The Rise in Competency-based Education in China: The EdTech Podcast
Competency-based learning is an approach to teaching and learning more often used in honing skills necessary to tackle real-world challenges than learning abstract concepts. In today’s world, it is increasingly becoming important to focus on this kind of learning environment than a time-based education system, because not only does it cater to the different learning preferences but also lets students learn at their own pace, leading to better learning outcomes.
Recently, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (MOE) revised the national curriculum, making a move from a quality-based to a competency-based curriculum. This has been ensured via more course categories and elective courses, and refined learning goals involving helping students learn how to learn, cultivating information processing, knowledge acquisition, problem-solving and cooperative learning abilities.
In the following podcast by The EdTech Podcast, Sonnie Tan interviews the Founder of KitCat, Michael Huang, Founder of KitCat, and Yiwei Zhang, Director of International EdTech Projects at Rayee on what’s happening in China’s education sector. They talk about how the ed-tech companies are accelerating the government’s efforts in bringing the vision of a competency-based curriculum to fruition.
Huang talks about how parents are happy to see their children’s creative skills in the various ways that his organisation promotes. This, he believes, is motivating GaoKao (China’s national college entrance test) exam coordinators to include coding and AI-based knowledge for candidates to demonstrate their creative abilities. He is hopeful that for the future evolution of GaoKao will soon evolve into a competency-evaluating exam from a traditional static assessment.
Yiwei Zhang talks about how shopping malls are providing space for students to carry out their project-based learning, whilst their parents enjoy some time of their own.
Check out the podcast given below to learn more on the topic!
Source: YouTube
Image source: https://www.caixinglobal.com/2018-07-25/think-china-is-crowded-check-out-its-primary-schools-101308470.html
