Many of us are, for sure, not new to joining online groups and forums especially as we’re becoming more connected than ever. In China, perhaps the most common online space we’ll ever be in is WeChat.

I’ve talked about how WeChat groups have become an essential part of social communication in China, and for many expat communities in Beijing, these groups provide more than just connecting people. Every now and then I hear a group being formed for a specific reason – be it events, knowledge sharing, food; you name it and sure there’ll be one. No group for that? Why not make a new one and invite friends?

When used in moderation, WeChat groups can be one of your essential tools for living the most of your life in Beijing. I’ve used a housing group to find my current accommodation; I’m in another where I get vouchers for online food delivery apps. In this article, I’ll round up some of the helpful online communities. Want to join one of the groups? Add beijingkids on WeChat (type in beijing-kids in the search bar) and let us know which group you want to be in!

A word of notice: We advocate healthy communication. Make sure that you always follow the group rules and respect other members.

Family Events Group

Current members: Over 460

Are you looking for activities for your family? We host a group where we share family-friendly events in town. Many members also share info about other happenings in the city and other business owners and organizations also inform the community of their latest offerings through their listings on www.beijing-kids.com/events.

Beijing Parenting and Beyond

Current members: Over 490

This group is where many parents from different districts of Beijing converge to share info about parenting and beyond. Many active members share their experiences of bringing up kids in the city — from giving tips to finding the best play areas in town to responding to home emergencies.

Beijing 2nd-Hand Items Exchange

Current members: Over 380

Do you want to sell your unused furniture and appliances? Or are you looking for a cheap item to complete your house? Selling and exchanging second-hand stuff have become easier, thanks to item exchange groups on WeChat and the Beijing 2nd-Hand Items Exchange is just one of those networks that has members all throughout the city. There are other district-centric groups as well.

International Newcomer’s Network (INN) Beijing

Current members: Over 330

INN is a resource for new arrivals and seasoned foreigners in Beijing. The group organizes monthly gatherings and coffee mornings, as well as quarterly information sessions geared towards newcomers who want to know more about living in Beijing.

For the Love of Community (Volunteering)

Current members: 86

The group owner set up For the Love of Community as a way to allow organizations to meet in one place and make it easier to discuss needs, as well as reach out to the community with volunteering opportunities. So if you’re looking for more ways to be productive and help other people out, this is where you can get the latest in the volunteering scene in the city.

Innovative Educators

Current members: Over 700 in three groups

Innovative Educators is a forum for educators, principals, and people working in the education industry. There are many interesting topics being talked about in the group, including 21st-Century teaching practices and educational theories put into action. At times, senior educators post queries and learning resources which promote inter-school collaboration and communication.

Beijing Writers’ Network

Current members: Over 210

Beijing Writers’ Network is a community of creative writers supporting each other with information on writing opportunities and collaborations, advice, and critique. Members of the group gather twice a month and senior writers and editors provide feedback on others’ literary pieces.

Blogging in Beijing

Current members: Over 130 (the majority of which are writers and bloggers)

Blogging in Beijing is a social network where bloggers in the city can share their articles with other bloggers and writers for comments, inspiration, and collaborations. First starting as an information sharing group, Blogging in Beijing has grown to become a forum that organizes social gatherings and lectures.

Beijing Book Swap

Current members: Around 70

Have you recently finished a book and looking for more hardbacks to satisfy your literary needs? Beijing Book Swap is a growing community of book lovers where they share recently finished books with other people. Members usually send the books through a courier.

Do you know any other WeChat groups that will be helpful for other people? Let us know in the comments section.

Photo: rawpixel.com, Stokpic, via Pexels; rudyanderson, cinya57 via Pixabay

Upon entering the Futures Academy (FA) at the International School of Beijing (ISB), it seemed like something between an art class and a science lab, and a far departure from the classrooms we grew up in as kids. There was no “sage on a stage” or giant overwhelming blackboard, just a room filled with tech, circular tables, and happy kids. We were very impressed with the colorful and creative atmosphere that filled the room, as students looked very focused, working intently with a variety of the tools that they had available to them ranging from laptops, 3D printers, audio equipment, and cameras.

Now going into its fourth year, FA has a lot to be proud of as it begins the 2017-18 school year, bringing more students into the mindset of 21st-century learning. But, like all movements in education or elsewhere, the ISB Futures Academy started as an idea: an idea based on wanting to give students the ability to become the architects of their own learning, and encouraging them to experience a different form of education that is equally about developing proficiency in academic standards as it is about learning to be creative problem solvers.

While they were by no means the originators of this concept, as other schools in Beijing and around the world have also started to implement both project- and experience-based learning, ISB had the support from parents and faculty that was necessary to begin in 2014. As Dr. Tarek Razik, ISB’s Head of School, put it; “the atmosphere was right for a change.”

