This Mandarin Learning and Teaching professional learning programme—focused on Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language and as a school subject in the UK  and other English-speaking countries—aims to cultivate capacity and develop a core team within the current professional community.

The programme therefore serves as a platform for experienced teaching practitioners – who have great interest in research and innovation – from all sectors of Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language and as a school subject in the UK to contribute to the ongoing implementation-driven, design-based practitioner research project – by assisting the core practitioner-researchers in jointly questioning and innovating their own practices and those in the community, and jointly producing and disseminating practical and conceptual knowledge. 

The overarching purpose is to advance the provision of optimised and enriched learning experiences and outcomes for all school learners of Mandarin Chinese—through a joint-development and shared-leadership paradigm for community growth, and the community’s transformation into an inclusive and participatory community of practice, inquiry and knowledge.

Open to
Experienced Mandarin teaching practitioners in the UK with at least 2 years’ full-time (or equivalent) school-based teaching experience, who will continue working in an educational setting in the UK during 2025-2026

Availability
Available – Limited Places 

Location
15 Woburn Square, London WC1H 0NS

Organiser
UCL IOE Centre for Chinese Language Education
chinesenetworks@ucl.ac.uk

Programme Information

Programme Aims

• • • Enhance understanding of current practices and perspectives
    • Question those practices and perspectives with regard to contextual factors at national, cross-national and global levels
    • Explore views, findings, approaches and trends from a wide range of academic sources
    • Develop practice-inspired and research-informed pedagogical designs in response to current and emerging needs, with due consideration of contextual constraints and potential
    • Evaluate and optimise designs in real-world contexts through mixed research methods
    • Contribute to the professional  community with disciplinary, interdisciplinary, procedural and epistemic knowledge—through iterative, cyclical structure of design-based practitioner research.

  Current Research Project

  Languaging and Culturing through Cognitive Discourse Functions at Key Stage 4/5

  • The Cognitive Discourse Functions (CDF) project represents a systematic investigation into curriculum materials design and teaching practice specification for KS4/KS5 Chinese education. Employing adaptive Design-Based Research methodology, this initiative addresses critical gaps between linguistic form realisation, cognitive processing, and disciplinary literacy development. The project integrates translanguaging pedagogy with intercultural learning frameworks, operating across four implementation phases (2025-2027) within UCL IOE CCLE’s Inquiry-based Subject Expert Micro-programme. 
  •  

  Structure and Certification

  This year-long programme runs from Friday, 7 November 2025 to Friday, 24 July 2026. It includes 3 online meetings and 4 face-to-face co-development sessions, plus collaborative learning tasks between them (approximately 45 minutes per week). As collaboration is central, attendance and active engagement are expected.

  Schedule

  • Face-to-face 1: Friday, 7 November 2025, 10:45–16:00 (venue as advertised)
  • Online Meeting 1: Wednesday, 12 November 2025, 15:00–16:30
  • Face-to-face 2: Friday, 6 February 2026, 10:45–16:00 (TBC)
  • Online Meeting 2: Wednesday, 25 February 2026, 15:00–16:30 (TBC)
  • Face-to-face 3: Friday, 22 May 2026, 10:45–16:00 (TBC)
  • Online Meeting 3: Wednesday, 3 June 2026, 15:00–16:30 (TBC)
  • Face-to-face 4: Friday, 24 July 2026, 10:45–16:00 (TBC)

  Total Learning Hours: 60

  Who the programme is for

  This programme is designed for experienced Mandarin teachers in the UK with at least 2 years’ full-time (or equivalent) school-based teaching experience, who will continue working in an educational setting in 2025-2026 in the UK.

  Fees

  Free of charge for the eligible applicants.

  How to apply for this programme

  The deadline to apply is Friday, 1st November 2025.

  Please click “Apply Now” below and fill out the application form.

  We anticipate high demand for the limited places available. Therefore, potential participants should complete the application form as soon as possible.

  Please note: applications may close earlier than the above deadline if all places on the course are filled. The next application window will be in summer 2026.

  Apply Now

  If your application is successful, the admission confirmation email will be sent to you and your Line Manager by the application closing date.

  Programme Coordinator

  Victor Wu
  
  Lecturer in Teacher Training and Professional Development

  Enquiries

  Tanisha Roberts
  
  Project Officer
  chinesenetworks@ucl.ac.uk