4.1. Training schedule of the project
According to the implemented requirements of the Ministry of Education in 2018, the project of sending trainers to rural schools should focus on the training theme, strengthen the accurate diagnosis, symptomatic demonstration and comparative study of the participating teachers, improve classroom teaching and promote the effective connection with school-based study. Thus, the trainer team established the training theme of "building effective teaching of Chinese reading with teaching objectives in primary school", and in the third and fourth stages, it carried out training activities through on-the-spot training in classroom for trainees to improve their teaching skills by the specifically designed curriculum, which is shown in the following table:
Table 19 Schedule of "sending trainers to rural schools" in Limin town’s primary school (the third & fourth stages)
Training stage
Training time
Schedule Training content Training methods
Demonstr ation on teaching
In the
morning of
December 21th
8:30—9:10 Demonstration of expert’s course
Classroom observation 9:20—10:00 Demonstration of
expert’s course
Classroom observation 10:10—10:20 Expert’s lecture Classroom
discussion 10:20—10:50 Demonstration of
selected teacher’s course in this school
Heterogeneous forms for the same course
10:50—11:20 Trainees’ comments Collective evaluation 11:20—11:30 Expert’s comments Collective evaluation
In the
afternoon of
December 21th
13:20—14:40 Expert’s teaching (Teaching design of mini-course )
Collective learning
14:50—16:20 Communication of teaching design for mini-course
Panel sessions
16:20—16:30 Summarize and assign training tasks
Collective distribution
Studying and research on courses
In the
Morning of
December 22th
8:30—9:50 Demonstration of mini-course
Group discussion and collective discussion
10:00—11:20 Demonstration of mini-course
Group discussion and collective discussion
11:00—11:30 Summary and election of course representatives
Collective election
In the
afternoon of
December 22th
13:20—14:30 Teaching design of mini-course
Group discussion
14:40—16:00 Demonstration of representatives’
mini-course
Collective evaluation
16:00—16:20 Summarize and assign training tasks
Collective distribution
Source: Created by the author based on on-site data collection. 4.2. Training process of the project
Based on the above schedule, the training process centered on the effectiveness of teaching in Chinese reading in the stage of demonstration on teaching, which made the demonstration of experts’ course to improve trainees’ understanding and mastery of teaching knowledge. In the fourth stage, the training activities were mainly carried out through the studying of mini-course, so as to improve the trainees’ practice capacity in teaching. These specific process is shown according to the following four steps:
1. In the first step, based on the problems existing in the teaching of Chinese reading of rural teachers, the training activities with different topics were carried out according to the implementing plan of Chinese workshops. First of all, the expert chose the teaching content and gave a demonstration on teaching with the training theme, and all the trainees had on-the-spot observation. And then, the selected trainee also gave a demonstration on teaching with the same course according to their own understanding while the experts team had an observation on the spot.
2. In the second step, after observing the demonstration of experts’ courses, the experts team and trainees discussed the demonstrated courses, and then the chief
expert of the experts team gave some comment on the demonstrated courses. At the same time, all the learning groups discussed on related training topics of Chinese reading.
3. In the third step, after communicating with the expert, the experts team made lectures about teaching design of mini-course, knowledge and methods of teaching, so as to improve rural teachers’ teaching ability.
4. In the fourth step, according to the training schedule, the training activities entered the stage of studying and research on courses, that is, collective demonstration of mini-courses. Members of groups prepared mini-courses with heterogeneous forms for the same course, and conducted the publicity activities of mini-courses for all teachers and the experts team. At the same time, experts gave related comment on the groups’ mini-courses as we can see from the below pictures.
5. Interview with receivers
In order to clarify the implementation situation of this project on the guarantee of rural teachers’ training rights, the interviews with rural teachers who participated in the project were made. But, considering the limitation of interviewed conditions, such as inconvenience of interviewees’ time in training activities and individual willing of trainees, the group interview of four teachers randomly selected as interviewees based on their years of teaching experience was implemented by the questions related to guarantee of training rights in this project. The interview was divided into two parts.
In the first part, four trainees who have a long-term teaching experiences were selected as interviewees in the group interview. The reason for choosing these teachers as the interviewees is that they are excellent representatives in this project and have a better understanding of the overall training situation in their village primary schools, which reflected the basic training situation in rural teachers’
professional development.
The second part is the outline of the group interview. The purpose of the
outline is to figure out the environment of rural non-backbone teachers’ professional development in their school, the situation of professional development that trainees have achieved through this project, the effect of this project on the professional development of the participated teachers, the existing problems in the implementation of this project and the suggestion of the participated teachers themselves. Therefore, five questions have been set up(see the following records). The purpose of these questions is to investigate and evaluate the guarantee of rural teachers’ training rights through clarification of the situation of participated teachers’ professional development in the project.
Then, teacher K as the first interviewee with 17 years of teaching experiences answers these questions as showed as below.
①Please introduce your usual training activities in school.
