23 апреля в 16:30 (15:30 CET) состоится очередной регулярный семинар Центра сравнительных исследований социального благополучия. С докладом на тему "I'm Sorry to Report Malcolm Gladwell Was Right: Rice Farming Explains East Asia's Overperformance on Standardized Tests (and Imperial Exams Going Back 700 Years)" выступит Томас Талхельм (Thomas Talhelm), доцент поведенческих наук в Школе бизнеса им. Бута Чикагского университета.

Семинар пройдет онлайн. Ссылка на встречу в Zoom будет выслана после регистрации.

Аннотация

Every few years, a round of international standardized test results come out, and each time East Asian countries dominate the rankings. In America, the talking heads respond. Some call it a sign of American decline and needed education reform. Others complain that China is cherry-picking the schools that participate. In this talk, I'll present evidence that the differences trace back to rice farming. Paddy rice required about twice the labor of other common crops like wheat and corn. Historians have documented traditions in rice-farming cultures that celebrate hard work, such as festivals to get pumped up for periods of hard work. We found that cultures with a history of rice farming scored higher on standardized tests across countries. Differences remained even when we compared students in the same countries (and same education systems) but with parents born in other cultures. One obvious limitation is that much rice farming is in East Asia. So how do we know it's East Asia's rice farming and not some other aspect of East Asian culture, like Confucianism or education systems? One convenient way around this problem is to compare rice and wheat regions in China. To do that, we analyzed a nationally representative survey given to students all over China. Students who were born in rice-farming counties outperformed students from wheat counties. Rice overperformance even extended 700 years back in history in China's imperial exam. Using data from the Ming and Qing dynasties, people in rice areas were more likely to pass the extremely competitive civil service exam. Together, these results highlight culture as an enduring influence on educational performance.

Рабочий язык семинара – английский.

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