On October 24, 2019, hosted by the Xi’an Education Bureau and undertaken by the Xi’an Educational Science Institute and Qujiang New District Education and Health Management Service Center, the “Focus on Curriculum, Boosts the development of ‘High-Quality Schools +’ Quality Course Tour and the launching ceremony for the cooperation between the Qujiang No.1 Primary School and Finland-China Education Association (FICEA) and Finnish International Education Innovation Research Institute (FEDUCATION) with the title of “Professional Teacher Development” were held at the Qujiang No. 1 Primary School in Xi’an. The two parties formally established a long-term strategic cooperative relationship. In the future, in-depth cooperation will be carried out in teacher training, curriculum research and development, and inter-school cultural exchanges.
Dr. Dong Li, Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of FICEA, gave a speech titled “Finnish Education for the Future” at the meeting. Dr. Dong Li deeply analyzed how Finland created the miracle of education in the world and the inspiration of the Finnish curriculum reform to China’s future curriculum construction through the perspectives of learning environment, learning methods, learning courses, teacher quality, school management methods and evaluation, comparison of education in various countries, etc. The Finnish curriculum design expert Dr. Matti from FICEA brought an authentic Finnish science class, “Rocket Power”, to the fifth-grade children. He led students to fully experience, explore, and learning from materials, technology, engineering design, art, and other aspects, which allowed students to develop scientific skills and gain new knowledge.
Invited by Chen Juan, the principal of Xi’an Qujiang No.1 Primary School, Dr. Dong Li also led a team of Finnish experts to visit Xi’an Qujiang No. 1 Primary School and provided in-depth training for teachers’ professional development. The expert team observed the classroom instruction across different grades and subjects and conducted an intensive study and research discussions after class, providing professional guidance and suggestions for teachers to improve the teaching efficiency further and change the teaching methods. Finnish experts gave lectures on the new curriculum reform and teaching of Finnish education, as well as demonstrated exquisite inter-disciplinary courses: a mathematics-programming lesson, a English-sports lesson, and a home economics lesson. From the training, teachers learned how to put the theories into practice from macro to micro level.