But, with over 1,700 students and 150 teachers at ISB, we were curious about how a redesign like this was initiated. After all, it was necessary that ISB created a program which didn’t completely negate the standards-based curriculum, but would rather complement and reinforce it, by providing a testing ground for educational practices which could later be integrated into the entire school. Also, it was evident to the founders of Futures Academy that if they decided to implement these new learning concepts throughout the entire curriculum, it would have taken years of planning to introduce, and probably be met with some skepticism.

If they chose to start the new way of learning in primary school, there’s a chance that the maturity needed for this kind of academic freedom had yet to surface in the student. On the other hand, if it were started too late, then maybe the benefits wouldn’t have enough time to take hold, especially with the added pressure of IB and college prep. That’s one of the reasons why they chose to start with Grade 7.

So far, with each year the program has been gaining traction and is currently at 88 students in Middle School, and ten students in Grade 9. If the student decides to stick with FA, the complexity and nature of the project-based curriculum mature along with the student.

A day in the life of an FA student is usually broken up into three blocks (90 minutes each), and two half-blocks (45 minutes each). Two-thirds of these full blocks are spent in FA developing projects, and the other is either in Art or PE. The half-blocks, which occur before and after lunch, are when students do their enrichments (Chinese, orchestra, robotics, etc.) with the rest of the middle school. As for the core subjects such as math, science, and humanities, these are all integrated into the projects, though in a less linear way than students are typically accustomed to. So while the rest of the middle school may teach unit 1-6, FA will mix it up a bit to better integrate these lessons into the student’s projects.

Jazzy, a Grade 8 student said; “We integrate subjects into our projects, but it’s not like ‘turn to page 80,’ it’s more about finding things as they relate to the topic of your project.” So while at first glance it may seem that life as an FA student is a huge departure from the standard, these subjects are just presented through more creative and less conventional methods. After all, the plan is not only to gain mastery of core academic subjects but also to engage with individualized learning which is specific to the student’s passions and interests, helping the act of learning to become a more organic process.

One of the essential ingredients of FA, we were told, is something called L21. This is in many ways the academic backbone of ISB that exists in their framework from Pre-K3 to Grade 12, and attempts to layer purpose and vision on top of academics. FA has a particular focus on these concepts, that range from communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation, global and critical thinking, and leadership responsibility. It’s combining these ideas with academic standards, technology, comprehensive assessment, and various types of learning, including project based, experiential, and even learning on a more social and emotional level that ISB believes will help prepare students for the challenges of the future.

Whether it be their Capstone Projects where they explore sustainability subjects relating to Beijing’s hutongs, or Futures Public Radio, which is a platform based on the National Public Radio (NPR) model where they learn the basics of podcasting and journalism, their projects are firmly rooted in this L21 framework while making sure a firm grasp of the core curriculum is maintained. Subjects like math, science, and humanities are integrated into these projects, but using a less linear approach, and expanded upon by the flexibility that is required by both personalized and experiential learning

One Grade 8 student we talked to put it neatly by saying, “In science, if we have a theory we have to prove, we make a claim and if it’s incorrect, the teacher won’t tell us. She just says ‘think what you think is right, and use the evidence that you’ve found from the lab or from research and prove your claim.’ Since we’re finding our own answers, it’s in our minds more clearly, and it stays there.”

Students explore their respective topics with guidance from their teachers, gather data in the field, and probe further to connect their projects to other areas of study. This allows them to get to know their topic, while learning essential skills like writing surveys, interviewing experts, and using the information they have gathered to write a complete analysis of the subject which they will eventually have to defend at the project’s conclusion. To us, this sounded more like something from a university dissertation rather than a middle school classroom, and we were quite impressed by the level of independence these young students were working at.

It takes a certain kind of teacher to be able to encourage students in such a way, without just delivering them all of the necessary knowledge straight from a textbook. It’s this kind of teaching style that makes the FA program stand out, as they not only help to deliver individualized learning through regularly checking up on progress, but also connect students with experts to further enhance the level of expertise of these projects. That’s why they are referred to as “facilitators.”

Dr. Tarek Razik explained, “As a teacher it used to be ‘here’s the knowledge, I’m going to give it to you, and then you’re going toggle it back to me on a test’. But now as a facilitator what I’m going to say is ‘here’s what I want you to be able to do, now how can I help you do that?’ While the teachers still need to teach to the standards, how that happens is up to them.” This puts a lot of added responsibility onto the teachers to make sure the students are delivering, but also it allows them to be creative and use every tool at their disposal to make this happen.

This in particular has helped the school to receive input from the teachers on ways that it can further benefit students. Using Futures Public Radio and the grant they recently received as an example, FA facilitator Aaron Moniz talked to us about the motivational factor that comes with ISB actively working to support creative methods to give kids real world skills and hands-on opportunities with technology. He said; “For example, let’s take an individual with a learning difference. Maybe writing isn’t necessarily their forte, but if they know that they can get their hands on a camera and they can do the audio, and instead of getting quotes that they’ve embedded from research they get quotes that are imbedded from a student and they clip it into a video and organize it into a visual essay. Then they are able to express even more than they would be able to if they were asked to write an essay. The more we teach other teachers how to use this kind of technology the more it actually expands what our teachers can do and what our students can do.”

