ICEC believes that teachers are life-long learners and great teachers can create great students. ICEC Teacher Professional Development program aims at enhancing individual teacher’s personal growth and teaching skills and improving individual teacher’s performance so as to contribute to outstanding educational results for students. ICEC pays great and close attention to teachers’s professional training and emphasizes subject-matter mastery and provide many opportunities for teachers to improve their teaching skills. By offering ongoing and regular opportunities for teachers to learn from each other and experienced teachers, ICEC keeps teachers up-to-date on new research on how children learn, emerging technology tools for the classroom, new curriculum resources, and more.
ICEC TPD topics for 2016-2017 school year (Generated by Program Director Mrs. Lu Zhang and Approved by ICEC Principle):
1. Social-constructivism
What is Social-constructivism?
What are the key ideas of Social-constructivism?
How can it be used in every day teaching practice?
How can students benefit from this learning theory?
What is the difference between Constructivism and Social-constructivism?
Recommended books/reading materials will be provided.
2. A lot of fact knowledge, like historic events, math formulas, multiplication table, physical theorem and laws, chemistry equations are all accessible on the Internet, so some people hold an opinion that these kinds of knowledge don't need to be memorized any more. Maybe in the near future, students are free to get access to all the fact knowledge during tests, though the questions will be more complicated and practical.
Do you agree with that opinion that students don't need to memorize fact knowledge any more because they are easily to find on the Internet and why?
Is it a challenge or a relief for teachers if the fact knowledge are not an important part of test? What kind of adjustments in teaching should teachers make to meet this change?
Recommended books/reading materials will be provided.
3. Assessment
What is the idea of Assessment for Learning all about?
What are the practical types of assessment?
Is there a best way to assess students’ learning ?
How to design/create a suitable assessment?
Is Rubric necessary for every assessment or evaluation plan?
Recommended books/reading materials will be provided.
4. Pedagogical knowledge
What is Pedagogical knowledge?
Is Pedagogical knowledge important for teaching practice?
What are the practical ways to gain professional pedagogical knowledge?
Recommended books/reading materials will be provided.
5. Lesson plan/design
Teachers are designers
What are the basic elements of lesson plans?
What are the resources that can be used?
How to evaluate the effectiveness of lesson design?
Recommended books/reading materials will be provided.
6. 21st Century Skills
What are the 21st century skills that are required?
How can teachers help students develop and improve 21st century skills?
What are the characteristics of today’s students?
How can teachers help students learn best?
Recommended books/reading materials will be provided.
7. Educational Technology
What are the relationship between technology and education?
What are the characteristics of today’s students?
What are the latest educational technologies that can be used to help students learn?
What are the effective ways to integrate educational technologies to teaching practice?
Recommended books/reading materials will be provided.
8. "Teachers as Designers"
In ways are you a designer? What is a good example of a learning activity you designed?
Thinking about your example of the learning activity you described address the following:
What counted as evidence of achievement?
What did it look like to meet the goal/s for you learning activity?
What performances made up the assessment?
Recommended books/reading materials will be provided.
9. Innovative Zone
How might you create a “comfort zone” to foster innovative and creative thinking?
What might you do or have you done to make your classroom, school, workplace, or online environment an innovative “zone” for fostering not only creativity, but applying 21st Century Skills?
Can innovation be taught? How can we help students to improve their creativity?
Recommended books/reading materials will be provided.