83 Elite Teachers Graduate from Xi'an Professional Training Program
Date：2013-10-15 Author： From：IESC
September 26th, 2013. IESC sent a team of four to Xi'an, China to provide professional development training for 83 elite teachers. This four-day intensive training program was established through the relationship between the Lipp Foundation in New York, the Xi'an Bureau of Education, and IESC. The content of the program was designed and conducted by consultants from IESC. 4 American teachers from Yongfeng Elementary School, founded by Robert I. Lipp, were invited to speak from their own teaching experience.
Training Focuses on Three Areas
During the four days of training, Professor Edward G. Verlander, consultant Ms. Sarah Wang and consultant Ms. Christine Shi used Kolb’s learning styles as a central conceptual framework, focusing the training in three areas:
1) Classroom teaching;
2) Diverse assessment methods;
3) Teachers' professional growth.
The program's goal was to train participants in strategies and tactics of how to create a student-centered learning environment.
Training Highlights
Day one focused on providing foundational concepts and theories including:
• An introduction to the US education system;
• Kolb's leaning style;
• Role and benefits of experiential learning in education.
Day two focused on:
• Multiple student engagement methods;
• A demonstration of group learning.
Day three focused on:
• Bloom's Taxonomy of lower order and higher order thinking;
• Teachers also discussed various teaching methods and assessment methods in terms of Bloom’s Taxonomy and their impact on education outcomes.
Day four focused on:
• How to achieve teacher development using theories and principles of adult learning;
• How to apply Professor Verlander’s POISE model to teacher coaching.
Program Feedback
After the program feedback was collected through both a participants’ panel discussion and a program survey. Teachers spoke highly of the organization and delivery of the training (group learning facilitation), methods used in the training (multi-media demonstration, reflection and discussion exercises, and group learning) as well as the great attention paid to detail (quickly adjusting the content according to teachers' needs and one-on-one feedback given during discussions.)
A “QQ Group” has been established by IESC staff to make the program materials and videos available to the participants after the program. IESC will continue communicating with program participants through such a forum to gain more feedback about the program and the professional development needs of teachers.
