Lead
Innovation is the first driving force leading development, and cultivating innovative talents is an important mission of mainland education. How to cultivate innovative talents who adapt to the development and change of the times? It is an important challenge facing the development of international education in the mainland today.
In order to further understand the talent training model of international schools and dig deeper into the characteristics of international schools, the "International School 100 Schools Survey" jointly initiated by the Middle School Branch of the China Education Association for International Exchange and the Beijing-Collar Innovative Talents Research Group, jointly initiated by many experts and scholars from Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Peking University and Tsinghua University, and provided academic support by the High School Education Big Data Laboratory of the School of Education of Peking University, was officially launched in July.
Principal leadership is the focus of the survey, and international school principals, as the helmsmen, not only need to have a series of qualities that exceed the abilities of ordinary teachers, but also need to have strong leadership, brand awareness, innovation awareness, and the ability to identify and attract high-quality education and teaching talents. The leadership of the principal is the key to the success of the school, and the research team of the 100 schools conducted an exclusive interview with Mr. Hu Bin, general manager of the international business department of Chengshi Foreign Education.
School Introduction
Relying on the advantageous educational resource platform of Chengshiwai Education Group, based on Chengdu Foreign Chinese School and Chengdu Experimental Foreign Chinese School, Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department has independently opened the International Department of Chengdu Foreign Chinese School (hereinafter referred to as "Chengwai International Department") and the International Department of Chengdu Experimental Foreign Chinese School (hereinafter referred to as "Chengdu Foreign International Department"). At present, AP and A-Level courses are offered, and with professional curriculum and excellent teachers, we are committed to cultivating life explorers with excellent qualities such as "growth mentality, perseverance, international vision, and justice and moderation". Since its inception, cheng wai international department and shi wai international department have achieved remarkable results in the introduction of high-quality international education resources and language curriculum innovation, etc., and have been unanimously recognized by the industry inside and outside the industry, and won a number of awards.
Introduction of guests
Hu Bin
General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department
(International Department of Chengdu Foreign Chinese School, International Department of Chengdu Experimental Foreign Chinese School)
Master of International Education Leadership and Change Management, The Education University of Hong Kong
He is a director of the International Education Branch of the China Education Association
Holds ap. American Advanced Placement Administrator Certificate, IB College Preparatory Program Administrator Certificate, IB Advanced Certificate in Leadership Studies
Q
Jingling: What is the mission and vision of the school, and how do you understand the mission and vision of the school?
Hu Bin, General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: The mission of running the school that we have been continuing since the establishment of the International Business Department mainly revolves around four words: growth mentality, lean excellence, justice and moderation, and international vision. We believe that students can naturally cultivate and grow other qualities in the future with these four qualities as cornerstones.
First of all, in terms of growth mentality, we believe that the iteration speed of school teaching content is lagging behind the development speed of the times, even if the student has learned a full stomach during school, when he enters the society, he still needs to learn from scratch, so the growth mentality is crucial. On the one hand, it is related to the capacity of the knowledge he has learned, students can not easily be complacent that they seem to have learned a lot, and the second aspect is also related to the situation that students themselves are in, in the same student environment, some children are in a good situation, ranked high in the class, may be proud and complacent, some children are more backward, or relatively speaking, the state is not very good, so slack. At this time, the growth mentality we cultivate actually tells students that whether they are in good times or bad times, they cannot give up learning and give up growth.
Secondly, the second word is perseverance, which is actually mentioned less in this era, but we still think that it is a precious quality of the Chinese nation that will never go out of fashion, because people will always encounter many problems to overcome in the process of growing up, and the quality of perseverance can help him very well.
Then, the third point is righteous moderation. Objectively speaking, the students cultivated by our school are very lucky, they have a better family environment and social resources, so we need to instill in these children's adolescence the concept of justice and moderation, inherit the school's strict student development management system, combined with the character requirements of overseas colleges and universities, and hope that they will maintain positive energy and spread positive energy.
The last point is the international perspective, which means that not only do students want to learn English well, but also not just to understand the world. In this regard, we emphasize that students can tell Chinese stories in English that can be understood by the whole world. I believe that the future development of the country is inseparable from these talents with international vision, so whether it is for the sake of the students themselves or for the nation-state, we all hope to cultivate students' international vision.
