The RCEF Blog 博客

Principal Du explains the teaching model used in his high school

Principal Sun of Guan Ai School and I attended the Second Conference of the Community of Excellent Schools. The Community is a loose network of schools around China that have been inspired by the legendary Dulangkou Middle School and are drastically reforming their schools.

Many experts and famous educators made speeches at the conference, but presentations by principals of the “excellent schools” left the deepest impression on me. It was motivating to meet these bold, visionary and innovative principals and hear about the trials and triumphs they have experienced as they revolutionize management and teaching in their schools. There are a few things that all schools had in common that I think are key ingredients for successful reform:

A demostration lesson from Yanzhou First Secondary School

1) Each and every principal had a clear and comprehensive vision for how to change their school around, and had the strong leadership necessary to make it happen. Everyone on their teams know where they are headed and how they are going to get there. Even when they faced resistance from teachers or even their vice principals, they never compromised.

2) They all stressed that you can’t just change what happens in the classroom without changing the whole culture of the school. Management reform and changes in the physical environment go hand in hand with reforming teaching, and many of the schools are using innovative methods for motivating teachers and creating more collaborative environment. One school, for example, does not do any evaluation of individual teachers, but rather evaluates every subject team and every grade team as a whole to encourage teachers to support each other. Many of the schools create spaces for teachers to publicize their experiences and brainstorm solutions to common problems, such as a teachers’ exhibition room, or open lounges filled with blackboards and bulletin boards.

Principal Xu talks about the reforms in his school. Here's one of his sayings: “不写教案，写学案； 不改作业，学生改； 不写论文，写反思； 不要开会，要谈心”

3) All of the schools started their reforms by copying the Dulangkou model, but they quickly made their own improvements to the model. The principals understood that you must learn the essence and spirit of good education models, instead of just transplanting the specific techniques you see on the surface. Because of this, the Community of Excellent School is really a vigorous community for creating and sharing good educational practices.

We were so intrigued by the Community that we were compelled to make an unplanned visit the original Excellent School — Dulangkou Middle School. Keep your eyes open for a post about the school!