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WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT, BEING ACTIVE OR BEING GOOD? COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CHILDREN’S SCHOOL AWARDS IN RUSSIAN AND CHINESE SCHOOLS. Education & Pedagogy Journal. 2023;1(5):25-46. DOI:

A child’s well-deserved recognition and praise are one of the oldest methods of providing feedback on whether a person is developing in the right direction. By examining the types of positive reinforcement and the differences in the way children are encouraged in different countries, teachers can better understand the characteristics of their potential international students and choose new methods to support Russian-speaking students from neighboring countries. The article aims to analyze the differences in the culture of discourse about school awards in Russian and Chinese schools. Research methods: comparative and descriptive approaches to text analysis and statistical analysis. School award texts received by schoolchildren and preschoolers from Russia (n = 51) and China (n = 50) were used for the study. As a result of the study, it was found that school awards in three formats are typical for Chinese educational institutions and seven for Russian ones. The systems of school awards in Russia and China have similarities and differences. Common to both practices is the promotion of good academic performance (achieving high rankings) and support for developing the child’s talents in the arts or sports. Encouraging the student’s personal qualities (love of work, conscientiousness, perseverance) can be said to be a characteristic found exclusively in Chinese schools. A peculiarity of the Russian school in this respect is the promotion of the student’s work in some creative activity (“participation in an exhibition/festival”) without mentioning the specific result of the child. Both Chinese and Russian award texts mention “achievements,” but in the Chinese ones, teachers prefer phrases that include “hope for future success,” while in the Russian school award texts, only the fact of the awarded child’s participation in a particular event is mentioned. Moreover, the Russian award texts use virtually no artistic language devices, while the Chinese texts frequently use metaphors, epithets, and similes to reinforce the encouraging statement emotionally.

Keywords: school awards, recognition of educational achievements, positive motivation, teacher support, feedback, Russian school, Chinese school