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Our educational vision is "to do education with temperature, height, and ability to nurture the future", it has several keywords, the first is temperature, because our education is for adolescents whose minds are not yet mature, not machines, in addition to the test-taking part, more or more need to use temperature to infect students. The second is that there is a height, which mainly refers to our professionalism, whether in the teaching of disciplines or in the comprehensive literacy and moral education of students, teachers need to have professionalism, to keep up with the most cutting-edge educational concepts, and to have full practical arguments. Finally, foreseeing the future, education can not only be aimed at the immediate academic requirements of students, but more importantly, it is necessary to pay attention to the future of children, and to lay a more solid foundation for the long-term development of students with lasting motivation.
Q
Kyo- Can you describe how this vision was put forward?
Hu Bin, General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: The proposal of this vision has undergone a lot of discussion. We believe that in addition to cultivating students, the school itself should have a position in society. The comprehensiveness of education is very strong, both flexible temperature and rigid height. At the same time, our group itself also has two universities, so we also have the educational experience of students after the age of 18, and we see that the growth of many children not only occurs before high school graduation, but also has a long future, so we mentioned the future.
Q
Kyo-Ling: What do you think is the most proud thing about the school at the moment?
Hu Bin, General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: It can be divided into two aspects, the first aspect is the cultural heritage of our school, and the second is our dynamic and professional teaching team. When we have not yet specifically put forward the concept of internationalization, Chengshi foreign education began to try the characteristics of foreign Chinese, and gradually evolved into a "top academic, self-driven development" feature of our school today, which is the accumulated cultural heritage, which affects our teachers and students in each class, and it is difficult to copy, so this is a very precious point. If the foundation is a gift of history, then I think that the teaching team of the International Department is now full of vitality, very professional in teaching, and has a sense of responsibility, which is the most valuable asset of our International Department, and I also hope that our teachers can harvest a sense of professional happiness and achievement in this school.
Q
Jingling: What do you think is the biggest feature of the school curriculum?
Hu Bin, General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: We are actually a comprehensive school, which has different characteristics for different children in different periods, but on the whole, our characteristics are to teach according to aptitude, which also includes two aspects. In the first aspect, teaching according to aptitude itself is based on the curriculum construction of the whole school, not just a casual remark, in fact, it must provide enough resources. We have a wide variety of courses, and we give students a very high degree of freedom to choose the type of course that matches their own abilities and interests, and we have a very professional team of counseling officers to guide students to find a matching course within the curriculum framework. The second feature is hierarchical teaching, process evaluation and multi-dimensional evaluation, which are less involved in traditional education, but we have penetrated into all aspects of education to help students move in the direction they aspire to. I dare not say that each of our students will eventually become a bully, but we can guarantee that he has sufficient freedom to choose the course he is good at and like, and to grow in this direction.
Q
Kyo-ling: What do you think is the core of the principal's leadership?
Hu Bin, general manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: The principal actually has a change in mentality such as "from an excellent educator to an excellent education administrator", and I think the leadership of the principal mainly focuses on two aspects, one is the principal's own educational philosophy, and the other is his design and implementation ability in the school management system.
The principal's educational philosophy is largely the direction of the school's development, it can not be unrealistic fantasy, to be able to make the entire education management team, including front-line teachers, and even parents can understand and accept. The most important thing is to be in line with the current educational situation, to conform to the characteristics of the times, but also to be able to implement and be verified. I often tell our team that any idea goal needs to be verified, and if it can't be falsified, then it's an unscientific idea. Therefore, whether it is subject teaching or moral education management, student activities, or further education, we have our own complete set of educational concepts that can be scientifically verified.
The second point focuses on relatively strong operational capabilities, and I think the most critical thing is the design and application capabilities of the system. Schools in each specific period of time are currently need to focus on the task, these are the principal need to decide. More importantly, whether the school can build a complete set of systems and work processes on the basis of the principal's own ability to empower the entire education management team. At the same time, the system is often initiated by the principal and overthrown by the principal, so a principal must also have the ability to change, and constantly optimize the reform according to the lessons of the past and the development of the school in the initial framework.
Q
Kyo-ling: How do you think the responsibilities of the principal and the board of directors should be divided? In what areas does the principal need to have decision-making power?