This is how FA became what it is today, an incubator for new ideas about education. Less constrained by the old status quo, the program has become a testing ground for new ideas and teaching methods, which has provided these young minds an alternative way to learn, not to mention a first glimpse at the curriculums of the future. Only time, and full-on implementation of this educational style, will tell if this is the actual direction of 21st-century learning, but from our observations at FA we are excited about the possibilities.

This article originally appeared on p 54-56 of beijingkids August 2017 issue.
Download the digital copy here.

British School of Beijing, Shunyi (BSB, Shunyi) is a wonderful example of how project-based learning can be implemented in a variety of ways. Throughout the school this new approach is engaging students in new ways of learning, which will help them meet the increasing demand for well-rounded learners and the unknown requirements of employers of the future.

Andy Puttock, former principal of BSB, Shunyi and now educational director of Nord Anglia, explained: “For us, project-based learning is about students gaining knowledge, skills, and understanding through projects over an extended period of time, which are multi-disciplinary and that they investigate and respond to problems and challenges which are real world, authentic, and complex. So it takes students and teachers out from their comfort zone.”

One difference we discovered in the way that project-based learning is being implemented at BSB, Shunyi is that in primary school it is used in most lessons, giving these early learners the responsibility of coming up with ways to gain proficiency in core subjects by tackling real world problems. This in our opinion is a concrete way for students early on to understand the benefits of learning rather than it being an abstract activity, to which there is no apparent purpose. This can be an especially daunting time for early learners. If they are given the freedom outside of the classroom with their homework to develop themes and problems to solve in their own time, instead of just using the “complete section 3 of chapter 12” approach, then the effects of nightly homework can become immediately tangible and more appreciated.

The fact that independent and project-based learning is slowly becoming the mainstream in educational institutions around the globe does not mean that the current system is necessarily broken, but in many ways it is in need of some modification to adapt to the new requirements of life in the future.

To this Puttock’s response was that “the true marker for change in educational systems around the globe will come from what top companies are looking for when they are hiring.” These requirements for future workers subsequently trickle down from these companies and are fed into universities, then secondary, and primary schools. For young learners, thinking about your child’s career and their future employability might seem a long way off, but it’s never too soon to start preparing children for the very different world ahead of them, and tech companies are leading the way in mapping out this unknown future.

When Puttock first arrived in Asia four years ago, this wasn’t the case and exams and grades were still the primary focus. But, recently he believes there has been a big shift taking place, and educators the world over are beginning to favor new methods that have been making a significant difference in creating the confident and creative employees of the future.

Whether it be in primary school, International Baccalaureate (IB), or the STEAM program, project-based learning concepts are actively being incorporated to grow the next crop of engaged learners. One recent success story demonstrates how presenting students with real world problems in the project-based learning framework is changing things for the better. Nord Anglia Education has just formed a partnership with UNICEF, and they are working with them to help develop their United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Each year now, they’ll be setting a challenge based on these goals which include ending poverty, ending hunger, ensuring healthy lives, achieving gender equality, and conserving and sustaining our oceans.

Tildie, Helen, Sunny and Sabrina, a gang of four brilliant IB students, decided to join in the effort of helping Grade 9 and primary school students develop projects based on these Sustainable Development Goals for UNICEF’s High Level Political Forum 2017. Like all IB students, they needed to complete a Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) requirement, and their supervisor for this very open-ended aspect of the curriculum told them that there was a great opportunity to represent Nord Anglia Education at this UNICEF conference at the United Nations in New York City.

With their combined past experience in Model United Nations and the debate team, they were the perfect addition to help guide the younger students. They worked closely with their schoolmates and developed ideas to creatively respond to these issues related to hunger and health. One was learning about compost bin systems and building one on campus, while the primary school kids created a garden on campus to grow vegetables to be used in the school’s cafeteria.

What started as a simple but worthwhile assignment has turned into a life-changing experience for these students and brought them to the UN, from July 10 to 19. This unique opportunity gave them a platform to contribute to the discussion and influence policies at the highest level. While this sort of cooperation between Nord Anglia and the UN allows students to use their project to learn about these important issues affecting countries worldwide, it also takes these concepts outside of the classroom to provide a channel for young people to communicate ideas and influence policy makers from around the globe through organized debate.

Out of the 87 students present at the forum, Sabrina was selected to address the UN, along with a small handful of other students from other Nord Anglia schools. They presented their ideas on ending hunger globally, along with a plan for how Nord Anglia Education will continue in aiding these development goals in the years to come. Sabrina described how working with this project has shaped her in becoming more aware of these global concerns: “One of the main things is that it has helped us realize the importance of these international issues. So by looking at the sustainable development goals we had to do research, and we had to talk about it, and we also had to cooperate with younger students about it, so it has helped raise awareness about these topics within ourselves concerning these issues and what we can do to help.”

