PUBLIC CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Re-searching University-School Partnership Collaboration

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that causes significant social, communication and behavioural difficulties. As students with ASD lack Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985), they generally experience social and emotional challenges. Between 2000 – 2015, a working group comprising teacher educators, school principals, teachers, and professionals collaborated with the aim to help students overcome these difficulties. As a result of a series of monthly meetings, school-based preparation work, try-out observations, and revisions, four teaching packages with programme books, learning and teaching activities, and CDs were developed and published for teachers’ use to work with students with ASD. The present study adopts a narrative inquiry approach (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988) to inquire into how a teacher educator and a teacher experience university-school partnership collaboration throughout the fifteen years, the changing relationship during the process, the teacher knowledge (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995) gained, and their effects on learning and teaching for all parties including the students with ASD. Interviews are conducted between the teacher and the teacher educator to gather data which are analyzed and discussed to understand the phenomena. Results of the study do not only enhance understanding the experience of collaboration and reciprocal learning in school development and teacher education, they bear implications for future university-school partnership collaboration.

Can Multiple Connections Bring about Abundant Educational Outcomes? Different Teaching Culture of Kindergarten between China and Canada: Case Study of Jin-Guo Kindergarten in Kunming

Teaching culture is an important concept which could influenced teaching practice, background and atmosphere, including the transmission way of information, understanding of knowledge, action and change capacity development. Based on the case of international cooperation and communication between Jin-Guo Kindergarten and Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology for two years, we did interviews among 6 teachers and 20 parents. This study tried to comparatively analysis the differences from three dimensions: 1. Theoretical basis: structuralism vs. constructivism. 2. Framework of teaching and activity: Chinese “five areas” vs. Canada “five areas”. 3. Teachers’ professional development pattern: task-oriented vs. appraisal-oriented.  In addition, inclusive education consciousness in kindergarten is what Chinese teacher could learn from Canadian teachers. Children with special needs will be supported by professional care. According to the feedback from Chinese teachers and parents, we found that Canadian teachers were inclined to build multiple connections between children and nature, culture, teacher, parents, community, life, future etc. Is this way can bring about abundant educational outcomes? How to measure such outcomes? We would like to explore more about this issue in further study.

BYOD in Canadian and Chinese Teacher Education Programs: An Exploratory Study of Two Universities

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) has been a topic of discussion not only in the business setting, but also in the domain of educational technology in recent years because nowadays, thanks to the increasing affordability of hardware, software, and network connection, it is very likely that students from both developed and developing countries own one or more types of mobile devices such as smart phones, laptop computers, iPads, eReaders, and tablets of other brands. Working with their mobile devices has become part of their daily life for students of the digital age, and there is a good reason to believe that students can use such devices not only for social network communication or entertainment, but for learning purposes, if they are encouraged to bring them to the classroom and given guidance for proper use. A review of relevant literature indicates that while advocates of BYOD emphasize the advantages of this trend, including personalized learning, increased student engagement, and helping to overcome equity problems of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) access, there are certain concerns such as classroom management, data security and privacy, requirements of network bandwidth, etc. The authors of this paper are members of the ICT Research Team of the Xu and Connelly (2015-2020) SSHRC Partnership Grant Project, teaching in teacher education programs in Canada and China respectively.

Misplaced Learner-Centred Pedagogy: a Chinese Perspective

Learner-centred pedagogy has been adopted in China as a step towards building a democratic education system by promoting learners’ rights. Traditional curricula that are dominated by teachers are expected to be replaced by learner-centred ones, and teachers’ lectures are expected to be replaced by students’ discussion. However, the adoption has not been successful. In this paper, the background of global education policy borrowing and lending will be demonstrated, and the failure of learner-centred pedagogy will be addressed from cultural, teacher development, and systemic perspectives. Then, I defend traditional teacher-centred education. I believe in the current Chinese context, teacher-centred pedagogy has the advantage of producing a more positive academic outcome. Ultimately I argue that outright transplantation is not feasible, if learner-centred pedagogy is to become part of the Chinese education system, it must do so through accommodation and engagement. Learner-centred pedagogy in China must adapt to fit the culture that’s already there.

Co-constructing new life of schools through sister schools ‘ reciprocal learning between China and Canada

This article mainly reviews  the friendships and the contents between Huaping Primary School and Toronto’s Ryerson Community School since the setting up of sister school. It also state the visiting activities of two teachers from Ryerson Community School to Huaping Primary School . Finally, the author talks about the hope for further reciprocal learning in the future.

