During the autumn and spring term, UCL IOE Centre for Chinese Language Education delivered six A level Teacher Training workshops. It has been a delight for us to see so many Chinese teachers getting to know each other, working together and sharing suggestions about a range of resources and timesaving ‘cheats’ to support teaching A level Chinese. In all, over 100 Chinese teachers attended one or more of these events.
In themed workshops, teachers held lively discussions on ideas about how to teach materials focussed on topics in Theme 3 (Economic Development, Environment and Media & Technology) and Theme 4 (The impact of 1978 Reforms on China in terms of Megacities, Migration, Urbanisation and Sino-UK relations). The Literary Works and Essay Writing Teacher Training included drama with props, spin-the-wheel and marking sample film and novel essays. We also worked together with film analysis expert Carol-Mei Barker from the British Film Industry(BFI) to deliver a KS5 training session on ‘Please Vote for Me’ for students and teachers from over 20 schools.
A heartfelt thank you to all who took part with such enthusiasm—even when activities challenged them to step outside their comfort zones.
Here’s what some of our participants had to say:
Loved the hands-on approach, especially activity ideas where students need to move around.
I’ve gained more ideas about what can be taught, how it can be taught and how to boost pupils’ interest.
I felt the training was extremely enjoyable and meaningful; I got useful information and methods to help me improve my A level teaching style.
Lots of fun in the training session. I learnt lots of engaging games I can use in my lessons.
