Globally, information technology (IT) is playing an important part in changing the face of education. Understanding this trend, a nationwide reformation of the basic education curriculum is being implemented throughout China. Integrating IT into the curriculum has therefore become the focus of schools across the country. However, this involves far more than simply installing local area networks or extra hardware and software. Integrating IT involves enabling teachers-the key drivers in the schools-with new methods of teaching and learning. For the Fourth Elementary School of Hepingli in Dongcheng district, Beijing, this has been achieved through the Intel® Teach Program. This has brought changes to the school’s traditional concepts of teaching and thinking, including both its teachers and its students in the way they approach the learning process. The school’s education is now evolving from a “traditional acceptance” approach of the past to a “task inquiry” approach. This new approach benefits the school with a new environment of continuous exploration and innovation.
Overview
Challenge
Approach
Benefits
It is now easier for teachers to develop engaging and enjoyable lessons.
Students are better motivated and use their initiative and problem-solving skills more frequently.
Students receive a wider and broader source of information in the course of learning, making their education more enjoyable and interesting.
Situation
Throughout China today, institutions are moving to transform the traditional methods of teaching with an instructive approach that takes advantage of technology and the Internet.
Traditional forms of teaching have reached their limits with their rote learning, textbook, blackboard, and chalk methods. These traditional methods are increasingly being seen as simplistic and passive forms of learning, as they rely on the passive transfer of knowledge from teacher to student. This leads to the situation where students only react to information being taught, instead of actively interacting or seeking out knowledge. This situation tends to suppress students’ enthusiasm and motivation for learning. Schools need to reform their teaching and learning methods in order to improve and make the learning environment more conducive to modern learning.
The Fourth Elementary School of Hepingli decided to tackle this issue by embarking on a program to simultaneously develop e-Learning in the school and increase its teaching class sizes. The first steps the school took involved reconstructing its old building, and constructing a new one, with both buildings designed to accommodate modern technology and networking in their infrastructures. The school also invested over 2 million RMB (USD242,000) in deploying IT hardware and software. However, the school knew that hardware and software alone was insufficient if its teachers were not trained in how to properly utilize these new resources in their teaching methods. The school subsequently sought Intel’s assistance and was introduced to the Intel® Teach Program. Teachers were sent for training, where they learned new instructive approaches that utilize technology and help teachers create and deliver compelling interactive lessons.
Before taking part in the Intel Teach Program, many of the teachers were unfamiliar with modern teaching technology and lacked basic skills in using a computer for simple tasks. Most teachers prepared and delivered their lessons in the traditional way and were unfamiliar with the use of software tools for lesson preparation. However, they felt that their traditional methods were too rigid, and realized that students lacked enthusiasm and motivation with this approach. They realized that they urgently needed to reform their teaching methods. This positive attitude and the timely introduction of the Intel Teach Program contributed greatly to a new culture of teaching and learning for the school.
Says the Chinese language teacher, Ms. Huang Ying, “The Intel Teach Program has really opened a new window for me, showing me a multidimensional, open, and comprehensive new world.”
Solution
The Intel® Teach Program helps schooling develop from a flat approach to a multi-dimensional and integrated approach.
After completing the Intel Teach Program, the Fourth Elementary School of Hepingli subsequently established a teaching resources information base, an electronic library, a video broadcasting room, and a network education room, together with the construction of a school education website. The school explored and studied the topic of “how to appropriately integrate task-driven teaching, team learning, bracket style teaching, and anchor style teaching”, pioneered by the Intel Teach Program into classroom activities. The school also implemented the “Integrated, Practical Courses for School”, courses such as “the Environment and I”, “the Imperia Palace-the Largest of Its Kind in China”, “Spring in My View”, and “Knowledge in Toys”. One example, the integrated course unit “Knowledge in Toys”, consists of 22 sessions covering more than ten subjects such as Chinese, mathematics, science and technology, computers, music, art, and moral education. The school even formed a “thinking group” of eight teachers specializing in different subjects. Through the teachers’ team cooperation and diverse subject material, network resources have been fully utilized in carrying out research-oriented learning and cooperative learning, effectively cultivating the students’ ability for advanced thinking and problem solving in the real world. Driven by the Intel Teach Program, the Fourth Elementary School of Hepingli transformed its curriculum from one that utilized a simple flat approach to one that incorporated a multi-dimensional approach. This new approach integrates practical units and research work with information technology applications that lead students to think actively and explore collectively.
The school’s participation in the Intel Teach Program was subsequently the subject of a host of research studies. The effectiveness and success of the Intel Teach Program was made public and has generated a host of awards. More than ten aspects of the school’s development, including teaching software and papers on how to utilize information technology, were awarded at the municipality level. Amongst them were the papers, “Exploring several modes of learning natural subjects on computer networks,” by Liu Lijun, and “Computer Art-Let templates help us to draw,” by Wang Yang. These received the first prize in the Beijing Scientific Research Paper Contest program. Meanwhile, the school was named the top school in the “Green School Networking Project in Beijing”, as well as the “Collective Award of Excellence” from the Intel Teach Program organizers.