Tailored for China: Did It Work? Reflections on an International Short-Term Education Program for Chinese Student Teachers

This presentation focuses on what two professors—one Chinese and one Canadian—learn about negotiating, constructing, and enacting a 3-week intensive professional development program for a 32 third-year Chinese student-teachers in a Canadian university context. This program, now in its third year, has challenged both educators to think deeply about how best to respond to ‘international learners’ when confronted with various agendas that come into play in such endeavours (e.g., political, institutional, cultural). As newcomers to these types of programs and to the ‘communities of practice’ in which they are embedded, we are, at best, ‘peripheral participants’ (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and, at worst, a hopelessly out of our depth. From this standpoint, our presentation is an opportunity for us to simultaneously problematize our practice and to better understand what is (or might be) a quality educational experience for students who undertake in international professional development programs.

A narrative of collaborative reciprocal learning partnerships between Toronto-Shanghai sister schools

During their keynote address at the 2nd Annual Canada-China Partnership Grant Project Conference, Dr Michael Connelly and Dr. Shijing Xu (2015) highlighted four models of reciprocal learning associating with four comparative research approaches: 1) reciprocal learning as comparative education, 2) comparative achievement/comparative values, 3) comparative pedagogy; and 4) collaborative partnership. They indicated their preference for using the fourth model – reciprocal learning as collaborative partnership – in approaching the China-Canada Partnership, adding that this collaborative partnership involves mutual learning, inquiries and explorations of cultural narrative histories among diverse people who work and learn together over time. Building upon Connelly and Xu’s line of thinking, this paper expands the meaning of “reciprocal learning as collaborative partnership” through reflexive and relational inquiries into a narrative of Toronto-Shanghai sister-school partnership as lived and told by a Toronto elementary teacher, Ann Barton. Ann’s narrative is examined through a post-colonial comparative research perspective (Crossley & Tikly, 2004), grounded in the narrative inquiry tradition for school-based research (Xu & Connelly, 2010). The narrative inquiry shows how Ann has been creating and re-creating a China-Canada reciprocal learning curriculum in her classroom and on her professional knowledge landscape (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995) by working and making inquiries together with her sister-school colleagues in Shanghai across boundaries, alongside her students as well as researchers in Canada and China. The reciprocal-learning curriculum is developed through dialogues, reflective inquiries, reciprocity and collaborative partnerships on the Shanghai-Toronto sister-school landscape against challenges and constraints.

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Reciprocal Learning about the Roles of Expert Teachers in Teacher Professional Development in Shenzhen, China and Calgary, Canada

Teacher professional development is an important issue in both China and Canada, but the similarities and differences in the roles of expert teachers in teacher professional development in these two contexts have not been sufficiently explored. Based on a case study in a Shenzhen primary school about expert teacher workshops and a real case from Calgary involving a specialist council, this study provides insights into how these two cities can benefit from each other in terms of fully exerting expert teachers’ roles in teacher professional development. The Chinese case study was situated in a Shenzhen primary school, where an expert teacher workshop was used as a unit to understand the roles of expert teachers in teachers’ professional development. School administrators, teachers, and expert teachers in this school were invited to attend semi-structured interviews to share their views on the roles of expert teacher workshops in building teachers’ capacity. Participation observation of expert teacher workshop activities and school public document analysis were conducted to further validate the findings of the semi-structured interviews. The research identifies that the expert teacher workshop had a positive influence on the growth of teachers’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions by increasing teacher professional learning opportunities, solidifying the professional relationships among teachers, modelling best teaching practices, and promoting professional reflection and peer support. The case from Calgary provides detailed information about the functions of specialist councils and the roles of teacher specialists in teacher professional development.

A Case Study of a Student Teacher’s Professional Development across the East-West Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program

Teaching is advancing globally. The implementation of the East-West Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program enabled Canadian student teachers to experience the real Chinese English teaching classes and achieve their professional development. This study studied the case of the Canadian student teacher Ruxandra Nahaiciuc who did her teaching practicum in a Chinese school for a month. Results shows that although she had confusions like the Chinese teachers’ teaching devotion, five obvious and positive changes happened in this student teacher: teaching philosophy, awareness of cultural conflicts, the ability of classroom management, the ability of designing teaching and willingness to teach. Meanwhile, suggestions for the improvement of the program are stated in the study: Offering language tutors; Allowing for appropriate teaching opportunities; Deep exchange in the ideas of curriculum, teaching pedagogies and philosophy.

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Comparative study of curriculum of elementary education between Canada and China based on the perspective of exchange students

Based on the perspective of exchange students from Reciprocal Learning in Teacher Education and School Education Between Canada and China SSHRC Partnership Grant Project , adopt the method of narrative research to examine the difference of elementary education between curriculum setting, curriculum practice, curriculum evaluation, get the following enlightenment: “elective system” and “credit system” combination of learning organization form is more beneficial to the ” Class-Selection-System ” teaching function; primary school period class should be flexible based on children’s psychological characteristics; elementary education stage should encourage the implementation of integrated curriculum setting, in order to provide a reference for the development of the elementary education curriculum in Canada and China.

