Tips for Tech-Cautious Teachers

By Brianna Crowley

District and school administrators have pushed our faculty to incorporate more technology tools in our classrooms. In particular, at the high school level, we’ve been encouraged to take part in a new bring-your-own-technology initiative to engage students.

This has created frustration for some teachers. After choosing to experiment with Google Forms as an alternative to analyzing scantron tests, for example, a colleague of mine spent hours creating the questions and learning the tool only to be stymied by some problems when using it in the classroom. Irritated, he asked, “So why did I do all this work when I could have just asked my students to raise their hands to get the same data?”

Whoa. Great question. Why? Why should my colleague bother to learn a technology tool that could potentially depersonalize the classroom? Why spend time setting up and using the tool, when he could quickly gather the information without technology and move on to more discussion or content?

Some of you techie teachers may be itching to answer, but from one tech-tool junkie to another, let’s hold off on judging. This is actually a fantastic conversation starter.

Many teachers are overloaded with learning whatever tool is the "flavor of the month." As soon as they build their classroom in Moodle, Edmodo swoops in. As soon as they learn those darn voting eggs, Socrative shows up all seductively, with its ease of access and multi-platform charm. "New and improved" tools get my blood pumping—but I can see why, for others, the path to technology integration feels like an insane hamster wheel.

So here are some tips and examples I’ve gathered from my classroom and my work as a one-day-a-week tech coach at my school to help teachers better understand and negotiate the digital push in schools.

Give Yourself the Time to Learn

Recently, a tech-cautious colleague was trying to use Edmodo to convert a paper calendar to a digital one, and she was frustrated when she couldn’t color-code easily and when her students didn’t bother to check in with the cool new format.

Sometimes, to understand the potential of a tool to enhance your classroom, you have to dive in and experiment, giving yourself permission to learn and play before you fully commit. It’s kind of like driving a manual car for the first time in a parking lot. You are establishing your confidence and comfort before throwing yourself into hectic traffic with a thousand unknown variables. Occasionally, we teachers need to let ourselves experience discomfort and uncertainty, just as we expect our students to do.

Put on Some Blinders

In the world of a million apps, the trick to staying sane may just be to "put on some blinders." In my experience, technology professional development often involves an overwhelming buffet of options presented with little depth, development, or discussion. Many teachers leave glassy-eyed and overwhelmed, not understanding that they can say "no" to many of the options as long as they say "yes" to trying one or two.

After asking good questions and doing some reconnaissance on tools and apps that your colleagues love, choose a few. Let yourself dabble with the tools. Become comfortable with their interfaces, and give yourself time to understand their purpose and fit (or lack thereof) for your classroom habits and curriculum. At the same time, allow yourself time to say "no" to other flashy new gadgets and tools while you are exploring.

Put Away Your Preconceptions

You may come to a tool with some expectations about what role it could play in your instruction. But, again, give yourself some time. Learn what the tool can do before being definitive about how you will use it.

You will have effectively integrated technology when you’ve used it to provide an opportunity for learning that your students (or yourself) would not have had otherwise. It isn’t just a matter of replacing "old' tools with new—it’s about teaching differently.

Let’s return to the situation with Google Forms. My colleague might find that, yes, when all he needs to know is how many students chose “B” for number three, a show of hands may be sufficient.

But he could discover ways for the tool to expand his previous practice, rather than replacing it. For example, the Google Forms tool could offer an efficient way for students to provide feedback about a reading or concept before they return to class the next day. A quick glance at that data could allow the teacher to adjust his plans, addressing concepts with which his students are struggling.

Evaluate Potential Usefulness

Ask these questions as you evaluate the usefulness of a tool:

• Has this tool been recommended by colleagues or student I respect, or is someone else willing to try this tool with me?

• Does this tool allow me to expand my classroom beyond its physical space or time constraints?

• Does this tool save time for me or my students so that we can focus on more valuable tasks?

• Does this tool encourage my students to use higher-order thinking skills: evaluating, analyzing, or creating something to demonstrate their learning?

• Does this tool solve a persistent problem for me or my students?

• Do I have a way of accomplishing my purpose without this tool? Does the tool save or waste time? Frustrate or engage my students?

In the end, you may have to make a tough call: Perhaps this tool just isn't the best choice for you and your students and you need to move on.

