Introduction to the new SHSID primary and middle school curriculum

When designing our new SHSID primary and middle school curriculum, we focused on “teaching for the future.” In order to meet the demands in students’ development, “independent learners” and “responsible global citizens” have become the core values and objectives of our curriculum. From these two foundations, new curricular frameworks concerning both academic and moral character development have been created.

Part I The Curriculum for academic development

The curriculum for academic development is centered on the core value of “independent learning”. The key aim is to help the students in primary and middle school to form fundamental learning skills, as well as to develop the necessary awareness and abilities to face the challenges that they will encounter in the future, or to be more specific, the awareness and abilities of “independent learning”. For current primary and middle school students, they must realize that they will not acquire most of their vocational skills and self-development skills in high school or university classes.Lots of studywill take place “post-school”invarious ways and forms,mostly unconventional, instead of through traditional classroom learning or training.Therefore, independent learning abilities will be the foundation of the students’ competitiveness in the future.

We believe that theindependent learningability consists of three key elements:

1) Fundamentallearningabilitybased on the understandingofkey concepts and their connectionsin subject areas.

2) Critical thinking and creative thinking abilitiesbased on the inquiry and research in subject areas andacross disciplines.

3) Self-direction, planning, evaluation, and reflection abilitiesbased onmetacognition.

These three elements bring the students an integrated ability to use fundamental learning skills to obtain new knowledge and solve the problems of the future; and this is what we call “independent learning ability.” In primary and middle school, we are devoted to changing the students’ mindset with regards to the process of learning, as well as developing the students’ self-awareness by cultivating good habits.

Throughout their years in our program, students will gradually take on more academic responsibility and grow into independent learners who can master their studies and face the challenges of the future.

Based on our core values, SHSID has designed three sub-areas for cultivating independent learners:

1)Core academic courses

2)Interests and literacy development courses

3) Creative andinnovativecourses

Core academic courses:These courses include literature and language arts for Chinese and English, math, science, and social studies which help develop the students’ fundamental academic skills and content knowledge. SHSID continually develops its unique, high-quality course design and high-standard teaching practices.

• Providing native-level bilingual learning:More than 90% of students entering the primary school can achieve native level of understanding and communication in both English and Chinese by the time they graduate fromprimary ormiddle school.The English courses at SHSID are an enhanced and extended design based on the Common Core State Standard. The multi-leveled courses accelerate the improvement of linguistic competencies

• Progressively implementing the multi-leveled courses:Other core academic courses, besides the language courses, are multi-leveled from Grade 5 to guarantee that the students reach their full potential.

• Diverse assessments:performance-based assessments, project-based learning activities, and scientific application assessments are all development platforms for students’ inquiry and research abilities, as well as critical and creative thinking abilities. The communication and presentation abilities using professional languages are also highly valued.

• Teaching and learning through advanced technologies:The SHSID primary school is a 1:1 iPad school, and currently, MacBook labs are gradually being introduced into middle school classrooms.

Interest and literacy development courses:In these courses, we apply the idea of “multi-level” in course design, and organize teaching and learning through different class forms such as compulsory and optional classes, clubs or school teams. Students are given many opportunities to broaden their interests and find platforms for their specialties. In the middle school alone, we have more than 100 interest and literacy development courses for students to choose from, in the following areas:

• Arts: Different levels in art courses includes basic art education, performance arts and practices, and the development and presentation of specialized art skills.

• PE: Different levels in sports courses include personal basic sports skills, team sports skills, exercise habits and sportsmanship, specialized sports skills, and international and domestic sports competitions.

• World Languages: Several common world languages are available, such as Japanese, French, and German, further promoting the development and understanding of multiple languages and cultures.

• Comprehensive academic skills: These comprehensive academic skills courses are based on classroom studies, but they can meet the learning needs beyond basic syllabus requirements, through classes such as AMC, Math League and History Bowl. Moreover, other comprehensive academic skills courses also give students opportunities to elevate and apply content knowledge and study skills with programs such as debate and World Scholars’ Cup.

