Chinese students do better in Australia

By Tim Dodd. Chinese school students in Australia do better in maths than children in the world’s top performing schools in Shanghai, casting doubt on the widely held assumption that teaching methods in Chinese schools are superior. A new study has found that students of Chinese background in Australian schools scored an average 615 in maths, compared to 600 for Shanghai students, in the 2009 OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test. which compares 15-year-olds. In contrast, the average maths score for all students in Australian schools in the test was 514, well below what Chinese students scored in both Australia and Shanghai. More...