The podcast discusses the challenges of transforming education in China, with a focus on personalized learning, problem-solving, and global connections. It highlights the experiences of students and educators implementing Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship Education (ICEE), emphasizing the impact on self-discovery, collaboration, and authentic problem-solving skills. The speakers also address obstacles faced in promoting Chinese culture, the limitations of high-stakes tests, the use of AI in creative work, and the need for change in education.
ICEE learning fosters innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship skills by allowing students to explore their individual interests and collaborate on real-world problems.
GOCO provides an innovative educational experience that combines language learning, cultural exchange, and hands-on entrepreneurship to cultivate creative thinkers with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Deep dives
ICEE Learning: Fostering Creativity and Collaboration in Education
ICEE learning is an innovative approach that aims to foster students' innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship skills. It allows students to explore their unique abilities and passions by providing autonomy in choosing project topics aligned with their individual interests. Through collaborative work, students form interdisciplinary teams to tackle real-world problems and strengthen their teamwork and communication skills. The ICEE learning approach also emphasizes the development of authentic problem-solving skills, empowering students to contribute significantly to their communities. Overall, ICEE learning functions as a catalyst for students to explore their strengths, collaborate effectively, and develop essential skills beyond the classroom.
GOCO: An Innovative Course Cultivating Innovative Talents
GOCO, an innovative education program, focuses on cultivating innovative talents through practical entrepreneurial education. By experimenting with this innovative course, teachers enhance their teaching confidence, while students engage in creative projects that address real-life needs. Students work in groups or individually to create a wide range of products, such as postcards with QR codes to share cultural information, pens showcasing Chinese cultural relics, and innovative solutions for common problems like storing coats while shopping. GOCO provides a unique educational experience that combines language learning, cultural exchange, and hands-on entrepreneurship, contributing to the development of creative thinkers with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Pursuing Passion and Purpose in College and Career Paths
When it comes to choosing college majors and future careers, the students express a mix of aspirations and uncertainties. While some students are unsure about their specific career paths, they seek to follow their passions, even if they don't lead to traditional careers. One student, for example, is interested in sports economics and hopes to study sports economics in college to merge their passion for basketball and economics. Another student acknowledges the challenge of balancing financial stability and personal fulfillment and plans to explore business and finance as potential career paths. They emphasize the importance of pursuing meaningful work that aligns with their interests and makes a positive impact on society.
The Need for Educational Changes and Authentic Learning Experiences
The students recognize the need for educational changes that go beyond traditional, test-driven systems. They highlight the importance of providing more opportunities for authentic learning experiences, where practical skills, creativity, and critical thinking are nurtured. The students believe that technology and artificial intelligence (AI) can play a role in enhancing learning, but ethical concerns and the need for genuine creativity arise when AI is used to replace human efforts or borrow creative ideas. Overall, the students and teachers emphasize the significance of personalized, innovative approaches to education that prioritize students' unique abilities, foster collaboration, and empower them to address real-world challenges.
Transforming education is never easy but transformation is necessary. How to personalize education for every student? How to engage students in identifying and solving problems worth solving? How to connect students across school and cultural boundaries so they can learn from, with, and for each other in the globalized world? These are challenging but meaningful tasks for all school leaders and teachers.
Over the past five years, some Chinese schools have embarked on the journey to make significant changes to engage students in a new type of learning. This is especially difficult in a country where testing is considered a high priority for parents, teachers, and school leaders and test scores really matter for all involved. In this episode, we have invited four students from two cities in China--the capital city of Beijing and Chongqing in Southwest China--to share with us their experiences with a new education paradigm: the Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship Education or ICEE. Together with them are two adults who have helped leading the experiments. The students are from Beijing Academy, a relative new school in Beijing and Chongqing #8 Secondary School, a school of a long history. The experiments have been supported by YEE Education in Beijing.
Bo Hu, vice director of the Academic Affairs Office at Chongqing No.8 Secondary School, is one of the coordinators for ICEE at No.8. With 11 years of experience in teaching English in China, Bo strives to create a dynamic and engaging learning environment to unlock students’ potential. Currently, Bo is pursuing a doctoral degree in education.
Gao Mengchan graduated from Beijing Normal University in 2016. At the same year, she started her teaching career in Beijing Academy. Having been an English teacher for almost eight years, Gao gained a new identity in August, 2023 as one member of YEE- GLocal program. It has been a brand new experience for both Gao and her students as they are exploring and practicing the key ideas of “innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship education”. In today’s conversation, Gao will introduce what their students have been doing in GLocal and what she has learned from a teacher’s perspective.
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