How to achieve professional development for rural kindergarten teachers | The third in a series of reports on the construction of rural kindergarten teachers

A few days ago, the Little Angel Kindergarten in Hanshan County, Anhui Province, launched the theme activity of "Painting Faces to Recognize the Essence of the Country", and the children, under the guidance of teachers, used paintbrushes to draw faces on the disc to carry forward and inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture. Photo by Ou Zongtao

■ The third in a series of reports on the construction of rural kindergarten teachers

"Without the guidance of professional teaching and research personnel, the teachers lack theory, and the effect of the activities is not good."

"I don't know how to apply the concept of urban studies to the countryside."

"I am willing to use all available resources to make these lovely rural children grow up happily."

……

Listening to the stories of rural kindergarten teachers, the reporter sketched out their situation little by little in his mind: the support force is weak, and the educational concept is "unsatisfactory", but at the same time it is full of energy.

As we all know, preschool education is the weak link in China's education system, while the countryside is "weak within weakness". The main reason why rural preschool education is weak is that the professional level of teachers is not high.

It is generally believed that the most effective way to improve the professional level of rural kindergarten teachers is to train, teach and research. However, in the view of Liu Zhanlan, a researcher at the China Academy of Educational Sciences, the professional foundation of rural kindergarten teachers is weak, coupled with poor stability, and it is not enough to rely on training to improve their professional quality. "Strengthening daily teaching and research and establishing a reasonable and effective teaching and research system is the basic way to improve the professional quality of rural kindergarten teachers." Liu Zhanlan said.

Therefore, tracking the path of supporting the professional development of rural kindergarten teachers in various places, the reporter found that all those who have achieved results have established a relatively perfect teaching and research system without exception, and achieved full coverage of rural teaching and research.

Resource Center:

Find a "crutch" for village-level kindergarten teachers

A room in the longkeng center kindergarten in Bozhou District, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, has many material cabinets, and the two-dimensional code is pasted outside the cabinet, which is scanned with a mobile phone, and not only will there be an activity design about the material, but also pictures and videos that introduce the use of materials. Teachers excitedly say that this is "one yard in hand, resources are shared".

In fact, although these resources are provided by Longkeng Central Kindergarten, they are not used exclusively by the kindergarten, but serve all kindergarten teachers in Longkeng Street, because this is the preschool education resource center of Longkeng.

In recent years, with the rapid development of preschool education, township center parks and village-level parks have sprung up, and a large number of teachers have also been added. However, the weak professional ability of teachers has become an obstacle to the rapid development of village-level kindergartens.

How to establish a stable professional platform that can regularly guide the development of village-level kindergarten teachers? Since 2019, Guizhou has begun to build resource centers in various township center parks.

What is a Resource Center? Zhang Yanmei, director of the Zunyi Preschool Education Development Center, explained that the resource center is a "base camp" for teacher development that integrates activity materials, research and training in the township center park and aims to enhance the professional ability of teachers in village-level kindergartens.

Zhang Yanmei remembers that when the resource center was first established, teachers only used it as a "warehouse" for storing materials, and they could borrow it when needed. But slowly, when the teachers come to the resource center, the person in charge will give suggestions based on the age characteristics of the children in their teaching class, tell them how to use the materials, how to design the activities... Step by step, the resource center has reached the original intention of construction: to bring together curriculum teaching resources and become a source of continuous support for the growth of village-level parks, private parks and town-level parks.

For example, if village-level kindergarten teachers feel that there is a lack of materials and it is difficult to carry out games, the resource center will guide them to make full use of local resources through teaching and research, so that children can play. For example, pine cones can play construction games, can arrange and combine, scientific exploration... After the end of teaching and research, teachers can immediately "learn and use".

"The resource center has completely changed the form of teaching organization in village-level parks." Zhang Yanmei said that before this, there were many children and few teachers in village-level kindergartens, in order to ensure safety, teachers only dared to organize collective teaching activities, and the phenomenon of "primary schooling" existed to a certain extent. However, through the guidance of the resource center, the village-level kindergarten teachers know how to provide materials and how to organize games, and the phenomenon of "primary schooling" has slowly disappeared.

