Speech at HS Assembly
Sept 7, 2020
What are Educational Themes of Months and why we introduce them to our teaching and learning?
We have been introducing Themes of Months for a year. At the beginning of each month, the principal’s office would announce the theme, explain their implications, and ask teachers and students to implement it in their teaching and learning. This is a planned educational action in our school, with all 10 months being covering by 10 IB Learner Profile attributes in conjunction with 5 categories of Approaches to Learning skills. This year, we would like to add two more learner attributes, Respectful and Resilient, for the two months in the summer. As a result, all 12 months will be featured by a certain educational theme with which students and teachers can make specific links.
Why do we do this? To answer this question, we have to take a deeper look at the purpose of schooling. Why do you come to school and what do you want to get out of it? Although it appears that teachers and students spend most of our time grappling with knowledge and skills in a range of subjects and preparing and taking tests and examinations. It appears that your lives in the school center on passing exams and getting excellent scores. It appears that the outcome of all the hard work you put in your schooling is to get into a prestigious international university. However, if you look deeper and think harder, you would realize what you learn from the schooling experiences must go beyond excellent test scores and prestigious universities, although they are very important too.
You don’t even need to look elsewhere to know what purposes of learning are. In the Chinese national curriculum, which you all have avoided, you can see the objectives of students’ learning cover three main categories, including knowledge and skills, processes and methods, and affections, attitudes, and values. (知识与技能，过程与方法，情感、态度和价值观)
The IGCSE curriculum also aims to develop learners in multiple aspects. Besides knowledge, skills, and higher level understanding in and across subject areas, the IGCSE also targets at the spirit of enquiry, flexibility and responsiveness to change, the sense of making real differences, and cultural awareness. (探究精神，灵活地应对变化，通过行动对结果产生影响，跨文化意识)。
The IB education is an exemplar of international education. As a proud IB World School with two IB Programmes, we adopt and implement IB philosophy and practices. The IBDP programme requires learners to absorb the best parts of disciplinary knowledge, learn the most needed skills in and across subject areas, and develop higher level conceptual understanding that will eventually help learners to apply what they have learned in new learning or working circumstances. Beyond this part of learning, IBDP also requires all students to become well-rounded life-long learners who know how to learn and who are characterized by the attributes of IB Learner Profile.
After you learned these examples, I believe now you know that in any modern curriculum or study program, academic achievement is just one important part of the outcome of your learning and growth. You also cultivate values, develop character, and growing emotionally in the school. Actually, it is not hard to figure out this even just looking at what you are doing outside classrooms. You participate in House activities, you organize or engage in CAS clubs, you explore the community and sometime even other parts of the country or world, you learn how to become a good leader in a variety of student groups, and more importantly you think and you reflect as you want to know how to improve yourself and how to make more contribution to the community and hence the world as you become more knowledgeable and stronger. All these things are related to what you learn in classrooms but not just confined to the classrooms.
There are different ways to categorize the purpose of education of a school. Some schools use a framework, such as Personal, Social, and Academic growths. Others would like to add another aspect that is Vocational development. I think the ECNUAS approach is also valid. We help our students to develop Ways of Learning, Ways of Doing, and Ways of Being. In the high school, we utilize the 12 learner attributes and 5 categories of learning skills to remind our teachers and students about this purpose. We hope our teachers make links with these attributes and skills when they plan lesson and teach in classes. Some attributes can be modelled while some skills can be specifically taught. We also hope our students take initiative to understand these attributes and skills and hence proactively develop them through real actions of learning. There are examples of these attributes and skills among our students and in and outside classrooms.
Talk about Theme of September
Self-management skills
You demonstrate organization skills such as managing time, tasks, learning materials effectively; u are able to manage state of mind including but not limited to mindfulness awareness, perseverance, emotional management, self-motivation, resilience.
Caring. They show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment.
Much to be unpacked in the short description.
Empathy 同情: the sense and ability of feeling the emotions of others;
Compassion 恻隐之心: the desire to help when you feel or see the needs of others;
Respect 尊重: the feeling of admiration for someone or something because of their abilities, qualities, or achievements;
Service 服务: the actions of helping or doing work for others or the community;
Positive difference 正面影响: make the community, the society, and world a better place;
Others 他人: other people around you, in the community, and in the world;
Environment 环境: social, physical, and natural conditions where we live.
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