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Published: November 24th 2008
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I’m not sure where to begin; today was just so jam packed with stuff! I will try to make it as coherent as possible, but it will most likely be a very non-linear path I will take. Just a quick story on breakfast to start. I went over the carb area, grabbed a sweet roll and headed back to the table. At first I thought the topping was cinnamon, which I thought this is perfect, sweet roll and cinnamon: breakfast of champions! Then upon closer inspection I thought the cinnamon looked a little funny. I asked Ming what it was, and he said, “Oh I think I know…try it.” I should know that this type response is not generally something positive, but I did. I said to him, “it’s a little salty;” his response, “I pretty sure it’s shredded pork!” Definitely, a bit of a shock at 8:00 am!
After the meal, we met the faculty of the Chinese University (JIE), meeting with the VP, Dr Hua (the faculty in charge of our stay and Dr. Bryan’s contact) and 6-8 faculty. We did the formalities and introductions, and then just jumped into our activities. One part of our experience is to
teach a lesson to the students in Wuxi (a smaller “rural” school), and after the intros we discussed the details of our lesson plans one-by-one with the faculty members of JIE. My activity is “Levers-R-Us,” which is a cute little name in the US, but it probably has less meaning elsewhere. The goal is to teach students the three types of levers (1st, 2nd, 3rd class) and how they relate to the body (our joints are levers). The faculty thought it would be suitable for their students, and two are physics professors so they seemed happy that I was doing activity and making it relevant to the students (i.e. teaching physics of the body—biomechanics!). I am looking forward to really discussing the activity one-on-one with the Chinese middle school (Wuxi) and with the faculty tomorrow.
After we each through the lessons, Dr. Hau gave a talk to detail their University. I wrote down some of the stats (I do love my numbers), and I think they are pretty impressive and indicative of the growth in education in China. Jiangsu province is about the size of Kentucky, but it has about quarter of the US population (74 Million) people! In
Welcome Greetings from Wuxi MS
The students were out greeting us as we arrived. Apparently in China "rural" is defined as schools/areas that do not see a lot of foreign visitors--not middle of nowhere Nebraska rural. the last 6 years (since 2002), the number of schools in Jiangsu has grown by 30%, and the number of BS degrees has grown by 35%! Also the level of education that is required for teachers to teach has increased. In 2002, only ~77% had BS degrees (or equivalent), but now 91.4% do—again, that was only in 6 years time this changed (or so we’re told). They too have pushed the distance learning, but they do require that with the courses, the course examinations are in person (no on-line quizzes!). About 50% of the Jiangsu providence is educated at the community college level. For teacher education, the University students take anywhere from 150-210, with science educators taking 160-180 hours. Pretty impressive, and about 27% of their course load is the “core curriculum,” which in the US is all that stuff that you just have to take (history, politics, etc—ugh, stuff scientists hate!). And again to give a “historical perspective,” per every 100,000 people there are 3611 people with a BS degree (~4%)…in 1990 there was 1,422 people with a BS (1.4%), quite a jump. It’s amazing to me that the infrastructure is in place to accommodate such a increase in
A little about me
This is a gift from Wuxi--the quote reads: The best quality goods always makes you happy. Fits me to a T. numbers. Though Lynn did say 40% of all new cement is in China—check with her for the accuracy! (I briefly looked for stats on education in the US, but I couldn’t readily find them…thought I’m sure they are there somewhere.)
After the stats, Dr. Hua then discussed science teaching in China. It was amazing to listen to him speak, because he truly could have been discussing teachers thoughts on inquiry in the US. The major questions are:
• How to lead a productive discussion
• At what depth should student know the material
• How to make the lessons applicable and meaningful
• How to integrate material within the local setting
Challenges and barriers teachers have in developing inquiry curriculum modules:
• Lack of material/resources for teaching
• Short class time periods
• Leaders that don’t support this type of learning
He also then gave a list of needs that the teachers thought would assist in increasing the use of inquiry in the classroom…sound familiar?
• Support from administrators and leaders
• More resources and information from experienced teachers
• A real-time network to communicate with others
The Foyer of the 5 star
Isn't beautiful? Our hotel is amazing! Again...The best quality goods always make you happy--and no I'm not materialistic... • More case studies for teacher to learn from others
Sounds pretty universal to me—ask any US teachers/administrators and chances are these will be the same things they will state. All this was discussed by 11:30!
We went to lunch and then headed to Wuxi (our “rural” middle school). We saw a sign right out of Nanjing that said 135 km to Wuxi, and the entire trip on the interstate the landscaping was immaculate! Being a tree hugger I both loved it and questioned it. On hand they are adding to the optical appeal of the country—it was pretty; trees that were perfectly shaped and everywhere. On the other hand, you have to questions how much energy (gas, manpower, etc) is being used to make them so perfect (and it was too—no pix unfortunately b/c we were traveling too fast), but are these trees native or is it messing with environment?
The afternoon we went and toured the “rural” school, which is a residential (boarding) school for students, but I’ll save the details for later…it’s a little too long and little too late for me!
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Me again
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Watch out for the toxic avenger
That, and keep an eye out for Blinky, the three eyed fish. I'm sure there's one swimming up somebody's plumbing.