Whatwe’velearnedfromChineseSchool:AmessagefromtheHeadteacher
Nowthedusthassettledandthefinalepisodehasbeenbroadcast
,itisagoodopportunitytooutlinewhatwehavetakenfromthe
recentBBCseries.Wedorecognisethelimitationsoftheresear
ch-ChineseSchoolstudentsandourmixedabilityyeargroupwer
everydifferentcohorts-makingtruecomparisonsdifficult-we
havelearntalotfromtheprocess.Forus,thisprogrammehasne
verbeenabout‘beating’theChinesestyleofteaching.Toadopt
suchabinarypositionwouldbeoflimitedvalue.Wehavealways
saidtakingpartwasaboutlookingbeyondBohuntSchooltoseewh
atwecanlearnfromotherstoimprovetheeducationweprovide.
Asparents,youmayalreadyknowaboutourSTEMworkwithmajorc
ompaniesandtheresearchwe’vebeendoingintheNetherlands,US
AandSweden–andChineseSchoolformsanimportantpartofthis
approach.Theresults,alongwithconversationswe’vehadwithCh
ineseteachersandstudents,haveidentifiedanumberofinterest
ingfindingswhichwearealreadyexploring:?WenoticedthatA
orAgradestudentsinBiologyprogressedparticularlyquicklywi
ththeChineseapproach–wearelookingathowthisrapidacquis
itionoffactsandfigurescanbereplicatedacrosstheboardto
benefitstudentsofallabilities?Asyouhaveseen,thelecture-
styleofteachingdidn’tengageallstudents–thishasagainemp
hasisedtoustheimportanceofpracticalactivitiestostimulate
learning?Makingitcleartostudentsthat‘learning’cantakem
anydifferentformsandthatelementsoftheChinesestylecanfo
rmpartofabroadandbalancedprogrammeofteachingWewillbea
ssessinghowbestwecanactuponthesefindingstobenefitstudentsacrosstheschool. |
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