Britain Turns to Chinese Textbooks to Improve Its Math Scores

中国数学教材引入英国，小学生习题被改成这样

BEIJING — Educators around the world were stunned[1] when students in Shanghai came first in their international standardized testing debut, in 2010, besting[2] their counterparts in dozens of countries in what some called a Sputnik-like moment[3].

北京——上海学生首次参加国际标准化考试，便力压来自其他数十个国家的学生，拔得头筹，创造了一些人口中类似于“斯普特尼克時刻”的一刻。该消息在2010年公之于众时， 全世界的教育者都为之震惊。

[1]stunned：very shocked or surprised 目瞪口呆

They stood in stunned silence beside the bodies.

他们站在尸体旁，目瞪口呆。

[2]best (v.)

to defeat someone in a fight or competition 击败，战胜

He bested his opponent in just two rounds.

仅仅两个回合他就击败了对手。

[3]Sputnik moment

The moment when a country or a society realizes that it needs to catch up with apparent technological and scientific developments made by some other country or countries by increasing its investment into education, innovative research and development, etc.

斯普特尼克时刻，是人们认识到自己受到威胁和挑战，必须加倍努力，迎头赶上的时刻。它来自当时苏联发射的第一颗卫星的人造地球卫星"斯普特尼克"1号，此举击败了美国，率先进入太空。

Now, some British schools will try to replicate that success by using translated textbooks that are otherwise all but identical to those in public elementary schools around Shanghai.

现在，一些英国学校试图通过使用独特的教科书来复制那种成功。新课本译自上海各公立小学使用的教科书，几乎与原版一模一样。

Starting in January, teachers in England will have the option of using “Real Shanghai Mathematics,” a series of 36 textbooks translated directly from Chinese into English. The only difference? The renminbi symbols will be replaced by British pound signs.

从2018年1月起，英国的老师将可以选择使用一套共36本直接从中文译成英文的教科书——《真实上海数学》(Real Shanghai Mathematics)。唯一的区别？人民币的符号将被英镑的符号取而代之。

“All this time, Asians have been learning from the Western education system,” said Yong Zhao, a professor of education at University of Kansas. “Suddenly, it's the reverse.”

“很长时间以来，亚洲人一直从西方教育系统中汲取经验，”堪萨斯大学(University of Kansas)教育学教授赵勇说。“突然间，事情发生了逆转。”

Western classrooms have adopted mathematics teaching techniques from Asia before. In the past, a small number of schools in the West experimented with a Singapore-style approach. It is similar to the method used in Shanghai, which is seen as having the best math teachers in China.

这并不是来自亚洲的数学教学首次被引入西方的课堂。早前，少数西方学校试着采取了一种新加坡式的教学方法。它与被视为全中国最牛数学老师汇聚之地的上海使用的方法类似。

But experts say England is the first country to forge ahead with a bold government-backed plan to remake some classrooms in the image of the East. Under a $54 million initiative funded by the government, more than half the primary schools in England will adopt a teaching approach to math that is used in top-performing places like Shanghai and Singapore.

但专家称，英国是第一个制定由政府支持的大胆计划、要在某种程度上以东方为蓝本重塑一些课堂的国家。根据这项得到政府资金支持、总预算为5400万美元的计划，英国超过半数的小学将采取上海、新加坡等学生成绩最好的一些地方使用的数学教学方法。

“I am confident that the steps we are taking now will ensure young people are properly prepared for further study and the 21st-century workplace, and that the too often heard phrase ‘can't do maths’ is consigned[4] to the past,” said Nick Gibb, the British schools minister who oversees primary education, when he announced the initiative last year.

“我相信，我们现在采取的措施将确保年轻人为未来的学业和21世纪的职场做好准备，人们耳熟能详的‘学不来数学’将成为过时的说法，”负责初等教育的英国学校事务大臣尼克·吉布(Nick Gibb)去年宣布推出该计划时表示。

[4]consign sb/sth to sth：to get rid of someone or something or to put him, her, or it in an unpleasant place or situation 把…打发掉；把…置于，使…处于（不利境地）

to be consigned to prison

被投入监狱

The country's K-12 education system[7], by contrast, is something of a natural cultural resource, having been built around the all-important gaokao, or national college examination, a single competitive test that determines where most Chinese go to university.

