From Personal Experiences of Transformative Learning on Educational Challenges and Reforms in Secondary School in China

Educational policy generating 21st-century skills is accelerating, but Chinese education still employs traditional teaching such as memorizing and test-based instructional practices. The pencil and paper tests, no matter how sophisticated, are hard-pressed to measure interpersonal, intrapersonal skills, and the penetration of educational core values into secondary schools internationally, which is weak. This article aims to navigate the secondary school challenges and proposed reforms through analyzing the over 20 years of the author's experience. Findings show that high stakes cause teachers, school principals, parents, and students to disincentivize deeper learning. The exam-oriented teaching and learning approach causes students who might obtain a high score but lower functional performance. Parents' high hopes cause educational inequality and restrict students to develop their skills. Worse, the school principal utilized the power and authority in leading school development and evaluated teachers' performance based on students' test scores that force teachers to demand students to complete the mock practices and test. Because of test-based accountability, the study suggested that secondary school in China necessitates to abolish the "Gaokao" system instead of using a whole-personal assessment. The school leadership needs to shift from bureaucratic management to transformational, Junzi, and adaptive leadership. School principals advocate parents' commitment and deliver a quality of education to secondary school students. Therefore, future research explores how the "Gaokao" system causes inequality and impacts 21st-century skills for secondary school students' academic, emotional, and behavioral development through a comparative mixed research design.