Hu Bin, general manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: I think the principal should have some independent authority, mainly focusing on three dimensions, the first is the hiring and management of the teaching team, the second dimension is the screening and admission of students, and the third is the building of the school's brand value. The decision-making power of the board of directors is mainly reflected in the formulation of the budget, the change of the operating strategy, and the change of personnel in important positions, and the two have their own priorities. In general, most of the important decisions in the actual school running process should be decided by the principal and the board of directors together, and in the daily school running process, the detailed decision-making power should be put more on the side of the principal.
Q
Kyo-ling: In the process of school development, what do you think is the most important responsibility as a principal?
Hu Bin, General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: It mainly includes four aspects. The first is to set the phased work priorities in the specific operation process. The second is to establish a talent training mechanism, and the third is to take responsibility for education, because education is aimed at minors, and there is a relatively large risk in the teaching process, and the principal is the first responsible person. The last one is to lead educational innovation, this aspect can not rely entirely on grass-roots teachers, we can collect a variety of innovative opinions, but the ultimate leader can only rely on the principal.
Q
Jingling: What elements do you think innovative talents need to have? What are the current initiatives and methods for the school to cultivate innovative talents?
Hu Bin, General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: First define talents, I define talents as people with wisdom. In my opinion, wisdom is essentially two aspects, the first is the ability and accumulation of memory, and the second is the ability to think. In the past, we had higher requirements for memory and a relatively weaker requirement for thinking. Especially in the Eastern countries, we need to carry a lot of things, although it also requires thinking, but in comparison, it can only be derived on a large enough basis. But in the era of innovation, it is not the same, and our emphasis on thinking ability has increased significantly. Therefore, our innovation is mainly reflected in four thinking.
The first is deep thinking and more focused on curriculum teaching. Simply put, it is the teacher's in-depth excavation of teaching materials and teaching and research. If the teacher has deep thinking when preparing lessons, then his depth in leading students will be deeper. If in the past it was only emphasized memory, requiring the recitation of formulas or some historical events, students have only a shallow understanding of a lot of knowledge. But now we ask teachers to dig deep into the teaching materials and have some expansion when preparing lessons. That is to say, to deepen students' in-depth understanding of a certain knowledge point or some event, this is very critical.
The second is cross-disciplinary applied thinking. The most common example is the combination of physics, chemistry and biology. Perhaps after integration, the knowledge points will not be very deep, but compared with the knowledge points of a single discipline, we pay more attention to the integration and application of multidisciplinary knowledge to produce a practical effect. Therefore, there are two key words, the first is cross-field, and the second is to be able to practice the application, which puts forward higher requirements for students' thinking ability. We have found that after students enter universities, especially overseas universities, or enter society, it is basically impossible to solve problems by applying knowledge in a single field, and it must be cross-field knowledge application. The dimension of cross-field application or cross-field thinking is mainly in the curriculum setting, such as our school-based comprehensive course, which contains special sections in the curriculum framework, which is a cross-field application.
Then, the third point is critical thinking. I have always stressed that our school attaches more importance to the classroom, and the teacher will guide the students through many problems, which is also helpful for students to improve their scores. We find that there are many critical or argumentative, argumentative, and descriptive questions in the questions of international examinations. One of the characteristics of our school is that our debate club is a very strong club, defending the national championship all year round, whether it is Chinese debate or English debate is very strong. Whenever there is a competition, in addition to the students of the debate club, other students will also go to watch, so everyone participates in the same way.
The last one is the combination of self-driven thinking and interest, that is, students' thinking cannot always be a state of being led by others, and it needs to be self-driving. This is a profound thing to say, but in fact, as long as the appropriate attention is paid to the daily process, it can be stimulated. We are now just unleashing these self-driving impulses, without deliberately suppressing the students' ability to think for themselves. In fact, children's nature has this self-driving ability, but the traditional education in the past may sometimes suppress this part, and what we do is to release this part so that it can naturally germinate.
Q
Jingling: What is the biggest challenge that schools encounter in the process of cultivating innovative talents?
