Harold Lee
Punahou School Science Dept. – Retired

Evaluation of the Zhong Xing Middle School Science Workshop

In the workshop the Chinese science teachers had shown that they could prepare their lesson plans the same way we did. They would identify the concept they wanted to teach and them ask their students to learn the concept by doing an experiment. They did not include the laboratory reports they expected from their students or prepare any tests to check the students’ progress. In preparing their lessons, they seemed to lack the creativity to find unusual, interesting experiments for their students. They stayed with the traditional work that they themselves had learned in schools or what was given in the texts. For example, they would ask their students to make an electrolytic cell with two electrodes and an electrolytic solution, which is a typical experiment found in the text, but they would not think of using a two-potato clock to accomplish the same goal. Or, they would ask students to heat water with an alcohol burner because that was what in the text. They would not think of heating water with a water immersion heater, a microwave oven, or a magnifying lens even though using the latter devices would help to link their studies with other related topics. In fact, they were very reluctant to tread on areas not contain in their texts.

The narrow focusing on one topic without relating it to other areas to enhance understanding is contrary to the concept of inquiry teaching. When students did an experiment, they either did it “correctly” or “incorrectly”. Questions asked were about how to do it “correctly”. This tunnel–vision approach to get the “correct” data from an experiment precluded any creative questions from the students. In our workshop Carol and I did most of the work.

I believe that the Chinese teachers need to be more proactive if they are to learn how to use the inquiry method of teaching. In future workshops I recommend that they teach a lesson to their students with us as observers. We then can offer suggestions on the proper use of the method. This suggestion is not totally out of the ordinary as this is a method of training teachers practiced by many schools of education.

So far I have only evaluated half of our purpose of doing the workshop. The most important half, the inquiry learning, has not been touched as the Chinese teachers did not respond to my request to write the home work assignments or tests they would give to their students. However, in our question–answer period parts of it were discussed. I found that in the Chinese school system, homework assignments and test results were used to determine grades. I assume that there was no inquiry learning, as students could not deviate from the assigned contents, and teachers have not thought of using homework and tests to check students’ progress so that students can be helped to learn more completely.

I believe that in future workshops the Chinese teachers need to include homework assignments and tests for their students to do in the workshop so that they can be shown how to use them to help their students learn.

On the road to the first Principal’s Conference in Wolong, Sichuan:
Harold Lee, Yunus Peer, Lyla Berg, Jen Hong