相比之下，中国的大学前教育体系是某种围绕高考而建立的天然文化资源。作为竞争激烈的全国性大学入学考试，高考具有无与伦比的重要性，可以决定大多数中国人能上哪所大学。

[7]K-12教育是美国基础教育的统称。“K12”中的“K”代表Kindergarten（幼儿园），“12”代表12年级（相当于我国的高三）。“K－12”是指从幼儿园到12年级的教育，因此也被国际上用作对基础教育阶段的通称。

Besides Britain, a number of other countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, and Malaysia, have expressed interest in learning from the so-called Chinese mastery model. Mr. Ni, the Chinese publisher, said that the company was in talks with education representatives in several other countries, like the United States, about adapting its workbooks.

除了英国，阿联酋、肯尼亚和马来西亚等很多国家都表达了对于学习所谓的中国掌握模式的兴趣。华东师范大学出版社的倪明说，该出版社正就其所出参考书的改编事宜在美国等其他几个国家与教育代表谈判。

The movement to learn from China comes even as parents and educators in the country increase calls to overhaul the education system to ease the intense pressure on students and encourage individuality.

这场向中国学习的运动浮出水面之时，中国的一些家长和教育人士正越来越多地呼吁大幅改变该国的教育系统，以便减轻学生面临的严峻压力，鼓励个性发展。

“Just because England is importing our teaching materials doesn't mean there aren't any problems with our education system and that it doesn't need reform,” Xiong Bingqi, vice president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, wrote recently in the Guangming Newspaper.

“不能因英国引进数学教材，就认为我国小学数学教学没有问题，从而不进行改革，”北京21世纪教育研究院副院长熊丙奇最近在《光明日报》上写道。

In some parts of China, officials have already begun experimenting with gaokao reforms and with teaching techniques that reward critical thinking. Dissatisfied with the education system at home, huge numbers of parents continue to send their children to study in countries like England and the United States.

中国一些地区的官员已经开始试着推行高考改革以及奖励批判性思维的教学方法。由于对本国的教育体系不满，大量中国家长继续把子女送往英国、美国等国家求学。

“Right now, the national buzzword is creativity,” said Jiang Xueqin, a researcher at Harvard who advises Chinese schools on how to incorporate more creativity into their curriculum. “China sees it as a source of economic power, a hurdle to be jumped over to challenge American hegemony[8].”

“现今，‘创造性’在中国是一大热词，”哈佛大学研究员、会就如何在课程中融入更多创造性向中国学校提供建议的江学勤说。“中国把它视为经济实力的一个来源，以及要挑战美国的霸权就必须跨越的一道障碍。”

[8]hegemony：(especially of countries) the position of being the strongest and most powerful and therefore able to control others （尤指国家的）霸权，支配权

The three nations competed for regional hegemony.

这3个国家就地区霸权展开争夺。

Some experts question whether merely adopting Chinese textbooks will have a real impact on math standards. Textbooks, Mr. Hughes acknowledged, are not a silver bullet[9] for education problems in Britain.

有专家质疑，仅仅引进中国的教科书能否对数学课程水平产生真正的影响。休斯承认，就英国的教育问题而言，教科书并不能包治百病。

[9]silver bullet：a simple solution to a complicated problem

But even if the effort is well intentioned, some critics say the mastery system is too rooted in the cultural context of Asia to be applicable in the West.

但一些批评者说，即便这项努力用意良好，掌握模式也太过根植于亚洲的文化环境，很难适用于西方。

Mr. Ni said that some of those differences became evident in translating Chinese workbooks into English. One exercise asks first graders to pair objects, like a shirt and shorts, for example, or a flower and a vase.

倪明说，其间的一些差异在把中文教科书翻译成英文的过程中显而易见。一道习题要求一年级学生给事物配对，比如衬衫配短裤，花配花盆。

But at least one pair had to be changed, he said. The bird and cage in the original became a bird and a tree in the English edition — a not-so-subtle metaphor[10], perhaps, for the different approaches to teaching.

但他说，至少要把一对事物改一下。最初是鸟和笼子，在英文版里改成了鸟和树——或许，这是关于不同教学方法的一个不那么微妙的隐喻。

[10]metaphor ['metəfɔː(r)]

an expression, often found in literature, that describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to that person or object 隐喻；暗喻

“To Chinese, the bird is just a toy,” Mr. Ni said. “But in England, the bird has to be free in the tree.”

“在中国的文化里鸟是用来赏玩的，”倪明说。“但是在英国，鸟应该自由地在树上。”

鸟和树搭配，

还是鸟和笼子。

你觉得呢？