{"id":4909,"date":"2013-11-01T06:33:22","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T06:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=4909"},"modified":"2013-11-01T06:33:22","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T06:33:22","slug":"no-55-model-high-esd-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2013\/11\/01\/no-55-model-high-esd-school\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 55 Model High \u2013 ESD \u2013 School"},"content":{"rendered":"

A highlight of the recent Beijing Forum was a field visit to No. 55 High School. \u00a0You can find details of the school\u00a0here<\/a>. \u00a0This is one of Beijing's experimental ESD schools which also has an international arm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, \u00a0I usually find school visits absorbing, but this one was compelling. \u00a0I was impressed by what we saw of the relationship between students and teachers, and by the facilities, and was told by others that the geography lab looked more like a museum than a normal classroom, so good were the resources. \u00a0I went to see an English and then a physics class, as I thought I'd have a fighting chance of understanding what was going on. \u00a0The former was conducted all in English, with strong student participation, although it was firmly based on a workbook that was looking dated even though the issues it focused on were timeless. \u00a0There was a European geography theme to the class, though whether a real geographer would have said that is a moot point. \u00a0The physics class was about resolving forces and had demonstrations and student practicals. \u00a0Again, participation was strong. \u00a0As there was a significant integration of maths within the class, this gave me the chance to rehearse my sines and cosines. \u00a0I was shamelessly pleased to work it all out; hope for me yet. \u00a0I certainly wished I'd had a physics class like this when I was 14\/15.<\/p>\n

An esteemed colleague and I, after our different classroom experiences, said to each other: So, was there any ESD<\/em>? \u00a0He reckoned he had experienced it in a biology class which had cancer as a focus, and where the photochemical smogs so common in China now (but nowhere to be seen on this visit for us) were identified as a contributory factor. \u00a0My English and physics classes had no such opportunities, but I did wonder whether any 2014 rewrite of the English textbook would grasp the possibility. \u00a0However, from a Chinese point of view, it was all grist to the ESD mill because of the\u00a0clear association between a 'quality education' and ESD. \u00a0The strap line in the No. 55 school assembly hall said:<\/div>\n
\n
To produce high quality education in the process of sustainable development education<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This pedagogical emphasis was reinforced in the talk we had from the school principal who said this:<\/div>\n
\n
\"The main goal of the ESD is to teach students the knowledge, learning abilities, values and ways of living that sustainable development requires. \u00a0Learning abilities include basic and sustainable learning ability. \u00a0In previous education methods, teachers emphasise on teaching students basic learning abilities rather than sustainable learning abilities, abilities like literacy, basic calculation, problem solving, reading, oral communication, writing, etc. \u00a0There is no doubt that these abilities are extremely important and necessary for the future studies of students, especially in high school. \u00a0However, only possessing basic learning abilities is not enough for the sustainable development of students.<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
ESD allows us to realise that, throughout the process of teaching basic learning abilities to students, there is also the need to enhance the students' sustainable learning abilities, as it is a necessary factor in the students' future studies and development. \u00a0Sustainable learning abilities include: the ability to actively collect data and further process it, to independently reflect on and analyse problems, to cooperate with others when solving and exploring problems, to individually face issues about sustainable development and propose solutions to these issues and so on.<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Over the past few years, our school has been putting the 16 word principle of ESD in China into practice, using this as a basis to create new and effective ways of teaching. \u00a0[The principle is: primary research, comprehensive infusion, activity co-operation and the unification of knowledge and action]. \u00a0 The school's highest objective is to create quality education within education of sustainable development. \u00a0...\"<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Clearly, encouraging such innovation is important, and it was interesting to listen to the Forum keynote about ESD in Hong Kong, to look for similarities and differences with what's happening across China more broadly \u2013 if only in experimental schools. \u00a0There was more of an emphasis on curriculum innovation, and what is taught, and not just on pedagogical practice and quality learning, as in the mainland. \u00a0There was also a notable emphasis on liberal studies, including personal development, science, technology and the environment, and on society and culture. \u00a0In a way, it was much more familiar, as befits, perhaps, Hong Kong's dual cultural and educational heritage, and the past emphases on good teaching and learning. \u00a0 There is considerable merit in this mixing. \u00a0Indeed, Hong Kong also have a strong emphasis on cross-boundary and cross-sector learning, and on inter-cultural dialogue. \u00a0UNESCO, of course, has long said that ESD will emerge as a response to cultural, contingent and contextual necessity, and a better example of this in this 'one country, two systems<\/a>' approach could not be found.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It was a great morning. \u00a0It ended with lunch which a small group of fast-food refuseniks had with teachers. \u00a0More on this, perhaps, later on ...<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A highlight of the recent Beijing Forum was a field visit to No. 55 High School. \u00a0You can find details of the school\u00a0here. \u00a0This is one of Beijing's experimental ESD schools which also has an international arm. Now, \u00a0I usually...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}