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Professional Development Day: Economics Department Faculty’s seminar

October 17, 2017

Professional Development Day: Economics Department Faculty’s seminar

On October 13th, while the students enjoyed a respite from classes, the teachers from every subject held professional development meetings around the school. Ms. Zhang Li, the head of the Economics department, held a department meeting in Room 208 of the Xianmian Building.

The meeting was divided into a morning and an afternoon session. The main topic of the morning session was course contents, sharing between different subjects, and the discussion of how to use different teaching skills and assessments to improve the abilities that students need in learning Economics.

Firstly, Ms. Zhang Li introduced the IB economics course. She started from the big picture of the IB program to let the teachers know the whole course system and the subjects that IB students should complete. Then she put emphasis on IB Economics and introduced the two-year teaching schedule, internal assessment system, external assessments and how to use class questions, class activities, case analysis to improve IB students’ analysis abilities and critical thinking skills.

After that, Ms. Tian Julian gave information on AP Economics, including teaching contents, learning outcomes and the standard test system. Then, Ms. Chen Danqing introduced the A-level Economics course, which is a new course launched this semester. She talked about how A Levels work and their role in university applications, grading, goals to reach for students, assessments etc., making sure teachers fully understood this new course.

Later, Ms. Xia Huifei and Ms. He Yiwei talked about what they do in the Business Management Accounting courses, including their various class activities and teaching methods. At last, the teachers discussed the biggest challenges in teaching their subjects. They also discussed how to use different teaching methods for different levels of students and how to teach G9 and G10 students in order to let them better adjust to higher level courses in G11.

The afternoon session was about how to cultivate students’ problem solving abilities during teaching. Ms. Zhang Li first played an introductory video of China Thinks Big (CTB). This is an international competition that our students take part in. It requires students to actively research an issue and come up with possible solutions. This competition aims to encourage students to look closely social issues and the things that happen in their daily lives, reaching the goal of “Think Big, Do Small” through original opinions and creative possible solutions. Therefore, in the process of teaching, teachers are required to stimulate the creativity of students and guide students through the steps of how to identify a problem and then try to come up with feasible solutions.

The day’s discussions helped all the teachers learn a lot. This was a very good opportunity to learn from each other and improve together. The teachers shared their teaching experiences and bounced their ideas off each other. They came up with some exciting new ideas, which will definitely be helpful in the future.

(Written by Chen Danqing Picture by Chen Danqing)