As active members of BSB, Shunyi’s Model United Nations, when they return to school in the fall they plan on using this experience to create a Model UN summit at the school. This will help build another student-led experience that is sure to benefit all who are involved, continuing the enrichment of the student population with the authentic, real world experiences which are the basis for a 21st-century education.

Photos: Courtesy of BSB, Shunyi

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This article originally appeared on p 52-53 of beijingkids August 2017 issue.
Download the digital copy here.

We sat down with John D’Arcy, deputy director at Western Academy of Beijing (WAB), about what sort of innovative education techniques are being implemented at (WAB). Little did we know just how passionate he was on this topic.

Soon after getting settled in for the chat, we pressed record and listened as his ideas just poured out for nine straight minutes, uninterrupted. He started it all off by putting things into perspective for us by introducing the current sphere of education, and why it’s been so slow in adapting to the needs of today. So here it is, your comprehensive introduction to some of the major ideas and concerns that are laying the current foundation for the next wave of trends in innovative education.

John D’Arcy, speaking at TEDxYouth talk at WAB in April 2017.

John D’Arcy: In some ways what’s happening in education happened in most other industries 20 or 30 years ago. As technology impacted our lives, people were expected to lead their own learning for their jobs, and nobody was going to tell you how or what to do, so you needed to just create it. That’s the nature of work now.

With education, we’ve been able to avoid that disruption that has happened in most other industries because we are working with pretty precious cargo, our students, and it’s important not to just adopt fads or things that look good to push the institution of learning faster than it has the capacity to handle. So we’ve been slower. But now it’s here, and teachers, schools are no longer really in a comfortable place to say we’re not going to change. We’re not going to innovate. Parents are expecting it, kids are expecting it, and teachers of quality are expecting it. So it behooves us to do so.

The great thing about WAB and probably some other schools in Beijing is that we actually like it. We are really excited about it. We started asking parents, students, teachers, our board, how can we better realize our mission of core values, and how can we better prepare our kids today to be more successful in the future? So we went to all the stakeholder groups and got all this feedback, and what was interesting but not surprising in hindsight is that they kind of had the same beliefs. This is that we want our students to be capable. We want them to be engaged, knowledgeable, and skillful, but not at the expense of their holistic development, not at the expense of them becoming people who can make the world a better place, and not at the expense of them being people who care. We aren’t just going to drive towards high grades at the expense of developing kids who are not holistically well-balanced.

We want to create a school that suits the needs of every single learner, but what does that look like? Currently, many schools as you know, aren’t designed for every single learner. They’re designed for the average 8-year-old or the average 15-year-old, and that has always been a broken model. It has always rewarded kids who learn more quickly, and by Friday who gets it. Those kids who don’t fully comprehend, it doesn’t matter because they are starting the new thing on Monday.

What we’ve had so far is an organization of education where kids have been moved up through the model having only partially completed knowledge development. So they move forward on partial knowledge, and then they begin to develop a belief system about themselves as learners, believing things like I’m not good at math, I’m not good a drawing, I’m not good at writing. We have institutions of learning that have developed in many people the belief that they’re not good at stuff, as much as they’ve developed the capacity for what they’re good at.

I think the conversation now in education is how tragic it is that we who pride ourselves in learning have developed people who don’t believe they’re good at what they’re doing. So we need to change that so that it’s no longer about whoever learns it best by “Friday” is going to get the best score, because we know from research that sometimes the kids who struggle the most with the learning actually get it better, and the kids who it comes to easily forget it more quickly.

Realizing that learning is messier than this concept of whoever gets it on “Friday,” we decided that we need to change it up so that “Friday” is no longer what we’re using to measure kids. What we’re saying is, what do you need today. For example, you all need to learn how to read, you all need to learn how to write, we need numeracy, and what do you need to get there? We also should recognize that we all need something different because each of our brains are as different as our faces and they learn differently. It’s not about making sure you meet the curriculum and then judging you against this curriculum; it’s making sure we know who you are as a learner so that you can be successful with the curriculum.

It’s a huge mind shift. So how do schools work then if it really becomes about individual learning? Schools have been talking about a thing called differentiation for a while now, and so the idea is in your classroom you need to differentiate between groups of kids. The reality is we struggle with it. Teachers struggle with doing that really effectively because still “Friday” is the test day and it’s really hard for a teacher to manage 20 kids and differentiate to meet all of their needs. So we need to come up with an educational system that allows kids to have access to the resources that they need, to get the content they need, and to develop the skills that they need.

In many places, in the 70s open classroom spaces were supposed to fix education, and it didn’t work. What happened was teachers just started getting plants, bookshelves, and sofas and dividing up their spaces. Because all they did was change the space, but not the relationship of teachers to the learning or the kid’s ownership of the content, it didn’t work. They didn’t change the curriculum, and they didn’t change how people were organized. They didn’t change the expectation of what school was. All they did was change the space. Some people have changed the curriculum, but they haven’t changed the space, or some have changed what the notion of teaching is but none of the other things.

At WAB what we’re doing is we recognize that it’s a whole ecosystem. We work within the features of our spaces, our time, physical spaces, our curriculum, our assessment practices. They’re all the features of our ecosystem. All of them have to be redesigned if we’re going to be successful.

