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STEM Disciplines How Language

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Bailey
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LANGUAGE, LITERACY, AND
LEARNING IN THE STEM
DISCIPLINES

With a focus on what mathematics and science educators need to know about
academic language used in the STEM disciplines, this book critically synthesizes the
current knowledge base on language challenges inherent to learning mathematics
and science, with particular attention to the unique issues for English learners.
These key questions are addressed: When and how do students develop mastery
of the language registers unique to mathematics and to the sciences? How do
teachers use assessment as evidence of student learning for both accountability and
instructional purposes? Orienting each chapter with a research review and drawing
out important Focus Points, chapter authors examine the obstacles to and latest
ideas for improving STEM literacy, and discuss implications for future research and
practice.

Alison L. Bailey is Professor of Human Development and Psychology at the

University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

Carolyn A. Maher is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Education at the

Robert B. Davis Institute at Rutgers University, USA.

Louise C. Wilkinson is Distinguished Professor of Education, Psychology, and

Communication Sciences at Syracuse University, USA.
“This book examines the language and literacy challenges associated with learn-
ing science and mathematics, and also highlights the additional complexity this
represents for students learning English at the same time. Importantly, the chapters
provide resources for teachers to learn how to blend scientific literacy and the
needs of EL and bilingual students—thus addressing an equity issue and a critical
need for the country.”
—Rodolfo Dirzo, Bing Professor in Environmental Science,
Stanford University, USA
LANGUAGE, LITERACY,
AND LEARNING IN THE
STEM DISCIPLINES
How Language Counts
for English Learners

Edited by Alison L. Bailey,

Carolyn A. Maher, and
Louise C. Wilkinson
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Alison L. Bailey, Carolyn A. Maher, and Louise C. Wilkinson
to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors
for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-1-138-28428-9 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-28429-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-26961-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
“To all students learning STEM in a new language and the
teachers who support them.”
CONTENTS

Foreword by M. Kathleen Heid x

Foreword by Catherine Snow xii
Prefacexiv
Acknowledgmentsxviii

1 Introduction: Language, Literacy, and Learning

in the STEM Disciplines 1
Alison L. Bailey, Carolyn A. Maher, and Louise C.Wilkinson

PART I
Language in the STEM Disciplines 11

2 Talking to Learn Mathematics With Understanding:

Supporting Academic Literacy in Mathematics
for English Learners 13
Judit Moschkovich

3 How the NGSS Science Instructional Shifts and Language

Instructional Shifts Support Each Other for English
Learners: Talk in the Science Classroom 35
Okhee Lee, Scott Grapin, and Alison Haas
viii Contents

PART II
Literacy in the STEM Disciplines 53

4 Reading Mathematics Problems: Exploring How Language

Counts for Middle School Students With Varying
Mathematics Proficiency 55
Mary A. Avalos, Edwing Medina, and Walter G. Secada

5 Reading and Understanding Science Texts 79

Gina N. Cervetti and P. David Pearson

6 Writing in Mathematics Classrooms 101

Richard Barwell

7 Writing the Science Register and Multiple Levels

of Language: Implications for English Learners 115
Elaine R. Silliman, Louise C.Wilkinson, and Maria Brea-Spahn

PART III
Summative and Formative Assessment
in the STEM Disciplines 141

8 Formative Assessment of Mathematics and Language:

Applying Companion Learning Progressions
to Reveal Greater Insights to Teachers 143
Caroline Wylie, Malcolm Bauer, Alison L. Bailey,
and Margaret Heritage

9 Formative Assessment: Science and Language

With English Learners 169
Amelia Wenk Gotwals and Dawnmarie Ezzo

10 The Language of Mathematics and Summative Assessment:

Interactions That Matter for English Learners 187
Tina Cheuk, Phil Daro, and Vinci Daro

11 Assessing Scientific Genres of Explanation,

Argument, and Prediction 206
Beth Covitt and Charles W. Anderson
 Contents ix

12 Formative and Summative Assessments in Science and

Literacy Integrated Curricula: A Suggested
Alternative Approach 231
Mark Wilson and Yukie Toyama

Afterword 261
Alison L. Bailey, Carolyn A. Maher, and Louise C.Wilkinson

List of Contributors 266

Index268
FOREWORD
M. Kathleen Heid

This volume contains five chapters (Chapters 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10) that focus on
teaching mathematics to English learners (EL students). The research-based advice
provided for teachers and, by extension, for teacher educators includes practical
recommendations to support EL students such as asking students to revoice others’
arguments and apply their own reasoning to that offered by others and structuring
instruction to build formal language on students’ everyday language. Notably, the
five chapters spotlight the importance of preserving the integrity of the mathemat-
ics while tailoring instruction to the needs of EL students.
The authors issue a clarion call that expectations remain high for EL students.
Moschkovich underscores the inherent danger of a narrow view of language that
can limit EL students’ access to high-quality curriculum. For example, a focus on
the meaning of single words can limit students’ access to complex mathematical
ideas; insistence on using formal language to convey mathematical ideas can limit
the resources upon which EL students can draw. Avalos, Medina, and Secada rec-
ommend that teachers of EL students should focus on connections among registers
(e.g., everyday language, mathematical representation, school mathematical lan-
guage, symbolic language). Echoing this recommendation, Moschkovich advocates
for developing students’ facility with multiple representations through extended
classroom discourse that engages students in finding and articulating mathematical
patterns, making generalizations, and using representations to support their math-
ematical claims. She posits that mathematical activity centered on evidence-based
argumentation contributes to conceptual understanding.
In addition to addressing representation and communication, authors portray
language as a tool for thinking and sense making. For example, Barwell argues that
writing in mathematics helps students organize their thinking about mathematics
as they structure arguments that interrelate natural language, mathematical symbols,
and visual representations. He views learning to write in mathematics as inextrica-
bly linked to learning mathematics and as more than a routine exercise.
 Foreword xi

The challenge of engaging EL students in ways that preserve mathematical integ-

rity leads to the question of how to assess that learning. Two mathematics-oriented
chapters focus on assessment. Integrating attention to mathematical understanding
and to language facility, Wylie, Bauer, Bailey, and Heritage center on formative
assessment and examine integration of companion learning progressions—one on
proportional reasoning and one on explanation. The authors demonstrate how the
two progressions can be deeply linked, with language features such as sophistica-
tion of sentence structure, coherence, and establishment of advanced relationships
among ideas providing an essential venue for developing and demonstrating the
depth of understanding of the mathematical ideas. The authors also recognize the
difficulty of teachers simultaneously measuring students’ in-depth mathematics
knowledge and their fluency with language. In discussion of summative assess-
ment, Cheuk, Daro, and Daro focus on the challenge of constructing valid items
for measuring EL students’ mathematical knowledge. Such items need to minimize
difficulty engendered by irrelevant constructs without altering the integrity of the
targeted mathematical construct.
The authors of the mathematics-oriented chapters make a powerful case for
centering EL students’ instruction in mathematics on communication about
important mathematical ideas. These chapters provide compelling arguments that,
as EL students read, discuss, and write about mathematical ideas in ways that honor
and call on their personal resources, they can enhance and deepen their conceptual
mathematical understanding.
The Pennsylvania State University
State College, PA
FOREWORD
Catherine Snow

Language is both a gift and a trap. It is through language that we connect with others,
that we form friendships and resolve disagreements, that we learn new things, that
we organize our thoughts so we can remember what we have learned, and that we
construct world views and interrogate our own thinking. That is the gift. But we
also rely on others’ use of language in judging them, and we too often conclude
that people who don’t speak our language well are deficient in some way. That can
be a trap for all of us, and in particular for teachers working valiantly to convey
complex content to their students. When the stakes are high, as they almost always
are in classroom settings, misunderstanding or lack of understanding can generate
frustration and negative affect. Teachers are constantly confronted with the need
to distinguish the complexity of the content from the complexity of the language
used to convey the content. This is a very difficult task, precisely because the lan-
guage complexity is a mechanism for conveying the content efficiently.
The default approach to educating second language learners of English has been
to focus on language, often in separate immersion or ESL classrooms where speak-
ing, understanding, reading, and writing English become in effect the entire cur-
riculum. Achieving proficiency in English is seen as a prerequisite to accessing
curricular content in math, science, or social studies—because, of course, those
content areas are complex and because students typically learn them by listening to
the teacher speak in English or by reading texts written in English.
The chapters in this volume give a collective overview of how complex science
and math concepts generate the language complexity that teachers and students
must grapple with. At the same time they offer practices and strategies designed to
ensure that all students, in particular English learners (ELs), can navigate through
the language to the content. Students who speak English as a second language
are often provided with simpler language by virtue of simplifying the content,
thus limiting their access to grade-level material. That is a recipe for ensuring they
never catch up with monolingual peers. Engaging topics, excellent instruction,
 Foreword xiii

well-designed cumulative curricula, and access to support through the home lan-
guage, through cooperative learning, and through hands-on lessons can ensure that
content learning becomes a mechanism for language learning rather than an activ-
ity postponed until after language learning has been accomplished.
The editors and authors who have contributed to this volume deserve a vote
of thanks for having taken on a challenging set of issues, and having responded
with research-based and usable information. They have considered many dimen-
sions relevant to their work—not just analyzing the challenge, but also exploring
implications for instruction, for teacher education, and for assessment. The new
college- and career-ready standards embraced by American educators hold the
promise of improving educational outcomes for all students in the U.S., but they
also bring with them the danger of exacerbating the gaps between native speakers
and second language learners of English. Information such as that compiled in this
volume will be of great help in ensuring positive outcomes for EL students and for
their monolingual classmates.
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Cambridge, MA
PREFACE1

