí)社進(jìn)行深宵填鴨式催谷，所以規(guī)定上課只能到晚上十點(diǎn)為止。

在發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家中，芬蘭的孩子上課時(shí)間最短，通常是午飯過后放學(xué)，每天大概就做一個(gè)小時(shí)的功課。私人課外輔導(dǎo)很少見。相比較而言，英國(guó)的學(xué)時(shí)還挺長(zhǎng)的，約有六小時(shí)，中學(xué)生每晚還會(huì)花兩三個(gè)小時(shí)自習(xí)。

韓國(guó)的教育系統(tǒng)與很多亞洲國(guó)家一樣，競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈，連入讀最有名的補(bǔ)習(xí)社也要爭(zhēng)個(gè)頭破血流，只為搶得爭(zhēng)勝先機(jī)。芬蘭的教育則遠(yuǎn)沒有那么殘酷。班級(jí)里有教無類，不分高低、不論排名。英國(guó)學(xué)校（在這一點(diǎn)上）再次居中，大學(xué)名額競(jìng)爭(zhēng)較為激烈，各大院校從考試成績(jī)到學(xué)生滿意度等每一方面都力爭(zhēng)名列榜首。

韓國(guó)和芬蘭的教育同樣優(yōu)異，但其教育體系卻大相徑庭，那么英國(guó)可以從這兩個(gè)教育強(qiáng)國(guó)身上學(xué)到些什么呢？

亞洲和芬蘭確實(shí)有一些共通點(diǎn)。在那些國(guó)家，教師的社會(huì)地位很高，教育備受重視。雖然態(tài)度不是立馬可以轉(zhuǎn)變過來的，但轉(zhuǎn)變是可以實(shí)現(xiàn)的。別看現(xiàn)在芬蘭榮登教育榜首，但在上世紀(jì)七十年代以前，芬蘭的教育曾經(jīng)很差勁，而通過徹底改變教學(xué)模式，芬蘭教育僅在短短一代人的時(shí)間內(nèi)就成功趕超各國(guó)，躍居榜首了?！?br>