East meeting West is an education for everyone
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Cross-cultural learning and teaching play vital roles in global educational development, so when East meets West, the best way is to learn from each other and promote diversity, a conference heard earlier this month.
In a global learning environment, students and teachers can achieve this through creative thinking, cultural exchange leadership and self-evaluation, experts at international conference “Developing 21st Century Global Education” said.
The event was held at Shanghai United International School (SUIS) on March 14, attracting 383 delegates from education groups and schools around the world.
“Enhancing international understanding teaching, promoting cross-cultural communication and broadening teaching cooperation are vital for global education,” said Professor Tao Xiping, chairman of the Chinese Association for Non-government Education at the conference.
The book “Developing Global Schools in China: East meets West” was launched the same day.
The bilingual text focuses on both the difference in education between East and West and global learning. Written by 23 Chinese and 21 Western global education teachers, topics include global leadership, school management, curriculum design, curriculum development initiatives, progression in student learning and school sustainability.
“Based on 10 years’ teaching and learning experience and cross-cultural education cases in SUIS, the book is meaningful to teachers, consultants, school leaders and education groups,” says Trevor Higginbottom, chief editor of the book.
As an education consultant of Xiehe Education Group and international consultant on school improvement and global education, Higginbottom thinks the key for global education is to build leadership for whole-school inter-cultural exchanges.
“Children worldwide need to be educated to become both good national citizens and good global citizens,” says Higginbottom.
“At SUIS, we have international classes and local classes. Students can become good friends, while teachers can work in a team and learn from each other.”
“We have found that local classes pay rather more attention to routine homework and the international classes emphasize inquiry more. The Chinese students are more competitive while the international students focus more on cooperation,” he says.
The local and international classes respect and learn from one another to let students achieve their full potential, adds Higginbottom.
The Xiehe Dual Stream at SUIS combines Eastern and Western approaches through its international stream and host Chinese stream.
Learning from each other helps prepare Chinese students for their roles in a rapidly emerging and powerful contributor on the world stage, while it also helps international students to understand and appreciate China’s new role in the world, says Higginbottom.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai Cross-cultural Research Center of Basic Education was also launched at the conference.
With the aim of integrating, sharing and innovating, the center is committed to taking the best from Western and Eastern education models and combining them to create a model that is unique within the Chinese national education framework, says Hu Wei, deputy director of the Chinese Association for Non-government Education and one of the center’s chief researchers.
The center also tries to apply systematic management strategies in a cross-cultural perspective, adds Hu.
Development workshops which combine the Chinese and Western approaches to teaching and learning in Chinese, mathematics and English were also a highlight of the conference.
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