So our work leads us to engage everyone in the community, parents, students, teachers, board members, in moving this massive thing forward, so that it all stays aligned, so it’s all in sync, and it better meets the needs of every single student.

After we had picked our jaws up from the floor following this illuminating talk, we had a much better understanding of what was in the pipeline for WAB, and any other school that wanted to remain relevant throughout the 21st century. Whether it were things that WAB are currently in the process of implementing or trends in innovative education that are bound to happen, D’Arcy had a lot to say on the subject.

That being said, changes like this are a lengthy process and these shifts in innovating sometimes come slowly. We felt this transcript was a worthwhile window into the mind of someone who is a big proponent of these changes and drumming up the support necessary to enact these concepts, in big and small ways, steadily throughout the WAB curriculum.

Photos: Courtesy of WAB

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This article originally appeared on p 50-51 of beijingkids August 2017 issue.
Download the digital copy here.

We’re only in the second decade of the 21st century but the changes happening in many fields worldwide have been swift and steady. Think of health; we’ve taken many great strides in producing life-saving medicines. Think of technology, and there have been rapid developments in computing, robotics, and the internet. Think of any other industry and you would be amazed by how much our society has changed compared to the status quo of one to two hundred years ago.

In this revolution, scholars in many parts of the globe have noted that there is one field that has been lagging behind: education. The domain that once produced the brains behind innovation is the same domain that has mostly resisted change in recent decades, due to rigid rules and “the diffuse system of governance [that]creates numerous veto points to limit innovation.” Hamilton Gregg, college advisor at Harrow Beijing and founder of Hamilton Gregg International Education Consulting (HGIEC), says the problem is that technology has altered the way children learn and process information, while the educational system has mostly remained traditional – for example, sticking to the usual classroom layout and university lectures.

The traditional classroom utilizes a lecture-type of setting.

“If the system hasn’t caught up to where kids are, then it’s not pushing them to develop their intellectual capacity,” Gregg says, explaining that the way children adapt and give their attention to something is different from the educational model developed in a different era.

According to British author and educational speaker Sir Ken Robinson, traditional education systems follow a “manufacturing model” based on industrialization: linearity, conformity, and batching people. In a talk at a TED conference in 2010, he challenged educators worldwide to revolutionize the way education is viewed, saying that ideas and concepts should meet the demands and circumstances of the current century (see his TED Talk video here).

“We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process; it’s an organic process,” he says, explaining that education should be patterned on the principles of agriculture. “[While] you cannot predict the outcome of human development, all you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”

Resistance to Change
Shifting educational paradigms is no easy feat for schools, let alone for teachers and parents. For one thing, Gregg says traditional educational systems cannot cope with the way 21st-century citizens and students focus, as they are constantly fed with information in different ways and different time frames.

Then there’s the issue of resistance in the education sector, as pointed out by scholars worldwide. Dr. Tarek Razik, former head of school at the International School of Beijing (ISB), believes that while teachers are open to change and committed to bringing the best to their students, the very profession of teaching requires them not to fail. “‘You’re asking me to teach in a different way, but I’ve never done it that way.’ Or, ‘Okay, there’s a better way to do this. What if it doesn’t work?’ [Teachers] are afraid to show vulnerability, but we all need to be able to show vulnerability as we learn new things,” he says.

Other causes of opposition include when the traditional roles of the teacher and the student are challenged, or when the reforms promote “mechanization,” resulting in the “dehumanization” of the educational process, or when the innovation is complex or fails because of ignorance, or when the disruption in the status quo triggers “feelings of insecurity” that “are regarded as an attack on professional competence and identity.”

Razik mentions that parents find it difficult to deal with the reforms because of the difference in the way they were educated. “Almost everybody’s been to school and many of our parents are extremely successful. They, therefore, are hesitant to do anything different. Forget about the whole child, forget about how happy my child is. More homework, more tests, more quizzes, more academic rigor. More successful.” At least this is what many traditional parents think, he says.

“Humans are typically resistant to change and particularly when it comes to drastic changes,” Gregg says, “and parents have to let go of the model they grew up with. For an educator to change totally, they have to rethink how to teach. And for people who get the ability to utilize technology to inspire minds, that’s the ticket [to success.]”

Sparking Innovation in Education
Many schools worldwide, including in Beijing, have begun combining multiple methods and strategies to advance innovative education systems, which the World Economic Forum (WEF) says can “provide the next generation with the skills of the future.” The WEF has also encouraged leaders to use approaches which can spark innovation in education.

Education for the 21st century does not only use technology as a platform to teach. Rather, it focuses on developing the highly valuable skills and abilities needed in a rapidly changing digital society.

Gregg explains that innovative education is a setting which combines theory and practice, allowing students to utilize information through experiential or project-based opportunities. While these learning methods have been used for a while, recent approaches have adapted them specifically for the 21st century, personalizing the learning experience of an individual.