Practice What You Preach

In other words, model what you want your students to do: Use technology as a tool for learning.

Recently an English-teacher colleague of mine pointed out that our faculty has been using technology tools to enhance our instruction, but that we were not viewing technology as a way to increase our own learning or collaboration with each other. If we want to understand the potential of technology to enhance our students’ learning, shouldn’t we first understand how it enhances our own learning?

For instance, before you ask your students to blog, find some blogs on topics that interest you and set up a Google Readeraccount or download the Flipboard app. Using one of these tools will enhance your life (either as a professional educator or as an amateur cook, decorator, gardener, etc.) and will offer insight into what your students will experience when working with blogs.

Similarly, if you want to use Twitter in your classroom to prompt discussions, first participate in a Twitter chat with fellow teachers around a topic of interest. (The#teaching2030 chats run by the Center for Teaching Quality are a great example of this). Using Twitter will help you better understand its power and limitations for discussion.

We cannot ask our students to be lifelong learners if we are not willing to be continuous learners ourselves. Just as we want to make our classrooms more dynamic and global learning environments for students, we should be seeking to use technology to expand our own learning horizons.

That said, teachers cannot just jump at every new tool that has some potential. At the often-overwhelming intersection of technology and education, we ought to use the same tried-and-true learning methods we teach our students. We must take risks, ask good questions, know our limitations, stretch ourselves, and embrace failure as an opportunity to learn.

Brianna Crowley, a Teacher Leaders Network member, is in her sixth year of teaching high school English in Hershey, Pa. She recently earned her master's in instructional technology and design and has taken on a new role this year serving on a team of teachers who double as technology-integration coaches for their school. You can follow her on Twitter @akaMsCrowley and read her blog, Red Pen Confessions.

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2012/10/24/tln_crowley_tech.html?intc=mvs 

Reaching the Kid in the Corner: Differentiated Instruction

Reaching the Kid in the Corner: Differentiated Instruction


As teachers, we often take on new tasks as the curriculum isexpanded. We may teach science, social studies, math, or English-elementaryteachers do them all, and how I don't know!-but we also may teach, for example,health, safety, character education, writing across the curriculum, and the artand science of taking a standardized test. Moreover, while covering the expandingcurriculum, we must differentiate in instruction to meet the needs ofindividual students.



I can't remember when the term "differentiated instruction" firstentered our world, but it may have been in 1983 when Howard Gardner published Frames of Mind: The Theory of MultipleIntelligences. The idea that we can be smart in different ways presented anentirely new look at human intelligence. A review of the eight types ofintelligence Gardner defines can be found here.


Subsequent biological research into how the human brainactually works also focused more attention on how kids learn. In any event,differentiated instruction is here to stay, and that's a good thing. Studentslearn more, and watching that happen is very satisfying, personally andprofessionally.



What then are some effective ways to differentiate in aclassroom when students are studying the same material? What can be done toaddress their individual interests, strengths, and weaknesses? Besides thebasics-whole group, small group, individual instruction/tutoring, and differentkinds of assessment-some good specific ways to differentiate can be derivedfrom Gardner's research. (Note that "multiple Intelligences" is sometimes confusedwith "learning styles"; they are related but not synonymous. This site offers agood explanation of both)



So, two good ways toprovide differentiated instruction:



·     Vary yourapproach in presenting information. Besides explaining it verbally, usecharts, graphs, puzzles, songs, pieces of art, mind maps, and hands-on modelsor lesson-related objects for students to hold and pass around to each other.


·     Deviseactivity lists for teaching units, and let kids choose what they will do.Design the lists so that all the activities promote or reinforce learning,while appealing to a variety of skills and interests. Some suggested activities: write a poem; create/solve a puzzle;write/perform a song; draw a map; work with partners to make a group presentation;construct a model; create a computer game or video. A comprehensive list of individual activities (and an overview ofMI) can be found here. Another good site for activity suggestions is here.



When Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences waspublished, it generated a lot of controversy; it was embraced, questioned, orrejected outright by others-and still is. What is most interesting, though, wasthe response of many teachers to the "new" idea that kids learn in differentways: We've known that all along! Educationaltheory aside, I hope these ideas and web sites will help you reach your own kidin the corner.