The Organization of this Volume

This volume reviews the current knowledge base and includes a salient practice-
based component that integrates what we know about language and its develop-
ment as related to students’ learning of mathematics and science. Each chapter
shows where the authors are drawing implications from the corpus of research and,
also, where additional research is needed. The purpose of the volume is to provide
educators with something worthwhile to “take away” from their reading and also
have something significant to think about as they seek to improve their classroom
practices with their own students or with the preparation of teachers. The authors
are internationally recognized scholars in the field of mathematics and science
language and literacy development, teaching, and assessment. They reviewed and
interpreted their own work and that of others for educational practitioners.
The volume emphasizes the implications about what we know from research for
students learning English at the same time they are learning the content areas. Sev-
eral chapter address how programs show accountability and how educators monitor
students’ progress in both language and content learning. The volume integrates
what we know about these areas of research and draws direct implications for class-
room practice. Consequently, this volume is pertinent to practitioners and educa-
tors in the STEM disciplines, literacy and language studies, teaching and leadership,
and those interested in educational policy making and implementation at both the
K-12 and higher education levels.
The topics addressed include oral language (for example, oral justifications, argu-
ments, predictions, and explanations); literacy (including reading comprehension,
writing, and other forms of graphic representation such as tables, charts, images);
assessment (both formative and summative); and special consideration of English
learners (ELs). This volume includes the following three main sections: (1) oral
language (mathematics, science); (2) literacy (reading in mathematics, reading in
 Preface xv

science; writing in mathematics, writing in science); and (3) assessment (forma-

tive assessment in mathematics and in science; summative assessment in mathemat-
ics and in science, and an integration of summative and formative assessment in
science).
The chapters are comprehensive in their own right with the focus on one aspect
of this area, but reference crosscutting themes and implications for educational
practice. The volume does not adhere to one theoretical approach to the integra-
tion of language, literacy and the STEM disciplines; rather, the chapters will illus-
trate the array of theoretical approaches to understanding language in scholastic
contexts currently found in the education field; for example, social constructivist
(e.g., Snow, 1999), systemic functional linguistics (e.g., Halliday, 1978; Schleppegrell,
2004), and complex adaptive systems (affordances) (e.g., Ellis & Larsen-Freeman,
2009). Moreover, the book draws on different traditions in the language develop-
ment and literacy fields and differs from volumes that have focused exclusively on
“disciplinary literacy” (i.e., the content knowledge, critical thinking skills, and lit-
eracy skills specific to a discipline), by also including work on oral language devel-
opment (as a basis of literacy and in its own right), second language acquisition,
precursor reading and writing abilities, and on the highly specific needs of K-12
EL students. Each chapter includes sections offering focus bullets on major chapter
points to enable readers and facilitators to review, evaluate, and integrate them with
their own relevant experiences. These sections should prove especially useful for
participants in professional development seminars.
This volume is geared directly to teacher educators who are preparing to teach
courses in the areas of elementary and secondary mathematics and science educa-
tion, in which teachers must develop comprehensive content, cultural sensitivity,
and communication skills. In addition, it can serve as a supplementary text for
teacher candidates in mathematics and science methods courses. The volume may
serve as the central reading in special topics graduate courses on language, literacy,
and STEM disciplines. Finally, we see this volume as being appropriate for inde-
pendent reference or professional learning community studies by in-service math-
ematics and science teachers who are seeking greater knowledge of the integration
of language, literacy, and STEM disciplines for all students but particularly for the
growing number of EL students in their classrooms.

Part I. Oral Language in STEM Disciplines

The first section of the book focuses on what we know about the role of oral lan-
guage in learning mathematics, science, and engineering. In Chapter 2, Moschko-
vich describes how student talk is important for conceptual understanding and
what kinds of discussions and everyday ways of talking support learning math-
ematics with understanding and the ways that teachers can support students in
participation in mathematical discussions focused on understanding. Lee, Grapin,
and Haas (Chapter 3) define teaching and learning of science in terms of blending
the three dimensions of science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts,
and disciplinary core ideas. This chapter describes the critical role of oral language
when students, especially EL students, engage in the NGSS.
xvi Preface

Part II: Reading and Writing in STEM Disciplines

In Part II Avalos, Medina, and Secada (Chapter 4) start off this section on literacy
and the STEM disciplines by providing an overview of challenges and affordances
related to reading mathematics word problems. Their study presents students’ per-
ceptions of the language, technical vocabulary, context, and visual representations
when solving mathematics word problems. In Chapter 5, Pearson and Cervetti
centralize the role of reading in students’ thinking and development of scientific
literacy by focusing on the key practices found in the NGSS, the language of sci-
ence as a specialized academic register, and the design of lessons and activities
responsive to the individual literacy strengths and challenges of students in learn-
ing science. Shifting to the production of literacy, Barwell (Chapter 6) provides a
critical overview of research on writing in mathematics classrooms, including some
of the features of formal written mathematics. He examines the tension between
formal, orthographically correct language and students’ emergent forms of writing
mathematics and the role of writing in marginalizing students who are second lan-
guage learners of mathematics. In Chapter 7, the final chapter in Part II, Silliman,
Wilkinson, and Brea-Spahn examine the role writing assumes in students’ develop-
ment of scientific literacy by focusing on interconnecting key practices found in
the NGSS and the Hayes and Berninger (2014) model of writing.

Part III: Summative and Formative Assessment

in the STEM Disciplines
In this final section of the book, several chapters lay out the latest ideas for assess-
ment of mathematics and the sciences that take account of the role of language
in student learning and testing. In Chapter 8, Wylie, Bauer, Bailey, and Heritage
attempt to jointly apply mathematics and language learning progressions to a writ-
ten mathematical explanation task to describe how dual progressions support and
inform each other in formative assessment of all students, with particular focus on
implications for EL students. Chapter 9 by Gotwals and Ezzo situates the practices
of formative assessment within a framework in which teachers use high-leverage
practices to provide and adapt ongoing model-based learning opportunities for
all students including EL students. In Chapter 10, Cheuk, Daro, and Daro take
the opportunity presented by new college- and career-ready standards in math-
ematics to explore innovative ways to reconceive large-scale assessment used for
accountability purposes. Special considerations for EL students need to be taken
into account to ensure fair and valid assessment of their mathematics knowledge.
Covitt and Anderson (Chapter 11) describe the development of assessments of
students’ performance in situations where they are asked to develop or critique
arguments, explanations, and predictions. They address how these genres are con-
nected to one another in terms of language use, knowledge, and practice and ensu-
ing implications for classroom science assessment. In the final chapter, Wilson and
Toyama (Chapter 12) describe an approach to the construction and empirical vali-
dation of a science learning progression that provides a developmental perspective
on student learning and a match between instruction and assessment.The approach
 Preface xvii

moves the field toward combining both summative and formative assessment while
upholding high-quality standards of reliability and validity.
The book concludes with an afterword by Bailey, Maher, and Wilkinson that
synthesizes key ideas to emerge from these chapters.We examine whether the work
of the authors suggests that implementation of “best practices” for instruction and
assessment of STEM disciplines differs for EL students and non-EL students or
whether indeed the distinction is one of emphasis in teaching and assessment prac-
tices with EL students. Finally, we offer suggestions for further research.

Note
1 The editors of this volume are listed in alphabetical order; all contributed equally to this
volume.