Experiential learning, according to Keystone Academy, is “the deep learning that occurs through direct experience of doing. Keystone’s curriculum dedicates an Experiential Learning Program (ELP) week for students from Grades 4 to 10 to learn outside their campus.”

“ELP is arranged sequentially across the grade years and linked thematically to the arts and architecture of China. All travel experiences link to what [students]learn in school and help [them]build community between students, teachers, and [their]surroundings,” Keystone says.

Humanities teacher Xuebin Wang said innovative educational activities at Keystone are not just about technology, but also exploration and reconstitution of culture. “Innovative education seems like a ‘charming phase’ but in my mind, we shouldn’t let innovation make education fashionable [or trendy]. I let my students use technology just when it’s necessary.”

In his Grade 6 class, for example, Wang lets his students re-create historical stories through cartoons. Whereas in his Grade 7 class, pupils compare strides in Chinese history and culture to current events around the world. Students taking up his Chinese Civilization class learn not only about their roots, but also why they are world citizens and what they can do to cooperate with other people in addressing global issues like climate change, pollution, and violence.

Keystone Grade 8 students traveled to Dunhang, Gansu in May as part of their Experiential Learning Program

On the other hand, project-based learning provides an opportunity for students to progress their skills and acquire knowledge by working on an “authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge” for an extended period of time. In Beijing, one of the schools that make use of project-based learning is ISB, through its Futures Academy program.

“We start in Grade 7 because the kids are mature enough to do a lot of the off-campus things that we want to do. We still do parts of the Futures Academy in all grades. But to have the kids really do what we want them to do off-campus, be independent learners, there needs to be a level of maturity,” says Razik.

He explains that in most innovative educational approaches, including the project-based learning approach, teachers are viewed as a facilitator who helps students go through the processes in solving challenges or problems. But while learners are given autonomy, Razik says they still need to be taught and work under the standards and framework set in the program.

Oftentimes, mainstream education doesn’t teach other necessary ideas and skills for children, and that is what after-school programs fill in. But as well as using technology as an innovative approach to boost kids’ learning, after-school programs should help students make “conscious choices” in the role technology plays in their life, according to Mike MacKinnon, director at The Learning Center (TLC).

“The key is in helping students develop first the analytical tools that are applicable regardless of whether they are on- or offline, and then teaching them how to use that knowledge when they are online,” MacKinnon says, adding that students who have mastered these tools should be able to address problems and critical issues by engaging in discussions and using available tools to research and develop solutions.

Personalizing Education
Making basic education, let alone innovative educational approaches, available to everyone is a big challenge for governments and educational leaders worldwide. Technology can solve part of that big problem, though the future looks uncertain because of, again, the rapid changes in digital society. For example, the introduction and use of groundbreaking technologies and devices in education has excited our imaginations in how learning is developed or personalized, and how it prepares citizens for life outside of school.

Ken Robinson at the Creative Company Conference, Amsterdam in 2009.

Robinson, at his TED talk in 2010, said that there are many models that can be used to reform and transform education, but learning grows on a personal level. “It’s about customizing to your circumstances and personalizing education to the people you’re actually teaching. It’s about creating a movement in education in which people develop their own solutions, but with external support based on a personalized curriculum.”

Gregg argues that personalized education is interesting, but doing it on a systematic and massive level will make it “technologicalized,” opening a “potential to miss kids where they are.” He goes further to explain that technologies like artificial intelligence and automation can go as far as boosting learning experiences, but they don’t have “humanity or the cognitive ability, or the sensibility to understand what everything is.”

Among all these changes, it’s still up to the parents to choose the best educational opportunities for their children. “I think parents must be completely open-minded and try to understand what education means from all points of view and the multiple ways that it can be delivered, and understand the value of character development and how it happens,” Gregg says.

References
– Five Ways Teachers Can Use Technology to Help Students, www.brookings.edu
– Bring on the learning revolution! Sir Ken Robinson, TED Talk 2010
– Reducing Teacher Resistance to Change and Innovations, Hayal Koksal (Ph.D.), Director General, (Turkey), World Council for Total Quality & Excellence in Education
– Teacher resistance against school reform: reflecting an inconvenient truth, Ewald Terhard, School Leadership & Management Vol. 33 , Iss. 5,2013
– What is Project Based Learning (PBL), BIE.org

Photos: courtesy of ISB and Keystone Academy; Wokandapix via Pixabay; Sebastiaan ter Burg via Flickr (for Sir Ken Robinson’s photo)

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This article originally appeared on p 44-45 of beijingkids August 2017 issue.
Download the digital copy here.

Educational trends are a major focus of beijingkids and the families that use our publication as a tool to learn about what schools are doing in this city. Without our magazine, many would lack access to this information, and it would require a lot more digging for expats to find the right educational institution for their young learners.

Within this domain, few topics have been more fervently discussed than that of innovation, and for a good reason. We want our children to do well in school and eventually be a well-rounded and ultimately employable adult.