Teacher K (hereinafter referred to as K): there are six classes and 12 teachers in my school, young teachers account for half of all teachers, and two teachers are more than 30 years of teaching experience. I am a younger teacher who teaches Chinese of the lower grades of my school, and I have no tutor who can give me guidance in my teaching, because the other younger Chinese teacher teaches pupils of senior grades, thus, I usually seek some piece of advice and support from my schoolmates who are Chinese teachers in the county’s primary schools through chatting software in my cellphone when I encountered problems in teaching.
② What are your expectations for professional development before participating in this project?
K: I am Chinese teacher who is responsible for the teaching of first and second grades. In my experience, I feel many pupils cannot understand the learning content well, which is because teachers are used to the traditional teaching mode and have no motivation to stimulate pupils to reflect on learning content. Second, pupils maybe lazier and pay more attention to their achievements, they are unwilling to think too much, which is a question I have been thinking about for a long time. Thus, I want to cultivate and improve pupils’ learning abilities in many aspects from the junior grade through learning habits and living habits. I think pupils’ achievements are
important, but ability is also a significant aspect for pupils. I cherish this learning opportunity and hope to improve my ability, especially ability in teaching. In addition, the learning environment of pupils is also a question, pupils’ parents do not attach more importance to children’s learning, on the other hand, there is lack of communication between on pupils and parents which affects the learning effect of pupils, thus, I expect to solve these questions well.
③After participating in this project, what have you learned in regard to your teaching?
K: I learned a lot through the demonstrated courses of famous teachers. Each teacher has owned characteristics in teaching. Firstly, they have solid basic skills and strong ability to control the classroom teaching. Secondly, they also have different language skills and activities for pupils of different grades, which aroused pupils’
enthusiasm of participation and reflection, and then everyone finished the learning process together and teaching goal was achieved very well. This is a great illumination for me, I think, how to absorb the experience of famous teachers for me to teach my pupils better is my goal of teaching in future. Generally speaking, I have gained a lot and my ability in teaching has been improved rapidly, because this training aims at our classroom teaching and benefits our own teaching method.
④What do you think are the shortcomings of this project?
K: I think that this training reminded me to pay attention to the pupils’
reading emotion and their reading habits in my teaching in the future.
⑤What suggestions do you have for this project?
K: I hope these training activities can be carried out frequently. Our rural teachers’ schools are scattered, thus training by face-to-face manner is more useful for us, which is also very flexible and targeted.
And another teacher F with 18 years of teaching experiences gives his responses as following.
①Please introduce your usual training activities in school.
Teacher F (hereinafter referred to as F): my school is large. And there are 37 teachers in which included 6 special post teachers, 20 backbone teachers in my school.
In the past, I mainly participated in training activities in the school as well as at the town, but now there are more training activities at the county level, and the experts of the county level is better than ours in teaching, thus, I often discuss with them. In addition, there are QQ groups in the internet where I can consult some experts on the topic in teaching and education when I faced with problems in my teaching.
② What are your expectations for professional development before participating in this project?
F: I have been teaching Chinese in primary school for sixteen years after my graduation. I think that pupils are weak in reading and learning of Chinese. Their knowledge and abilities in reading and writing are weaker than that of urban students, because rural teachers' own abilities are not high, and they rely entirely on teaching reference and themself reserved knowledge, thus they are a little difficult in ability of Chinese teaching. In addition, I feel that there is lack of educational theory for rural teachers, because the time of studying on my professional theory is limited, and most time I studied something by myself, for example, my acquaintance with new theory of Chinese teaching in current domestic is less, and I feel it is hard to make a breakthrough in my teaching.
③After participating in this project, what have you learned in regard to your teaching?
F: In the past, the training activities for teachers were conducted in the schools of teachers continue education. Now this situation has been changed, it is more conducive to teachers’ participation by conducting training activities in the teacher’s schools with a very clear training task. The form of mini-courses for all the trainees is better than concentrating on lectures and training in the county. In this training activity, I shared my growing experience with people so that everyone can learn together, which is also helpful to me. At the same time, it is more practicality than previous training, and with the guidance of famous experts, trainees were able to go to classes and evaluate effect of teaching, which has made me realize the problems existed and promoted me to think more and grow up.
④What do you think are the shortcomings of this project?
F: I feel that some teachers are weak on their reflection on teaching, and some teachers lack the internal digestive ability after learning.
⑤What suggestions do you have for this project?
F: It is necessary to communicate with rural teachers in time in the explanation and comprehension of courses. Because this project is still exploring, I hope that it could be better through this training time.
The answers from teacher W who has the 18 years of teaching experiences is shown as follows:
①Please introduce your usual training activities in school.
Teacher W (hereinafter referred to as W): There are 12 teachers in my school.
9 teachers are middle-aged teachers, and there are no young teachers. In my school, teachers who are longest teaching of experience is more than 30 years. The training activities have been conducting for rural teachers in the school and central school in township, and the training activities of county level are increasing recently. I feel their levels in teaching are more higher than ours.
②What are your expectations for professional development before participating in this project?