References
Ellis, N. C., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (2009). Language as a complex adaptive system (Special
Issue). Language Learning, 59 (Supplement 1).
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as a social semiotic. London: Arnold.
Hayes, J. R., & Berninger, V. (2014). Cognitive processes in writing: A framework. In M. J.
Schleppegrell (Ed.), The language of schooling: A functional linguistics perspective. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
Schleppegrell, M. J. (2004). The language of schooling: A functional linguistics perspective. Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Snow, C. E. (1999). Social perspectives on the emergence of language. In B. MacWhinney
(Ed.), The emergence of language (pp. 257–276). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, we owe great debts of gratitude to our husbands, Frank, Jim,
and Alex. Once again they suffered the absence of their spouses cheerfully and sup-
portively, but we hope they also forged their own bonds of new or closer friendship
as a result of being thrown together several times in the making of this book. We
thank Alejandro and William for their willing participation in Chapter 1—their
efforts have helped to illustrate firsthand the intersection of language and math-
ematics. Our thanks go also to the chapter contributors for each being so willing
and enthusiastic about the volume and their work for the educational communities
the volume is designed to inform. We also gratefully acknowledge M. Kathleen
Heid, Catherine Snow, and Rodolfo Dirzo for their contributions of putting the
work within their respective contexts of mathematics, language development, and
science learning. Finally, we thank former education publisher Naomi Silverman
at Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, who got this volume under way, as well as
Karen Adler, her successor, and Emmalee Ortega during the production stages.
1
INTRODUCTION
Language, Literacy, and Learning
in the STEM Disciplines

Alison L. Bailey, Carolyn A. Maher, and

Louise C. Wilkinson

This volume synthesizes and critically interprets the extant research on the lan-
guage and literacy inherent to learning the STEM disciplines of science, tech-
nology, engineering, and mathematics. In addition, the volume addresses how the
language of mathematics and of the sciences may present specific challenges to the
learning and assessment of English learners (EL students). The chapters of this vol-
ume focus on the following questions:

• What are the language challenges unique to STEM disciplines?

• When and how do students develop mastery of the language registers unique
to the STEM disciplines?
• How do teachers use assessment as evidence of student learning, for both
accountability and teaching purposes, that is, to guide instruction?
• Are there issues unique to EL students in learning (and assessing) the content
and language of the STEM disciplines?

The Policy Context for EL Students Learning

the STEM Disciplines in U.S. Schools
There is a growing crisis in U.S. schools: Far too many students fail to learn the
requisite knowledge of mathematics and science, and they fall far behind their
international peers. The challenge is particularly acute for students who are learn-
ing English at the same time they are attempting to master these content areas.
From a global perspective, U.S. students have not performed particularly well on
international assessments in core academic content areas, as revealed by interna-
tional assessments such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)
administered to 15-year-olds. The U.S. ranked 40th out of 71 participating coun-
tries in mathematics literacy (showing a downward trend since 2009) and 25th
in science literacy (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
2 Alison L. Bailey et al.

[OECD], 2015). Implementation of new college- and career-ready standards

in the U.S. places great pressure on teachers to increase students’ achievement.
Communication—oral and written language—is at the heart of success for all stu-
dents in meeting the new standards. The most recent academic content standards
explicitly require mastery of the oral and written communication styles or registers
that characterize the language of instruction, including the STEM disciplines.
Standards-based educational reform of the past decades aims to increase learn-
ing goals for all U.S. students, so that they are better prepared for college and
careers and to enhance equity in the access to college and career readiness for
underserved students, including EL students. For example, the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social
Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects and Common Core State Standards for
Mathematics (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council
of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010) remain implemented in one form
or another across 42 states and the District of Columbia (National Conference of
State Legislatures, 2016). Similarly, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS
Lead States, 2013) outline the performance expectations for science and have been
adopted by16 states and the District of Columbia.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), which is the reauthorization of the
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (2001), continues the federal role in funding states
and local school districts.The law directly impacts U.S. elementary and secondary edu-
cation students, especially those students of different races, incomes, or backgrounds,
who have not achieved at the same levels in the past in comparison with their peers.
That is, there is a question about whether these students have had equal opportunities
to obtain a high-quality education and fair assessment (U.S. Department of Education
[USDOE], 2016). ESSA continues many of the same provisions of NCLB for EL stu-
dents; however, state accountability for their progress in English has been heightened,
with the shift of the mandated annual assessment of English language proficiency
from Title III to Title I. This means English proficiency carries the same weight as
accountability for English language arts and mathematics.While ESSA is the law of the
land and the Department of Education released regulations to be addressed by states’
implementation (USDOE, 2016), the future appears unclear due to the changes in the
leadership of the U.S. after the 2016 election.
Particularly pertinent for this volume are the most recent mathematics and sci-
ence standards. In the case of science, the standards move away from emphasizing
merely knowing science ideas and toward a three-dimensional concept of learn-
ing science integrating disciplinary core ideas, science practices, and crosscutting
concepts. In the case of mathematics, these standards emphasize “general, cross-
disciplinary literacy expectations that must be met by the time students graduate
from high school to be prepared to enter college and workforce training programs
ready to succeed” (CCSS for Mathematics, 2010, p. 4). Today’s high school gradu-
ates do not have the reasoning, cultural awareness, and communications skills essen-
tial for keeping the U.S. workforce competitive, economically secure, and capable
of effective engagement in diplomatic and commercial venues in the global com-
munity. State-led initiatives to increase educational expectations from kindergarten
to the 12th grade provided the impetus for the standards, so that all students would
be college- and career-ready by the end of high school. Students are now required
 Introduction 3

to use multiple domains of language and literacy, including media and technology,
all to support their thinking critically.The so-called anchor standards emphasize the
integration of communication processes into the disciplines and refer to literacy
(reading, writing) and oral language (speaking and listening).
While the articulation of the role of language in mastery of content is an
improvement over prior academic standards, it is regrettable that language is largely
defined narrowly in these standards. For the most part, language is treated as the
development of general academic and domain-specific vocabulary knowledge and
effective use of language conventions across multiple modes of expression. Nev-
ertheless, these integrated processes of language and STEM content function as
the foundation for the grade-specific academic standards, which reference require-
ments for mastery by the end of each academic year in content areas.
It is notable that this standards-based reform is occurring at the same time as
the evolving composition of the student population in the U.S., with EL students
showing the fastest growing cohort (National Clearinghouse for English Lan-
guage Acquisition, 2017). Throughout their schooling in the U.S., the standardized
achievement scores of these children and youth are significantly below their peers
(see Tables 1.1 and 1.2).

TABLE 1.1 2015 PISA Mathematics and Science Performances by Match Between Language
Spoken in the Home and Test Language

15-Year-Olds

Mismatch in Home/Test Match in Home/Test

Language Scale Score Language Scale Score

OECD average:
Mathematics 452 496
Science 448 500
U.S:
Mathematics 438 477
Science 459 506
Source: OECD (2015)

TABLE 1.2 2015 NAEP Mathematics and Science Performances by Grade and ELL Status,
Public and Nonpublic School Students Combined*

4th Grade 8th Grade 12th Grade

ELL scale Non-ELL ELL scale Non-ELL ELL scale Non-ELL

score (% scale score (% score (% scale score (% score (% scale score (%
below basic) below basic) below basic) below basic) below basic) below basic)

Mathematics 218 (43) 243 (15) 246 (69) 284 (26) 115 (79) 153 (37)
Science 121 (59) 158 (20) 110 (81) 157 (29) 105 (86) 152 (38)
* English language learner (ELL) is terminology used by NAEP.
Source: USDOE (2015)
4 Alison L. Bailey et al.

Perhaps the most intractable problem in U.S. education is the achievement gap
that exists between groups of children who differ by home language, socioeco-
nomic status, race, and/or ethnicity. The origins of this gap may be due to lack of
opportunity to learn STEM content or due to the linguistic and cultural differences
among students with varying language backgrounds. Students in these categories
achieve far below their peers on standardized achievement tests of mathematics, sci-
ence, and literacy learning. For example, long-standing gaps in achievement for EL
students, who are learning English at the same time that they are learning academic
content such as science, appear early and become amplified as they progress from
first grade through high school.
From a global perspective, reform of the way science is taught and learned in U.S.
schools could not have come soon enough. As a matter of policy and practicality,
students in the U.S. are not doing well in learning how to reason or communicate
like a scientist. Their average PISA science score (496) again was not significantly
different from the OECD average (493) (Kastberg, Chan, & Murray, 2016). This
finding held despite a positive decrease in the variance explained by socioeconomic
status (SES), a measure of equity. The variance for science performance attribut-
able to SES for U.S. students decreased from 17% in 2006 to 11% in 2015 (OECD,
2016). In this sense, relative to its recent large-scale educational reform, the U.S. still
lacks policy and pedagogical “smarts” in the teaching of science (Ripley, 2016), a
predicament in the process of resolution through federal funding of new models for
science teaching, learning, and fairer assessments (USDOE, 2016).
The primary premise of the PISA science assessment is that the immensity of
today’s information flow and rapid changes in technology mean that laboratory-
bound experiments no longer define the whole of scientific practices (OECD,
2016). Rather science is now viewed as the basis for the everyday tools available to
enhance individual quality of life while simultaneously expanding global econo-
mies, from clean drinking water to more productive farming, from climate change
to space exploration. Hence, in this era of “fake” news, there is great urgency for
students to “think like a scientist” (OECD, 2016, p. 2) in considering evidence,
reaching principled conclusions, and understanding that scientific truths can change
over time as new discoveries emerge.
A global assessment of scientific literacy, which is defined as knowledge of
the purposes, procedures, and products of science and science-based technology
(OECD, 2015), the PISA requires students to apply their science knowledge to
solve problems set in everyday, real-world contexts. The PISA therefore assumes
students’ mastery of specialized academic English, in which the multiple levels of
language must be coordinated in precise ways. For example, at the level of mean-
ing and syntax, the linguistic complexity of individual test items, directions, and
questions can include: (a) technical vocabulary; (b) obscure semantic relation-
ships among word meanings; and (c) complex syntactic forms, such as dense noun
phrases, nominalizations, multiple embedded clauses, and passive voice construc-
tions (Silliman, Wilkinson, & Brea-Spahn, this volume). Of note, the PISA compe-
tencies required for scientific literacy (OECD, 2015) do not include any linguistic
or discourse dimensions of the specialized academic language that serves as the
mechanism for interpreting text and translating these understandings into written
expressions. The three competencies are: explain phenomena scientifically, evaluate
 Introduction 5