Hu Bin, General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: One of our biggest challenges at present actually occurs at the enrollment stage of students. Students with different academic foundations will encounter some adaptation problems when they are transferred to our foreign international department and the actual foreign international department, large or small. For example, students' adaptation to the classroom model, in the past, more teachers to talk, students to memorize, and then understand, but in the international curriculum, in fact, the role of the teacher is weakened, more just played a leading role, so students who have experienced a long period of traditional thinking training, there is a certain degree of adaptation difficulty, which is also the problem that we spend a lot of time thinking about teaching and research. Another challenge is the lack of motivation for students to learn. In the past, the source of motivation for school learning may have been the teacher's homework or the reflection of the examination ranking in the short term, but it is very different in international education. We have to create some new and sustained motivation for learning. There is also a model of home-school cooperation, one of the advantages of traditional Chinese education is that parents do not have to worry so much, but in the process of international education, parents need a lot of participation, so there are also some challenges in this regard. Finally, there is a shift in students from outcome evaluation to process evaluation. Outcome evaluation is that teachers evaluate students more based on scores, but now the cutting-edge educational theory is to focus more on the process of students, and guide or evaluate students with various indicators reflected in the student's learning process. This piece is a test for students, but also a test for our teaching team.
Q
Jingling: What do you think is the relationship between the cultivation of innovative talents and the results of further education?
Hu Bin, General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: I think the two are essentially consistent, except that one is the process and the other is the result. In my opinion, the cultivation of innovative talents should not only focus on innovation, because without a solid academic foundation, students cannot innovate. The application for overseas universities is actually a combination of these two aspects, that is, academic foundation and innovation. Students must first have the score of the standardized test as the cornerstone, but also need multi-dimensional ability, especially the top universities pay more attention to students' social practice leadership and critical thinking ability, this series of abilities are closely related to the cultivation of innovative talents.
Q
Jingling: At a time when international schools are developing rapidly, how do you think new international schools should build a distinctive brand? How can established international schools maintain their strengths and upgrade their brands?
Hu Bin, General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: I think that whether it is a new school or an old school, the best brand building is actually a comprehensive embodiment of the strength of running a school. The brand of a full-time school cannot be done by advertising, and the most important thing is to have a solid school-running strength to create a good learning and living environment and atmosphere for students. For a full-time school, the best strategy for branding is to run the quality of the school well.
Q
Jingling: In what ways do you think the school's brand should be reflected?
Hu Bin, general manager of chengshi foreign education international business department: I think this is mainly reflected in two aspects, the first is the growth and sense of achievement of students, and the second is the sense of happiness and achievement of teachers, which jointly determine the reputation of the school. Specifically, a school's achievements can be reflected in the creation of school characteristics, students' academic achievements, the results of further education, the creation of a school atmosphere, and the leading effect of the school in the industry.
Q
Jingling: What is your judgment on the current development trend of international education? Or do you think the number of international schools Chinese mainland will continue to increase? Why?
Hu Bin, general manager of the international business department of Chengshi Foreign Education: After 2010, international schools began to grow barbarically, but under the current national management, I think that the standardization of international education will be further improved, whether it is the quality of education, the qualifications in the office, or the enrollment publicity. The second is that the gap in regional school-running strength will gradually narrow, for example, the eastern coastal areas and some more remote areas, at present, the gap in the development of international education is very large, but in the future, with the accumulation of experience and the flow of talents, it is believed that the gap will gradually decrease.
Q
Jingling: Which point do you think is the most important thing for international schools to develop well in the future? What kind of international schools will be more popular with parents in the future?
Hu Bin, General Manager of Chengshi Foreign Education International Business Department: If an international school wants to develop well in the future, there are three aspects that are crucial. The first is teacher talent. Schools within the system attach great importance to teacher training, but because of the scale of international schools, the importance of teacher training needs to be improved. Therefore, when the entire industry stabilizes, begins to pay attention to teacher training, and improves the overall level of teachers, international education can be better accepted by parents. The second is the clarity of educational standards. The schools in the system have curriculum standards, provincial and municipal education institutes at all levels, and the results of the college entrance examination, and its educational standards are very clear. However, in the field of international education, this aspect is not good enough, especially in the young age group, and the education standards are not clear enough, resulting in the development of the entire industry without a unified force. Therefore, in the future, this aspect of international education will be more combined with national curriculum standards and industry standards will be built on the basis of the integration of Chinese and Western countries. The third point is the development of a third-party international education platform, which can drive the exchange of information and create a good atmosphere for running schools. International education is also an important part of Chinese education, so it must meet the development needs of the times and the needs of the country and the nation, only in this case can the international education industry do a good job.