On October 27, 2025, the lecture on "Comparative Education between China and the United States" hosted by the School of Teacher Education was successfully held in Lecture Hall 117, West Chemical Building. The lecture specially invited Professor Su Zhixin, Professor of Educational Administration at the College of Education, California State University, Northridge, as the keynote speaker. Dean Feng Jianjun attended the event, and students from the History Teaching discipline and all grades of the Teacher Education program actively participated. The lecture was presided over by Professor Wang Qiangjia. The lecture focused on the core differences and developmental insights of the education systems in China and the United States, aiming to help students objectively understand the educational characteristics of both countries and provide cross-cultural references for educational reform and talent cultivation in China.

1.The Growth Experience of Professor Su Zhixin

"Adversity and hardship are the best ways to forge a person's willpower. The two years of labor in the countryside are a precious asset in my life." At the beginning of her lecture, Dr. Su Zhixin started from her own growth experiences, focusing on sharing the key events that shaped her life. She was born in Wuhan and completed her primary and secondary education in Nanjing. She once worked for two years in the countryside at Xianhemen Brigade, Maqun Commune, in the suburbs of Nanjing. This rural experience allowed her to deeply appreciate the sincerity and simplicity of farmers, and it also cultivated her spirit of endurance and strong self-confidence. "Even now, I still benefit from the resilience developed during that time; whether facing challenges in academic research or in educational practice, I am able to tackle them with focus," Professor Su explained. After her labor experience, she attended Shanghai International Studies University for her undergraduate studies and then the University of Toronto in Canada. Subsequently, she worked at the Chinese Ministry of Education in Sino-foreign educational exchanges, overseeing Sino-US education cooperation programs, training diplomats, and providing simultaneous interpretation at UNESCO conferences. She later pursued graduate studies at the University of Washington in the United States, studying under Dr. Goodman, a renowned contemporary American educational thinker. Eventually, she spent 35 years engaged in education and research at California State University, Northridge, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her rich cross-cultural experiences and grassroots practice laid a solid foundation for her later work in comparative studies of Chinese and American education.

2.Comparison of Education between China and the United

StatesFocusing on the core differences in education between China and the United States, Dr. Su Zhixin provides a detailed analysis from the perspectives of "basic education" and "higher education," combining empirical research data and case studies to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the educational systems in both countries.Dr. Su Zhixin analyzes basic education (primary and secondary schools) and higher education (graduate level): At the primary and secondary school level, the United States implements K-12 (13 years) compulsory education, with an average class size of about 32 students, following a "self-contained and isolated teaching" model, where teachers teach 6-7 hours without collective lesson planning. In contrast, China provides 9 years of compulsory education, with high-quality primary school classes reaching up to 70 students, primarily using "subject-specific and cooperative teaching," with teachers conducting collective research and planning after class. At the graduate level, the two systems show complementary advantages: U.S. graduate education has abundant resources and strong faculty, focuses on innovation and research, and attracts global talent; Chinese undergraduates have a solid foundation. A 2018 study by Shaanxi Normal University and Stanford University showed that first-year Chinese engineering students outperform their U.S. and Russian peers by 2-3 grade levels in mathematics, science, and critical thinking. Dr. Su points out that U.S. graduate education can recruit high-quality undergraduates globally, compensating for the shortcomings in its basic education.

 

3.China's Education Development Path by Drawing on American Strengths

"Acknowledging differences is not to negate ourselves, but to find a development direction that suits us better. Chinese education has a solid foundation, while American education has strengths worth learning from. Only by combining the two can we achieve higher-quality development," Dr. Su Zhixin emphasized in her lecture. She noted that through comparing Chinese and American education, China can selectively adopt the highlights of American education while maintaining its own advantages, thereby promoting optimization and upgrading.Specifically, there are three major directions for reference: First, enhancing 'student agency' and 'practical skills' in basic education — while Chinese primary and secondary schools maintain their advantages in basic knowledge instruction, they can learn from the American 'student-centered' classroom concept by increasing inquiry-based and project-based courses. For example, more hands-on experiments can be introduced in science classes, and students can be encouraged to create independently in language classes to cultivate critical thinking and creativity. At the same time, by referring to the American 'inclusive education' policies, China can improve support systems for the enrollment of students with disabilities, allowing educational equity to reach a broader population. Second, vocational education can benefit from the experience of American community colleges — U.S. community colleges offer 'transferable courses' and 'vocational-technical courses,' open to anyone aged 18 or above or high school graduates, with some states providing free access to high school students. China can learn from this model to enrich the types of vocational education courses, strengthen the connection between vocational education and regular higher education, and enhance school-enterprise cooperation to improve students' practical skills and employment competitiveness.Dr. Su Zhixin pointed out: "Borrowing does not mean 'copying.' For example, while U.S. high schools offer AP courses, there are issues like 'insufficient teacher capacity and uneven course quality,' which China does not need to imitate blindly; on the contrary, we should focus on our own needs, 'localize' the strengths of American education, and let them serve the development goals of Chinese education."

At the end of the lecture, Professor Wang Jiaqiang summarized the shared content. This lecture not only provided a platform for international educational exchange for teachers and students but also inspired everyone to view the differences between Chinese and foreign education from an objective and rational perspective.