"At present, 767 resource centers have been established in Guizhou, and by 2025, each township will build a resource center." Xie Jing, director of the preschool education department of the Guizhou Provincial Department of Education, said.

Urban-Rural Collaborative Teaching and Research Areas:

Bring non-professional teachers into the professional track

In 2001, Kong Yan, who studied music, entered a kindergarten in Ningyang County, Shandong Province. She confessed that when she first arrived at kindergarten, she did not understand what children wanted, nor did she understand what she could teach except sing and dance... In Zhao Zhuang Kindergarten in Heshan Town, Ningyang County, more than a dozen teachers here were once non-professional teachers.

In Ningyang County, where 95% are rural kindergartens, there are many non-professional kindergarten teachers and the quality is not high, which once made Yang Dongmei, the head of the preschool section of the county Education and Sports Bureau, very anxious. She knows that teachers are not professional and that it is impossible to provide quality preschool education. But this dilemma cannot be solved by assigning professional teachers and long-term county-level training. "We can only train our own teachers." Yang Dongmei said.

In 2005, Ningyang began to hold a preschool education development forum, which included all the kindergarten directors in urban and rural areas of the county into the training system and focused on improving the management ability of kindergarten directors. Today, the forum has been held for 41 sessions, and 3 kindergarten directors have been rated as special teachers in Shandong Province.

How to incorporate ordinary teachers into the professional growth system "one by one"? Since 2010, Ningyang has begun to establish a collaborative teaching and research area with the provincial demonstration park in the urban area as the leader, the township central park as the backbone, and the village-level garden as the main body, covering the urban and rural kindergartens in the county.

The county is divided into 4 cooperative teaching and research districts, each of which includes an urban longtou park and several township education school districts. Each collaborative teaching and research district focuses on the difficult issues of kindergarten development every semester and holds at least one teaching and research activity.

For example, after the promulgation of the "Guide to the Learning and Development of Children Aged 3-6", all cooperative teaching and research districts in the county focused on the "Guide". In recent years, Ningyang has promoted "ecological games" in the county, and teaching and research have mainly focused on how teachers in ecological games let go, how to observe, interpret and support young children.

Yang Dongmei found that the biggest feature of this teaching and research method is that it is problem-oriented, and then gathers the collective wisdom of teachers to crack it, overcoming the sense of loneliness and powerlessness of teachers' personal exploration.

For example, when you first start to contact ecological games, how to control your hands and mouth, and what teachers should do when children need help... These problems have been plaguing teachers at Kong Yan and Zhao Zhuang kindergartens.

During the collaborative teaching and research, Kong Yan raised her own confusion and resonated with other teachers. Through many activity observations, key teachers' activity interpretations, comments, and discussions by members of the collaboration group, teachers finally realized that they must shift their attention from "studying how they teach" to "paying attention to how children learn".

In addition to the establishment of collaborative teaching and research areas, Ningyang has also opened up a town-wide teaching and research channel centered on the township center park, and a garden-based teaching and research channel centered on the kindergarten itself. The problems encountered by teachers on a daily basis can be quickly solved through the power of kindergartens or township center parks.

"This kind of teaching and research based on local reality is the most solid and has the strongest vitality." Yang Dongmei said.

Nowadays, Kong Yan has grown into the business director of the kindergarten in Heshan Town Center and the head of the teaching and research team responsible for the town's teaching and research, and 3 teachers in Zhao zhuang kindergarten have passed the examination to become teachers.

Linkage Support:

Import the concept of scientific preschool education for rural kindergartens

"Teacher, why is there a broken car here?" "I also found out that this car has been here for a long time." "I want to see it inside."

