At SUIS Qingpu, we always put the professional development of teachers at the forefront of our work. Our goals include optimizing curriculum design, constructing a whole-school curriculum that connects the primary and secondary stages, improving the quality of education, and exploring how to create intelligent and efficient classrooms. Against this backdrop, we had the privilege of inviting the renowned Professor Shi Haoyao from Taiwan to give a lecture at our school on August 28, 2023, bringing new inspiration and methods to our teaching staff. Nearly a hundred teachers from various disciplines participated in this lecture.
In the morning, Professor Shi and students from Class 6F brought us a maths demonstration lesson on “Dividing Numbers” and conducted on-site interactive activities. Professor Shi’s teaching style highlighted the respect for students’ “ideas”, the love for students, the visualization of mathematical concepts, and the cultivation of thinking and working mathematically. His teaching style is patiently guiding and humorous. After the class, our teachers expressed their deep understanding and admiration for Professor Shi. Some teachers had a common question: “We may not be able to teach as clearly as Professor Shi, what should we do…?” The keywords emphasized in Professor Shi’s reply were confidence, active communication, and the courage to face up to challenges, advice which left a deep impression on the teachers on the campus. Professor Shi helped us realize the importance of professional confidence and cultural confidence in teacher professional development. We should maximize our professional skills as soon as possible to match the high-quality hardware resources of SUIS Qingpu.
In the afternoon, Professor Shi gave a presentation on the practice of the subject – ‘The Intuition of Higher Mathematics’ to our high school math teachers. Based on the analysis of the content of trigonometric functions teaching abroad, we briefly described our teaching ideas and how we implement them. The feelings shared by the high school department subject leader, Mr. Geoffrey Shen, regarding the training allowed us to grasp the essence of Professor Shi’s workshop. This was indeed an enlightening lecture!
Professor Shi used trigonometric functions as an entry point, pointing out the shortcomings of the definition of trigonometric functions in traditional western textbooks, and introduced a more intuitive definition method via simple graphics. Under this new definition, not only can the students understand the principles behind the naming of trigonometric functions, but they can also better understand the six trigonometric functions and their relationships:
Trigonometric functions have always been a challenging part of teaching mathematics. Professor Shi provided the students with a new perspective, integrating numbers with shapes, to help them understand the definition of trigonometric functions more profoundly. This method of teaching can also be applied to the calculus of trigonometric functions. Unfortunately, time constraints prevented us from spending more time with Professor Shi. We hope to have the chance to invite Professor Shi back to share more of his innovative teaching methods, to inspire our teachers, and to benefit our students. Instructional Principal Ms. Nancy Wang, who is currently supporting the high school department, remarked that this kind of workshop is extremely helpful.
Professor Shi’s class and sharing have brought us a great deal of important thoughts:
What kind of mathematics instruction should students be given? In what ways should teaching be conducted? We need to think more about life-oriented teaching, reveal the essence of teaching, prioritize human development in teaching, shift from external teaching to internal learning, and shift from focusing on methods themselves to focusing on students’ ideas.
The teachers, demonstrating a persistent pursuit of excellence, participated in this teaching and research activity enthusiastically, gaining a better understanding of educational and teaching strategies. This will in turn help to achieve better optimization of education. When Professor Shi left the school, he remarked, “I have genuine admiration for the teachers and resources in your school! I will definitely help to cultivate the best talents for the country! Let’s work together!”
This event sparked much thinking and inspiration. We are grateful to Professor Shi for his sharing and guidance, as well as to all participants and facilitators. Let’s work together and let’s constantly explore in practice, so that every student can learn happily, move towards the future, and make learning more outstanding!