• Multi-areaInterestDevelopment:These courses provide a variety of experiences for different interests, varying from IT courses and electronic courses to home economics, building model airplanes, and flower arrangement.

Creative and innovativecourses:The core ideas of the innovation programs in the middle school are “to develop innovative awareness”, “to experience the innovative process”, and “to cultivate innovative abilities”. The creative curriculum design values not only the synchronous construction of hardware and software, but also personalized guidance. Students need to complete a unique “product” designs independently by the end of the one-year program. Our school is devoted to providing platforms for students to present their original ideas and provide the students with opportunities to compete in various innovation contests. Currently, our school has innovative courses in following subject areas:

• Engineering: Electronics, First Lego League, Arduino, 3D printing

• Information Technology:Programming on mobile platforms, Scratch

• Science: Biology Workshop involving the study of plants, fungi, and animals

• Literature and Arts:Chinese creative writing, English creative writing, creative arts, musical composition

• Creative design:Creative Media, Odyssey of the Mind, Destination Imagine, and other creative contests

• Creative units and courses will be progressively introduced to all subject areas in the primary school.

Besides the courses in these three sub-areas, we also have Personal Growth, Youth Development, P&B, and academic courses to cultivate the independent learning skills including the metacognition-based self-direction, planning, evaluation, and reflection abilities.

Part II The Curriculum for moral and character development

The curriculum for moral and character development centers on the core value of “responsible global citizenship”. It is not only about instilling morals, but also about theself-construction by activity participation and related discussion and introspection. Through cultivation on their explicitation of moral characters,studentscan make responsible decisions and taketheright actions in increasingly complex interactive situations, aswell as have a positive impact on the people aroundthem.

We have designed development areas for the students in three dimensions:

1) Self-development andcompetences

2) Social awareness and competence

3) Global awareness and competences

• Self:To become a young person who has characteristics and abilities such as integrity, honesty, respect, caring, resilience, perseverance, risk-taking, and self-management

• Social:To develop competences and abilities to interact with others through teamwork, effective communication skills, leadership, empathy, and conflict resolution

• Global:To construct global-awareness and competences through activities such as Chinese culture immersion, cross-culture understanding, exploring the complexity of global issues and engaging with multiple perspectives

Our students will develop their social skills and cross-culture understanding by growing up and learning through these three dimensions. These skills and understanding will help students to better adapt to the future careers and society which will place a higher demand on personal character and communication skills.

Compared with the “independent learner” curriculum, the “responsible global citizen” curriculum takes on more diverse forms. SHSID offersspecialized courses, programs, and themed activities.In addition to the regular courses like CAS and P&B, we have the following courses in either primary or middle school:

• Personal Growth:This course is focused on healthy development in primary school

• Youth Development:This course is focused on character and health education during the primary to middle school transition period

• Service Learning:This is a specialized program for senior students in the middle school.

• Themed activities:SHSID Charity, Cultural Week, etc.

• Embedded activities:This form of character education is integrated within the subject projects and activities.

These specialized courses are all compulsory. The successful completion of the Service Learning Program is a middle school graduation requirement.

From primary to middle school, for all students of different ages, no matter what specialized courses or themed activities, we use three teaching approaches,“cultivating habits,”“learning through action,”and“learning through service.”With these teaching approaches being applied flexibly, students can gradually and successfully complete the self-construction of moral character and continue their self-improvement and development through various activities and services.

Part III Fusion of Curriculum

The curriculum of the SHSID primary and middle school is ultimately formed through the combination of highly selective courses, rich activities and themed learning experiences as well as a fusion of our two core objectives, the cultivation of “independent learners” and “responsible global citizens”.

As the core of education and instruction, the SHSID curriculum is a dynamic system. We are devoted to matching the development of all students to the requirements and expectations of the future, resulting in the ultimate SHSID curriculum focus - “teaching for the future.”