Seeking the Way to Integrate Online and Face-to-face Teaching

Due to COVID-19, online teaching and learning became “New normal” to school education. To face the challenges, Xiehe Education Center (Group) has taken a lot of corresponding measures.

For nearly two months, Xiehe Education issued related guidelines and standards to conduct online teaching and learning in SUIS campuses. And also carried out many activities such as implementing special survey, launching observations on high quality online lessons, organizing visits to Xiaoxin and Himalaya.

Based on the above practices, it brings chance to discuss integration between online and face-to-face teaching.

Xiehe Education Theme Year Seminar on Online Teaching and Learning & Quality and Efficiency was successfully held on April 10. All participants including Decision-making Committee members, department directors of the Center (Group), affiliated schools and kindergartens Principals (both Chinese and expatriate) paid great attentions on specific topics such as features of distance learning, enhancing synergy between online and face-to-face teaching, promoting home-campus co-education. The seminar was hosted by SUIS General Principal Maxine Lu and consisted online and face-to-face sectors. The founder also delivered speech on the meeting.

 

Online or face-to-face? Combined model is the trend

By analyzing overall environment and comparing advantages and disadvantages of online and face-to-face teaching, almost all speakers agreed that education informatization is requirement of education reform and combined model is the trend for future.As SUIS General Principal Maxine Lu says, “Distance education and face-to-face education will jointly become the ‘new normal’ of our work. We should face it, greet it and use it well! ”

Of course online or face-to-face is the manner for education. Both of them shall serve our education goal.

Director of quality management department, Jennier Jin, pointed out that, “Full implement of online teaching indicates that school education enters information age. Teacher and school are not the only supplier of knowledge imparting. This trend also requires our school education should focus on student development.”

SUIS Qingpu Campus Co-Acting Principal Sunny Huang argued that online and face-to-face Education are mutually irreplaceable. The critical task is to divide appropriate content and strategies to co-play in students’ development.

Vice Principal of JK-GB Adam Flower also emphasized whether online or face-to-face teaching, they should follow the same rationale, which focuses on managing student enthusiasm and parental expectations as well as maintaining teachers’ motivation.

 

Integration: From changing thoughts to strategies innovation

On the basis of summarizing experience about online teaching and learning in all SUIS campuses, all speakers shared their opinions on how to integrate online and face-to-face teaching to improve quality and efficiency as well as help student individual development.First, we should upgrading ideas and thoughts. Who is the center of class? Teacher or student? The function of class and role of teacher should be redefined. SUIS-XMITG Principal Li Ming thought that we need student centered class in which the role of teacher likes a director.

SUIS Pudong campus Co-Principal Kime Sahi also deemed that in an online class teacher almost acts as a facilitator. Most of the students felt that they were being responsible during online lessons.

Second, we can improve teaching efficiency and student independent learning ability by usage of internet and big data technology. Some speakers shared their related ideas such as changing traditional teaching design, analyzing student’s real time study effects by collecting data during the whole teaching process, conducting student to carry out independent study on internet.

Third, we should improve the management strategies. We need establish education resource sharing mechanism and strengthen research and practice on school management informatization as well as optimize evaluation mechanism for teaching quality and efficiency.

Enhance home-campus co-education to promote children development

As an important session of the seminar, kindergartens principals and shared opinion on enhance online home-campus co-education.Enrich home-campus co-education resources. Each kindergarten issued related resources to parents regularly and formulated sharing mechanism. All the materials meet children’s physical and psychological characters.

Keep online connections with children and their parents. Lack of face to face communication did not interrupt teachers love to children. Many measures have been taken such as online chat room, video meeting with children and parents and etc.

At the end of the seminar, the founder praised efforts of all schools and kindergartens and delivered his expectations on next work.He pointed out that educators have responsibility to set a good example to our next generation to embrace new challenges. It is tough task for principals to lead teachers for seeking proper solutions.

Meanwhile the founder made requests on specific issues such as selecting appropriate platforms to share resources, changing class teaching methods and evaluation patterns as well as making full use of grouping advantages. At last, he added, “All our efforts should promote development of Xiehe curriculum. All of us should think seriously about how to realize student individual development under the new situations.”

This seminar is not only a summary of former practices but also a new start for our next step. The Center (group) will compile speeches on the seminar and issue them as guideline for integrating online and face-to-face teaching in schools and kindergartens in later April.