On November 2, 2019, Dr. Dong Li, Executive President of FEDUCATION, led a team of Finnish education experts to Chongqing Shuren Primary School to implement the comprehensive training, and the advanced concept of phenomenon-based learning and teaching to the teachers, the training topic was based on the Shuren Education affiliated schools teachers’ daily teaching demands.
Dr. Matti and Mr. Marko respectively brought lectures titled “Finnish primary school science teaching materials, scientific teaching innovation and environmental design” and “Transcendence of phenomenon-based Learning”. Their lectures covered multi-disciplinary integration, learning environment, and outdoor learning. Communication technology learning tools and other aspects were explained with specific examples and multiple aspects to the teachers participating in the training for the Shuren Education Group.
The Finnish experts offered a demonstration of a Science class about the “food chain, food web and habitat” as well as a Mathematics class about mathematical innovation. In the Science class, Chinese pupils were allowed to play card games on food chain. The learning contents are gradually scaffolded so that the student’s experience can be deepened and they truly understand and master the relationship among the food chain, food web and the environment, as well as feel the fun of science. The “Mathematics Innovation Lesson” by Mr. Marko was a class for third graders. The entire class was carried out with the help of a stick that represents the child themself, and it is given to the child before the class. By letting the children observe the changes of the small stick on the pie chart, the student slowly learns the meaning of the means. In the classroom, the two Finnish experts closely focused on the teaching concept of learning by doing, concentrating on student experience, discovery, summarizing, and conducting self-assessment. Such teaching realizes the instructional principles of developing students’ higher-ordered thinking.
Later, Ms. Paula, an expert in research and development at FEDUCATION, taught the third grade an English-Programming multidisciplinary lesson. The entire class was implemented through three activities: color programming, robot game, and programming game, allowing children to learn to listen to instructions, extract useful information, and execute these instructions through both independent operation and teamwork. At the end of the activity, the teacher asked the students to complete a self-evaluation of their cooperative learning and achievements in the classroom, which promoted the formation of students’ subjective consciousness in the learning process.
The experts also provided the teachers with comments and suggestions for improvement, as well as how to implement new teaching methods and programs so that they still follow Chinese national curriculum standards. After the feedback, teachers followed the experts’ suggestions and discussed the topic within the subject-based group discussion.
To better help Shuren Education Group to promote the improvement of the quality of preschool education and the teachers’ professional skills, the FEDUCATION expert team also visited the headquarter of Shuren kindergarten. The experts got to know the school grounds and gave lectures on different topics, such as early language learning, math learning, and support in early education.
At the end of the training, both teachers and the experts made end-of-training reports at the school. The expert feedback has further increased the training program’s usefulness and demonstrated the advantages of Sino-Finnish education, which has helped the Shuren Education Group to independently develop and design school-based courses with its characteristics.
