2018年CRI More exchanges conducted between China, UK on education

 

As part of the cooperation between China and the UK in education, more and more British primary school teachers and their Chinese counterparts have been conducting exchanges in a bid to learn from each other.

A group of over 30 Chinese math teachers have been sharing the Chinese approach to teaching primary school math by giving demo classes in more than 10 local public schools in the UK.

One of the highlights was a 4th grade math class on fractions, including the concepts of denominator and the numerator.

According to the teaching syllabus¹ from UK's education authorities, teachers should use shapes and length to explain the concept of fractions.

However, no specific instructions on how to break the subject down for students are available in the syllabus.

But the Chinese teachers were able to use a series of visual examples, making the concepts more simple and understandable.

"The Chinese teachers, they made sure that everyone would understand. And they will give more practice, so they will keep trying until everyone would understand," says one student.

"It's very easy to do -- just splitting up shapes and adding parts from the shapes," says another student.

Sue Wilson, head instructor² at Northern Parade Infant and Junior School, says because the teaching syllabus is short on details, every teacher adopts their own different teaching method.

As such, there's often a big gap in students' math grades as they advance in school.

Many Chinese teachers, like Li Yan from Shanghai, also notice the problem.

"Because there are no unified³ textbooks and teachers don't do collective lesson preparation, when they have a class about fractions teachers think this content is good and that content is also good. And they try to teach it all in one class. Then they find that students will find it easy at first, but later on fewer and fewer students can keep up," says Li.

Primary schools in the UK traditionally use handouts⁴ rather than textbooks, as handouts are easier to revise.

However, Sue Wilson says unified textbooks are becoming more common in primary school classrooms in the country.

"So I think the future is definitely about educating our teachers as to where the positives of the textbook are, and where they can supplement what's in the textbooks," says Wilson.

Currently over 400 schools in the UK are using an English version of "The Shanghai Math Project," which are supplementary⁵ studying materials originally published in Shanghai.

British students are also adopting another set of Shanghai math books known as "Real Shanghai Mathematics," which have been translated into English.

Chinese teachers have been visiting the UK to share their teaching methods for 4 consecutive⁶ years since a Shanghai-UK teacher exchange program started in 2014.

The UK is planning to use the program to train 700 teachers between 2019 and 2020.

Sue Wilson says the Chinese math-teaching method is of great help.

"For me (it) was the very small steps that are taken with the China teaching so that we make sure every single child understands that small step before we move on to the next step," says Wilson.

1 syllabus   

n.教学大纲，课程大纲

参考例句：

• Have you got next year's syllabus?你拿到明年的教学大纲了吗？
• We must try to diversify the syllabus to attract more students.我们应该使教学大纲内容多样化，可以多吸引学生。

2 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

3 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

4 handouts   

救济品( handout的名词复数 )； 施舍物； 印刷品； 讲义

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts. 士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Even after losing his job, he was too proud to accept handouts. 甚至在失去工作后，他仍然很骄傲，不愿接受施舍。

5 supplementary   

adj.补充的，附加的

参考例句：

• There is a supplementary water supply in case the rain supply fails.万一主水源断了，我们另外有供水的地方。
• A supplementary volume has been published containing the index.附有索引的增补卷已经出版。

6 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。