and design scientific inquiry, and interpret data and evidence scientifically. It should
be noted that PISA scores are not disaggregated by EL student status (or equivalent
across the different nations) (OECD, 2015). There is however, an accompanying
survey item that asks whether the assessment is taken in a language that matches the
student’s home language.While this is not identical to knowing whether a test taker
is proficient in the language in which the test is conducted (students after all can
be proficient speakers of the language used in school while exposed to a different
home language), it may be a close proxy. As a result of disaggregating the mathemat-
ics and science assessments by the match between the test and home language, 2015
test scores show large differences for both the OECD average for participating
nations as a whole and for the U.S. specifically (see Table 1.1). In every instance, the
subgroup of students who experienced a mismatch between the language of the
test administration and their home language scored lower on average for both the
PISA mathematics and the PISA science assessments (OECD, 2015).
While these assessment performances may be discouraging for students learning
the language of school as an additional language at the same point they are learn-
ing new academic content, it is still premature to evaluate progress, considering
the implementation of the new academic standards in the U.S. Presumably, it will
take some time before improvement in instruction based on the new academic
standards shows up in student outcomes on large-scale assessments. Meanwhile, we
need to move forward to determine whether the integration of language and the
STEM disciplines has enhanced the learning of EL students. We can take immedi-
ate action by asking: What knowledge of STEM and EL students are teachers receiving?
What instructional and assessment practices are promising? These are questions that we
now address.

The Approach: STEM Instruction and

Assessment With EL Students
Instruction, learning, and assessment of mathematics and science are a complex
process, requiring both students and teachers to know and use a variety of types
of knowledge. This includes knowledge of the language and communication chal-
lenges inherent to these disciplines. Each academic discipline is defined by a specific
kind of language that is distinct from everyday, natural language. Each disciplinary
register defines the unique way of cultivating reading, writing, speaking, and ways
of reasoning that students must master, if they are deemed to be proficient in that
discipline. We focused both on instruction and assessment practices because they
reveal quite different but equally important language competencies in students.

Instruction
In instruction, task design and implementation procedures are central concerns
in establishing optimal conditions for students’ learning. During instruction, there
are opportunities for students to interact with each other and the teacher and
thereby question and scaffold their own learning utilizing talk and text as tools.
One element of task design is the composition of the participant structure utilized:
6 Alison L. Bailey et al.

individual learner, dyads, small groups, and whole groups. In the case of mathemat-
ics, specific kinds of tasks tend to elicit certain forms of reasoning, in which students
are required to provide oral and/or written justification for their solutions (Mueller,
Yankelewitz, & Maher, 2010). Most effective for students’ learning are tasks requir-
ing students both to convince themselves and others about their solutions and also
to articulate, using language and other forms of representation, why these solutions
are correct and complete (Maher & Yankelewitz, 2017).
The new college- and career-readiness standards clearly set high expectations
for teacher and student uses of language during STEM instruction even while they
do not elaborate on how language and content can best be integrated. For exam-
ple, the CCSS for Mathematics includes Mathematical Practice 3 that states, “Construct
viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.” CCSS for English Language
Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects includes
the following standard for ninth-tenth grades: “Determine the central ideas or con-
clusions of a text; trace the text’s explanation or depiction of a complex process,
phenomenon, or concept; provide an accurate summary of the text.” CCSSO’s
English Language Proficiency Development Framework (2012) expressly provides
descriptions of the language practices found within both the CCSS and NGSS,
including the following: “Describe a model using oral and/or written language as
well as illustration.” This framework is intended to define key language needs of
EL students.
The instructional gap for teachers is calling out how we can have classrooms that
set up situations to give students the opportunity to have rich content discussion;
a second gap is in student exposure to teachers who facilitate in pushing students’
thinking and language to new heights. By the same token, while much is made of
instructional gaps for students, there is also an opportunity to learn gap since not all
students have available to them the kinds of classrooms that support the sustained
and collaborative interactions called for in the academic standards quoted earlier.
With these considerations in mind we turn to how mathematics and science can
be integrated with language to form best practices for assessment of STEM and
language learning.

Assessment
Summative assessment practices reveal successes of programming and aggregate stu-
dent progress to be reported periodically (e.g., annual, large-scale mathematics and
science assessments). Formative assessment practices reveal how teachers respond
contingently to student learning in the moment by adjusting their teaching and
providing feedback for student learning or planning for next steps in decision mak-
ing. In contrast with instruction, during assessment contexts students are predomi-
nantly responsible for producing independent work in their display of knowledge.
This often requires their mastery of decontextualized language in both oral and
written forms, especially in standardized summative assessments. Such test protocols
are mainly unassisted, without mediation or scaffolding from others and with no
opportunities for clarification or immediate feedback; thus, this represents a very
different skill set for students to master.
 Introduction 7

National level assessments of STEM and language show in greater detail the
gaps surrounding academic achievement, language proficiency, and the opportu-
nity to learn in U.S. classrooms. The National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP) provides a comparison of both mathematics and science for EL and non-
EL student performances (USDOE, 2015). While all students performed less well
on these STEM disciplines over time, EL students’ performances by 12th grade are
particularly troubling, with the vast majority of students scoring below basic in both
mathematics and science (see Table 1.2).
At the state level, most states have adopted the Smarter Balanced Assessment
Consortium (SBAC) or Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and
Careers (PARCC) consortia assessments that were developed for the Race to the
Top initiative of the former federal government’s program to monitor state pro-
gress toward meeting the college- and career-ready standards. Reauthorized under
ESSA (2015), mathematics continues to be assessed annually in third through
eighth grades and once in high school. Science must be assessed once at each of the
third–fifth, sixth–eighth, and ninth–Twelfth grade clusters.
The most glaring shortcoming of the implementation of state standards-based
summative assessments with EL students is the fact that EL students have tradi-
tionally left the pool of EL test takers when they succeed in English language
programming (i.e., are redesignated as fluent English proficient). This means their
successful performances were never captured and credited to the programs they exit
(Saunders & Marcelletti, 2013). Under new federal legislation, former EL students
are now followed for up to two years to better understand their progress and the
success of the programs that serve them.
Student responses to a state standards-based mathematics assessment item illus-
trate the communicative demands inherent in the new standards-aligned assess-
ments. This SBAC released item requires students to first read a word problem and
then construct an explanation of their mathematical reasoning. The responses of
Alejandro and William reveal the types of language and literacy skills students must
command to display their mathematics abilities.The item asks them to explain why
five-eyed space creatures cannot joint a contest to make up a group of 24 total eyes.

