Home » Supplement » Education
Shadowing initiative an illuminating experience
By Liang Yiwen |
February 27, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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IN recent years, Shanghai school heads have been traveling to the US to shadow principals there, comparing pluses and minuses of both systems and returning with new techniques - including using burgers to encourage kids to read more. Liang Yiwen reports.
A number of local school heads are now known as "shadow principals" as they spent two months in the United States shadowing school heads to study how American schools operate.
The initiative is part of an education cooperation program launched by the Shanghai Education Commission and the California School Boards Association.
The two bodies signed the California-Shanghai Principal Exchange Program in 2005 and since then Shanghai has sent scores of the elementary and secondary school principals to the US.
The goal is to foster better understanding of the educational philosophies and structures in the educational practices of both countries. It also serves to help students on both sides of the Pacific in preparing for the challenges and opportunities in the increasingly interconnected world of the 21st century.
Pan Hongxing, Shanghai Hainan Middle School principal, took part in the 2012 "shadow principal" program. She lived with a US family and attended various conference classes and took part in major school events with US heads.
She found great similarities - rather than differences - between US and Chinese education.
Getting closer and closer
"The US and Chinese education systems have many similar elements," she said. "And they are gradually getting closer and closer to each other.
"Before I came to US, I thought home visits were only done by Chinese teachers," she said. "But I found some US teachers have started to pay home visits to students' parents too."
During her time at UCLA Community School, Pan observed that the school pays great attention to the links between parents and the school.
"The principal believes that schools can develop better only when parents fully understand the school," she said.
Lots of the students at the school come from needy families and most of their parents have only a basic education. Teachers try hard to explain to parents that their children can improve their opportunities through education and win support.
It also has a parents' club to coach parents about how to help children choose university courses.
Pan also found that the US schools she visited - including Los Angels Community School, UCLA Community School and Temple City High School - have a Subject Teacher or Leader Teacher or Department Teacher, known as academic leader in Chinese schools.
She also observed that schools placed an emphasis in test grades. In California, students have to take California Standards Test every year. Student performances influence a school's Academic Performance Index (API), which contributes to a school's reputation and even the amount of government funding.
Schools with a poor API are ordered to rectify this in a certain time or they may face closure. Pan said this was one difference in the respective systems.
When she was asked which country's education quality is better, Pan would say each has its advantages and shortcomings.
"The education quality of the two countries will become better if each studies the other with an open mind," she added.
Passed on strategies
The shadow principals also saw lots of practices in US education to apply to lessons back in China.
Zhang Yueying, principal of Shanghai World Foreign Language Primary School, said she found US teachers like to draw circle and tree diagrams in class to represent their thinking modes, and in turn help students develop logical thinking abilities.
Zhang said American teachers taught much less in each lesson than their Chinese counterparts, but made great efforts to develop student thinking patterns and methods for doing things.
She has passed on these strategies to colleagues in Shanghai.
The Chinese teachers were also impressed that American teachers encouraged critical thinking in class.
Shen Ming, principal of Rixin Experimental Primary School, noted that teachers never asked a yes/no question in a reading class of the fairytale "Beauty and the Beast." Instead, students were divided into two groups according to their opinion about whether the beast forced the beauty to live in the castle.
Unlike Chinese classes, where the teacher lectures from the beginning to the end, the US students were encouraged to express their opinion and discuss these with others.
American teachers told Shen that there are no "silly answers" or indeed "silly students" in the class. Instead pupils are encouraged to make an argument against other views and express their own ideas.
Shen was greatly impress by this, a teaching technique not usually employed in Chinese classrooms.
The principals also noted more general cultural differences, saying many people read on the Metro in the US while most young people in Shanghai chat with others on cell phone on the Metro. They also saw how local government has worked with restaurants and stores to put forward incentives to encourage people to read. Children are awarded prizes such as free hamburgers after they finish reading a certain number of books. This method helps children develop the habit of reading.
Once back home, many principals introduced out similar reward schemes to encourage Shanghai youngsters to read more.
A number of local school heads are now known as "shadow principals" as they spent two months in the United States shadowing school heads to study how American schools operate.
The initiative is part of an education cooperation program launched by the Shanghai Education Commission and the California School Boards Association.
The two bodies signed the California-Shanghai Principal Exchange Program in 2005 and since then Shanghai has sent scores of the elementary and secondary school principals to the US.
The goal is to foster better understanding of the educational philosophies and structures in the educational practices of both countries. It also serves to help students on both sides of the Pacific in preparing for the challenges and opportunities in the increasingly interconnected world of the 21st century.
Pan Hongxing, Shanghai Hainan Middle School principal, took part in the 2012 "shadow principal" program. She lived with a US family and attended various conference classes and took part in major school events with US heads.
She found great similarities - rather than differences - between US and Chinese education.
Getting closer and closer
"The US and Chinese education systems have many similar elements," she said. "And they are gradually getting closer and closer to each other.
"Before I came to US, I thought home visits were only done by Chinese teachers," she said. "But I found some US teachers have started to pay home visits to students' parents too."
During her time at UCLA Community School, Pan observed that the school pays great attention to the links between parents and the school.
"The principal believes that schools can develop better only when parents fully understand the school," she said.
Lots of the students at the school come from needy families and most of their parents have only a basic education. Teachers try hard to explain to parents that their children can improve their opportunities through education and win support.
It also has a parents' club to coach parents about how to help children choose university courses.
Pan also found that the US schools she visited - including Los Angels Community School, UCLA Community School and Temple City High School - have a Subject Teacher or Leader Teacher or Department Teacher, known as academic leader in Chinese schools.
She also observed that schools placed an emphasis in test grades. In California, students have to take California Standards Test every year. Student performances influence a school's Academic Performance Index (API), which contributes to a school's reputation and even the amount of government funding.
Schools with a poor API are ordered to rectify this in a certain time or they may face closure. Pan said this was one difference in the respective systems.
When she was asked which country's education quality is better, Pan would say each has its advantages and shortcomings.
"The education quality of the two countries will become better if each studies the other with an open mind," she added.
Passed on strategies
The shadow principals also saw lots of practices in US education to apply to lessons back in China.
Zhang Yueying, principal of Shanghai World Foreign Language Primary School, said she found US teachers like to draw circle and tree diagrams in class to represent their thinking modes, and in turn help students develop logical thinking abilities.
Zhang said American teachers taught much less in each lesson than their Chinese counterparts, but made great efforts to develop student thinking patterns and methods for doing things.
She has passed on these strategies to colleagues in Shanghai.
The Chinese teachers were also impressed that American teachers encouraged critical thinking in class.
Shen Ming, principal of Rixin Experimental Primary School, noted that teachers never asked a yes/no question in a reading class of the fairytale "Beauty and the Beast." Instead, students were divided into two groups according to their opinion about whether the beast forced the beauty to live in the castle.
Unlike Chinese classes, where the teacher lectures from the beginning to the end, the US students were encouraged to express their opinion and discuss these with others.
American teachers told Shen that there are no "silly answers" or indeed "silly students" in the class. Instead pupils are encouraged to make an argument against other views and express their own ideas.
Shen was greatly impress by this, a teaching technique not usually employed in Chinese classrooms.
The principals also noted more general cultural differences, saying many people read on the Metro in the US while most young people in Shanghai chat with others on cell phone on the Metro. They also saw how local government has worked with restaurants and stores to put forward incentives to encourage people to read. Children are awarded prizes such as free hamburgers after they finish reading a certain number of books. This method helps children develop the habit of reading.
Once back home, many principals introduced out similar reward schemes to encourage Shanghai youngsters to read more.
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