Social-emotional learning and competency assessment in East Asia, Part 1
InformPatrick Kyllonen, Educational Testing Service A series of blogs about international efforts to measure SEL The so-called Confucian Asian countries, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan[1] produce the highest achieving students in the world based on their scores on international mathematics, reading, science, and problem solving tests (e.g., TIMSS; PISA 2015; PISA 2012). According to Magdalena Mok and Gerald Wu from the Education University of Hong Kong, this at least partly reflects the “examination-driven and achievement-oriented” learning environments stemming from traditional Confucian philosophy. Economic growth over the past 35 years suggests that Asia’s success is not confined to test scores. What may be surprising to Westerners is the degree to which these examination-driven countries have embraced social-emotional learning (SEL) […]