The five eyed space creatures cannot join the contest because 5 × 5 = 25 and
5 × 4 = 20 so it cannot be 24.
(Alejandro, a 9-year-old, recently redesignated
EL student from a Spanish-speaking home)

The five eyed creatures could not join the contest because they are in five like 5–10–
15–20–25 and you see that the five eyed creature cant join the contest.
[Original punctuation] (William, an 8-year-old, Spanish second
language learner from an English-speaking home)

Neither boy explicitly states that “24 cannot be divided by multiples of five,” but
their responses do show mathematical understanding of the word problem. Both
boys focus on the fact that multiples of five do not allow for the sum of 24 total
eyes. Alejandro gives examples of the adjacent multiplication operations by five
8 Alison L. Bailey et al.

that skip over the value of 24 and asserts that it “cannot be 24.” William states “they
are in fives” and then elaborates with an example (“like”) using either a repeated
addition model by adding on fives or listing multiples of five—either way, perhaps
implying by its omission from this list that 24 is not a possibility.
Linguistically, both boys use complete sentences, beginning with the full noun
with its adjective modifiers (five-eyed space creatures) that had been given in the
word problem. Alejandro’s response is shorter and chains together two causal clauses
(“because they are . . .” and “so it cannot . . .”), and his choice of tense for the
auxiliary verb “cannot” remains in the present tense of the word problem prompt.
William’s verb usage contrasts with Alejandro’s where he uses the conditional tense
for the auxiliary verb “could not,” marking the contingent nature of the space crea-
tures’ ability to join the contest. He also uses an embedded causal clause “because
they are. . .,” but his writing still has an oral language quality to it when he writes
“they are in five like 5–10–15 . . .” and when he directly addresses the reader with
“and you see that. . . .” In some sense, the responses by both boys, but William’s
choice of the word ‘see’ especially, are suggestive of the fact that they have cho-
sen to give (different) examples to show rather than explicate in words that 24 is
not a viable option. A scoring rubric that anticipates the use of fully explanatory
responses (i.e., explicitly stating that 24 is indivisible by five, rather than give exam-
ples of the impossibility) could miss the understanding that these two boys have.
However, this discussion also highlights the kinds of language opportunities that
the students may need in the future and the work of teachers to prepare students
linguistically for such tasks.
Summative assessment like the NAEP mathematics and science assessments
and SBAC state standards-based assessment item described earlier contrasts sharply
with formative assessment approaches to understanding student progress, with the
focus on assessment for learning not only of learning (e.g., Black & Wiliam, 2010;
Black, Wilson, & Yao, 2011). Formative assessment occurs during instruction and
comprises the information that teachers can glean from their conversations with
students about their work, from overhearing student-to-student discussions, and
from observing students as they complete tasks so that they can modify instruc-
tion accordingly.This approach to assessment is particularly pertinent to instruction
with EL students. Formative assessment can serve as an important complement
to summative assessment with EL students because it can provide teachers with
knowledge not only of what a student says or writes in terms of mathematics or
science content but also of how a student is using language to express learning
(Bailey, 2017).
In the following excerpt of a kindergarten classroom, the teacher (Ms. Escobar)
has shown her Spanish-dominant EL students the plant root system, and later, dur-
ing small group time, she moves around the classroom to observe the students and
ask questions about their work (Bailey, Huang, & Escobar, 2011). One small group
has been given the task of using wooden blocks to represent the root system.

Escobar: Is this one yours, Julia? Let’s see, sit down with it and show me. Show
me what you’ve created. Tell me about your construction. Show me here.
Where is the seed?
 Introduction 9

[Julia points to the blocks and correctly identifies the part of her con-
struction that represents the seed.]
Escobar: OK. And where is the primary root?
[Julia points to the root hairs in her block representation.]
Escobar: Are they primary? Las primera que salio? (The first one to come out?)
[Julia then points to the primary root in her representation.]
Escobar: Yes. And where are the secondary roots?
[Julia points to the secondary roots in her representation.]
Escobar: Yes. And where are the root hairs?
[Julia points to the root hairs in her representation.]
Escobar: Excellent.

What is most striking about this exchange is that Julia, as a very beginning
EL student, is able to participate actively in her learning and in her teacher’s forma-
tive assessment of that learning. Escobar’s questions enable Julia to indicate, with
the help of her model, her understanding of English and science content through
nonverbal participation. Escobar is able to monitor her receptive English skills and
uses Spanish as a first language support where necessary so that she can still effec-
tively assess Julia’s science content knowledge.
We have illustrated with our analyses of these brief examples how language and
literacy may either obfuscate or clarify children’s efforts to develop understanding
and to display that understanding via language and nonlanguage tools. One exam-
ple focused on the display of mathematical understanding in summative assessment,
while the second was a display of scientific understanding using visual representa-
tions appropriate to a beginning English level during formative assessment. In the
preface to this volume, we provided an overview of the goals, organization, and
basic details of our approach to the language challenges inherent to learning the
STEM disciplines. The following chapters focus on the authors’ findings for how
the language of mathematics and of the sciences presents challenges for all students
and in particular EL students.

References
Bailey, A. L. (2017). Progressions of a new language: Characterizing explanation develop-
ment for assessment with young language learners. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics,
37, 241–263.
Bailey, A. L., Huang,Y., & Escobar, M. (2011). I can explain: Academic language for science
among young English language learners. In P. Noyce & D. Hickey (Eds.), New frontiers in
formative assessment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2010). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom
assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(1), 81–90.
Black, P., Wilson, M., & Yao, S.Y. (2011). Road maps for learning: A guide to the navigation
of learning progressions. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 9, 71–123.
Council of Chief State School Officers. (2012). Framework for English Language Proficiency
Development Standards corresponding to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Gen-
eration Science Standards. Washington, DC: CCSSO.
Every Student Succeeds Act. (2015, December 10). Public Law No. 114–195, 114th Con-
gress, 1st session.
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Kastberg, D., Chan, J.Y., & Murray, G. (2016). Performance of US 15-year-old students in Science,
reading, and Mathematics literacy in an international context: First look at PISA 2015. NCES
2017–2048. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
Maher, C. A., & Yankelewitz, D. (Eds.) (2017). Children’s reasoning while building fraction ideas.
Heidelberg/Dordrecht/Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Mueller, M., Yankelewitz, D., & Maher, C. (2010). Promoting student reasoning through
careful task design: A comparison of three studies. International Journal for Studies in Math-
ematics Education, 3(1), 135–156.
National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition. (2017). Profiles of English learners.
Washington, DC: Office of English Language Acquisition.
National Conference of State Legislatures. (2016). College and career readiness standards legisla-
tion. Retrieved from www.ccrslegislation.info/CCR-State-Policy-Resources/common-
core-status-map
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School
Officers. (2010). Common Core state standards for English language arts & literacy in history/
social studies, science, and technical subjects and Common Core state standards for Mathematics.
Washington, DC: Author.
NGSS Lead States. (2013). Next Generation Science Standards: For states, by states. Washington,
DC: The National Academies Press.
No Child Left Behind Act. (2001, December 13). Public Law No. 107–110, 107th Congress,
1st Session.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2015). Program for International
Student Assessment (PISA): Mathematics and Science literacy. Paris: Author.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2016). Program for International
Student Assessment (PISA): Mathematics and Science literacy. Paris: Author.
Ripley, A. (2016, December 8).What the U.S. can learn from other nation’s schools. The New
York Times, p. A3.
Saunders, W. M., & Marcelletti, D. J. (2013). The gap that can’t go away: The catch-22 of
reclassification in monitoring the progress of English learners. Educational Evaluation and
Policy Analysis, 35(2), 139–156.
U.S. Department of Education. (2015). National assessment of educational progress: 2015 Math-
ematics and Science performances. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
U.S. Department of Education. (2016). National assessment of educational progress science assess-
ment. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/science/
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
“Nor soul helps body more
Than body soul.”
Page 184
 It may be thought that educational work is specially suitable for
Chinese women, and perhaps something of it is already known in
England, while other forms of activity are less known and less
approved, but from the time of the opening of China’s doors to
Western influence they have been eager to seize the new
opportunities, and have become an important factor in the national
life. “While not yet numerous, modern Chinese women,” says Dr.
Rawlinson, “are beginning to exert a tremendous influence” (China in
Contemporaneous Literature). The first woman’s newspaper in the
world was written and edited by Chinese women, and in Peking the
ladies of the gentry some nine or ten years ago organized a club
under the leadership of Princess Kalachin, called the “Women’s
Mutual Improvement Club,” and this is entirely unconnected with
foreigners. The special object of this club is discussion, and Chinese
women have proved themselves already to be excellent speakers,
having very pleasant voices and a good self-possessed manner,
which inspires respectful attention. They have appeared on platforms
where such a thing would have been scouted with horror not twenty
years ago.
As doctors, Chinese women have already proved their efficiency,
and the names of Dr. Ida Kahn and Dr. Mary Stone are everywhere
held in high respect.[26] In the new Rockefeller Medical School at
Peking women students are admitted, and girls as soon as it was
announced entered their names. In various parts of China women
are training for the medical profession, as well as in Great Britain
and America. I was greatly impressed by the nurses also in various
hospitals, especially those in the Women’s Hospital at Swatow.
There had been over a hundred and thirty midwifery cases in the
previous six months, and Dr. Heyworth told me she had been able to
leave nearly all of them to her Chinese assistants and nurses. They
are often sent for to visit outlying villages and they are doing
splendid work. What is everywhere the one essential is to have
thoroughly competent foreigners to train Chinese girls till such time
as native training schools in Western methods have been
established.
 Chapter IX
The Youth of China

“Crabbèd Age and Youth

Cannot live together:
Youth is full of pleasance,
Age is full of care;
Youth like summer morn,
Age like winter weather;
Youth like summer brave,
Age like winter bare.
Youth is full of sport,
Age’s breath is short;
Youth is nimble, Age is lame;
Youth is hot and bold,
Age is weak and cold;
Youth is wild, and Age is tame.
Age, I do abhor thee;
Youth, I do adore thee.”