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Thoughts And Practices of A Class’s Top-Level Design

 This paper firstly explains what is a top-level design briefly and analyzes a top-level design’s significance for a class management: Managing a class is not just daily maintenance or curriculum implementing; it should start with a rational top-level design, which can acts as an important guideline for the class. This paper then takes a class’s top-level design from Mr Zhang, a teacher from Bashu Primary School, as a case study.Under his class’s top-level design, students will be educated to be those who are rooted in Chinese culture and also have an international horizon .In Mr. Zhang’s class’s top-level design, there are three sequential Stages, Culture Preparation, which has already been carried out, Project-Based Learning and Critical Thinking Training .Lastly, on the foundation of analyzing Mr Zhang’s thoughts, practices and plans, and interviews with Mr Zhang, this paper concludes the importance of Mr Zhang’s top level design for his class management.Also, an inspect to the pros and cons of this class’s top-level design is done by the authors at the end.

Exploring Chinese Teachers’ Experience of Teaching Large-Size Classes from an International Perspective

Large-size classes are common in the schools in China mainly due to its large population and recent urbanization. Many issues concerning the negative effects of large classes are arising. One of them is the belief that large class teaching restricts teachers’ interests and motivation in practicing innovative pedagogies such as those emphasizing problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The research conducted by “New Basic Education reform” show that class size and effectiveness of teaching are not directly related (Bo, 2015).The issue of large classroom teaching is somehow related to equal opportunities of students’ participation provided by teachers’ instructional strategies. To deepen the understanding of teachers’ knowledge of teaching large classes, we are conducting this study to explore teachers’ experience–what, how, and why they choose the way they teach in the circumstances afforded them. This article presents the discussions and thoughts after we interviewed a few elementary teachers.

Finding the Intersect: Stories of Two Toronto-Changchun Reciprocal Learning Teacher Pairs

This study is part of Connelly and Xu’s (2013) SSHRC funded Canada-China Reciprocal learning project. In this paper the University of Toronto Math Team will examine the Canada-China reciprocal learning experiences of two teachers in Toronto elementary schools using school-based narrative inquiries (Xu & Connelly, 2010). More precisely, we focused on how these two teachers have navigated their reciprocal learning experiences while exploring the teaching and learning of mathematics. Our preliminary findings show that, despite the vast differences between elementary mathematics in Canada and China, the Toronto teachers have remained motivated to participate in cross-cultural reciprocal learning with their Chinese partners. Throughout their year-long journey, we noticed that the teachers often found motivation through the discovery of intersections of mathematics teaching and learning between them and their Chinese counterparts. Based on this new learning, the teachers embarked on a journey of learning about how their partner teacher’s mathematics teaching practices and environments diverge from their own. They are then able to reflect upon the advantages and disadvantages of the divergence before moving into a more active reciprocal learning partnership where both sides contribute to creating new pedagogical practices. The following mathematics intersections and divergences seem to play a role in sustaining the teachers’ engagement in China-Canada reciprocal learning: 1) Increasing student interest and motivation in learning mathematics, 2) The teaching and learning of mathematics through collaborative inquiry, 3) Differentiation of teaching for diversity and learning needs, and 4) Pedagogical innovation and professional development. Understanding how the teacher pairs are able to navigate their relationships to find points of intersection and learn from areas of divergence is essential as we expand on our study.

Narrative Inquiry into Intercultural Reciprocal Learning – A Case Study of Reciprocal Learning in Social Studies Class

This presentation is a study of reciprocal learning in the two sister schools, the Bay Street Community School in Toronto and Huaping Elementary in Shanghai. Narrative inquiry research method is applied in the field work to generate positive, reciprocal learning topics from classroom observations and school activities. Emails, QQ, and wechat are used for talks on reciprocal learning between sister-school teachers on both sides. To inquire into reciprocal learning in the two schools, a case is discussed on students’ work on the Canadian history project, a topic resulted from QQ talks between the two sister-schools in November 2015. Under the guidance of their teacher, students in the Bay Street School explore the Canadian history, including communities in Canada (1780-1850) and earlier Chinese immigration to Canada with a field trip to China-town in Toronto. Questions are raised and categorized into 5 groups, with 3 or 4 sub-questions in each group, which are, 1) Canadian Pacific Railway, 2) {the First] Prime Minister, 3) Naming of Canada & Flag, 4) Chinese Immigration to Canada, and 5) Early Settlers & First Nations.  The class is divided into 5 groups, one group one topic. Each group presents in class on research findings, designs their own posters for the findings, and posts the findings on a bulletin board in the hallway. With the reciprocal teaching experience, two Bay Street school sister-class teachers will visit Huaping in Shanghai, and share their experience and strategy in the intercultural reciprocal learning. There, the Canadian sister school teachers will co-teach some classes, including math, literacy (language and reading), and science, co-prepare teaching plans in these subjects, and attend school activities of reciprocal learning for future cooperation and collaboration.

