Why the Chinese do better in math—Part 2
Last week, we looked at the question of whether the Chinese have a genetic advantage over Filipinos in terms of math ability.
The answer, of course, is no, as revealed by studies that showed that, during the American colonization, Filipino students were at par with their peers in the United States, and it was only in the last half-century that we lost our edge.
In recent decades, Chinoys (Chinese-Filipinos) seem to be doing better than other ethnic groups in school and at work, and we have identified factors that have contributed to this.
First is more learning time. Many students in Chinese-Filipino schools have two mathematics classes every day for grade school and high school.
Pattern recognition
A second factor is the Chinese language itself. Studies show that there may exist similarities in the patterns of Chinese characters and math symbols. Both seem abstract to the English or Filipino reader (our language is based on phonetics, not pictorial symbols).
When Chinoy students are made to memorize Chinese figures (Mandarin characters) at a young age, their brains may become predisposed to recognize and retain other pictorial and abstract symbols later on.
Some American researchers say one reason Indochinese and Korean immigrants to the US perform very well in math is that math symbols do not depend on prior knowledge of English.
Peer influence
A third factor is peer influence. In Filipino schools, campus idols are usually athletes (particularly basketball or soccer players), but in many Chinese-Filipino schools, academic achievers (particularly in math or science) are more admired.
It is no accident that many math contest champions come from the same high schools, and younger aspirants cite alumni as inspirations. Those who do well are not only featured in school papers, but also in national dailies and, with scholarship offers from abroad, they are looked up to by their peers.
Several Chinese-Filipino schools, such as St. Jude Catholic School and Chiang Kai Shek College, produce winners year after year in the Metrobank-DepEd-MTAP Math Challenge, thus establishing a tradition of excellence.
Many math whizzes also undergo rigorous training outside school, under the Math Trainers Guild (MTG), for example. Established in 1996 by Simon Chua, president of Chong Hua University in Zamboanga City, MTG has been quite successful in developing in 8- to 16-year-old kids, many of them Chinoys, “discipline, appreciation, innovativeness.”
MTG students have won thousands of medals and awards in international contests in India, China, Singapore, Asia Pacific, Indonesia, Canada, Australia, Russia and Hong Kong.
MTG has sought the advice of educators from China, who have trained its trainers.
A good way to develop a tradition of excellence is to honor and publicly acknowledge academic achievers. In the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), for example, to encourage the predominantly non-Chinese students to do well in math, the Ateneo Math Olympiad (AMO) has been held every year since 2001.
Elementary and secondary students who show promise in problem-solving are trained for a school year by the highest-performing science, engineering and management majors.
Patterned after the International Math Olympiad (IMO), the AMO provide challenging problems that showcase what students have learned. Winners receive medals and books, and are publicly recognized in the presence of their peers.
Students around the country are encouraged to join the Program of Excellence in Math (PEM). Established in 1989 at the AdMU under the leadership of German-trained Jose Marasigan, PEM primarily trains gifted students, who are exposed to number theory, combinatorics, functions, solid geometry, advanced algebra—all beyond the scope of the average Filipino secondary math curriculum, which centers on elementary algebra, geometry, trigonometry and statistics.
The best participants have the chance to represent our country in the IMO.
Students who excel, whether in sports, arts or academics, have to be recognized, for a culture of excellence to take root.
Confucian tradition
The Confucian tradition of learning, though not as strong in the Philippines as in many parts of Asia, is still adhered to by older-generation Chinese immigrants, who believe that hard work and discipline are the key to success in a new world. Popular anecdotes abound about Chinese-Filipino business tycoons who have sacrificed and suffered a lot to achieve success.
Education is valued highly by Chinoy parents, who often supervise their own children’s learning at home, unlike most Filipino middle-class parents, who hire and rely on professional tutors.
In recent years, though, an alarming trend has surfaced—many wealthy Chinoy parents increasingly hire tutors for their children. However, even with added tutoring, many of these kids do not do as well in math as those before them (indeed, most of them do not do as well as their own parents did, as shown by the increasing number of math remedial classes in top universities).
Instead of spending time on extracurricular activities such as sports or arts, Chinese-Filipino students traditionally concentrate on math, science and business. There are, of course, exceptions. Times have changed, presenting the Chinese-Filipino youth more options.
(To be concluded next week)
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