—The Passionate Pilgrim.

Chapter IX
The Youth of China

The Spirit of Youth is one of the most marvellous possessions of

humanity. It is not possessed by young people in all countries, nor
indeed by all the young in any country, or at any given time. We
heard a good deal about Young Turkey and Young Egypt, but neither
of those countries have the Spirit of Youth, nor had China until quite
 GRASS RAINCOAT.

recently. Of all the poets Shakespeare speaks most of this Spirit of

Youth, for he lived in a time when it shone forth resplendent, spelling
high endeavour, the joy of life, ardour, courage, chivalry, beauty,
faith. It has its drawbacks, of course—conceit, wilfulness, turbulence,
impatience of control, of law, of order. But it is a splendid thing, and
the salvation of a weary world.

“There are four seasons in the mind of man:

He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
He has his Summer, when luxuriously
Spring’s honey’d cud of youthful thought he loves
To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
Is nearest unto heaven.”

This spirit of youth has taken possession of the student world of

China to-day, and is mainly responsible for the rapidly changing
mettle of the whole race. It is frequently in sharp antagonism to the
traditions of the past, as for instance with regard to age itself. The
reverence due to age is a great quality and has been of untold value
to the Chinese, but carried to the extreme of veneration it has
arrested progress and has won a false value.
In the old days all positions of importance were given to middle-
aged or elderly men—men of weight. Such a fact as Pitt becoming
prime minister at the age of twenty-four would have seemed to them
grotesque and foolish in the extreme. That a young man should be a
man of weight was unthinkable. But now you find young Chinamen in
most responsible posts, as their nation’s representatives at the court
of St. James, or in Paris or Washington. It is a young Chinaman who
by his eloquence and personality wins the admission of China to the
Council of the League of Nations. They are men who have all had
Western training, but that alone does not account for their influence.
From one end of China to the other I found that the temper of the
youth was wholly unlike what it was ten years ago (on the occasion
of my last visit), although the change had already begun then. Not
only is the veneration for the aged changing, but also the veneration
for antiquity, which has been one of the greatest hindrances to
progress in the past. Everywhere the young people are taking upon
themselves an active share in local affairs and also in affairs of the
State. Sometimes this shows itself in rather an amusing way and
sometimes with regard to matters of vast importance. Of the latter it
will suffice to mention the decision of the Republican Government to
make Confucianism the state religion. No sooner was the
announcement made than from every quarter the Government was
bombarded with telegrams from bodies of students, protesting “we
will not have Confucianism as a state religion”; and they won the
day.
As an instance of the authority of students in local matters, I came
across a college, a member of which had gone to study in Japan. He
was engaged to be married to a Chinese girl, but fell a victim to the
charms of a Japanese girl and married her. On his return he decided,
after some difficulties with the family of his fiancée, to marry her as
his secondary wife. Then the students were all up in arms. He had
committed the crime against patriotism of marrying a Japanese, and
now, forsooth, he would add another by taking a Chinese girl as
secondary to the Japanese! They not only forbade him to do this, but
also fined him a heavy sum of money and made him pay it.
The Japanese question has roused every student community in
this empire, and they have allied themselves with merchants on the
subject—an entirely new combination. They have not merely shown
their feelings by extensive looting and destruction of Japanese
goods, and boycotting of them in the markets, but after the Treaty of
Versailles they rose as one man to execrate the officials who were
concerned with the betrayal of Chinese interests to Japan, and
demanded that they should be dismissed from office. All the schools
and colleges went on strike and hundreds of students were
imprisoned. In vain the Government tried to put down the movement,
but it was so universal, and had so won the support of the
shopkeepers (these put up their shutters with notices that this was
done in support of the students’ demands), that the Government was
again forced to give way and punish the offenders.
While much is known here of the divided political condition of
China, but little is heard of this important solidarity. The importance
of such occurrences lies mainly in the fact that these are the outward
signs of a “Tide of New Thought,” as it has been called in Chinese.
This new vitality is pulsating more or less through the people of the
whole empire, but especially and with intense vigour in the student
world. It has driven them to violent and undisciplined action, so that
many people see in it the germs of revolution. But one must not
forget that the political Revolution has already become an
accomplished fact, and that the new movement is mainly one of
educational and social reform, and that the political faith of students
is Republicanism. The anti-Japanese feeling is due to the
determined infiltration of the Japanese into the country, and more
especially their action with regard to Shantung. Japan lost a
priceless opportunity of making alliance with China and vindicating
herself before the world, when she broke faith with regard to giving
back Tsingtau to China at the end of the war. This has had important
results on the student movement by leading the students to rapid
concerted action and showing them their power to control the action
of Government. However, this is but a temporary matter, while the
recent literary and social renaissance is likely to have a permanent
influence on the national life.
The effect of the new movement on literature of all kinds is
particularly interesting. The daily press and the reviews and
magazines are full of new thoughts and reflect all the currents of
opinion of the Western world. The critical spirit leaves no problem
unstudied; the political agitation in India, the Sinn Fein outrages in
Ireland, the labour troubles in England are accurately reported in the
Chinese daily press. Judgment is being passed on the results of our
civilization, and the future shaping of China’s destiny depends
largely on that judgment.
One of the most momentous days in all the history of the race was
when the Dowager Empress decided to sweep away the old system
of education after her great defeat by the Western Powers in 1900. It
was an amazing volte-face on the part of one of the most bigoted
autocrats that the world has seen. She saw that the root of all her
difficulties in finding the right kind of officials was lack of well-
educated persons in the social class from which such officials are
chosen, so she issued an edict in 1904 which bore the stamp of
Yüan Shih-k’ai and Chang Chih-tung, destroying at one blow the old
educational system. The document is curious and even a little
pathetic. She ordained that graduation in the new colleges should be
the only way to official position, pointing out that colleges had been
in existence more than two thousand five hundred years ago, and
that the classical essay system was quite modern—only having
existed about five hundred years.
She also gave orders that more students should be sent to Europe
and America—some were already going there—instead of to Japan,
whose revolutionary influence she mistrusted.
The greatest difficulty in effecting so great a change was to find
teachers fitted for the task. The seed had happily been planted
during the last half-century in mission schools, and from them a
certain small supply of teachers was obtainable. Chang Chih-tung
considered that three months’ study of textbooks would make a
competent teacher! Another immense difficulty was to find funds for
so vast an enterprise. The gentry were urged to found and support
schools, and an official button was granted to those who did so.
Chang Chih-tung worked out the whole scheme: colleges, schools of
various grades, curricula, regulations as to discipline, etc. etc. All
these things are set forth in five official volumes, and thus the
national system of education was inaugurated. Obviously so great a
change could not be wrought without many difficulties cropping up.
The main difficulty was lack of discipline, and that is the case to-day;
the student considers that he, or she (for the same spirit pervades
girls’ schools), ought to dictate to the master, instead of master to
pupil. In the early days of the system it was the easier for the pupils
to succeed, in that so many of the teachers were wholly
inexperienced and were afraid of losing their posts unless they gave
way. Although the above edict professes to train men in China itself
for official positions it was supplemented by provision for sending
students abroad, in order that they might be the better able to bring
their country into line with Western civilization.
With the coming of a Republican Government further progress
was made in the educational system in connexion with change in the
language, of which I have given details in Chapter II. The most
important fact with regard to the educational change is that it found a
prepared soil in which to grow, and there is reason to believe that the
roots are striking deep. The rapidity with which Japan adopted
Western ideas is known to every one, for it has enabled her to
become a world power by developing her army, navy and commerce
in an incredibly short space of time. She has used Western science
as the tool to secure military glory and territorial expansion. These
are not the things which appeal to the Chinese. Their renaissance is
on wholly different lines. Their gaze is turned inward rather than
outward, and the things of the foreign world interest them mainly as
shedding light on their own problems. This is the one characteristic
of the old Chinese temper which remains unchanged. The fierce ray
of criticism is turned on their own past; history, art, philosophy and
literature are now being sifted to see what is their actual value. But
the chief object of study in China to-day is man himself, his progress
and welfare, both in this world and in the next.[27]
The decay of the old religions must have a great influence on
student life, and the fact that a large proportion of the temples are
now used as school buildings is proof—if proof be needed—that the
use for them as temples has gone. Many people have thought it a
great step in advance that the old superstitions are being swept
away; but what is to take their place? The Chinese are feeling after a
more philosophical form of religion. Men like Yen Hsi Shan spend
time daily in meditation and worship of the one true God. The tide of
rationalism and positivism in Europe has swept even as far as the
shores of China, and has influenced many thoughtful men. In an
important journal called La Jeunesse, a well-known Chinese writer,
Peng-I-Hu, says, “I am not a member of any church, I am not
interested in protecting any organization or advocating the
excellency of any particular religious faith. But I have often felt that
religion contains within it the highest ethics, and so I think that if we
want imperfect mankind to make progress towards perfection, we
cannot lightly set religion aside.”
Large numbers of students have come into contact with
Christianity, and at this moment more than ever before they are
critically examining what it is worth. By means of the literature
dealing with the higher criticism (which is to be found in all the cities
of China), they are familiar with the problems confronting students in
the West: and these problems interest them immensely. But in the
long run it is not so much theory as practice that will influence young
China in its religious beliefs.
In the past, Chinese students have mainly got their Western
education in Western schools and colleges, where Christian doctrine
is an important part of the curriculum. They have had the opportunity
