Collaboration and Community @ Dipont

From 25th – 30th August, the Academic Quality Management (AQM) team for Dipont High School Programmes (HSP) delivered an online teacher conference.?

Over 50 workshops and sharing sessions were hosted over 4 days, attended by over 600 teachers representing Dipont partner schools from right across China, from Changchun to Shenzhen, and from Shanghai to Chengdu.

Here are some of the highlights of what was a tremendous showcase of?talent, expertise, collaboration and community.

Science Coffee Corner

Hosted by? Mia Dela Cruz ?(Chemistry / Biology AQM),?Althea White?(Physics AQM) and? Feifei (Faye) Cai ?(Chemistry AQM), the Science Coffee corner was a chance for new and returning science teachers from right across the Dipont High School Programmes to touch base before the new academic year commences.

Highlights included an invitation for teachers to apply for positions on the?Science Subject Panel.?

This cross-discipline initiative enables teachers to take a lead in delivering workshops during conferences, to give input and share experiences on curriculum changes, and to create and participate in nationwide projects such as the science poster competition and the hugely popular Science Olympics.

Ideas for Delivering a Successful Lesson

Mark Quayle ?(Humanities AQM) one of the most experienced members of the HSP team, delivered a guided sharing session on the features of a successful lesson.

The importance of signaling highly differentiated objectives at the start of a class, and of deploying activities that are clearly linked to these goals, was discussed, as were strategies to ensure and assess total participation among students.

These and more facets of lesson delivery were modeled with what was a large and engaged group of attendees from across several disciplines.

The chat box thrummed with insights and discussion, including a memorable quote from a teacher known only as iPad (6), who remarked that “Students can sniff out busy work like a pack of snarling jackals”. There be dragons!

Technology in the Maths?Classroom

Two new members of the AQM team,? Bogdan Muraru ?and? Gregory Marthews , introduced a slew of handy APPs and programs to assist teachers with delivering Maths lessons and preparing exams papers.

A couple of good examples were an APP called?Plickers?and the?docx2latex.com?website. Plickers provides a mechanism for instantaneous evaluation of multiple choice questions.?

This enables teachers to scan responses to a multiple choice question and ascertain immediately if there is a need to clarify a learning point.?

docx2latex.com?is a website for converting Word and Google.doc files to LaTeX format, a convenient platform for preparing math exam papers.

Cognitive Load Theory

Common sense met neuro-science in what was a fascinating and accessible introduction to this widely applicable model of learning.?

Greg Marthews ?peppered his presentation with quotes from leading theorists as well as providing practical examples to a rapt audience of over 60 attendees.

Highlights included an explanation about the dangers of over-stuffed PPTs when introducing content.

That is, while they can be a mechanism to deliver a lot of information to students, too much information at once can overload the working memory, leading to anxiety and inability to convert this information to long term memory.

Games in Teaching Economics

Mark Avery, long serving member of Dipont HSP and recently appointed?Deputy Director of the AQM team, presented a series of games and experiments that can be used when teaching economics.?

As Mark explained, these activities are designed to encourage participation, develop communication and critical thinking skills, and create a context for practical discovery of abstract concepts.

A fascinating example was the?International Trade game. Groups of students are allocated a representation of technology (pencils, rulers, scissors) and raw materials (sheets of paper) in differing combinations and amounts, representing wealthy, middle income, and poor countries.?

The goal is to construct paper shapes, with specific design parameters, and to sell these to each other at a price that is decided by the teacher. Via this task, students are able to gain insights into wealth inequality at a global scale, cartels, collusion, and coalition-forming, all while making some money out of shapes.

Fundamentals of Workplace Conflict

One of the final workshops addressed the different forms of conflict that can occur in a workplace, be they functional or dysfunctional, and the range of strategies that can be adopted to address them.

Delivered by? Mark Quayle ?to a large number of attendees, a key takeaway was the need for flexibility in approaches when reading a situation, as well as the importance of taking a step back from any emotional responses when experiencing conflict.?

Also of note was the possibility of “positive conflict”, in which an initial difference of ideas creates the opportunity for a fresh, constructive, outcome for a workplace challenge.

As Mark Quayle noted as part of his closing remarks, the driving?purpose of the HSP team is “to make people, not break people”.?

The genuine enthusiasm on display throughout the four days of the conference was a testament to this ideal.?

The community remains strong, energized and ready for a new academic year.

Click READ MORE to learn more about the curriculum, schools and people that make up the successful and cutting-edge DIPONT High School Programmes.