One more thing. There are some great questionnaires on line to identify kids' learningstrengths and learning styles. Here are two, respectively, to check out. Link 1 / Link 2.



Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the emails andcontest entries. They're great! See you in June.

Sites That Check for Plagiarism

By Nicholas Moorehouse, eHow Contributor

Plagiarism is an issue that has been around for quite some time. With thousands of new online resources popping up each day, it's easy for writers to use someone else's material and claim it as their own. Teachers and editors have to make sure that work submitted to them isn't plagiarized. Fortunately, there are websites that make it easy for you to check if the submitted material is original.

TurnItIn



Turnitin.com is a well-known website that checks articles and files for plagiarism. It was one of the first Internet-based plagiarism-prevention sites, and currently employs almost 100 people who work to make the service timely and effective. The idea for Turnitin.com came from a group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley who were concerned about the recycling of term papers.


CheckForPlagiarism.net

CheckForPlagiarism.net is another web-based plagiarism checking service. It allows users to submit content online to be checked with the CheckForPlagiarism.net database on its secure servers. It is described as a people-oriented service, and it allows users to customize the service to fit their needs by signing up for an account and changing settings as needed.

DupliChecker.com


DupliChecker.com is a simpler website used to check for plagiarism. It's completely free, and allows you to upload files or enter phrases in a text box to check for plagiarism. The site checks on multiple search engines for duplicate content, and allows users to insert .txt files to check an entire article.

AcademicPlagiarism.com

AcademicPlagiarism.com is another useful website for checking for plagiarism. It helps both students and educators check written material for duplicate or copied content. The service is free, and it offers instant color-coded plagiarism reports after scanning billions of Web sources. The website is used by people all over the world and is backed by live customer support.

Read more: Sites That Check for Plagiarism | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_7942218_sites-check-plagiarism.html#ixzz1sDWNEBIz

A Cheating in the Classroom - A New Look at an Old Problem

A Cheating in the Classroom - A New Look at an Old Problem

Here's how you do it. Write test answers on a card attachedto a rubber band. Then pin the rubber band inside your long sleeve. Stretchingthe rubber band, hold the card in your hand to use during the test. If theteacher seems suspicious, release the card, and the rubber band will pull itback into your sleeve, out of view... Who knew! I didn't, until I found a how-to-cheatsite on the net: Link. And it's only one of many.

Cheating no longer seems "bad" to many students. Evenstudents who believe it is dishonorable still cheat sometimes. In one recentsurvey of college students, 85% said they had cheated in high school! At anyage, kids who cheat do so for numerous reasons, some unexpected. Check out thelist.

The best way to counter the causes of cheating, researchsuggests, is to change the focus and the dialog in the classroom-to emphasizepersonal mastery over high test scores. (Iknow! We haven't heard a lot latelyabout de-emphasizing test scores!) It makes sense, though, that studentswho focus on personal mastery will score higher on tests anyway, without the pressuresthat promote cheating. That was the finding at Ohio State University; thediscussion and suggestions to change the classroom dialog can be found here.


In the meantime, we still have to prevent cheating as muchas possible. A lot of it can be eliminated through classroom management. Hereare some tips; others can be found at this site.

Address cheating sooner rather than later. Define it for yourself first. (Is doing homework together cheating?) Then define it specifically for students, including a discussion of plagiarism.

Require students to sign a cheating policy statement, and let them know you will keep their signed statements on file. The message will be clear: You treat cheating seriously, and they have been informed of its consequences.

When testing, be proactive:

Sit in the back of the room while monitoring a test. Students won't know where your attention is directed at any given time. Move about the room occasionally; don't be predictable.

Move students out of their assigned seats; have them sit near others with whom they usually don't interact in class.

Hand out 2 versions of the test; for instance, alter the sequence of questions.

Require students to put books and notes completely out of sight; also, require them to place their cell phones face down on desk tops where you can see them.

Create cover sheets for kids to use to hide test answers. (A manila file folder cut on the fold makes two.) Hand these out with test copies, and collect them after testing. Make sure students haven't written on them before using them again.And then there's plagiarism. It used to mean copying passages out of library reference books; now students can go on line to plagiarize, even downloading entire papers. The good news is we can use technology, too.