Comparative Case Study on Classroom Questions between a Chinese Science Class and a Canadian Science Class

In the SSHRC Partnership Grant Project of Reciprocal Learning in Teacher Education and School Education between Canada and China, we held an activity called heterogeneous forms for the same subject in Zengjiayan Primary School in Chongqing, China. In this activity, we had two science classes about respiratory system by a Chinese teacher and two Canadian teachers. This study analyzed and compared the classroom recordings on classroom questions. According to relevant researches, classroom questions are classified into six dimensions on cognitive level and four dimensions on knowledge classification according to Bloom’s taxonomy of education objectives. At the same time, we used the classroom questions scales by professor Lingyuan Gu to classify the question answering forms of students and evaluation language of teachers. The study discover that there are differences on science teaching between China and Canada. In the science class by Chinese teacher, the teachers are good at controlling the class by asking questions. And most of their questions are about basic factual knowledge because the teacher try to push the students to remember and understand the knowledge by questioning closely. Besides, Chinese teachers can deal with the students’ answers freely. While the Canadian teachers do not asked as many questions as Chinese teacher do, and some of their questions are aiming at inspiring students to think deeply and concentrate on in-class activities.

A Comparative Study of Science Teacher Candidates’ Efficacy Beliefs between Canada and China

The purpose of this study was to investigate how science teacher candidates differ in their efficacy beliefs when they are finishing their teacher education programs between Canada and China. The study was conducted between one comprehensive middle-sized Canadian university and one comprehensive large-sized Chinese university. These two universities are key players in a large-scaled reciprocal learning program. Behavior is enacted when people not only expect specific behavior to result in desirable outcomes (outcome expectancy), but they also believe in their own ability to perform the behavior (self-efficacy) ((Enochs & Riggs, 1990). Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (p.6). Accordingly, Tschannen Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy (2001) defined teacher self-efficacy as “a teacher’s judgment of his or her capabilities to bring about desire outcomes of student engagement and learning” (p. 783). Outcome expectancy refers to how teachers perceive their behaviors will influence student learning outcome. Teachers who believe student learning can be influenced by effective teaching (outcome expectancy beliefs) and who also have confidence in their own teaching abilities (self-efficacy beliefs) should persist longer, provide a greater academic focus in the classroom, and exhibit different types of feedback than teachers who have lower expectations concerning their abilities to influence student leaning (Gibson& Dembo,  1984). Relevant to efficacy belief and outcome expectancy is teacher candidate’s desire to become a science teacher. It is reasonable to think that teacher candidates’ self-efficacy belief about science teaching and their desire to become a teacher are positively correlated.

A Comparative Study of Ways of Creating Elementary School Mathematics Classroom Problem situations

“Problem situation, build a model, solve and verify the problem ” is the process of using mathematical knowledge to solve the mathematics problems. Mathematics curriculum standard pointed out in knowledge and skills with the target, should let students to experience the process of abstracting numbers and mathematical symbols process though several specific situations . They should be able to find out, put forward and solve math problems from the angle of mathematics. In mathematics teaching, the teachers by creating problem situations, can guide students in practice, thinking and exploration, communication and other activities to obtain mathematical basic knowledge, basic skills, basic ideas and basic activities experience. Thereby to improve students’ abilities to analyze and solve problems, and enhance their sense of application and innovation. The study found that on the ways of creating problem situations, teachers who work in sister schools have relatively large differences, reflecting the sister schools’ teachers’ teaching characteristics. Canada Glenwood elementary school mathematics teachers mainly through the model of teaching AIDS, operating experiments and other intuitive forms to create problem situations, paying attention to let the students to solve the problem from their observation and operation. Mathematics teachers in Renhejie elementary school in Chongqing China mainly from life abundant examples, and the mathematical stories to create problem situation. They pay attention to let the students to analysis and solve the problems which starting from their experience.

A Comparative Study of the Science Textbooks of Junior High School Between Canada and China Based On the Multicultural Perspective

Compare the differences and similarities of chemistry textbooks between grade 7 in Canada and grade 9 in China based on the multicultural perspective, especially from the aspects of columns, content selection, content presentation, and exercises. And put forward suggestions about writing textbooks, which adapts to China’s current multi-ethnic education, in order to provide reference for the further development of junior high school chemistry education.

A comparative study on the proportion of creative solution reasoning requirements in the Chinese and Canadian math test at the third grade level

Creative mathematically founded reasoning is a creative solution reasoning to a problem, which creates new ideas or new strategies when solving mathematical problems. Creative mathematically founded reasoning is usually applied to solve math tasks that have low relatedness to the textbooks. It’s more likely to solve these tasks having low relatedness to textbooks by Creative mathematically founded reasoning instead of others. And there could be new ideas and new strategies when adopting Creative mathematically founded reasoning. It is also likely to help students develop better conceptual understanding and creativity. Since creativity is extremely important in most fields, such as science and technology, education, medical care and so on, the study of creative mathematically founded reasoning is necessary. China and Canada are two countries with different educational system and mathematics education tradition, in this paper, we investigate the requirements of creative mathematically founded reasoning in the Chinese and Canadian math test in at the third grade level, The results indicate that only a small proportion of creative mathematically founded reasoning requirements is involved in both Chinese and Canadian test tasks. Implications for mathematics teaching are discussed.

