This article in the KoreanTimes is an interview with Yong Zhao, an education professor at the University of Oregon. He states that it’s a bad idea to look at Korea as an inspiration for educational change and that their good results in PISA are actually a bad thing:

“PISA shows Korea is doing great; thus, Korean education should not change,” he said. “If you reform, it will make you score less … This makes it impossible for you to change.”

He sees PISA as today’s “most destructive force” that impedes progress of education around the world. And the worst part of PISA rankings is that other countries, obsessed with short-term achievement, blindly imitate countries like Korea.

“Asian countries like China, Singapore and Korea score very high. Everybody thinks we have the best education. So people from other countries copy (them), it destroys their advantages (in their own system),” he said.