Making Minds Matter with Bill Costello » Student-Teacher Ratios

S. Korean Teachers Reach for the SKY

Bill Costello — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:01:56 +0000

Within South Korea, the three most prestigious universities are Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University. Collectively, they are referred to by the acronym SKY.

Graduating from a SKY university often leads to a prestigious job with a high salary—especially if the graduate is in the field of education. Opinion polls show that South Koreans [...]

High Student-Teacher Ratio in S. Korea

Bill Costello — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:32:48 +0000

I recently asked Hahn Yong Jin, professor of education at Korea University, about the history of the high student-teacher ratio in South Korea.

“The student-teacher ratio in South Korea used to be about 100:1 in the 1960s and 1970s,” explained Professor Hahn. “After the Korean war ended in 1953, we experienced a baby boom. School attendance [...]

Teaching Viewed as High-Status in S. Korea

Bill Costello — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:42:42 +0000

Opinion polls show that South Koreans view teachers as high-status professionals who make greater contributions to society than any other professionals.

South Korea does two things to raise the status of teaching as a profession. First, it makes entry to teacher training very selective. Teachers are recruited from the top 5 percent of each cohort graduate [...]

McKinsey Report, Part VI

Bill Costello — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:25:57 +0000

This is the sixth part in a series I’ve been writing this week about the report, How the World’s Best-Performing School Systems Come Out on Top, which is an analysis of the world’s school systems to find out why some schools succeed and others do not.

Today, my focus is on the section of the report that examines teacher [...]

McKinsey Report, Part III

Bill Costello — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:34:32 +0000

This is the third part in a series I’ve been writing this week about the report, How the World’s Best-Performing School Systems Come Out on Top, which is an analysis of the world’s school systems to find out why some schools succeed and others do not.

Today, my focus is on the section of the report that analyzes the widely [...]