Education: West, East can learn from each other

Su Yuheng (left), president of Higher Education Press, professor Ruth Hayhoe (second left), professor Gu Mingyuan (second right) and Myriam Poort (right), editorial director of Social Science and Philosophy, pose for a photo in the Higher Education Press exhibition booth in Beijing International Exhibition Center on Aug 25, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A dialogue between oriental and occidental education specialists on Chinese education was held in the Beijing International Exhibition Center on Aug 25, 2016.

A new book titled Portraits of Chinese Schools, compiled by Professor Gu Mingyuan, and a new book series titled East-West Crosscurrents in Higher Education, edited by Professor Ruth Hayhoe, were issued. These two new books were jointly published by the Higher Education Press and Springer this year.

The dialogue was organized by the Higher Education Press, professors and scholars from well-known universities, experts and researchers in the education field and publishing editors were also invited.

Su Yuheng, president of Higher Education Press, declared it a landmark event to strengthen the communication between east and west higher education.

"We will hold more this kind of cultural dialogues and communications. To bring more Chinese experts and Chinese educational ideas and training models to abroad is our obligatory duty and big adventure," Su said.

Professor Gu is one of the leading educationalists in China, who has been involved in all the major educational reforms in the country since 1949 and is a very high-esteemed expert in China. His new book Portraits of Chinese Schools illustrates historical development and operating system of Chinese schools in the past thirty years.

"Every education system is rooted in a distinctive soil, it will suffer hiccups - or could even fail - if introduced in a foreign land. I was inspired to launch a study to introduce what Chinese schools are like, what kind of the teaching methods and management system, in order to let more international scholars expose to Chinese education," said Professor Gu.

Professor Gu Mingyuan and Professor Ruth Hayhoe hold a dialogue on east and west education in the Higher Education Press exhibition booth in the Beijing International Exhibition Center on Aug 25, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Based on the results and data in the questionnaire, field observation, and in-depth interview, the new book took Professor Gu and his colleagues two years to complete.

Professor Ruth Hayhoe is a Canadian scholar who has dedicated her academic career in Chinese education for more than thirty years. Her moving encounter with Professor Gu in University of Toronto was the beginning of a lasting intellectual friendship.

"One might say there are two influential models of the university in the modern period, one derived from medieval Europe and the other inspired in some ways by medieval China. It was also important to anticipate what the emerging China model of the university might bring to the global community," said Professor Ruth Hayhoe.

As the leading international scholar on Chinese education, Professor Ruth Hayhoe has cooperated with many Chinese educationalists over a lengthy period of time. Also in her book, she vividly created portraits of ten influential Chinese educators, whose stories have been touched upon above.

In the dialogue, two professors shed light on differences and cultural communications between east and west education.

Professor Gu commented that to evaluate the education system of a country or region system is capable of cultivating talents that society needs. What a country or region requires is a pool of diverse talents, who excel in every profession and trade, from the cerebral to the manual level.

"Facing the globalization, the West and East can work out the best education system that suits them best only by learning from each other and if they use education for the better future of all human beings," said Professor Ruth Hayhoe.