Job Discussion Forums

[lagerlout2006]

My impression is that when they find a job--they are told how to teach. Until then there is nothing to discuss. I know some students who are studying to be teachers and I have asked them this. They have no idea what I mean.

At home it is ALL you would study. Teaching methods , theories etc. But here I think they do basic study and the subject of HOW to teach never comes up. It's a non-issue for them and might explain the levels of quality here. Perhaps they have MA'S in teaching and they do it there. I think the average Normal School does not touch the subject.

[latefordinner]

I suspect you're right about this. The few CTs I've met that knew what they were doing seemed more or less to be operating from gut instinct. Pretty good instinct sometimes, but like myself (and quite a few FEs), they've taught themselves what works and what doesn't. Ahh, the old school of trial and error, right next door to Harry Pigu's bar and graduate school of "They say..." Before anyone makes the obvious observation, yes I'm less qualified than I'd like to be. I intend to return to Canada and get a BEd in the near future. Suffice it to say that I've considered studying education at a Chinese university. Verrrrry briefly.

[burnsie]

Sounds like many foreign teachers in China too! Me included.

[Burl Ives]

Those teachers who graduate from Normal universities, aka Teachers Colleges, have had four years of pedagogy, classroom psychology, and politics, as well as lots of classes in their supposed teaching speciality. These are studied, and the qualifying examination is approached, in the same way as you see every day in class. After graduating, these students are eligible to teach. It appears, particularly in university and college settings, that they also have a further certification exam sponsored by their employer once they are teaching. That exam is all theory of teaching. Standardly, this is passed by making reduced photocopies of the text book, enough copies to allow for two or three to be confiscated during the exam.

[laodeng]

Perhaps they are indeed schooled in the finer points of pedagogy, but why is it, when I walk past their classrooms in my university, all I see are the teachers droning on while their students (even those on the front row) sleep soundly or read newspapers?

[latefordinner]

Burl Ives:

[cimarch]

[Roger]

I second the opinions of those who believe CHinese English teachers get a grounding in teaching know-how; I don't know if that includes pedagogy, but it certainly is of the traditional top-down variety, with the students acting as empty vessels eager to lap up any wisdom that is being poured into them.
I worked at a normal school in a smallish town, and one day I asked one of my brighter students whether she had learnt anything new from me.
She said that yes, she had, but unfortunately it was not acceptable as methodology according to the standards of her Chinese teachers. They would pass her only if she did her exam trial lesson in the manner deemed appropriate by Chinese standards.

I often think some Western techniques and know-how is grafted onto a backward Chinese body of teaching wisdom and practice; essentially people here don't understand how humans tick. That's why rote-learning is still the essence of their teaching, while the input from outside is limited to practical applications, i.e. oral English.

[nolefan]

[Burl Ives]

[kev7161]

Occasionally (and by that, I mean VERY rarely), I will have one of the Chinese English teachers come to my class and observe a lesson. Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you I'm a better teacher than they are - - I would never presume such arrogance. However, I will tell you that I am a DIFFERENT teacher than they. Most of my students get a chance to speak in my 45 minute class, whether they are repeating vocabulary words, reading aloud a dialogue or passage, or simply answering a direct question from me. Quite often I will say or do something funny and they will get a good laugh. Sometimes we will do something and they will get excited and start chattering away in Chinese. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know (from my vast years of training and experience ) that students need to be engaged and active in a lesson if you are going to keep their interest. A teacher needs to change tactics throughout the lesson so you appeal to most of the students different learning styles. Get kids up from their seats and move them around if you can - - writing on the board or performing a dialogue, etc. We all know this.

Anyway, my visitors will sit in the back and make copious notes, then leave after class without ever saying a word to me or asking me questions. Did they get anything out of their observations? I don't know. I know not all of my lessons are successful and I know I can't reach all of the students (especially here in China), but as a teacher who has been doing this for awhile, I know when a completed lesson just feels . . . right, you know? I wonder how a Chinese teacher knows if his/her lesson came off as a success? I suppose by those exam scores every month.

[badtyndale]

I had a pretty good CT sit in on some classes of mine. It was the second of a double period. In the first, the students were very active - not always on track, mind you - whereas, in the second they all clammed up. Couldn't get a word out of any of them. Discipline or fear?