To enhance international cooperation in teacher education and educate teacher trainees with more advanced education concepts and teaching methods, ECNU launched its annual “Taste of Teaching” Program in 2009. In the past four years, the program has become a good platform for ECNU's teacher trainees to enlarge their vision with more international concepts and theories as they can have a close contact with Western education through one-month exchange study in famous American or European universities.
Professors give lectures to ECNU stduents.
On February 3, 2013 “Taste of Teaching” Program began and 30 ECNU students left Shanghai for New York to start their one-month exchange study in Teachers College of Columbia University, one of the best teacher colleges in the world.
"I knew it must be a meaningful experience at the time I saw the program schedule." said Wang Lu, a junior student of the Department of History. With the time past, students like Wang Lu affirmed their first impression of the program. During the month, they attended lectures given by world class experts, had class observations to experience features of U.S classes, and made field trips and culture visits in their spare time.
ECNU students attending lectures in Columbia University.
"In Teachers College of Columbia University, what we expected most was the lectures，"said Wang Qirong, a junior student of Department of Chinese Language & Literature. Every morning, they attended academic lectures given by world class professors. During the lectures, they could not only learn advanced concepts and theories but also engage in dialogues with these professors from detailed teaching planning to comparison between education systems in the United States and China.
Besides attending lectures, class observation was another important part of the program. During class observation, they found whether the class sizes or teaching methods in Columbia University all different from those in China: classes were much smaller as most classes had less than 15 students, and students were much freer as they could sit around to discuss questions together.
ECNU students make a field trip to Hackley School.
In their spare time, the students made field trips and cultural visits. If academic lectures and class observations provided them opportunities to know U.S class education, the field trips and culture visits made them know more about the culture and tradition of the United Sates and its education. For most of the students, either the beautiful campus of Columbia University, or the history and management of Hackley School, would be a long-lasting memory.
“I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform", the famous saying of John Dewey engraved at the entrance hall of Teachers College of Columbia University, made most of the students think of ECNU’s ideology, "Creativity，Character，Community". To most of them, the one-month experience made them realized the necessity of viewing China’s education with a world foresight.
Written by: Liu Jinyu