Study on reciprocal learning in mathematics education between China and Canada: Cases studies in sister-schools

Reciprocal learning is the collaborative/partnership model concerned with common activity among educators from different cultures and what educators may learn from one another with respect to their personal practical knowledge which encompasses both knowledge how and knowledge what. This research was carried out between China and Canada aims at: (1) building relationship between various pairs of teachers, study how do they learn reciprocally within mathematics education and teaching; (2) building relationship among sister-schools, and providing vivid and useful experience among the sister-school students; (3) building knowledge and understanding from cross-culture perspective. In this research, we invited 6 pairs of teachers, one pair are principals who teach math, the others are all math teachers. In each pair, one teacher is from China whiles the other one is from Canada. They have already finished several rounds of interactive activities through skype, wechat, E-mail, video reviewing and so on. In addition, all the students from each class are all involved in this research. They have already exchanged gifts and math problem-solving; keep in touch in the research through letters. During the activities, observation, interviews, narrative stories from teachers and students were used in this research. We got consent from all the teachers and students’ parents.

Authenticity of word problems in the Chinese and Canadian mathematics tests

In mathematics education, word problem is often used to refer to any mathematical exercise where significant background information on the problem is presented as text rather than in mathematical notation. Word problems are important for students’ mathematical learning. On the one hand, they provide chances for students to realize the real world problems and understand the basic mathematical knowledge through simulating the real world situations; on the other hand, through the simulated instance, namely, the authenticity of the problem, students learn to master mathematical algorithm and thinking, and conversely by using that they solve real world problems. Therefore, authenticity of word problems impact not only impact students’ solution of word problems, but also impact their cognition, beliefs, and attitude towards mathematical learning. However, there is an issue raised by many researchers (and students) in word problem, that is, the lack of realism experienced in these contextual tasks. Authenticity of Word Problems is such a theoretical framework that examines the authenticity of a word problem from nine aspects “Event, Question, Information/data, Presentation, Solution strategies, Circumstances, Solution requirements, Purpose and the Affective domain”. By using this framework, we analysis the authenticity of “word problems” in the Chinese and Canadian tests in grade three. We conclude with suggestions for the design of “word problems” in the Chinese and Canadian mathematical tests.

Pay attention to the cultivation of ideas in mathematical reading, improve students’ mathematical literacy

In this paper, through the use of literature, survey and other methods, in view of the importance of the cultivation of mathematics reading ability of primary school students, to explore some practical significance to promote the reading ability of the measures. The teachers and students experience the infinite value of mathematics reading ability, which is conducive to the realization of teachers’ educational value better, the establishment of new teaching ideas; to pupils reading habits in mathematics to develop, the improvement of reading ability in mathematics, for the training of mathematical literacy tamp foundation, promote their better sustainable development.

Comparative study on the influence of Chinese and Canadian secondary school teachers’ values on their students’ value

For the adolescents, high school stage is an important stage for their value formation. Teachers’ values have effects on their frequency of concern, understanding and communication to students. In teaching, they penetrates into students’ values, thus guide students’ selection of their way to go. With the popularity of secondary schools in China and Canada, staff-student ratio decreases, therefore, with limited vigor, teachers’ concern to and communication with students decrease for various factors. By using questionnaire and interview methods, this study investigates Chinese and Canadian teachers’ communication with their students. The results show that the interaction of values is absent, communication form is single and teachers lack concern for individual students. It also shows that there is a positive influence of secondary teachers’ value on individual students’ value. This paper concludes with the significance of teachers’ values on students’ values growth and inform how teachers’ value could be developed in both China and Canada.

Shattered Glass: An Autoethnographical Account of a Canadian Educator’s Experience with Reciprocal Learning in China

This autoethnography focuses on select experiences of a Canadian educator from Ontario who went on a three-month exchange to Southwest University in Chongqing, People’s Republic of China, through the Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program- a component of the larger Reciprocal Learning in Teacher Education and School Education between Canada and China SSHRC Partnership Project. These experiences involve moments of reciprocal learning in language and culture education between the educator and multiple individuals in China, both in and outside of the classroom, which resultantly informed this educator’s professional understanding and practice as an educator. Other educators are invited to vicariously live the selected experiences of this exchange to China and become informed of the potential for personal growth and understanding between a Canadian educator and various people from China through a project of this kind.