At first glance “innovative education” may seem like a simple concept, but believe us when we tell you it is anything but. Many of the ideas for moving forward and changing the ways curriculums are structured are a result of decades of neurological and behavioral study, or trial and error enacted by brave educators wanting to better suit the needs of students in the classroom. As new educational techniques spread, we can’t help but watch in amazement and hope that they will soon become an essential ingredient to the learning of the future. It is an exciting and sometimes scary time to be alive as the pressure to remain relevant grows with the advancements being made in areas such as artificial intelligence.

On a lighter note, exploring these topics has been a way for me to gain a deeper insight into these changes so that I can start planning the academic development of my child. Granted he’s only nine-months-old, it’s never too early to start mulling it over.

These are just a couple of reasons why this issue has been so exciting to work on, and it’s the culmination of these revelations and advancements being made that are reinforcing our belief that Beijing is truly an advanced center for education in China and possibly the world. Whether it’s the curriculums, facilities, or faculties at these schools, we have it all, and the students here are motivated to use these resources to do amazing things.

This issue explores some of these examples of how and where education is advancing to in the future (p48). Just to give you a hint, it is very different than what we grew up with as kids. Along with this, we explored ways that summer camps are creatively stimulating learning to help prevent that undesirable summer slide (p28), and the merits of holistic child development in a rapidly changing world (p36).

We hope you find this issue as fascinating as it was for us creating it. We can say with some certainty that this won’t be the last we will be addressing these topics, because the future is undeniably here today, but will forever also be tomorrow.

Sisi Chen had an enormous influence over the direction of beijingkids throughout her tenure (2011-15), and her impact can still be felt to this day as many of the ideas she initiated echo throughout these pages almost two years after her departure. Covering critical topics like postpartum depression, bullying, same-sex parenthood, and support for LGBTQ students, it was under her guidance that the magazine continued expanding its scope to reflect the diversity of Beijing’s expat community. Now, she’s completing her Master’s Degree at Columbia University, and currently finishing up a summer internship in sunny Yerevan, Armenia with the Social Protection Section at UNICEF. The project is helping professional members of the global Armenia diaspora connect with local NGOs and communities for mentorship, training, and long-term capacity building, which dovetails nicely with her own experience of being part of the Chinese diaspora. Thank you Sisi for doing your part in building up beijingkids, and continuing to make us proud throughout all of your current endeavors.

Photos: Dave’s Studio, Sisi Chen

This article originally appeared on p 5 of beijingkids August 2017 issue.
Download the digital copy here.

The new Learning Community at Yew Chung International School of Beijing (YCIS Beijing) has been designed by specialists in educational architecture to maximize the opportunities for student-centered learning. But beyond all the big words, what’s it actually like for the kids who study there? I ventured down to YCIS Beijing to find out.

The lesson begins traditionally enough, as the whole year gathers in front of a big screen.

“Tomorrow,” the teacher says, “we’re going on a…”
“FIELD TRIP!” the students chorus.

The teachers explain, in English and Chinese, how they’re going to use the trampolines to carry out science experiments. Today, they’ll be making predictions about the outcomes: for example, what body shape do I need to make to bounce the highest?

It’s when they’ve been given their task that things get interesting, as teachers and students disperse to different areas of the Learning Community. To find out what’s going on, I talk to a small group: Emma, Gerome, Joseph, Milki, Olivia, Shaun, and Sheridan.

Some of my interviewees show off the comfy Lounge

“Last year you were in a classroom,” I say, “this year you’re in a Learning Community. What’s the difference?”
“It’s a bigger space,” Olivia says, and Emma adds: “Some walls you can write on.”
“We get together a lot more,” Joseph says. “We all work together and help each other, we communicate, and get to know students in other classes.”
For Gerome, this has been a good thing socially as well as educationally.
“When I was new here last year,” he tells me, “I only got to know my classmates. Now I know a lot more people.”
“So it’s definitely different,” I say. “Is it better or worse?”
“BETTER!” comes the unanimous (and enthusiastic) shout.

“It’s more organized here,” Gerome says. “In Year 2 we’d put our books in places we can’t even remember!”
“It’s a lot quieter,” Joseph says, “because it’s a bigger space,” and Milki agrees:
“Last year we had to shut the door, and even then you could still hear the noise.”
“You can concentrate,” Joseph continues, “it’s a better place for studying hard.”

I ask the kids to tell me about some of the different spaces in the Learning Community.
“The Amphitheater is the common place where we all meet up and talk about what we’re going to do,” they tell me, although “amphitheater” is a hard word to pronounce properly, and they have a giggle about their efforts, before using its Chinese name:  杏坛 (Xìng Tán). It’s named, I learn, after the place under an apricot tree where Confucius used to teach his pupils. But there are many other areas in the Learning Community.
“The Maker’s Space is where you create things.” Sheridan tells me.
“Also you can lie with your book on the floor and concentrate,” Shaun adds.

