Li Aiyun, the mathematics teacher in the program, gives a lesson to his British students. (A screenshot from the BBC documentary series)
"British teens always say 'make the world different'. They care less about good marks or low marks, but pay attention to extracurricular activities. They have very good coping capacity and hands-on skills. In addition, they are mostly good at making speeches," he added.
Furthermore, Li pointed out that China's tough education system produces strong results in subjects like math and science, capturing the interest of educators in the U.S. and Europe where some feel the child-centered approach does not do enough to teach the basics.
Though Li's words were recognized by several education experts in China and Britain, there are several voices in defense of the British education system. Kathryn James, deputy general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers in Britain, defended the British school system and said it had advantages over China's.
"Student autonomy, questioning and the development of skills to allow students to think for themselves are the key elements in British pedagogical approaches - and do not appear to be part of the Chinese approach. As teachers involved in the program take lessons from the experiment, no doubt the Chinese teachers featured will also learn from the UK's approach to teaching," she said.
Simon Jenkins, a British columnist, wrote "China's schools are testing factories. Why is Britain so keen to copy them?" for The Guardian, and taunted the traditional Chinese education style.
"Chinese parents crave the British private schools being set up across China. Chinese students cram into U.S. and British universities. They can see that a dragooned, mechanically competitive schooling is no path to creativity, challenge or happiness in the long run in a dynamic economy and a critical open society," he wrote in the article.
Roo Stenning, a Twitter user, commented, "We don't need Chinese teachers to improve British schools – and it patronizes my colleagues to say so."
At the same time, many British complained not about the Chinese teachers, but about their own country's education system.
Richard Spencer, a Telegraph journalist whose children once attended schools in China, wrote in his article, "It is, perhaps, the first to expose so clearly the differences in our schools to those in China, whose indeed well-disciplined pupils are now in some cases two to three years ahead of our own in measurable subjects like maths and science."
Many Twitter users expressed their discontentment regarding the British education style as well. "I also think sport should be made compulsory in the UK, and run on a system similar to China," Twitter user@ Flamingo said.
"If British schools, in the main, are places of constant supply of entertainment to pupils (at break time and during lessons alike) then the name of these institutions should be changed from schools to something else, maybe comedy clubs instead of schools - where the chief clown is normally the head teacher," a Twitter user commented.
Twitter user@Daniel.E considered that British parents should examine themselves after watching this documentary. "Children should learn to show respect to their parents at home and to their teachers in school. This is what all the parents should tell their children since their childhood. However, the children in the documentary show that their parents, without any doubt, set a very bad example to them in daily life," he said.