Simply typing a suspicious passage into a search engine will usually reveal its origin. Numerous web sites are dedicated to identifying plagiarism. Four of them are listed here. I warn my students to not even think about plagiarizing, because I can hunt them down with a few mouse clicks! (They laugh-but they listen.) There's an even easier way to identify plagiarized work: If kids can't define specific words they used in their papers, case closed.

Academic cheating was first recorded during the Han dynasty in ancient China, and it doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon. At least we can act to minimize it. As for students who are busy turning cheating into an art form, imagine the results if we could inspire them to put all that ingenuity to better use. Until then, surf those how-to-cheat web sites yourself to stay a step ahead. And one more thing-watch out for square pencils. That may not be company printing on all four sides!

Happy spring, and I'll see you later.

Selfish race to be No. 1 in research

Selfish race to be No. 1 in research
In seeking fame and fortune, many are unwilling to share their findings
By Lee Wei Ling
The Sunday Times 25 March 2012

I gave the opening speech at a congress on Parkinson's disease organised by the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) last Friday. Instead of the usual platitudes, I decided to speak about collaboration in research.
Most lay people believe medical research is pursued for altruistic purposes. That may be one reason, but it is certainly not the only reason - and often, not even the most important reason - why people do medical research.
Let's not be hypocrites: Every research centre in the world races against time to be the first to make a novel discovery in any field of research it pursues.
Some universities appraise their staff largely on the basis of their published research output, further putting pressure on their faculty to devote themselves to research. This pressure has even caused some researchers to fabricate data.
To me, the university's chief responsibility should be to teach the next generation. Unfortunately, due to the emphasis on research, a significant percentage of faculties in the best universities concentrate on research and hardly do any teaching.
One example of selfish behaviour in the conduct of research was the discovery of HIV, the virus that causes Aids. The near unanimous international consensus is that HIV was first discovered in 1983 by a team of scientists led by the French virologist Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
A rival claim was advanced by an American group led by Dr Robert Charles Gallow, who published details of their discovery in 1984.
It was only in 1987, following the intervention of the presidents of both France and the United States, that the two teams finally agreed to share the credit for the discovery of HIV.
It is highly likely that if both teams had worked together, the HIV mystery might have been unlocked earlier.
The award of the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine to Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV was hopefully the concluding chapter to one of the ugliest controversies in modern medical science, which included allegations of theft and deception.
It is the practice worldwide for rival research teams not to share information with each other for fear of losing the advantage in the race to be the first. However, there is a way to collaborate that will result in better understanding of a medical problem, but without giving away information that will benefit the competition.
Many diseases and problems are better understood if everyone involved possesses the bigger picture. But it is not easy for a single researcher or research group to grasp this picture.
The classic story of six blind men trying to figure out what an elephant looks like would be an appropriate analogy here.
The blind man who feels the trunk thinks the elephant resembles a snake. The one who feels the tusk thinks the elephant is a spear. The one who feels the ears thinks the elephant is fan-like. The one who feels the legs thinks the elephant resembles a tree. The one who feels the body, thinks the elephant is a wall. And the one who feels the tail thinks the elephant resembles a rope.
Each person thinks he has a picture of the entire elephant but in reality knows only one bit of it. Only if they had pooled together all their impressions, they would have been able to figure out what the entire elephant looked like.
Medical researchers can collaborate on complex problems in the same way. The win-win situation would be for different centres to agree to approach a problem from different angles - you examine the body, I'll examine the trunk, Centre C will look at the legs, and so on.
And since each centre, unlike the six blind men, would be aware it is examining just one piece of the puzzle, it would have the incentive to collaborate and not fear that by sharing information it would be giving its rivals an advantage over it.
Such sharing of information is more likely to solve the big questions expeditiously than if all the centres were to approach the problem from the same angle - all examining the tusk, say - and refusing to share information on that tiny bit of the puzzle.
It has been many years since I personally carried out a piece of research - gathering the data, writing a computer program to analyse that data and then finally writing up the research paper. Undertaking one-woman shows was tedious, but it gave me great satisfaction. I had a stationary bike with a wooden plank fixed to the handle bar so as to allow me to type, and I thus exercised as I was doing my research.
Today, it is rare in my field, as well as in many other scientific fields, for an important piece of research to be conducted by just one person. Instead, most research is undertaken by a group working together with at least one person in the group possessing a grasp of the entire effort.
Over the years, my patient load as well as my administrative work have increased. I cannot complain - any more than I think academics should complain for teaching - for this is what I was trained to do: take care of patients. But the upshot is I can no longer do as much research as I used to.
Instead, I discuss potential research ideas with my colleagues, and the younger ones among them especially run with the ball. Also, when we meet other researchers studying different aspects of the same problem, we exchange ideas.
Ideally, we should do research so as to improve medical care. To conduct research so as to enhance one's curriculum vitae, or to secure a promotion, should merely be secondary objectives - the by-products of conducting successful research.
To make fame and fortune the primary reason for conducting research is not only morally wrong, but it also wastes research funding that could have been applied to better use.
The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute. Send your comments to suntimes@sph.com.sg