“The Lounges are filled with cushions.”
Joseph: “The Lounge is a good place for working because it’s comfy. If you have worries, you can go there to forget them. I like going there to be quiet.”
For a group of seven- and eight-year-olds, they’re impressively thoughtful about the learning process, and how they use the space. They show me round, proudly pointing out all the books and places to read.
Meanwhile the rest of Year 3 are working in pairs or groups. I find two boys who are deep in discussion about their predictions, and ask them if they like collaborating.
“Yes,” one says, “we made a lot of effort right now.”
The teacher is impressed with their work too.
“I really love the answer you gave for number 5,” she says. “You used your knowledge – ‘mass’ is a proper scientific word.”
She takes them over to another group, who are making less rapid progress.
“You’ll be the guides,” she says. “Listen to their conversation and help them.”

Similar conversations are happening across the Learning Community, and I realize that the children were right about the acoustics of the space: despite all the different voices, the atmosphere is quiet and studious.

At the end of the lesson the year group gather again in the Xìng Tán, to review their work and plan the experiments which will test them. I leave, concluding that one experiment has certainly been a triumph: YCIS Beijing’s bold move in reshaping the space in which students learn.

If you would like to attend YCIS Beijing’s Open Day on the Learning Community on March 2, please register at Yoopay or RSVP through info@bj.ycef.com.

This post is sponsored by YCIS Beijing. 

Photos: Uni You

Education has come a long way since the heydays of “chalk and talk”, when a teacher stood in front of rows of desks lecturing a room full of bored children. The concept of student-centered learning recognizes that we all learn at different paces and in different ways, and shifts the focus from the expert educator to the skilled learner.

As the 21st century takes shape this approach has become even more important. In the workplaces of the future, machines and computers will carry out all the mundane tasks, and the critical skills for career success will be creativity, collaboration, research, and self-reliance.

Now, Yew Chung International School of Beijing has taken the next step into that future and begun the process of doing away with traditional classrooms altogether. Early Childhood Education (ECE) (preschool) and Year 3 (grade 2) are already spending most of their day in a Learning Community, with Years 4 and 5 set to join them next year, as the next stage of the school’s ongoing evolution.

But what is a Learning Community?
In its broadest sense, it can mean any group of people coming together to learn. But YCIS Beijing’s Learning Community is also a space, designed to support student centered, collaborative teaching and learning.

“When you have classes of many students, every student is engaged in their own activities; students all learn in different ways,” says architect James Seaman of Fielding Nair International (FNI), who designed the Learning Community for YCIS Beijing. “It’s very important to provide a space that allows for those different activities to take place simultaneously. This kind of learning requires the ability for students to flow out into different areas; maybe one student is in a classroom, one is with a teacher, other students break out into a common area to work in groups with their peers or individually; what’s important is they’re in charge of how they learn best and the learning community allows them to find the appropriate space to do that.”

FNI are educational specialists, who have worked with prestigious schools across the globe, and Seaman is clear about the need for a new approach to meet the challenges our children will face in their careers.

“If you take a look at a traditional model,” he says, “it’s really just a carbon copy of the same kinds of spaces over and over: the same size of space lined along a corridor. With that kind of structure, you don’t really have a lot of variety; learners don’t have the opportunity to really engage in a lot of activities.

“With 21st century learning, different modes of learning are available: you have collaboration, traditional direct instruction, project-based learning, and a whole lot of different activities that can take place. The biggest difference with the overall space is you have a variety of spaces: small rooms, medium rooms, big rooms, open spaces, and lots of flexibility and ease of movement for teachers and students between them.”

Seaman sees this variety of spaces as key to the collaborative aspects of the learning community.

“It allows students to collaborate in open spaces; you can also have small group rooms to have students come together and have acoustical privacy (and no distractions). It also allows for informal collaboration. For instance, in a common area, a student may be working on an individual project when another student walks by who may be interested in what they’re working on and makes connections from what they themselves are doing to what their peer is doing, which then allows them to start to work together. Student work is visible to all, which allows students to learn from their peers and collaborate with one another.”

The design also promotes creativity.

“Students require large spaces to work on projects, to do and build things, and to work with their hands,” Seaman says. “In the learning community, we’ve created a maker space that allows these things to happen. The flooring is hard surface flooring and there’s a sink that allows for those wet, messy projects that students love to create. The setting is also important: the space lets in a lot of natural light, which helps to inspire the students to be more creative.”

And it’s not just the students who make up the Learning Community.

“One major change we see is how teachers work with each other. In the traditional setting, teachers are isolated from their peers; they may interact with a teacher lounge, but most of the time they’re teaching in their individual classrooms. The culture now really changes in that they’re willing collaborators. The students pick up on this collaboration, allowing them to emulate how their teachers behave.”

Workplaces are already changing in response to the demands of a new century, with open offices, hot desking and breakout rooms increasingly the norm. Now schools are beginning to think differently about how they use space too.

If you would like to attend YCIS Beijing’s Open Day on the Learning Community on March 2, please register at Yoopay or RSVP through info@bj.ycef.com.

This post is sponsored by YCIS Beijing. 

Photos and Video: Courtesy of YCIS Beijing