of studying the lives of their teachers and judging the practical value
of Christian ideals. Where use has been made of such institutions for
political or commercial propaganda, the result is obvious; but this
has been the rare exception in the past, though there seems to be a
growing tendency to it in certain recent institutions. Governments
which complain of the difficulties which missions have brought into
international relations, have often in the past made use of these
same difficulties to promote their own interest. No more cynical
statement could be made than that of the German Government with
regard to Shantung about the murder of two German missionaries:
“La Providence a voulu que la nécessité de venger le massacre de
nos missionaires nous amenât a acquérir une place commerciale de
première importance.” The Chinese have long memories, and they
will not forget such things. It is foolish to expect people to
discriminate accurately between the actions of a foreign power and
the missions of the same race.
The worst indictment that can be made against the missionaries
and their institutions, in my opinion, is that their teaching has been in
some cases narrow and in many cases superficial for want of
sufficient teachers and educational requisites, due to lack of funds.
The strain on missionary societies to supply these funds has been
far heavier than the general public is aware of, and the need has
been only met by a small section of the Christian community. Had
the community as a whole realized their responsibility, China would
have had better and more thorough teaching: even now it is not too
late to help her in the great educational enterprise on which she has
embarked. America is alive to the fact, but England is not. One great
step in advance is, however, in course of achievement, and that is
the union of the greater number of the different societies in the work
of central colleges and universities, which is a great gain, both from
the educational and the religious point of view.
At the present time the one vital requisite for China is to have a
thoroughly efficient training in all branches of education, especially,
of those men who are to be her leaders. Statesmen, lawyers,
doctors, engineers, bankers, men of science, literature and art are
needed, and all must, above all things, be men of high purpose and
spotless integrity. It is the corruption of men in authority which has
brought China to so low a condition, and which hinders her taking
her place among the ruling nations. Obviously she is not in a position
to-day to do this without help. The students in training to-day number
roughly eight millions, not to mention the vast number of boys
employed in agriculture and industry, who also have a claim to
teaching. One interesting feature of the student movement is the
sense of obligation now growing up amongst the students to share
their knowledge with their poorer neighbours. Night schools are
being established by them (in which they teach) not only for poor
children, but also for farmers, labourers, etc., in all parts of the
country. They also give popular lectures on such subjects as
hygiene, patriotism and politics.
During the terrible famine raging last winter, numbers of students
did relief work, and not only helped the sufferers, but had valuable
practical training in organized social service. Another feature of the
movement is this social service; here again trained leaders are
urgently needed. The experience which we have so painfully gained
during the last century we ought surely to share with them.
There are very few purely Chinese educational institutes of the
highest grade. The most important of any is without doubt the
National University of Peking, founded twenty-three years ago.
Under the influence of the present Chancellor, Tsai Yuanpei, it has
become an efficient school and centre of the new educational
movement. He has collected a staff of men trained in Western
thought to replace the former inefficient elderly staff. The present
Minister of Education, Fan Yuen Zien, made a trip to Europe and
America in 1918, and as a result of it has initiated a scheme for
having special scholars from the West to become annual lecturers at
the university. The first appointment was John Dewey, from
Columbia, U.S.A., then Bertrand Russell, from Cambridge, England,
and now it seems likely that Bergson will be invited from France and
Einstein from Germany. This suggests the spirit of the new learning.
Such a Minister of Education has much influence, and is promoting a
liberal educational policy. The university has departments of Law,
Literature and Science. Its influence is felt not only in Peking, but
throughout the country.
The Hong Kong University is of considerable importance, but as
the teaching is entirely in English, that is still a bar to many students.
It was started by Sir Frederick Lugard, and with the generous help of
many Chinese and a wealthy Parsee merchant, not to mention the
grant of a magnificent site by the Government of Hong Kong, the
university was launched in 1912. It was established mainly for the
use of the Chinese, but open to “students of all races, nationalities
and creeds,” and was to promote the “maintenance of good
understanding with the neighbouring Republic of China”—so runs
the Hong Kong Government ordinance of 1911. The first three chairs
established were Medicine, Applied Science, and Arts. In order to
meet the needs of men adopting an official career in China, the
requisite Chinese subjects are included.
A new university has been already planned by a Chinese
merchant at Amoy, Mr. Dan, and I visited the site on which it is to be
built. The donor is a man of humble birth. He has already founded
boys’ and girls’ schools near Amoy on most generous and modern
lines, of which further details are given in the following chapter.
Although not a member of any Christian body, he is most generous
in lending the buildings for Christian conferences and allowing
absolute liberty to Christian teachers in his schools to give religious
teaching to the scholars out of school hours.
Having referred to one of the most important non-religious
educational institutions for the Chinese, I will mention the most
important missionary ones. Of these St. John’s College, Shanghai, is
one of the oldest and most efficient, and is responsible for the
training of some of the leading men in China to-day. Recently the
college has added Medicine to the subjects taught in what has now
become the St. John’s University. It grants degrees, and is in close
touch with American universities. There are two other American
denominational universities, and five union and interdenominational
universities, also many important colleges, such as the Anglo-
Chinese College at Tientsin, the Trinity College at Foochow, the
Canton Christian College, the Hangchow College, the Shanghai
Baptist College, etc. etc.; but what are these in comparison with the
millions of China?
One very grave drawback to the present state of educational
affairs is that our British universities have made no attempt to
recognize the degrees and diplomas granted by these colleges and
universities with the exception of the Hong Kong University, which
has a special charter to that effect. Whereas in America every
university of importance welcomes Chinese students for post-
graduate study and grants them diplomas, not one of our universities
does this. All the students study the English language, and every
year sees them more prepared to make use of training in our
universities; but those educationists who know China best are
convinced that it is far better for her sons and daughters to study in
their own land till they have got a good sound general education, and
then come to England, say at the age of about twenty; they will then
be able to gain much more from what they see and learn than they
could do at an earlier age. With a mature judgment they will not be
so apt to get false impressions, as they are otherwise likely to do,
and will know how to select from the wealth of knowledge to which
they have access.
Nowadays the question of child labour is being considered, and
this is the more important because factories are springing up
everywhere. Field labour is hard on child life, but not nearly so
injurious as factory life. A large part of this industrial expansion is
American and European; therefore it is a grave responsibility for
such firms to ensure that the Chinese shall see Western
industrialism at its best, especially as regards the welfare of children
and women.
It would be neglecting a matter of great potential importance to the
future of young China if the history of the Scout Movement were
omitted. Curiously enough it seems to have been started at New
York, by the Chinese Students’ Club, in 1910, and from there to have
been carried to China itself about a couple of years later. In 1915
there was a special rally of scout troops from Canton and Shanghai,
in which three hundred boys took part, and Chinese boys figured at
the great scout Jamboree in England in 1920, when twenty thousand
boys of all races met in one great Brotherhood. The movement has
been so far mainly promoted by missionary institutions, who have
wisely recognized its attractiveness and importance to Chinese boys.
The great difficulty has been to find suitable scoutmasters, but time
should mend this. The Scout Rule is the same here as elsewhere,
and membership is open to every class of the community. Its
international value is a matter of no small importance.
 A natural question arises in every one’s mind with regard to the
possibility of maintaining the same high spirit in a troop of Oriental
boys as in an English troop, where tradition already helps this so
tremendously. I make no apology for quoting a striking illustration
from a recent magazine article of the fact that the Scout spirit of
honour, of preparedness, of active goodwill and of physical fitness is
found in Chinese scouts. “The young captain of the ‘soccer’ team
was visibly nettled. The game was a stiff one. His team were all, like
himself, Chinese boys at the Griffith John College, in Central China.
But a forward had ‘muffed’ an open shot at goal and a half-back had
‘funked’ tackling a big fast forward of the opposing team, while one
or two of the opponents had run perilously near to fouling.
“So his nerve had got ‘rattled.’ One of the English masters was
watching the game. He was also Scoutmaster of the troop in which
the Chinese boy was a scout of some standing. He saw the boy fast
losing his temper. Suddenly, in a momentary lull in the game, the
master from touch whistled the refrain of the Scout Call.
“In a flash the Chinese boy-captain realized the childishness of his
action and recovered himself. His face broke into its old customary
smile. With a laugh he rallied his side and swung forward with them.
They won the match.” (Outward Bound.)
To sum up the main points of the student situation: their actual
demands at the present time are for self-determination, self-
government and the abolition of the Tuchun system, namely the
military government of the provinces. If these are their demands, it is
well to consider what they have already accomplished: they have
created a student organization, with unions in every part of the
country; they have broken down sex prejudice in an extraordinary
way; they have aroused the interest of the masses of the common
people; and they have proved strong enough to alter Government
action. These are things which certainly justify their title to serious
consideration of their demands.
There is a wonderful spirit of hope and courage growing up, and it
is worth noting that this new nationalism has been singularly free
from the outrages to be found in popular movements in the West.
The natural ebullience—to use an ugly but expressive word—of
youth has on the whole shown itself wiser and more keen-sighted
than could have been expected under the circumstances, and gives
great hope for the future. The special stress laid on social service
and voluntary work is of great promise, and missions may justly
claim that it is the outcome of their work for the sick, the insane, the
blind, the deaf and dumb, the orphans and the poor. They have put
an ideal before the race, and the young are accepting it.

