Dr. Carol Brennan
CRDG
I have struggled for words to express my gratitude and honor for the wonderful opportunity and experience of a lifetime that TWB offered and provided for me.
The initial spring trip to Chengdu and Dujiangyan in March provided incredible insight and background knowledge for the development of workshop materials and our summer work. To be able to visit classrooms and see teachers and students in action and in their usual environment helped so much to make the work we did more relevant and beneficial. Meeting directly with the teachers and discussing firsthand their concerns prior to summer contributed greatly to the significance of the workshop. Seeing the venues in which the workshops would occur and meeting the administrators ahead of time was a huge bonus. It really helped things flow smoothly this summer. The side trips helped so much to begin to understand the history and culture of China. Being away from the typical tourist cities gave us a far clearer picture of the real China.
Summer: The journey to Wolong, Sichuan to meet with the administrators will never be forgotten—for many reasons! I am still shaking my head. Working with two vastly different groups of teachers was a challenge but made this adventure even more enriching from a personal standpoint. I learned so much. The science team you put together provided a broad range of experience and expertise. Between Harold, Joan, and myself we had the elementary through high school experience and the content and methodology knowledge to address the challenge you presented us with these two diverse groups. Harold took the lead in the development of the Dujiangyan middle-school materials while I focused on the Chengdu elementary group. (I must again thank CRDG, UH for their support in allowing me to adapt some of the DASH materials for this effort.) Harold’s personal insights into Chinese culture were invaluable. I cannot say enough about the efforts of Song and Shi Fu. I mostly worked with Shi Fu and so appreciated his willingness to do whatever was asked of him and his unfailing good humor! I trusted him to do the best job he could to translate my thoughts and ideas for the teachers and those of the teachers back to me. When the teachers laughed at my meager attempts at humor, I figured we were a team! Having translators with science backgrounds, really made things easier. A little more understanding of the educational ideas being shared would have been helpful but I must take full responsibility for this. Our rehearsals prior to departure were critical to our success. I can only recommend more of this practice plus some additional discussion of the methodology being shared.
On the first day, we had the teachers share their expectations for the workshop. We posted these and did our best to address their concerns and meet their expectations. Interestingly, many of their concerns are much the same as those of our American teachers. Although, the Chinese teachers’ concern over class size is definitely a bigger issue at 60 students, than for our Americans! The physics activities went well and all materials were provided between earlier and on-site requests. Some adjustments to the activities were made based on the particularity of the available supplies. Harold’s suggestion of having the teachers use the ideas we had discussed and modeled about inquiry learning to create and share their own (Chinese standards-based) lessons seemed a worthwhile activity. One idea to consider for the future would be to find a way to easily record their ideas for future reference and sharing both between themselves and perhaps even on the TWB website.
Working with elementary teachers in Chengdu was a dream come true for me. In my no doubt biased opinion, this is where we can do the most to help make a difference. The teachers we met in the spring were very eager for us to come. There seems to be less pressure on the elementary teachers for their students to pass the test. Because of this they seem to be more willing (and free) to try new ideas. The Chengdu elementary teachers seemed to be more aware of inquiry teaching ideas and strategies. This may have something to do with their easier access to the ministry and more professional development opportunities as well being at the elementary level where this sort of teaching is more acceptable and even encouraged based on my discussion with the elementary vice principal.
I believe our efforts could be rated a success. We did ask for an evaluation at the end of each workshop. The initial review of these appeared quite positive but I have yet to see the final translations. I will summarize these once they have been translated. Another bit of supporting evidence is in the form of a couple of email messages I have received from our summer students. I will attach a photo one of them sent me. The only real way to evaluate our success is to determine what is being tried in the participants’ classrooms this school year. I am hopeful for future emails about this.
Finally, I must remark on the rest of the TWB team. They are just amazing, dedicated folks. I will treasure the memories of our time spent together.
Much aloha,
Carol
