On September 11, 2020, at 5pm Beijing time / 9am UK time, leaders of School of Foreign Languages of Southwest Jiaotong University, teachers and students of the Department of International Chinese Education, Scottish education experts and university students gathered through the internet and launched the program of VET (Virtual Exchange Teachers).

Dean Li Chengjian And Dean Fhiona Mackay were addressing the launch ceremony

 

Dean Li gave a speech for the launching ceremony. Then Zhao Yanyan, Chinese dean of Confucius Institute for Scottish Primary and Secondary Schools; British dean Fhiona Mackay, executive dean Lin Fan, and Liu Bo, director of the DICE made speeches to congratulate the launch of the project. Teachers from the DICE also attended the ceremony, and they are: Li Hao, Kuang Juan, Wang Hailin, Luan Hui and Yu Aiqing. British Education Development Officers Katie Hawkins, Susan Lawson, Karen Liddle, and officers of the Sino-Foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center also expressed their congratulations.

Some graduate students from the DICE and college students from Scotland also attended the meeting.

Background of the VET project

In January 2020, when visiting Scotland, our delegation signed MOU, four exchanges and cooperation framework agreement, with Thclyde University; School of Humanities of University of Schclyde; Confucius Institute for Scottish Primary and Secondary Schools and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. This has opened a new chapter in the cooperation between our school and UK in international Chinese education.

 

 

The Signing Ceremony of educational cooperation between Scotland and our school

With the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 this year, the development of international Chinese language education around the world is facing huge challenges. At the request of the Confucius Institute for Primary and Secondary Schools in Scotland, the DICE is duty-bound to undertake the task of online Chinese teaching in primary and secondary schools in Scotland, including the Scholarship Program, the School Program and the Private Tutorial Program.

 

Teacher volunteers in a Chinese class for Confucius classroom

After more than half a year's joint efforts, two sides have completed the preparation, pre-job training and course construction work, and finally started the course officially on September 14. 43 postgraduate volunteers from the DICE provided high-quality online Chinese courses to 55 classes in 38 primary and secondary Confucius Classrooms hosted by 11 education authorities in Scotland, also including 20 college students and 5 adults in Scotland, for a total of 75 hours of class time per week.

 

Mutually beneficial and win-win international educational exchanges and cooperation

On the basis of win-win cooperation between China and the UK, the VET projects benefit students from both sides through the exchange of online teachers.

On the one hand, through early training and on-campus practice, we have selected qualified volunteers for online Chinese teachers among students majoring in International Chinese Education, which has helped the British side to relieve the shortage of Chinese teachers to a large extent and enabled the local Confucius Institution teaching to be carried out smoothly.

 

A volunteer teacher was giving Chinese lessons to university scholarship students.

 

On the other hand, the supervisor team composed of British education experts and local Chinese teachers has provided mentoring supervisor classes for our volunteers, and solid pre-post and in-post professional training has improved the professional quality of our students.

British education experts were conducting pre-job training for students of our department.

 

The teaching content of English supervisor courses includes Second Language Teaching, Classroom Management, Teaching Design and so on. Teachers from both China and the UK combined with students' teaching practices, participate in teaching discussions, simulation teaching, and cross-cultural communication guidance. The students also can come into contact with the research and development of Discovering of the Scottish mainland China and Beyond the Panda, a full set of teaching mode and teaching resources developed by the Chinese teachers in Scotland. They can also deeply understand the  Chinese + teaching idea which means learning languages with the culture and the science. Students taking part in the program expressed that they have benefited a lot.

Completion ceremony of pre-job training course

Teaching others is teaching yourself. The process is welcomed by two sides

Halfway through the semester, the VET program is well managed. Every day, the graduate volunteers will have 1-3 class hours of teaching. Every day, they will hold a group lesson preparation meeting and do teaching reflection and discussion regularly. British supervisors conduct training during work every two weeks, and two sides’ managers also have weekly meetings. From the preparation of each lesson to the teaching attitude and the creation of the teaching environment, the teachers and students of our department have taken a rigorous, serious and professional attitude towards each lesson. The British students and teaching institutions have been quite satisfied with our teaching quality and have given positive comments and highly appreciated.

The VET project has received strong support from both the school and the college. The college library provided dedicated classrooms as a teaching and training place for the project. At the same time, the VET project is supported by funding from the Language Integration Center.

Volunteers were attending classes and training in dedicated classrooms.

 

In-post training

 

The volunteers were having a lesson preparation meeting.

 

The teaching design of Chinese + Culture, which integrates Chinese culture and Chinese story telling, makes British students fall in love with China.

Expand overseas teaching and practice bases to help cultivate talents.

The training goal of the DICE is to train teachers of Chinese as a foreign language with professional language teaching abilities, cross-cultural communication abilities, international vision, and love for international Chinese education, among which teaching practice is the essential part. DICE will continue to do a good job in the construction of practical education base inside and outside the school and allow the students to have access to the real teaching environment, to get the experience of actual teaching practice, to combine the theory with practice, and to benefit from the joint training of Chinese and foreign teachers. At the same time DICE will also strengthen the cultivation of students and finally pursue and practice the strategy of new liberal arts construction of the Ministry of Education.