Yong Zhao gave a very spirited, interesting and funny starting talk to the conference. A very good pick. Much of the talk centered around the prevalence more and more in the US of teaching to take tests and how in Asia (although teaching to the tests was the emphasis) they are actually moving away from testing emphasis. China is increasing its number of hours for electives and PE while we are cutting them out and doing too much standardized testing. My favorite quote "The US is trying to close the testing gap. China is trying to close the thinking gap."
Food for thought... His zhaolearning.com has a plethora of articles and videos and presentation slides from his talks and they are well worth checking out if you are interested in some of his thoughts on current global educational dynamics. And here is a link to what looks to be an excellent book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Collateral-Damage-High-Stakes-Corrupts-Americas/dp/1891792350
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