Code-switching in Chinese EFL Classroom in Preparing Students to Study Abroad

Along with the reform and open in China, more and more Chinese students go aboard and studies in USA and Canada. Thus, their English learning is very important to prepare themselves for abroad living and studying. Code-switching (CS), also interpreted as language alternation, is a common phenomenon in language learning class according to Levine (2011). Whether the switch between first language (L1) and the second language (L2) is of positive or negative influence on L2 learning has been heatedly debated over the years. This study investigates CS as an English teaching strategy and students’ attitudes for CS in Chinese high school and Canadian EFL classrooms. The findings indicate that CS should be used for specific purposes and with restrictions so as a good strategy for English teaching.

Reciprocal Learning in Freshman’s Minds: An Investigation of Prerequisite Reciprocal Awareness in EFL Reading Instruction

With globalization and advances in highly developed information technology, the idea of language has been reconceptualized. The structural view of language as a grammatical system has been expanded to a concept of language as a sociocultural practice. In teaching practice, accordingly, great emphasis has been placed on learner’s participation and interaction in the language classroom. The responsibility is shifted from the teacher to the student, and eventually the teacher’s involvement is degraded. The process of language learning tends to be more characterized by dialogic inquiry of learners. Learning in dialogues between the teacher and the student, among students themselves becomes popular nowadays. To meet the needs of the new trend and the requirement of the new century, teachers ought to help students in one way or another improve their learning strategies and foster collaborative and reciprocal learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate learner’s awareness of reciprocal learning, and the feasibility of employing the reciprocal philosophy in reading instruction. The study was conducted at a major Chinese technological university at the end of the first semester. Participants were a group of first-year students from an intact English reading class. A questionnaire was designed to explore to what degree the reciprocal comprehension strategies, such as prediction, clarification, summarization, and question generation, can be applied to EFL learning, and in what way students can be effectively organized in the reciprocal classroom, including the number of students in a group, the types of students in a group, and the managerial modes in a group.

Naming and Its Embedded Cultural Identities: Implications from the Name Stories of Chinese and Canadian High School Students

This paper reports the preliminary findings on the activity “My Name” done by the students from Beijing-Toronto sister classes, followed by the other three activities “A Day in the Life”, “Short Story Analysis and Completion”, and “Immigration and the Retention of Cultural and Linguistic Identities”. Guided by a series of given questions, the students were expected to write about the stories or meanings behind their names, name givers, self-conceptions of names and cultural identities as well as views upon the importance of names in mono-and multi-cultural societies. Analyses of the name stories and interviews with the students reveal that both Beijing and Toronto students were eager to interact with their counterparts and gained reciprocal learning on both cultures and values embedded in the child naming. In general, the students got their L1 names from their parent(s) or other relatives such as grandparents. Chinese students usually got their English names from their English teachers or themselves. The Chinese names of both Chinese students and Chinese-Canadian students were all bestowed with good wishes for name receivers and some were even “calculated” by the fortune-tellers and horoscopes. Similarly, Canadian immigrant students with religious background were given names that were, directly or indirectly, closely related to their religions or religious beliefs. In writing such stories, Chinese and Canadian students got to know more about their counterparts by reading each other’ name stories and the questions raised. Chinese students appeared to be modest and conservative so that their questions were nearly all tag or closed questions whereas Canadian counterparts seemed to be more explicitly point out Chinese students’ grammar or spelling mistakes and raise open and interrogative questions.

Educational Values of Scientific Inquiry Curriculum in Primary School: A Case study of Two Classes in China and Canada

Since two schools from Shanghai and Toronto have established sister ship, the past semester has seen the ongoing communication of two teachers and their classes about “Water inquiry”. Both teachers start by asking students to generate questions about water to get them into the inquiry. However, there are many differences between the two classes during the following course. In order to understand these differences, this paper lays focus on how to comprehend the educational values of scientific inquiry curriculum and how to achieve it because we believe that it is an important factor. We adopt literature method, case study method, do a comparative research between the two classes. First, make introduction the two classes, providing background for the research. Then compare the basic environment, the teaching method, the content of the class and the teacher’s understanding of the curriculum between them. And on the basis of the comparison, reflect on the elementary school scientific inquiry curriculum, get some inspiration about reciprocal learning.

Research on Teachers’ “Cross-Cultural Consciousness ”in Reciprocal learning

This article examines the role of cultural awareness (CA) and intercultural awareness (ICA) in teachers’ learning and teaching theory and practice. CA and ICA can be roughly characterized as an awareness of the role of culture in communication with CA focused on national cultures and ICA on more dynamic and flexible relationships between different cultures. There will be a consideration of findings from CA and ICA research that have not been well applied, those that have been well applied and those that have been over-applied to classrooms. In particular, it will be argued that CA and ICA are more prevalent in pedagogic theory, especially learning and teaching for teachers in their practice. While the cultural dimension to learning in reciprocal is now fairly mainstream, they typically take the form of comparisons between different-national cultures, often in essentialist forms. There is still little evidence of teachers in Reciprocal learning practice that relates to the fluid ways cultures and languages are related in intercultural communication. The last, this research will also emphasis on the cultivate of teachers’ ICA in language teaching.