A medical student.
 Chapter X
Some Chinese Seaports and Commerce

“The problems of the Pacific are to my mind the world

problems of the next fifty years or more. In these problems we
are, as an Empire, very vitally interested. Three of the
dominions border on the Pacific; India is next door; there, too,
are the United States and Japan. There, also, in China the
fate of the greatest human population on earth will have to be
decided. There Europe, Asia and America are meeting, and
there, I believe, the next great chapter in human history will
be enacted. I ask myself, what will be the character of that
history? Will it be along the old lines? Will it be the old spirit of
national and imperial domination which has been the undoing
of Europe? Or shall we have learned our lesson? Shall we
have purged our souls in the fires through which we have
passed? Will it be a future of peaceful co-operation, of friendly
co-ordination of all the vast interests at stake? Shall we act in
continuous friendly consultation in the true spirit of a society
of nations?”—General Smuts.

Chapter X
Some Chinese Seaports and Commerce

Last year I went down the China coast twice from Shanghai to
Hong Kong, and it is a most interesting trip, especially if you stop at
the ports and see their multitudinous activities. Their variety is most
striking: no two are alike, and even the sails are different in every
port down the coast.
I have already spoken of Hangchow, capital of Chekiang, so the
 RAIN AT AMOY.

next on my list is Wênchowfu, in the same province. The approach to

it is up a lovely creek and river, as fair a scene as can be imagined.
When I looked at it in the evening light from the top of a hill, the
wealth of vegetation and the network of river and canals for irrigation
show how rich the land is; the waterways are also the roads by
which the district is most easily visited. Besides lofty trees, there
were clumps of bamboo, which seem to be used for every
imaginable purpose. They grow an inch in a night, and it is usual for
bamboos to grow thirty inches in a month: this is their average
height, but some varieties grow to 120 feet. Then they put out
numerous shoots and the main stems harden. The delicate shoots
are eaten like asparagus, and the seeds are also used as food: there
is a Chinese proverb that they are specially numerous when the rice
crop fails. The stem is high and hard and jointed: one joint is big
enough to make an excellent bucket, another will be used for a bottle
or a cooking vessel, and the outer shell is so siliceous that it acts as
a whetstone.
 On reaching Wênchowfu I took a ricksha and went in search of the
missionaries. Though an unexpected guest, I received a friendly
welcome from Mr. and Mrs. Slichter, of the China Inland Mission, and
they took me to see the city and surroundings. It is a treaty port,
facing the Eastern Sea, and its streets are bright and clean, full of
attractive shops. Inlaid soapstone is one charming industry: the silks
manufactured here are fine and costly, two or three dollars per foot.
The people are brusque and independent in their manners, but very
responsive to missionary work, and they become staunch and loyal
adherents to Christianity. We visited an interesting temple put up
recently by the local trade guilds to two officers who refused to
acknowledge the Republic. These guilds are thoroughly democratic
and date from time immemorial: they are still all-powerful in China
and regulate trade throughout the empire, despite the changing
times. Every self-respecting merchant belongs to one. The guilds are
now showing signs of dealing with the price of labour, which is a
highly significant fact. They do not brook Government interference
with their members, of whom they take a sort of paternal care.[28]
These guilds are not only of great value to the Chinese, but also to
foreigners, who can apply to their members either directly or by
agents, called compradores, belonging to the same guild, whom
foreigners can employ to transact business for them. In Canton there
are no less then seventy-two guilds.
We went to visit an English United Methodist community, but as it
was Saturday afternoon we found no one at home. They have a
large work in a hundred and fifty stations, but only one European
worker! They also have a big hospital, but their one and only English
doctor had been absent two years on furlough, leaving it in charge of
two Chinese doctors: they have no English nurse. It is really
deplorable to see such a condition of things and a slur on England’s
good name. As a contrast we found excellent work both as to
numbers and quality by the Chinese, of whom the C.I.M. have three
hundred voluntary workers in their hundred and sixty-eight stations.
Their evangelists give one week per month of service without
payment, and the local institutions pay their salaries. The Christian
Endeavour is a particularly strong branch of the work, and has
produced a body of capable workers, one main object of the society
being to train men, women and children to take part in Christian
service of some kind. Bible schools are another strong point of the
work here, and the interest shown in Bible study augurs well for the
future of the mission.
It may be thought that I have said a great deal—too much in fact—
about mission work in this book, but that is inevitable, because the
reforms initiated in Chinese life are practically all due to missionary
activity. The education of the poor and of women, the care of the
sick, the blind, the insane, were all started by missions, and they are
the main agencies in undertaking relief work in famine and plague
measures, even at the present day. While the people of England
sent out thirty thousand pounds for famine last year, large additional
sums were sent out by the missionary societies, of which there is of
course no official recognition. Happily England still retains some
modesty with regard to her generosity.
My next halting-place was Foochow; this visit was one of the most
delightful events of the trip. The coasting steamers cannot go up the
river, so it is necessary to tranship on to a launch at Pagoda
Anchorage. We had spent more than six hours waiting to cross the
bar, and it was a lovely sight at dawn to see all the myriads of
fishing-boats; as we came slowly up the river they looked like flocks
of birds with widespread wings. It was nine miles up to the city, and
as we reached a stopping-place I inquired from a fellow-passenger if
it were the place for me to get off, but was told the main landing-
stage was further up. Before reaching it a pleasant young Chinaman
asked in excellent English if he could be of service; having heard me
mention the C.M.S., said he belonged to it. He was most helpful,
took charge of my luggage, escorted me to the office where he was
employed, telephoned to Trinity College to say I had arrived, got tea,
and finally set me on the road with a guide. Mr. L. K. Wang certainly
was a credit to his school. I met my kind hostess, Mrs. Norton, on the
road to meet me with her servant, having already sent him down
three times that morning to look for me. The arrival of steamers is a
most uncertain business.
 Foochow is a treaty port and of no great antiquity: it was founded
in the fourteenth century and was opened to foreign trade in 1861.
The population is reckoned from six to eight hundred thousand, and
it is the headquarters of an ever-increasing number of foreign firms
in consequence of its growing trade. The tea trade is the most
important. The city lies on both banks of the river, and there are two
long bridges called the Bridge of the Ten Thousand Ages connected
by a little island, leading from one part of the city to the other. We
took about an hour in swift-running rickshas to go from the college to
the centre of the city on the further side of the river to visit Miss
Faithfull-Davies’ school. It was just breaking up for the summer
holidays, as also Miss Waring’s girls’ school, which we visited
another day; but we saw in full swing schools for the blind,[29] which
seem to be admirably conducted, and an orphanage, where there
was an elaborate plant design in the garden made by the boys. I
asked if it was the name of the school, but was told it was the date of
“the day of shame,” namely of the Japanese triumph; it is striking to
see how deeply this is felt everywhere and that it should show itself
in such a manner.