BBC Chinese Quasi/Pseudo-experiment

BBC Chinese Quasi/Pseudo-experiment

It was overwhelmingly reported as an experiment. But in my first opinion it only counts as a quasi-experiment. Why? The primary reason is that participants in the study are neither randomly assigned nor randomly selected.

For the BBC documentary show Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School, a supposed-to-be experiment was carried out, in which fifty students between 13 and 14 year olds were put through a Chinse-style education for four weeks. Five teachers from mainland China were selected for this quasi-experiment and they were responsible for courses such as math, science and PE (Espinoza, 2015). The result? Students in this quasi-experiment received test scores 10% higher than their non-Chinese school counterparts (Lim, 2015). Conclusion? A contentious one. “British pupils taught by Chinese are better than their peers in maths and science” (Espinoza, 2015).

The experiment seemed to possess all the features required for an experiment. It was designed to test the efficiency of Chinese-style education. The independent variables were evident: the Chinese teachers’ approaches in teaching math and science, as well as the Chinese-style school regime, including the prolonged school hours, a pledge to the national flag once a week, and lessons focused on note-taking and repetition, etc. The dependent variable was British students’ test scores. All other variables, such as the textbooks and exam papers, the British school administration, the school staffs and faculty were controlled variables 

And that analysis made me wonder about the credibility of this quasi-experiment, as the defects were too obvious: neither the Chinese teachers nor the superficially identical school routine can represent the essence of Chinese education. The fact that the experiment was carried out in a British school environment was even more confusing. A country’s educational system is a significant product of the value and culture of the society. And if an education is separated from the environment that gives birth to it, how can it be categorized as XXX-style? My doubt is local British teachers would also be able to promote the students’ test score if they could make them study more.

Another contentious conclusion of the quasi-experiment is that “Chinese teachers failed at the emotional part” (Espinoza, 2015) as a few students burst into tears in the process of the show. But if the experiment is not solidly grounded, the result is not convincing either. Actually, it looks more like the pursued effects of a TV reality show. Audiences love to see chaos, except this chaos is one of culture clash. Therefore, the experiment cannot be categorized as a quasi-experiment either. It turned out to be a pseudo-experiment.

And that realization gave me a heads up. As salsa dancing researchers we should always keep a vigilant eye on the risks that might happen in the process of sampling, operationalization and generalization. We should not do research just for researches’ sake. We need to keep the larger picture of social life in mind, Otherwise, we will “run the risk of just telling a good story” (Luker, 2010)

References

Espinoza, J. (2015 August 19). Pupils taught by Chinese outpace their peers in experiment. In The Telegraph. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/expateducation/11811235/Take-note-Chinese-teachers-a-little-classroom-chaos-can-be-a-good-thing.html

Lim, I. (2015 August 19). BBC Chinese school experiment reveals results. In TimeOutShanghai. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Blog-Quirky_Shanghai/29355/BBC-Chinese-school-experiment-reveals-results.html

Luker, K. (2010). Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences. 129-154.