A Contrastive Study on the Role of Principals in School Life in Shanghai-Toronto Sister Schools

Thanks to SSHRC Partnership Grant Project, two schools from Shanghai and Toronto have established sistership to promote school development in such fields as teacher’s professional development, student exchanges, classroom teaching, and curriculum design. As part of their exchanges, principals of these sister schools have also shared their records of a typical day at school to increase mutual understanding. From their records, drastic differences in their roles as the person in charge of a school are seen, providing a common ground for reciprocal learning in an intercultural context. In this article, through a thorough and comparative analysis of principals’ behavioral characteristics of their roles in school life as a manager, as an instructional leader, as a coordinator of relationships between school and family, between faculty members, and between students and teachers, we intend to investigate the cultural and technical factors that contribute to those differences. It is hoped that the findings and conclusions will encourage principals in China to reflect on their roles as a principal and throw light on leadership programs in China’s colleges and universities.

Role of culture in school development—Chongqing Bashu primary school as a case study

School culture is the soul of the school, and also is the combination of the school’s material culture, institutional culture, spiritual culture, teachers and students culture. In nowadays, the construction of school culture has become a survival and development strategy for schools, the consciousness of school culture is constantly growing. How the school culture affects the development of the school, a school how to orient its culture according to their own characteristics and requirements, is a very important problem for the primary and secondary schools. This study will take the Chongqing Bashu primary school as a case, further understand how to construct the culture in education policy, school courses, classroom teaching, teacher development and evaluation of students. In addition, we will analyze the culture reality, the cause of the formation and its influence on the development of the school by using many research methods, such as observation, interviews , document analysis, questionnaire survey, and summarize the cultural characteristics of Bashu primary school, finally sums up the general path of school culture orientation and common.

A comparative study of the Chinese and Canadian primary math test at the provincial level

In most countries around the world, math test at the national or provincial level is often regarded as high-stake tests. In this study, by comparing the content, form, amount, scoring，time, the degree of difficulty of an Chinese and Canadian third-grade math test at the provincial level, We systemically explored their commonalities and differences in provincial level math test in China and Canada. The results shows that ,firstly, in both countries, mathematical contents are covered comprehensively, in a way that the focal and difficult point in math textbooks are reflected in plain language in the tests; secondly, there are more item with charts in the Canadian test than the Chinese one; thirdly, the degree of difficulty of the Canadian test is smaller than the Chinese one; fourthly， both the types and amount of item in the Chinese test are more than the Canadian one. We end with suggestions for mathematics teaching and item design in a provincial level math test according to our findings.

Narrative Research of the Professional Growth of the Graduate Students Team Based on the Project

Based on the Reciprocal Project of Teacher Education and School Education in China and Canada, this paper takes time as the vertical axis and takes the professional growth of graduate students’ team as the horizontal axis. At the same time, using the graduate students team’s double identities—as “researchers” and as “research objects”, this paper adopts the method of narrative research to describe and reveal the process that how to change from confusion to clear, to clear objectives and to detail research proposal. Besides, this paper also reveals the process of how to find and solve problems in the research process, how to promote to improve the ability of team’s research and how to protect the research activities to be carried out smoothly. We also hope to dig the common problems and solution methods in the cooperation research projects. As narrative research, this article devotes to gain the reflections and comprehension of the story and expects to provide reference for other graduate students’ team professional growth, rather than intend to construct a universal theoretical framework.

Comparison between Chinese and Canadian Students’ Use of Technology and Their Perceptions: A Narrative Inquiry

This study tries to explore and compare how technology is used and perceived in Chinese and Canadian context. Written responses and interview data of 60 high school students, 28 Canadian students and 32 Chinese students are collected. These students, involved in reciprocal learning, responded to questions about their use of technology in different contexts, and exchanged perceptions of how technology influenced their human relationships and education. Results show great similarity in Chinese and Canadian students’ use of technology, except for Canadian students’ being allowed to use cellphones in school and using social media more for communication. Besides, Canadian students are more positive about how technology affects human relationships and education, which, through analysis, may be attributed to their greater interest in, competence with, as well as more experience with technology. In a deeper level, different sociotechnical contexts in two countries account for that. At last, this reciprocal exchange made it to change preconceptions of technology use and promote understanding of technology itself on both sides.

Broadening Global Horizons: An International Student Experience

The following reflection paper aims to capture the various unique lived experiences while participating within the Reciprocal Learning Program (RLP). The purpose behind developing a discourse revolving around the many observations, experiences, and reflections within international project is to establish a dialogue discussing the many outcomes of participating in an international learning endeavour. The goal of the program is to reciprocate knowledge of teaching styles, pedagogy, learning strategies and much more (Xu & Connelly, 2013 as cited in Xu, Chen, & Huang, 2015). The Reciprocal Learning Program is a component of the larger Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Project in Canada. The partnership program develops “the idea of a global community by bridging ideas, things, and people between countries and cultures” (Xu & Connelly, 2013, p. 6). The following paper aims to describe how my experiences with the Reciprocal Learning Program and its many components has shaped my current position as a student, researcher, and person. Furthermore, I will discuss my changing roles and responsibilities over the course of the past three years by providing a reflexive narrative. The narrative aspect will describe lived experiences in terms of the place and scene, characters and physical environment, and the relationship between the context and the inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). The paper will then argue the importance of international projects at higher education institutes by connecting the literature of globalisation and international teacher training.

