Chinese education isn't everything, I agree, but we should strive for their math standards. We should emulate the levels of critical thinking found in those high-level questions and inculcate them in our students, along with maintaining a good number sense (developed through arithmetic). This may require an hour longer per day to have a double math block, but I think it would be a lot better without the sheer craziness of some aspects of the Chinese model.
Critical thinking is what the Chinese do
not inculcate in their students. I have taught or advised a number of Chinese students at the undergraduate and graduate level. On the whole they are way ahead of their American counterparts in their computation skills. When faced with a problem that can be directly reduced to solving an equation or applying an algorithm they rock. When faced with a situation that requires the open-ended design of a question or experiment they are stuck. They require a higher degree of oversight than Americans in projects that require initiative since they tend to wait for guidance towards a specific question, and when they solve it they just wait for new input rather than explore related questions.