The Intel® Teach Program offers teachers an easy and innovative way for preparing lessons
The Intel Teach Program has revived the teachers’ enthusiasm for teaching at the Fourth Elementary School of Hepingli. They are learning new instructive methods that take advantage of technology to bring fresh new concepts of teaching and learning to the school. They are learning to use applications like Microsoft Office*, PowerPoint*, and Flash* to prepare their lessons. They are also learning how to use resources available on the school network and on the Internet to access course materials that enrich their presentations in class. Learning to use these tools and resources has led to more vivid teaching methods that are more likely to capture student interest and aid in knowledge retention. These methods are now used on a day-to-day basis. For example, when Chinese language teacher Ms. Huang taught students on how to write the Chinese character “Shan”, she used Flash software to illustrate the picture of the mountain and the evolutionary process of this character from the Oracle Bone Inscription to the present one. This method had a vivid visual impact on students. Mathematics teachers use Flash software to demonstrate how a cube is the result of a rotating square to do math exercises by way of games. By presenting lessons in such an engaging and interactive manner, students are inclined to more actively participate, understand, and retain what they learn. Teachers are also interacting more with each other, as they learn and share their lessons. It is much easier for them now to collaborate and share their presentations for projects or special lessons, maximize their efforts, and improve on the quality of their work.
Figure 1: Feedback Graph 1 of Intel® Teach Program Training Results
(Source: The Fourth Elementary School of Hepingli)
A survey of the 52 teachers who participated in the Intel Teach Program shows that 98 percent of them have positive views on the diverse way in which teaching materials are obtained and how modern IT technology has improved their abilities.
Figure 2: Feedback Graph 2 of Intel® Teach Program Training Results
(Source: The Fourth Elementary School of Hepingli)
The survey shows that 100 percent of the teachers agreed that the program has improved concept innovation, teamwork, and communication among the teachers.
The Intel® Teach Program helps students improve their abilities for self-solving problems
Previously, students used the computers mainly for typing and playing games. Now, with the new facilities in the school and under the guidance of teachers trained in the Intel Teach Program, the students are using computers in more interactive ways that assist in inquiry-based learning. Take for example, the case of one of the students in the Fourth Elementary School of Hepingli. He was studying the history of the Forbidden City and wanted to work out its building costs. However, he was unable to get accurate information from any Internet searches. He therefore sent an e-mail enquiry directly to the president of the Forbidden City Museum and received a reply with valuable information. The teachers were extremely impressed with the student’s confidence and initiative.
Students are also learning how to use PowerPoint software to create and deliver class presentations. They are learning how to handle digital photos, do research on the Internet, and make use of what they have discovered by incorporating it in their school work and reports. They are becoming active participants in their own learning experience, seeking out information and analyzing the results of their own work. They are learning how to make use of the computer, the network, and the Internet as tools to acquire knowledge, accumulate experiences, and solve problems.
Figure 3: Feedback Graph 3 of Intel® Teach Program Training Results
(Source: The Fourth Elementary School of Hepingli)
According to the survey, 92.3 percent teachers think that it can make the class active, and 100 percent of them agree that the students’ learning performance can be enhanced.
The Intel Teach Program changes teachers’ concepts of teaching and thinking
Through the Intel Teach Program, teachers are better motivated to cultivate the learning capabilities of their students. They are encouraging the spirit of creativity in their students and guiding them in actively doing research, seeking new knowledge, and integrating the active learning experience in their day-to-day lessons. For example, Ms. Pang Long, a teacher of social studies at the school, organized her students to collect information and materials and conduct their own research on the Imperial Palace: The Forbidden City. The students discovered a lot of useful information from various informative sites on the Internet, visiting the actual physical site, and talking to people knowledgeable on the subject. With a detailed understanding of the history, architecture features, and treasures of the Forbidden City, they shared their findings in school activities and composed a research report that garnered much praise from teachers and students of the school, earning them the label of “An Excellent Report”. Ms. Pang Long said, "The Intel Teach Program not only offers a teaching model but encourages a method of thinking and teaching. By adopting lessons from the Intel Teach Program, we can design our classes better and directly influence our students.”
The entire experience has been a moving one for teachers, who are seeing the fruits of their labors. Says Ms. Pang Long, “When saw the unexpected learning results gained by working together with my students, I have never been so moved since I began my teaching career.”
Analysis
The Intel® Teach Program provides a path for teachers to achieve new levels of teaching.Technology is the vehicle to reform education but teachers are the drivers who bring learning to whole new levels. To accomplish this, teachers need to be trained in these technologies to facilitate new teaching and learning methods, and the Intel Teach Program helps them accomplish this. It empowers teachers to make full use of technology and creates new teaching and learning experiences.
The Intel Teach Program helps teachers turn to inquiry-based training.
Inquiry-based teaching has enabled teachers to help students in forming an active learning attitude. Intel Teach Program training has changed teachers from being the protagonist to being the director, and changed students from being the audience to being an actor, acquiring more knowledge in an interactive learning process and experiencing more joys of success.
The Intel Teach Program enables students to enjoy learning.
The teachers’ change of teaching methods leads to several significant changes experienced by the students:
- From the students’ use of rote memorization to inquiry-based learning
- Self-learning rather than teacher-dependent learning
- Personalized spanning learning rather than step-by-step linear learning
- Use of outside-of-the-school learning rather than the inside-the-school learning only approach
These changes cultivate students’ capabilities in searching and handling information, acquiring new knowledge, analyzing and solving problems as well as communicating and cooperating, thus meeting the fundamental requirements for quality-oriented education.
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