From supermarket shopping to art-making: transformative teaching and learning in Chinese classes

In today’s Chinese classrooms, no matter basic education or higher education level, it is common that teaching and learning are still based on transferring ready-made knowledge from one (teacher) to another (students). I called this mode of teaching and learning as supermarket shopping, in which teachers provide qualified (or unqualified) products and students choose the products they need. The major problem of this mode of teaching and learning is that both teacher and students are spectators of ready-made knowledge rather than co-constructors of knowledge-in-making. In this globally changing society which requires every global citizen to creatively solve complicated and conflicted problems, the former way of teaching and learning is out of date. Moreover, in this former way of education, the individual and knowledge are separate. When knowledge is not part of an evolving self, the individual could not have sufficient inner strength to respond to the dramatically changing environment which is full of uncertainty.  To be a responsible citizen, that is to say, to critically respond to the various problems in our daily life, which is globally connected with each other and full of conflict and uncertainty, the modern ideal of education for “independent and autonomous individual” needs to be adjusted. A critical question in the educational reform is “how to cultivate individuals who can creatively build connections with ‘other’ things and persons as a way of response”. In this way, the individual transforms the self and broadens the self by including others as an emerging self in creative connection and response.

Narrative Inquiry for Teacher Learning and Research in Teacher Education in East Asia

This paper attempts to explore how narrative inquiry (NI) is used for teacher development and research in teacher education in a few East Asian countries and regions including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore. In these places over the past decade or so NI has been used for teacher education courses (mostly at graduate level), for in-service professional development for teachers and school leaders and as a research method by researchers at both university and school levels. In addition, it has also been employed as research method for research degree theses at both graduate and doctoral levels. Through comparative studies of secondary sources and literature, it is both timely and important to map out these different uses, examine the role it played in fostering teacher learning and research as well as understand the relationship between the local contexts and diverse use models. The goal of such a review study is to uncover educative potentials of NI as well as its current problems and challenges in East Asia, particularly the so-called Chinese Heritage Cultures.

The external standard and inner value of Pre-service teachers’ excellent cultivation

With the development of the teachers specialization, cultivating excellent teachers is the inevitable requirement of era development. Research found that pre-service teachers, in the process of growth, excessive focus on their own teaching skills improvement and ignore the knowledge accomplishment, teaching management, the practice of teaching emotion, thus they are sliding into only teaching books. This study argues that pre-service teachers’ specialization and excellence need to make a norm by external standard and inner value these dual dimensionalities. External standard, as an institution, is the external motivation of pre-service teachers’ excellent cultivation; inner value is the inner motivation which make pre-service teachers stimulate self education belief and become excellent in the process of possessing professional identity.

Research on the Structure of Subjective Theory about Pre-service Teachers’ Cross Cultural Learning

With the further development of international communication, the frequency and form of international communication are increasing. The main form of international exchange of teachers’ pre-service is exchange learning, which a positive role in developing the international understanding, improving the knowledge structure and enhancing the professional competence. This paper would investigate pre-service teachers in cross-cultural learning experience, cultural attitudes and cultural behavior by interviews, narrative and other research methods, and construct the subjective theory of cognitive structure of pre-service teachers.

A Research On the Model Improvements of Generalized Knowledge Learning and Teaching Process from the Perspective of Interaction between New and Old Knowledge

In the comparative analysis process of the teaching process of the two countries, the understanding of the interactions between old and new knowledge was deepened by using the generalized knowledge model of learning and teaching process. And on that basis, two improvements are put forward against Liansheng Pi’s: 1. Add one condition of “teaching objectives have been whether achieved “; 2. And thus Liansheng Pi’s model of the second to fourth step was taken placed by a teaching body loop. Finally, some suggestions were given about how using the knowledge classification theory to guide our teaching, hoping to promote the research and spreading more widely of the knowledge classification theory.

The Common Growth Under the Cross-Cultural Communication

Globalization, informatization and diversified driving the cooperation and development around the world in economy, politics, culture and other fields .If we want to achieve our strategic target that “facing the modernization, the world and the future” and cultivate the international talents who is have the cross-cultural communication ability , could adapt to the international multicultural development and could participate in international cooperation, and will improve the international competitiveness, we really should take more attention to the similarities between China and Canada. Though many aspects to witness the growth of education, like the teaching mode, the use of the learning tools, the norm to solve the problem, team building and the work in cooperation with a due division of labour.