Q:
The International Baccalaureate’s (IB) Middle
Years Programme (MYP) and high school
Diploma Programme (DP) Chinese curriculum content
is different from the local Chinese curriculum. Can
you explain what these differences are? And will the
methods of instruction be different?
A:
The content used will vary slightly, though the methods of
instruction and assessment and learning outcomes will differ
significantly. Every teacher will possess a proper understanding and
mastery of the content, however, unlike the lecture style that most
locally-trained Chinese teachers are familiar with, Keystone’s teachers
will function mainly to assist and guide students to explore, think
about, cooperate with and reflect on the content that is presented.
Our teachers will think about how they can engage students and
challenge them to try, to experience and to adjust with the goal of
cultivating their passion to learn. There is a Chinese saying, “Learning
is like a sea with no boundaries, so one must work in a painfully bitter
way to build a boat that gets them to the dock.” We need to readjust
our impression of learning from “painfully bitter,” to include fun, no
matter how painful it is to achieve this.
We will make decisions on what content to use for our Chinese
curriculum using both local Chinese and English-learning standards
as guidelines. The Chinese curriculum will include some content from
the People’s Education Press series, especially the exercises that focus
on building a strong foundation in the Chinese language, and content
that we think is appropriate to inform students of social trends and
consistent with educational objectives of the school. We plan to use a
selection of famous Chinese novels instead of short essays or articles,
which are part of the local Chinese curriculum, across our middle and
high school curriculums, for example. We made this decision because
we think that novels provide students with multiple perspectives to
consider. If you look at the book Rickshaw Boy, by Lao She, the author
uses the main character to describe the process of how he went from
an optimistic, healthy, young boy to someone who becomes selfish,
deprived and rejected by society. This character’s experience gives
students a lot to consider and reflect upon. It is during this process of
reflection that students will have a great opportunity to deepen their
own understanding of themselves as an individual and a member of
society.
Along this same vein, let us say that students are asked to study Liang
Xiaosheng’s Average Person, Lao She’s Master Zong Yue and Long
Yingtai’s Watched. Traditionally, a locally-trained Chinese teacher will
have the student look at the Chinese characters, words, sentences,
structure, and step-by-step how the author composes the article
to conduct analysis on the articles. In contrast, a Keystone-trained
teacher will focus on guiding the students to discover the similarities
and differences between the three articles, and how these findings
relate to their own personal lives, in particular their personal values.
And while our teachers are expected to have a strong understanding
of the materials taught, this will not translate into them projecting an
article’s central idea onto students. Rather, teachers will give more
“Our students, from a young age, will
begin the process of understanding
that they are one part of a larger
society…”
attention to the imagery of the literature in discussion, its function in
society, and what students can learn from the characters in the piece.
So, Keystone’s Chinese curriculum will consist of a combination of
Chinese literature, history and philosophy. This content will expand
each student’s knowledge of these respective areas, and provide a
point from which they can explore, question and analyze the culture,
wisdom, thought and interesting phenomena that lie behind a
Chinese person’s daily life. Students will not only be exposed to these
areas within the classroom, but will also have opportunities to visit
museums, cultural landmarks, and