"Then go and see." Lin Zheying, a teacher at the Third Experimental Kindergarten in Changtai County, Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, went to the fangyang central kindergarten in the county for a one-year volunteer teaching support last year. Seeing that the child is curious about an abandoned car, he guides the class teacher to explore with the child.

The teachers did not expect that an abandoned car would eventually extend a series of activities such as "how to decorate this car" and "special forces games". What is even more surprising to Lin Zheying is that today, the teachers of this kindergarten can consciously use gamification to organize activities.

In fact, the change in concept occurred not only in Fangyang Center Kindergarten, but also in all rural parks in Zhangzhou.

Based on the fact that more and more new rural parks have been built in recent years, Zhangzhou has helped rural kindergarten teachers improve their professional level through the form of "linkage assistance". In 2014, Zhangzhou City issued a series of combined fists such as "linkage assistance and improvement of quality" for preschool education, and since then, Zhangzhou has played a series of combination punches such as "hanging up and down, grafting at a high level", "leading by famous teachers, pairing of teachers and apprentices", "teaching and research in the area", and helping rural parks.

Zhangzhou has selected high-quality backbone teachers from various counties to take up posts in the newly opened township center garden. Key teachers were sent to rural gardens to change guards and support teaching, and rural garden teachers were sent to provincial demonstration gardens to study. At the same time, according to the terrain, Zhangzhou will divide the city into municipal districts, sea areas, mountain areas and shanhai areas, with the implementation of the "Guide" as the starting point to achieve full coverage of rural teaching and research networks.

"Through urban-rural exchanges and area teaching and research, scientific educational concepts, knowledge and skills have been continuously imported into rural parks, and the ability of rural kindergarten teachers to create environments, organize games, and design and implement activities has been improved." Li Liling, a preschool teacher and researcher at the Zhangzhou Academy of Educational Sciences and director of the Preschool Education Department, said.

In 2018, Zhangzhou began to provide one-on-one precision assistance to the kindergartens (classes) attached to rural small-scale schools through the provincial, municipal and county demonstration kindergartens in various counties and districts.

According to statistics, in 2018, there were 448 kindergarten classes attached to small-scale rural schools in Zhangzhou. After more than two years of three-level linkage support, the level of play curriculum of these teachers with kindergarten classes has been significantly improved, benefiting 13,400 children.

"It's better to send things than to send ideas, and it's better to send love than to teach by hand." Li Liling believes that the greatest value of linkage and assistance is that the scientific concept of education has been sent to rural parks. In this way, even if the helper is gone, rural kindergarten teachers and children can always benefit.

In fact, whether it is the construction of resource centers, urban-rural collaborative teaching and research areas, or linkage assistance, although the starting points are different, there is one common point, that is, to play the core role of the township center park.

In Guizhou, all the resource centers are built in the township center park. In the urban-rural collaborative teaching and research system in Ningyang, Shandong, the township center park plays the role of a rural preschool teacher training center, a preschool education data center, and a preschool education scientific research center. Under the linkage and assistance model, Li Liling is exploring the teaching and research model of "town belt village, town and village integration".

In fact, this is no coincidence. As early as the "Outline of the National Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020)", it was clearly proposed that the demonstration and guidance role of township center kindergartens in village kindergartens should be brought into play. After three consecutive preschool education action plans, the township center parks have been rapidly developed, whether it is the conditions of the kindergarten or the allocation of teachers, the township center parks have brought together local high-quality resources.

Therefore, Liu Zhanlan believes that the requirements of the policy and the actual needs have pushed the township center park to an important position affecting the professional development of rural teachers. "It is necessary to let every backbone teacher in every township center garden play a role in teaching and research guidance, and realize that the village-level garden is 'managed by the garden and everyone has guidance.'"

(Members of the reporting team: Ji Xiujun, Zhao Caixia, Lai Sijie, Yin Xiaojun, Jing Yingzhong, Lu Lei, Wei Haizheng, Li Dalin, Xu Deming, Author: Zhao Caixia)

Editor-in-Charge: Cao Jinyue