Rural areas have long faced the problem of insufficient teachers. How to keep teachers in the local area has become an important issue in improving education. The PASSION grounded teaching team of National Taiwan Normal University has joined hands with the Boy and Children Foundation to collaborate on an English teaching program with "local training" as its core. The results were released today, demonstrating how through standardized teaching materials, teaching demonstrations, lesson observation feedback and seed teacher training, local staff who lack teaching experience are helped to gradually build their teaching abilities and build a new model for teacher training in rural areas.
Song Yaoting, president of National Taiwan Normal University, pointed out that on average, about 1 out of every 5 to 6 teachers in high school vocational schools and elementary and junior high schools in China is an acting substitute teacher. Among them, acting teachers without teacher certificates and without formal teaching professional training account for 30% at the junior high school and 55% at the elementary school. How to use appropriate mechanisms to transform "amateurs" who are directly involved in the education field into experienced teaching experts has both high academic and practical value. With the support of the Ministry of Education, the PASSION team of National Taiwan Normal University has contributed three key elements: "structured and standardized teaching materials, teaching methods and assessments", "good teacher training interaction model", and "long-term companionship and communication".
Tang Chuanyi, chairman of Boya Foundation, said that in the 23 years since Boya has been working in rural areas, "the most difficult thing is that there are no teachers." Fortunately, there are local tribal mothers and fathers who are willing to stay and accompany their children slowly. In the process of local teachers' exploration, "the teachers from National Taiwan Normal University are the shining light." Through the methods of the PASSION team, the teaching methods of local teachers have been completely changed. I hope that this teacher training model can be expanded to mathematics and other literacy courses in the future.
Program host Hu Cuijun, associate professor of the bachelor's degree program at the School of Education at National Taiwan Normal University, pointed out that in addition to difficult traffic and high teacher turnover in rural areas, the proportion of English subjects in remote areas that need to be strengthened is as high as 51.78% in the Junior High School Education Examination. Students are trapped in a cycle of low English learning motivation and low achievement due to a lack of usage environment and appropriate learning strategies. The key to cultivating rural areas is that "only local people will stay there in the end." Therefore, the team introduced the professional teacher training mechanism into the tutoring center of BoYu in Taiwan, through the seed teacher inheritance mechanism of "curriculum training, trial teaching exercises, feedback from observation classes, and on-site implementation" to "training seed teachers and leading local tutoring teachers in districts" to coordinate Help the teaching "amateur" who was easily led by the teaching materials to transform into a teaching "mysterious person" with the five core abilities of "understanding the needs of children, choosing the right teaching methods, discussing the classroom in depth, adjusting the teaching rhythm, and leading the inheritance among peers."
Ma Lizhen, a seed teacher at Nantou Zhuoshui Center who has served for 10 years, shared that through PASSION cross-district learning and feedback, she brought "high motivation" and colorful word card activities back to the tribe, and empowered local tutors to design activities together. Now students not only shout "Teacher, me!"
Quan Zhihan, a tutor at Nantou Xinyi Center, said that children in rural areas are often tired and have low self-esteem due to family care or staying in school all day. She guides students through game interactions, point collection rewards and empowerment on stage. A child who transferred to another school four times before the fourth grade and who originally cowered in a corner and refused to go to school not only came to class early every day to share vocabulary, but also actively asked to continue learning English during the holidays when he graduated.
Jin Heqian, a non-English language tutor at the Taitung Center, also said that she used to be a dignified teacher who "said everything she said" and was feared by students. After being exposed to PASSION, she completely changed her teaching style and used physical guidance, card collection and deliberate mistakes to make students correct, making the class full of laughter. Children who were originally resistant to English became less afraid of making mistakes and could independently listen, listen, read and write and draw inferences. They even asked the teacher at the end of class, "Wait a minute, we haven't finished the competition yet."
Hu Cuijun emphasized that in the face of teacher shortage, English teaching does not necessarily have to be limited to looking for foreign teachers or English college students. This "give fish and give fishing rod" co-training model not only allows children who resist English to dare to speak and raise their hands enthusiastically, but also allows professionals who can teach and lead people to truly stay in organizations and rural areas.
