Trialing project-based learning in a new EAP ESP course: A collaborative reflective practice of three college English teachers

Currently in many Chinese universities, the traditional College English course is facing the risk of being ‘marginalized’, replaced or even removed, and many hours previously allocated to the course are now being taken by EAP or ESP. At X University in northern China, a curriculum reform as such is taking place, as a result of which a new course has been created called ‘xue ke’ English. Despite the fact that ‘xue ke’ means subject literally, the course designer has made it clear that subject content is not the target, nor is the course the same as EAP or ESP. This curriculum initiative, while possibly having been justified with a rationale of some kind (e.g. to meet with changing social and/or academic needs of students and/or institutions), this is posing a great challenge for, as well as considerable pressure on, a number of College English teachers who have taught this single course for almost their entire teaching career. In such a context, three teachers formed a peer support group in Semester One this year, to work collaboratively co-tackling the challenge, and they chose Project-Based Learning (PBL) for the new course. This presentation will report on the implementation of this project, including the overall designing, operational procedure, and the teachers’ reflections. Based on discussion, pre-agreement was reached on the purpose and manner of collaboration as offering peer support for more effective teaching and learning and fulfilling and pleasant professional development. A WeChat group was set up as the chief platform for messaging, idea-sharing, and resource-exchanging. Physical meetings were supplementary, with sound agenda but flexible time, and venues. Mosoteach cloud class (lan mo yun ban ke) was established as a tool for virtual learning, employed both in and after class. Discussions were held at the beginning of the semester which determined only brief outlines for PBL implementation and allowed space for everyone to autonomously explore in their own way. Constant further discussions followed, which generated a great deal of opportunities for peer learning and lesson plan modifications. A reflective journal, in a greater or lesser detailed manner, was also kept by each teacher to record the journey of the collaboration. At the end of the semester, it was commonly recognized that, although challenges existed, the collaboration was overall a success and they were all willing to continue with it and endeavor to refine it to be a more professional and productive approach

Middle School Physics Experiment Teaching Within “Internet Plus”: From the Status Quo to Implications

Middle school physics experiment is a significant basic course with extensive content and strong practicability. This course has high requirements for students to master and understand the background and basic principles of various physical experiments, as well as the working principles and the use of various experimental devices. Based on the importance of physics experiment teaching and the limitations of the traditional experiment teaching mode, this paper first reviews the traditional mode in the context of the Internet and puts forward the new physics experiment teaching mode within "Internet Plus" in the new era, including theoretical guidance of constructing the experimental teaching mode, the innovation of teaching methods and examination methods, and the prospect of promoting the development of education industry. At the same time, this paper puts forward the network teaching platform system that can implement the new physics experiment teaching, including exercises, flipped classroom, and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), and discusses them separately, hoping to provide research reference for middle school physics teaching and research in the future

Education Workforce Initiative: Initial Research

The purpose of this initial research is to offer evidenced possibilities in the key areas of education workforce roles, recruitment, training, deployment and leadership, along with suggested areas for further research to inform innovation in the design and strengthening of the public sector education workforce. The examples described were identified through the process outlined in the methodology section of this report, whilst we recognise that separation of examples from their context is problematic – effective innovations are highly sensitive to context and uncritical transfer of initiatives is rarely successful. The research aims to support the Education Workforce Initiative (EWI) in moving forward with engaging education leaders and other key actors in radical thinking around the design and strengthening of the education workforce to meet the demands of the 21st century. EWI policy recommendations will be drawn from a number of country level workforce reform activities and research activity associated with the production of an Education Workforce Report (EWR). This research has informed the key questions, approach and structure of the EWR as outlined in the Education Workforce Report Proposal. Issues pertaining to teaching and learning in primary and secondary education are at the centre of the research reported here; the focus is on moving towards schools as safe places where all children/ young people are able to engage in meaningful activity. The majority of the evidence shared here relates to teachers and school leaders; evidence on learning support staff, district officials and the wider education workforce is scant. Many of the issues examined are also pertinent to the early childhood care and education sector but these are being examined in depth by the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative. Resourcing for the Education Workforce was out of scope of this initial research but the EC recognises, as outlined in the Learning Generation Report, that provision of additional finance is a critical factor in achieving a sustainable, strong and well-motivated education workforce, particularly but not exclusively, in low and middle income countries. The next stage of EWI work will consider the relative costs of current initiatives and modelling of the cost implications of proposed reforms. EWI aims to complement the work on teacher policy design and teacher career frameworks (including salary structures) being undertaken by other bodies and institutions such as Education International, the International Task Force on Teachers for 2030 and the Teachers’ Alliance, most particularly by bringing a focus on school and district leadership, the role of Education Support Professionals (ESPs) and inter-agency working

EU–originated MOOCs, with focus on multi- and single-institution platforms

No abstract available

Teaching Study on Application of MOOC in Ideology and Politics Class in Advanced Vocational Colleges

When MOOC is popular around the world, how to reform teaching of ideology and political theories in advanced vocational colleges is a subject that we need to face and study on. Facing challenging of MOOC, utilizing its advantages and applying it in class are meaningful for improving effect of teaching ideology and political theories in advanced vocational colleges and enhancing the timeliness of it

Challenges and Changes of MOOC to Traditional Classroom Teaching Mode

MOOC, namely massive open online courses, called as Mu Ke in China, is a new teaching model whose emergence is a great challenge to the traditional classroom teaching mode. MOOC has many advantages which the traditional teaching mode does not have, but it also has many shortcomings and problems. On the basis of analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of Mu Ke, this article tries to achieve a high degree of integration of MOOC and the traditional classroom teaching mode, proposes the concepts of flipped classroom and SPOC, and explores a new teaching mode in order to realize the reform of credit system