What makes billionaires tick

What makes billionaires tick



By Jonathan Holburt

In the movie The Clearing, Robert Redford plays a one- percenter entrepreneur who is kidnapped and then killed for his money by a 99 percenter played by Willem Dafoe.

As the contented lives of Redford's character and his family are contrasted with the 'disappointed lives' of Dafoe, we see the divisions not just in wealth but in satisfaction between those who have and those who have not.

But Redford's character defends himself well: He worked hard for his success and didn't deserve the tragic end he was about to get.

The 2004 movie was ahead of its time - and is a lesson for these times. It was a harbinger of the 'Age of Resentment' that is now upon us.

However, billionaires - the top one percenters - didn't just get that way. They worked hard and followed certain principles to achieve success. In a world on the precipice of another economic downturn, it would be worth looking at what makes them tick.

Forbes magazine states that there are 1,210 billionaires, a quarter of them from the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations, worth an estimated US$4.5 trillion (S$5.8 trillion). The following are some principles they follow to build their character first and the wealth that followed.

The first is: Do what you love. While many non-billionaires follow this tip and don't become wealthy, it's clear that passion is key to becoming one. Mr Peter Buffett, 53, the billionaire son of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, 81, is a musician, not an investor like his father.

In China, his book, Life Is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path To Fulfilment, is a bestseller. During a recent tour there, he said: 'My father and I do, in fact, do the same thing for a living. We both do what we love.'

Which leads to the next principle: Age isn't a barrier. We know about the young wunderkinds who became billionaires and even transformed industries: Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, to name a few.

But where this principle gets interesting is what the octogenarian and nonagenarian billionaires do. Car, gaming and movie industry investor Kirk Kerkorian, still working at 94, said: 'When you're a self-made man, you start very early in life. In my case, it was at nine years old when I started bringing income into the family. You get a drive that's a little different, maybe a little stronger, than somebody who inherited.'

Mr Rupert Murdoch, age 80, though weakened by the phone hacking scandal, still uses his News Corporation media empire for political power.

This leads to the next principle: The more you risk, the more you live. Mr Sheldon Adelson, 78, CEO of Las Vegas Sands, continues to roll the dice on big projects such as Marina Bay Sands. As he said: 'Why do I need succession planning? I'm very alert, I'm very vibrant. I have no intention to retire.'

Mr Richard Branson is trying to be first in space tourism, with Virgin Galactic. These men could retire on their laurels but refuse to do so. Life without risk isn't the kind of life they want to live.

And a life steeped in risk leads to the next principle: Failure is a stepping stone to success. Ms Meg Whitman, founder of e-Bay, may have failed in last year's California governor election, but she is now the head of the world's largest IT company, HP.

Mr Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom and Paramount, summed it up well: 'Success is not built on success. It's built on failure. It's built on frustration. Sometimes it's built on catastrophe.' Getting it wrong now can lead to getting it right later. As long as you learn and evolve.

Which leads to the final life principle: Be unconventional. Fresh solutions don't necessarily emerge from conventional lives. Mr Denis O'Brien, Irish telecom billionaire, made 20 trips to Haiti after the earthquake to give US$35 million to charities there, determining personally how his money would be spent.

Nearly two-thirds of the staff at Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holdings are women who don't even wear the abaya at work. That's unconventional for Saudi Arabia. Perhaps money gives you the power to be you. Or maybe it's you being you which provides the character foundation for being a one percenter.

The five principles are by no means comprehensive. Mr Warren Buffett said: 'You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.'