W: I feel, as a Chinese teacher, professional quality is weak, and self-learning is insufficient along with the development of the Chinese subject. From the viewpoint of pupils’ development, I think rural pupils have fewer opportunities for all-round development. Children have a good at learning in partial subject, which is not conducive to the children’ development in all aspects, thus it is difficult to enter a good university. Therefore, I talked to the principal of my school about whether I could teach pupils with systematic learning along with their growth from grade 1 to grade 6. And then with the principal’s consent, I firstly focused on the element quality for pupils’ solid foundation to teach Chinese reading and writing as the cultivation of basic skills and good learning habits. From the first grade of primary, I taught my pupils Pin-yin through speaking and explaining according to their understanding levels. In the third grade, I asked pupils to take part in practical activities so as to go
out of school for getting experience and material of Chinese writing, and finally their achievement has always been the first in the township. At the same time, I organized my pupils to participate in reading activities by donated books and encouraged they to write more. In this way, I hope the quality of education as that of urban children could be offered for rural children. At present, my puzzling problem is how to make my pupils to develop well in learning, because 90% of the pupils I taught are left-behind children, you know, the success of a child needs the support of teachers, he/she and parents. If these three aspects keep a state of harmony, it is easier for children to succeed. Otherwise it will become difficult to guarantee children’ development. And left-behind children have an weak situation on support from their parents in learning, for example, assigned homework are difficult for my pupils to complete owing to their parents have gone out to work, only grandparents who have a lower educational levels cannot gave related assistance in their homework. Therefore, I have to spend a lot time in my teaching to promote learning development of pupils in my classroom.
③After participating in this project, what have you learned in regard to your teaching?
W: I have gained a lot from this training project. In a word, this training project keeps its feet on the ground, which is the essential difference between this training and network training, it is taught by famous teachers with the face to face. As a difficult problem in Chinese teaching, Chinese reading is weak part for us as rural teachers, and in this training, I have achieved rapid improvement through the explanations and guidance of experts.
④What do you think are the shortcomings of this project?
W: I think there need to do some extensions in training courses, such as the extension of pedagogical psychology and some educational management for rural teachers, because rural teachers have to manage everything for children in the schools.
⑤What suggestions do you have for this project?
W: I look forward to participating in more such training activities in the future. I hope this project will benefit more and more rural teachers.
The last interviewee, teacher G with 25 years of teaching experiences gives
her responses as following:
①Please introduce your usual training activities in school.
Teacher G (hereinafter referred to as G): Our school is located in the urban-rural fringe, with more than 90 teachers, most of whom are over 40 to 50 years old, accounting for 60 to 70% of all teachers in my school. There are more than 20 new teachers. I usually participated in training activities in our school.
② What are your expectations for professional development before participating in this project?
G: The first point, I think, is that educational theory and concepts need to be updated, because there are many places where I use my past experience of teaching, and I cannot have good understanding on the curriculum standards, thus, I need to study in educational theory and concepts. The second one is that there is some inertia in my teaching I need to change. Maybe there are some job burnout for me, I think.
③After participating in this project, what have you learned in regard to your teaching?
G: I think this training is very good. In the past, training activities mainly were conducted by the experts’ lectures and training in the classroom was less. In this training project, the famous teachers brought the their courses for us in the classroom directly, and teaching activities were vividly demonstrated by themself on how to teach Chinese reading, we can have a good understanding in teaching, which is more efficient than theoretical training in the past. Furthermore, I always have some puzzled problems about teaching ideas. And through this training, I find that their teaching ideas are very clear, they not only pay attention to knowledge in teaching, but also pay attention to learning methods and learning habits, which give me a lot of inspiration, and reflecting on this learning I feel that I also needed to further study, especially, the in-depth study of curriculum standards, and the other is the ability of control classroom.
④What do you think are the shortcomings of this project?
G: I hope the training conditions of the project could be better and the time can be adjusted. The weather is too cold.
⑤What suggestions do you have for this project?
G: I think this kind of training activity with practice is very good. And everyone can participate in this project, everyone has the opportunity to speak and show their opinions, everyone can comment on their opinions each other and make progress together. I hope to participate in this kind of training activity more time in the future.
6. Summary and reflection
By investigating the project of sending trainers to rural schools in Li-min town’s primary school, it can be found that this project provided rural teachers with a timely and effective training opportunity, which can be proved from answers of teachers (K-5, W-5, G-5), compared with previous training situation according to the interviewee’
answers of the first question. At the same time, through the conversation between the project leader and the chief expert, it is also found that in the training activities, every participating teacher has the opportunity to participate in mini-courses and publish their own opinions, which directly ensures that every participating teacher in different grades has a real opportunity to improve their teaching ability. Furthermore, judging from the composition of the trainers team of the project, the selected experts are the backbone teachers who possess the rich experience and background of rural education and teaching, which objectively ensures that the training can meet the needs of rural teachers’ professional development. In addition, in order to improve rural teachers’
teaching ability in Chinese reading, this project is implemented through the implemented process of the training schedule and practice courses(mainly heterogeneous in the same mini-course). According to teachers’ feedback (all the answers of question 3) on the above training activities, it is indicated that this project meets the actual needs of rural teachers and plays an active and effective role in promoting the professional development of rural teachers. Therefore, it conforms to the original intention of the project, that is, the trainer team should go deep into the