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Developing Discussion Skills 139switch to activity-based learning promises to turn out confident childrenwho speak up". One sentence from the article reads, "Children will beencouraged to ask questions and talk to their classmates". The fact that thisis a front page news article shows just how pervasive the problem of linearthinking has become and what one possible solution to the problem is.The Chinese education system, which has been very influential in all ofAsia's classrooms, has two significant characteristics which seem to contributeto "linear thinking". The first characteristic is the hierarchical natureof society in Confucian thought. Reagan (2000) in his book, Non-WesternEducational Traditions, writes:... Confucian moral thought is grounded in the concept of the five basichuman relationships: ruler and subject, father and son, husband andwife, older brother and younger brother, and between friends. Each ofthese relationships is hierarchical. ... However, it is important tounderstand that each of these relationships, as envisaged byConfucius, was to be one of mutual responsibility. . . . This reciprocity,although very much affecting both parties in the relationship wasnonetheless in no way intended to be one of equality. (p. 107)The second characteristic of the Chinese education system influencingclassrooms today is the heritage of the imperial examination system. Thisexamination system began in the Han period in 206 BC and was abolishedin 1905 AD; it lasted over two thousand years and China has only beenwithout it for a little over one hundred years. It was, according to Reagan,"a highly effective, meritocratic means of providing a reasonably fair andobjective means by which officials could be chosen" (p. 113). It consisted ofthree levels of examinations, district, provincial and metropolitan, anddoing well on these examinations guaranteed a good place in the civil service.For many years, it ensured that the empire would have the best possiblecivil servants and, in theory, it allowed civil servants to be chosen byobjective standards from all walks of life and all levels of society.These two aspects of Chinese education have contributed to theteacher-student hierarchical relationship and the "there is always a rightanswer" mentality. These two aspects impede creative and critical thinkingand discourage discussion in the classroom. Lest we think that these two