Following that wisdom could give many 99 percenters not only the financial security they crave, but also a life rich in all ways. Learning what makes one percenters tick might also provide a greater appreciation for their contribution to society. In that way, the tragedy

The purring tiger mums

LONDON EYE

The purring tiger mums



By Teresa Lim

THERE'S an awful lot of curiosity here about Chinese tiger mothers, when in fact English tiger mums exist too. They are simply a different species.

American law professor Amy Chua's Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother, published last year, aroused considerable interest in Britain. It was timely: a study carried out between 2005 and 2007 had released its finding that Chinese children in Britain, whatever their social class, did better in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examination than any other ethnic group.

But publicity of Chua's book played up the threats and demands she had made on her daughters and put off many English women. They preferred, somewhat self-deludingly, to think of themselves as pussycats to Chua's tigress.

Now the BBC has stirred up the debate again with a documentary last week, called Meet Britain's Chinese Tiger Mums, which focuses on three mothers whose young children attend a north London Chinese-language school on Sundays.

The three women are Sally from Guangzhou, Kate from Taiwan, and Vivian whose family left Taiwan for Canada. All are offspring of parents whose lives had been bitterly difficult and who instilled in them the necessity for hard work. As Kate pointed out, her parents had no safety net of health care or pensions. They could rely only on themselves.

These women believe in filling every hour of their children's time with something useful. Sally's timetable for her son accounts for every minute after school, including his play time.

Besides study and extra study, there is music practice. Kate expresses the certainty, rather than hope, that her daughter would learn at least one musical instrument when she starts infant school.

Are these children being hothoused in a peculiarly Chinese way? Actually, it is not very different from the way middle-class English children are brought up.

English boarding schools, which take in the children of the upper middle classes, aim to fill virtually every waking hour of their charges with something academically, intellectually or physically active. It certainly makes sense to leave boys, especially, with little energy to misbehave.

It is not too different in the day schools, where lessons and activities occupy children from morning to mid-afternoon. The boys at my sons' preparatory (private primary) day school were overwhelmingly English. Virtually every child played an instrument. Several played two. The school had its own orchestra, jazz band, woodwind band and held regular solo concerts in its music hall by every pupil who could play something, however badly. (Building confidence was as important as actual achievement. I loved the school for that.)

Both top private boarding and day schools coax their children not only to excel in academic work, but also to read widely, behave responsibly, attend clubs and be enthusiastic at sport - in response to what their parents want.

When Vivian, whose son practises music for two hours a day, was asked by the interviewer why she could not relax her grip on her children, her answer was: What exactly would they do with extra free time? Watch more TV?

I would agree with her that that is poor use of leisure time. The middle-class English tiger mum has constructive ways with her children's 'down' time. One is to arrange tea sessions - the basic building blocks of social skills - with schoolmates.

A child is invited to tea during the week. He is brought home from school with her son. The boys play a little, then have tea. They eat politely, make conversation with prompts from the adult in charge, seek permission 'to get down' when they finish and play a bit more. Then the child is picked up by his mother or nanny and thanks the hostess 'for having me' when he leaves. The invitation is reciprocated and the process repeated on another day at the child's home.

English children build up the social IQ that smooths everyday life in whichever field they find themselves in the future. It is the emollient that the Cantonese Sally's husband, a quiet chartered accountant, regrets he never acquired.

If anything, the English tiger mum is even more demanding than the Chinese one. She wants her child not only to be good academically, but also to excel at sport, music and drama and be well-mannered, articulate and popular. But she tries to achieve this by purring encouragement rather than growling demands.

Perhaps the real difference between the British and Chinese is that there are Chinese tiger mums through the entire social spectrum whereas English tiger mums exist mainly from the middle class upwards.

Poor Chinese people believe education provides the way out of poverty, whereas poor English folk do not. The latter assumes social immobility, so there is no perceived advantage in making sure their children do well in school.

The GCSE statistics that were revealing about the Chinese in Britain were most revealing in this: Nearly all the poorest Chinese students, who qualified for free school meals, did as well as their wealthier counterparts. Among the English, on the other hand, the academic achievement gap between the rich and poor was wide.

The education authorities would love to transform socially deprived English parents from pussycats into tigers. Can they? That is a story for another day.

The writer is a Singaporean based in London.