"Hierarchical teaching" also serves "exam-oriented education". From a global perspective, "hierarchical teaching" was popular in European countries in the 1960s and 1970s, but it was soon abandoned because it was a "discriminatory education" for democracy. Popularizing "hierarchical teaching" has become a unique phenomenon in East Asian countries because these countries still advocate "exam-oriented education" and emphasize competition and efficiency. However, "hierarchical teaching lags behind the times". With regard to the effect of "stratified teaching", American scholars did a lot of investigation and research in 1970s and 1980s, which showed the ineffectiveness and danger of "stratified teaching". J.Oakes of the University of California, USA, in her article "How to Protect the Unequal Construction of Hierarchical Teaching Schools" (1985), through a series of empirical studies on hierarchical teaching, draws the conclusion that "hierarchical teaching" brings negative educational effects: (1) hierarchical teaching is contrary to general expectations and does not help improve students' academic ability. Especially for the "lower class" students, hierarchical teaching is dangerous. (2) Hierarchical teaching further widens the academic gap between students. Whether it is "learning opportunity" or "learning environment", the students in the previous group are better than the students in the next group. (3) Hierarchical teaching is effective for a small number of students in the upper class, but not for most students in the upper class and middle class, and harmful to students in the lower class. In other words, it is not conducive to the improvement of the overall academic ability of the school. Oakes further pointed out that "hierarchical teaching is a means of racial discrimination" and "it is an anachronism". The success or failure of classroom teaching reform depends on the change of teachers' "teaching view". Teaching is not a natural phenomenon, it is not only a phenomenon unrelated to the times, society and culture, but also a human phenomenon inextricably linked with the times, society and culture. Teaching is by no means a simple "special cognitive activity", but a process of living life experience, scientific cognition and spiritual growth. In addition, teaching is a creative activity based on the communication and cooperation between teachers and students, which is scientific and artistic.

-Excerpted from Zhong Qiquan's Curriculum and Logic.