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中文翻译在英文后面。Yishin Khoo is the director of Research and Evaluation Committee in RCEF. In this post she shares her observations and thoughts after her visit to Guan Ai School in June.

After returning home from Guan Ai, I decided to revisit what REC can do to support the Integrated Rural Education Program (IREP) and refine its ongoing professional development research project. Given that Stian Haklev visited Guan Ai in May and had written a lengthy report on the library and reading program (LRP), I did not pay too much time in collecting information on this program during my stay at the village – I did more talking with GA teachers and listened to their views about the school, their students and teaching experience instead.

I want to present a brief summary/analysis of my observations and information collected at Guan Ai. I would also like to mention some of my thoughts on REC’s future roles and responsibilities within RCEF. I only stayed at the school for five days so RCEF staff like Diane and Jiang Peng might have better insights than me on some of those issues facing GA teachers and students. What I’m writing here is opened for further discussions.

I didn’t conduct formal interviews with GA teachers. Most of the information I collected from GA teachers were from ad-hoc/casual conversations at their dorms, lunch hours, principals’ “office”, and of course when there was not electricity at the village and the only thing we could do was chat. I usually told GA teachers that I was from the Research and Education Committee of RCEF. I also told them that I took a neutral position within the organization and my main role was to listen to them and see what the organization can do to serve the school, students and teachers more effectively.GA is located in YongJi County, HouJia Village. The village where GA is in is small. I often feel that the school is the heart of the village. Sometimes, villagers came to the school and hang out with teachers, principals and kitchen’s staff [It would be interesting to learn more about the ties between GA and its surrounding community]. Guan Ai is a residential school. Teachers and students live together. Some dormitories are within the school compound but most of these dormitories are at different locations in the village. GA has 12 teachers. Principal Yang and Principal Sun (his wife) started Guan Ai School three years ago. In the beginning, Yang and Sun were assisted by another retired principal – Song – who has nearly thirty years of experience in rural education. They recruited several teachers whom many of them stay at the school until today.

When asked when their happiest moment was over the past three years(你在学校这三年来最开心的时候是什么时候？), interestingly all principals told me that it was at the end of GA’s first school year (and I could see their eyes shining brightly when they told me this). The reason for their happiness was because everything was going smoothly at the school – students’ results were good, teachers’ performance was great. GA became more popular and many parents were willing to send their kids to the school. It came to the point where GA had to reject new students as there was not enough space for everyone. The principals still believed in quality of teaching rather than quantity.

However, in its third year, GA faced some difficulties in sustaining its operation. It was an unforgettable time for both Principal Sun and Principal Yang. The school was at the brink of closing down due to some kind of financial crisis. RCEF’s assistance to GA at this crucial time period was greatly appreciated by the Sun and Yang. At different occasions, Sun and Yang told me how grateful they felt towards RCEF’s help. Principal especially told me that Diane’s and Jiang Peng’s stay at the school always gave her inspiration and motivation to improve her teaching and school-administration [From Principal Sun and Principal Yang, I could feel that RCEF’s programming does have meanings and impacts on the ground]

GA’s learning environment is fun, stimulating, and liberating (compared to the primary school I attended J ). Teachers and students have very closed relationship with each other. Teachers-teachers and students-students relationship is fairly harmonious too. I always saw students gathering around teachers when they were talking their own business. Compared to other schools I have visited, GA students were closer to the adults. A teacher told me that her happiest moment at the school was when she went to the Karaoke and sang with fellow colleagues. She was really really happy on that day as it was her birthday too. I guess GA teachers want to feel cared about, be respected and valued at the school [One of GuanAi’s strongest assets is its caring, family-like atmosphere (like the name of the school 关爱 = care and love). I personally think that this atmosphere can be enhanced further to create better and safer learning environment for both teachers and students. How to make “love and care” more central to the GA’s administration, operation, teaching and learning? This can be something Teaching Fellows, researchers, and GA teachers should explore together. 关爱/ “love and care” is the foundation of successful students’ learning, teachers’ professional development and community development (when the school, through its teachers and students, use what they have experienced and learned to create a caring community). Guan Ai School is already quite good at doing this and RCEF can help GA discover, build, expand this of their asset further. After all, 关爱 in many ways is the core value of China rural education, no?]

