Page 21 - ELG1802 Feb Issue 454

CHINA SPECIAL FEATURE .
SPECIAL FEATURE

n Chinese education ‘teacher observations’
have long had a rather nasty reputation.
From the teachers’ perspective they In a world
Iare intimidating, a form of judgement
overseen by ‘important people’, giving rise to
resentment or even fear.
Teacher development here is typically where teachers
delivered top-down – knowledge is
transmitted from trainers (experts) to
trainees (teachers).
The only established and accepted form hate being
of observation is one where trainee teachers
watch an expert ‘model-teacher’ to see the
‘right way’ of doing it.
Chinese teachers subjected to observation observed, how
tend to think, ‘What have I done wrong?
Why are they watching me? Who are these
observers who have the power to decide on
whether my teaching is good or bad?’ So do you observe
almost any form of classroom observation is evaluation. We began by talking directly able to select the very items which matched encouraged to observe using a system that
fits their own reality of what teaching is.
their own lesson types to create a lesson-
to teachers and trainers themselves about
met with strong resistance, even downright
to challenge conventional ideas of teacher 30,000 teachers? what really works in their lessons, what specific form of evaluation. Middle school ‘Why hasn’t anyone observed my lesson
refusal.
Now, we even have teachers complaining,
gets results (in China it’s all about exam
At New Oriental, we are always trying
teachers teaching grammar were now being
development. So realising the limitations results), what engages learners and what observed on the clarity and succinctness yet?’ The answer is, we have 30,000 of you
to observe, someone will see you soon.
is achievable in often large classes with
of their L1 grammar explanations, not
of the contemporary Chinese system, we limited time and sparse resources. their lack of pair-work activities and peer
wanted to change that. How do you convince Chinese teachers it is The feedback from this cross-section of feedback. Jocelyn Wang is the
In a rather bold move, we invited none teachers enabled us to create a menu system By involving everyone in the process National Director
other than teacher-training guru Jim useful good practice to have their lessons scruti- of over fifty evaluation criteria, all directly of developing the system we have created (Teacher Development &
Scrivener to visit many of our schools nised? There is a way, Jocelyn Wang writes relevant to particular areas of teaching that a system that is welcomed by teachers. Management Center) at
across China to conduct a wide evaluation happen here. Trainers and teachers were Trainers and teachers at all levels are now New Oriental.
of teachers at all levels teaching all types of
not just how lessons should be taught but In this test, students might need to
We are always trying more importantly on what English lessons recognise the difference between a phrasal
verb and prepositional verb, understand
actually are. At New Oriental, as across
to challenge conventional the sector, the spectrum of ‘lesson types’ is which are separable or inseparable and what
enormous.
a ‘particle’ is.
ideas of teacher From young learners learning phonics to They will never be asked to use this
development. So realising middle school students preparing for the language for any communicative function,
whatsoever, ever.
high school entrance exam to young adults
For such learners, a teacher-centric L1
the limitations of the preparing for Ielts and Toefl – notice that explanation of grammar rules is exactly
in this list there is no ‘learning English for
contemporary Chinese meaningful communication’. what they need.
At New Oriental the scope of lesson
These lessons exist but they are few and
system, we wanted to far between. types is vast, and we have 30,000 teachers
Take middle school lessons for example.
change that These students are learning English for the to observe. Clearly a very organic and
versatile observation system is required.
sole purpose of passing one exam: the zhong This is what drove us to develop our own
classes for learners of all ages. kao needed to enter high schools. internal system of lesson observation and
You can imagine the shock, horror
and sheer panic some young teachers felt
when Jim walked into their classrooms
unannounced with his checklist in hand,
beaming that trademark grin.
Cries of ‘Isn’t he the man who wrote the
book?’ were heard echoing in New Oriental
schools across China.
It was immensely valuable to have Jim’s
insights and feedback and he gave an
enormously detailed ‘snapshot report’ of
teaching practices and teaching behaviour
in our schools.
When we started to dig deeper into
this lengthy report, however, we began to
notice something. The observation criteria
used was very ‘contemporary industry
standard’ and that’s where the problem
was. ELT ‘industry standard’ is often based
on a very Anglo-European assumption of
20 February 2018 editorial@elgazette.com 21