Recently, WIDE World and the Shanghai (China) Distance Education Group (SDEG) reached an agreement to conduct a multi-phased collaborative program in which public school teachers across Shanghai will participate in one of WIDE World's online courses, Focus on Student Understanding: Teaching for Understanding 1. SDEG is an innovative leader in distance learning and professional development in China and is sponsoring the program with the enthusiastic support of the Shanghai Education Commission and with the backing of the Shanghai International Studies University (SISU). The primary goal of the collaboration is to support the development of constructivist, student- centered teaching practices in Shanghai's elementary and secondary classrooms.

On December 6, SDEG hosted an Orientation Conference in Shanghai for the teachers who will participate in the program during Phase 1 (Winter- Spring 2006), a cohort of 256 administrators and teachers from 19 administrative districts within Shanghai. After a series of speeches, and a ceremonial flag exchange between WIDE World Executive Director, David Zarowin, and SDEG Vice President, Professor Min Wang, the workshop began. The workshop was led by WIDE World's Min Zeng, a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and Beijing Normal University, and Qin Jiang, also an HGSE graduate, who completed her undergraduate studies at Fudan University, Shanghai.

Speaking in Mandarin, Min outlined the basics of Teaching for Understanding and its framework. Now unofficially known as the Oprah Winfrey of WIDE World, Min stepped off the stage and circulated among the crowd, prompting teacher participation in the "What do you understand really well?" exercise. Meanwhile, back in Cambridge, Qin Jiang, our China project manager, joined in by videoconference.

After the conference, Qin explained why Shanghai would be interested in Teaching for Understanding:

"Constructivism is popular in China right now, especially in Shanghai," Qin said, noting that Shanghai has begun to overhaul its curriculum. "They are involved in educational reform and they're trying to move from traditional didactic, lecture-based teaching and moving towards more interactive, communicative, constructive teaching. I think our courses are in alignment with their education reform goals."

The collaboration between WIDE World and SDEG contains the possibility of thousands of Shanghai teachers taking WIDE World courses over the next year. In line with Teaching for Understandings’ focus on Ongoing Assessment, both parties will take a close and continuing look throughout the Winter/Spring at the pilot project to determine how best to shape the program to ensure its continued success.

For the first phase, WIDE World has created a bilingual course platform with Mandarin and English- language support. In addition, WIDE World has translated the course sessions to Mandarin and made these translations available for download to course participants. This necessitated some tweaking for cultural considerations, as well. For example, in the first part of the course an analogy is made to a staircase of learning steps:

"The change from a staircase metaphor to stepping stones came out of conversations with Lois (the instructor) and Nathan (the program developer)," Qin said. "We felt like the staircase did not make sense to Chinese speakers. The stepping stone metaphor is very popular in China - it's a very classic analogy [...]. But now everybody uses it when you are doing something with strategic vision."

At least initially, all communication with WIDE World coaches in the course discussion area will occur in English, which will facilitate a second goal of the Shanghai Education Commission - the development of English-language skills among Shanghai teachers in time for the 2010 World Expo.

In subsequent phases of the project, WIDE World and SDEG plan to develop Shanghai course participants as future online coaches so that by the fall of 2006 Shanghai learners will be coached by their fellow Shanghai teachers.

As in many countries, China is attempting to balance pressurized test-based assessment with a desire to promote deeper understanding and critical thinking in students. Yet Qin notes that there are changes at this level as well:

"Shanghai is reforming their tests and exams, trying to incorporate critical and problem-solving skills. So you need to develop these skills in your teaching, otherwise the students will not score well in the tests... The exam pressure is still there, but educators are moving towards teaching for understanding or learning. I think the course will help them to implement the new curriculum in their practical teaching."

While in China, David and Min also traveled to Beijing, to meet with Hao Ping, President of the Beijing Foreign Studies University, and with leaders at Peking University and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, all of whom expressed keen interest in the program and in the collaboration with SDEG.

"Teaching in ways that encourage students to be problem solvers and innovative thinkers is high on the minds of forward-thinking educators in China now," David notes. "WIDE World's focus on teaching for understanding is, therefore, finding a very receptive audience in many parts of the country."

We liked these visually-stunning student projects so much that we couldn't resist a highlight. John Pais, a High School Math teacher at the Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School (MICDS) took WIDE World’s Teaching to Standards with New Technologies course in the Winter/Spring of 2005.  Using animated graphics, John’s class has been working on Visualizing Motion on a Parametric Curve. Here is a sample of their coursework (including student outcomes):

In each exercise (only viewable in the Maple worksheet), view the parametric curve movie and write a description of the particle motion along the curve, including:

(1) the start point and end point on the curve

(2) the number of times the curve is traversed from start time to end time, and

(3) interesting aspects of the shape of each particular curve.

In addition,

(4) check the velocity and acceleration functions given by taking the derivatives yourself.

Finally, after completing Exercises 1.1-1.12, create two new parametric curves yourself, appropriately editing the two sections of the Maple worksheet.

And here are the ultimate student performances of understanding and ongoing assessment...

This month's tip comes to us from Carol Adams, our instructor in the Writing in the Content Areas: Strategies for Middle and High School Teachers, a course that is applicable for all subject areas.

"How do I engage my students? Motivation is central to adolescent learning - writing can not only serve as a motivational tool in any content area class, but also as a “way in” to the content material. One of the things that I like about writing-to-learn activities is that they often help teachers to make the best use of classroom time. They can focus classroom discussions, cut down on wayward behavior, and fill in transition gaps.

Here are two of my favorite writing strategies that serve all three purposes: Admit and Exit Slips. Some teachers choose to make these slips anonymous if they worry their students do not feel free to express their thoughts and opinions. Anonymous or not, taking them seriously sends the message that the students’ words are valued.

Class Activity 1: Admit Slips can either be employed as a “ticket” into the classroom or as a bell activity. I advocate for making these reflective as opposed to quizzing tools. Ask students to reflect on the content from the previous class or write a question that they would like to see addressed in class. This can either be something students bring to class or work on in the first five minutes of class.

Class Activity 2: Exit Slips are a wonderful way for content teachers to check in with students at the end of the class period. Again, focus on students’ thoughts instead of asking for recall of material. Have students reflect on their understanding of the lesson, or how well they did in the lab. You can also ask students to pose questions that might begin the next day’s class."

In a recent study by The Education Alliance at Brown University, entitled The Role of Facilitation in Online Professional Development, the authors point out that there are a number of key elements necessary for successful professional development:

The report goes on to suggest that facilitators (WIDE World calls them "coaches") have an active and important role in online courses. They:

Talk to us! - The research team would love to hear about further reports or data that refine and improve professional development practice.

February 16-19, 2006

Dr. Lois Hetland, our former TfU 1 course instructor, will be giving a talk at the AAIE (Association for the Advancement of International Education) Annual Conference in Boston on February 18, 2006. Her talk is entitled "International Educators and Online Courses: Sparking Connections".

As an amendment, we'll catch up with Peg LeGendre, whose project at Fresh Pond in Cambridge was featured in the October newsletter, in the new year. I'd also like to say a special thanks to the educators and teachers who have been sending me their wonderful stories. WIDE World is currently working on ways to showcase the important work that teachers and students are achieving in the classroom. It's a pleasure to work with such passionate people.

Have a classroom tip that utilizes Teaching for Understanding and WIDE World's coursework or a story to tell? Email wideeditor@gse.harvard.edu and tell us all about it.