During my stay at GA, my conversations with several teachers led me to conclusions below:

1) At the moment, GA teachers are working over time. Sometimes, they find it difficult to spare time in experimenting new teaching methods. The school is planning to recruit more teachers for the new school year starting in September.

2) Teachers would like to feel more belonged to IREP and other RCEF’s initiatives at GA.

3) A teacher asked for some assistance in teaching special kids – students who have learning difficulties. She hopes that teachers can be equipped with the skills needed to handle special students at GA.

4) The school would like to encourage parents’ involvement in students’ learning and development

5) The school needs more funding (more importantly efficient use of this funding)

6) RCEF’s partnership with GA is improving and this can be improved

REC will try to identify how our researchers can better contribute to RCEF’s program needs. So far, there are several research areas that can be refined further for the use of IREP at Guan Ai:

1) Professional Development best practices and evaluation that suit Guan Ai’s context. Also, what should we include in a teacher’s portfolio? What’s its use? How feasible the idea of a teacher’s portfolio is?

2) How should we approach Guan Ai’s students’ portfolios? What do we need to include in this portfolio? What are the criteria that can be used to assess students’ learning?

3) Creating an evaluation system for GA’s library and reading program

4) Locate local resources on special education.

六月，研究与评估委员会主任 Yishin Khoo造访关爱学校。她收集了许多关于学校和师生的信息，并就教育，教学中遇到的困难，所需的专业指导等问题与学校领导和老师进行了交流。这些交流有助于研究者更好地了解实地情况，从而使他们的研究更加贴近RCEF的项目。同时，Yishin 也提出了许多关于如何继续推进职业发展研究的建议。以下内容摘自她的总结报告：

“关爱的学习环境是如此自由和令人兴奋，无论是学生和老师，还是老师之间，关系都是那么的亲切。我总是看到学生们围在老师身边热烈地交谈，与我所去过的学校相比，这里的学生不那么怕生。一位老师告诉我她在学校最高兴的一件事就是在她生日的那天和其他老师一起去唱卡拉ok。我想关爱的老师们也渴望那种被关怀，被尊重，而且可以实现自身价值的感受吧。关爱最吸引人的地方莫过于它所具有的那种温馨的家庭氛围，顾名思义：“关爱”＝关怀＋爱。 我个人认为关爱可以继续朝这个方向努力，为师生创造更好的学习环境和氛围。至于如何让“关爱”精神更好的渗透到学校的管理，运作和教学，这是一个值得教育探索者、研究人员和关爱老师共同探讨的问题。“关爱”精神奠定了学生学习，教师专业发展以及社区发展的成功基础。

以下是我这次关爱之行的几点感想：

· 目前，关爱的老师基本上都是超时工作的。有时，他们发现无法投入时间来试验新的教学方法。九月开学在即，学校正在计划聘请更多的老师。

· 老师们希望能够更多地参与“乡村教育探索平台”和其他RCEF发起的活动。

· 一位老师问及关于如何教育学习有困难的特殊儿童，她希望老师可以得到这方面的专业指导。

· 学校正鼓励家长关注学生的学习和发展。

· 学校需要更多的资金扶持（尤其是如何有效利用资金）。

· RCEF和关爱的关系正在顺利发展

研究与评估委员会正试图为RCEF的综合乡村教育计划做出更积极的贡献，我们会进一步思考以下几点：

1) 专业发展方面，我们会研究适合关爱学校最好的实例和评估方法。实施教学档案的可行性有多大？教学档案应包括哪些内容？它的作用又是什么？

2) 我们应该如何操作学生成长记录？成长记录应包括哪些内容？对于学生的学习进程，我们应如何评估？

3) 创建一个评估关爱图书馆和阅读项目的系统；

4) 如何提高当地教师教育特殊学生的能力。 ”