Teacher Development Experienced in RICH Innovation Huang Aifeng & Hu Meixin Foreign Languages College Zhejiang Normal University April 12, 2003

What is RICH? R---Research based learning I---Integrated curriculum C---Community learning H---Humanistic outcome

R---Research based learning Topic presentation (group or individual work) Project presentation (group or individual work) Creative writing (research report or survey report)

I---Integrated curriculum Textbooks Internet resources Library resources People’s resources English movies, lectures or songs Resources from other sources Developed and elaborated according to students’ interest and curiosity through research tasks.

C---Community learning Teachers: Teachers meet regularly to solve problems, share experiences, get support and understanding in the community. Students: Students contribute their resources, share their life and learning experiences, complete cooperative tasks, seek support from each other in the community.

H---Humanistic outcome Learn to be Learn to do Learn to learn Learn to cooperate Responsibility Sympathy Sharing and appreciation Learning with enjoyment They can only be evaluated through stories.

What is the purpose? To develop students as life-long learners with critical thinking, a strong sense of responsibility and a loving heart. To develop teachers to be educators, but not knowledge transmitters.

What has been achieved for students Language acquisition accelerated Research ability Cooperative ability Curriculum developing ability Evaluation and reflective ability Creative ability Responsibility Confidence

How does RICH motivate students to learn with interest? Democratic environment Great opportunities Trust and confidence Needs and feedback Passion and action Relevant Experiential

How does RICH evaluate students’ work? Process-oriented Students’ self-evaluation Peer evaluation Portfolios to record the learning process and the achievements

How does RICH develop teachers?

1.Teacher Development Forum: Teacher expertise Teacher identity Teacher change Teacher reflection Narrative inquiry Action research Community learning Institutional practice ( Wu Zongjie, 2003)

2. Teaching innovation Teaching and learning methods Curriculum content Evaluation policy Belief systems

3. Developing learning community: Ideal speech situation Common community language Talking authentically Back to narrative Critical discourse analysis (Wu Zongjie, 2003)

4.Teaching method: teachers as 庖丁 Teachers in RICH are asked to teach teacher development course to postgraduate students in which teachers get better understanding of education and language teaching through teaching others.

5.Relationships in the community Teacher as facilitator, supervisor, helper, organizer and co-learner in RICH classroom. Students form learning communities in which they have exchanges and cooperation. Teachers form a professional community and meet regularly to discuss what has happened in the classroom for better understanding and more effective teaching.

6. Language of the community Teachers in the community talk about teaching and research as parts of their life A common language has been developed in the community which, as a discourse symbol, hold the members as a group.

7. What has been achieved for teachers Understanding: 1.Education is much more than language teaching 2.Teaching, researching and living can be harmonized. 3.Community is important for teacher development

What has been achieved for teachers Ability research ability curriculum developing ability process evaluation ability harmony Teachers life, work and research are bing harmonized.

8. Why joyful in RICH? Self-fulfillment Self-reward Fruitful Understanding gained

8. Why painful in RICH: Existing Gap Current educational discourse place emphasis on language proficiency examination and on what can be seen immediately. Accepted research papers are concerned with grand stories, but not secret stories. What’s been done can not be understood and accepted by current educational discourse.

9. Why difficult to change Students have been trained to accept and memorize whatever is taught. Existing concept of knowledge does not match the new notion of learning. Salary, promotion, publication and reward will not be affected al all even if teachers do not change with times. To change is risk-taking and time-consuming--- income can be decreased.

What to be gained Students gain knowledge and abilities both Students are sensitive to environment which is the broad learning resource. Teachers gain understanding and teacher expertise Teachers become sensitive to the natural and social environment which can be educational and instructional.

Solutions: on the way to harmony! Make life, teaching and research harmonized. (Wu Zongjie, 2003)

Visible achievements of RICH Papers Published: 13 unpublished: 5 Projects funded provincially: 1 funded by ZNU: 7 awarded provincially: 2 (both first prize) Vedio disc: 1

Time for questions

Thank you very much!