Asian students' superiority at maths due to Confucian focus on hard work
Asian students are statistically superior in maths to their Western counterparts. Award-winning educator Frederick Leung tells Linda Yeung their success is mainly due to the emphasis on hard work in Confucian culture
Asian students' superior performance in maths and science has been at the core of Professor Frederick Leung Koon-shing's research for two decades. His persistent efforts and achievements have been recognised internationally, and he was awarded the 2013 Hans Freudenthal Medal by the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI), the equivalent of a Nobel prize in maths education.
Based in Rome, ICMI is a century-old international non-governmental and non-profit-making scientific organisation dedicated to promoting international co-operation in the field. Leung became the first Asian to be given the award, due to his insight into the influential role culture plays in the teaching and learning of maths.
There is a sense of pleasure that can be obtained after a period of hard work
It began with his doctoral research work in London in the early 1990s. This was a comparative study of mathematics teaching and learning in Beijing, London and Hong Kong. When he interviewed parents in London about their children's poor performance in the subject, they were accepting of it.
"Their response was their children were not good in maths, but they were good in, say, basketball. In Beijing, parents of the child not doing well in maths would say he was lazy," says Leung.
"There is the belief that in Western countries, typically in areas of maths, that it's the innate ability that is most important."
The cluster of Confucian countries in Asia, including China, Japan, Korea and Singapore, holds the additional belief that anyone who puts in the effort can do well in maths. As in Hong Kong, these countries value education and hard work.