协和探索中西融合（下） XIEHE Education’s exploration

上海名校访谈④｜协和教育集团总校长 卢慧文

　　协和教育旗下包括海富幼儿园、协和双语学校、协和国际青少年俱乐部以及协和研发中心四大教育产品体系，拥有30所幼儿园、7所中小学、4所国际高中、3所业余学校，学生人数达20000名，其中来自40个国家的外籍学生近4000名；教职员工将近3000名，其中外籍师资约有450名。协和如同一个小型地球村，处处呈现出中西文化融合的氛围。

卢慧文观点

顺势而为

　　协和以“中西融合”的理念来办学，这是天时地利人和使然。创校初期，我们通过调研，发现1/3家长有海外学习或工作经历，1/3家长在本地受过良好教育，还有1/3是外籍家长。　　这些家长对孩子的教育期待很特殊。海归家长因特殊的文化体验经历，能看到中西文化各自的长处，希望自己孩子可以从中受益；本地家长则想要孩子有机会在全球范围选择更优质的教育资源；外籍父母对中华文化有一种热爱和了解的需求，希望孩子接受的国际教育在这方面能有增色。三种不同的家庭背景却对教育有着相同方向的诉求，这促使协和教育更加坚定地朝着“中西融合”的道路上探索，而随着国际化教育的不断渗透，中西长处集于一身的特色学校受到越来越多家长的欢迎。　　协和的发展恰恰吻合了社会环境变化的轨迹，是顺势而为的。经常会有人误以为，办国际教育就是把年纪很小的孩子往国外送。事实正好相反，如果中国教育办得封闭，不和国际接轨，才真是把孩子往外推。在家门口就能够选择有开放态度的学校，恰恰是把孩子留在身边的办法。让孩子成年后可以在世界范围有更多优质高等教育的选择，才是中国教育的方向。

家校互动

　　入学前，不止要了解学生，还要与家长面谈，这是民办学校的惯例。有些人误会是在挑地位高、学历高的家长，但其实这样做是为了加强家校的合力。与家长面谈，学校可以了解家长对于教育的期待和认知；同时家长在了解学校的办学理念后，也可以斟酌自己对于孩子未来的需求，避免出现盲目追逐热门学校，而忽略了孩子与该校教育理想是否相配。　　入学后，我们的家校沟通有多种方式，以班级或个体为单位的小型会议，也有互动式的活动参与。例如，我们有一个三方会谈的机制，参与者是家长、学生和老师，主持人是学生。由学生用演讲或以PPT演示或者视频播放等方式来讲述他的学习历程以及自我分析，老师和家长作为观众和指导给予建议。这种方式，极大地激发了学生的自主性反思，同时也增加了家长对于孩子的多维了解。　　另外，我们的“协励会”是由家委会自发组成的上海市一级民非组织。在学校与家庭的良好互动过程中，家长就成为了学校教育资源的一部分。他们积极热情地为学校提供各类协助，例如或开设职业讲座为孩子们开拓视野，或带领孩子们为辅读学校和山区学校的孩子实现愿望，或身着志愿者服在学校门口引导孩子们进校，及在图书馆辅导孩子们阅读等等。　　家校的互动，在推进教育工作进行以及为学生提供全方位的教育上，是非常重要的一环。因此我们对于家校互动相当重视。

“有机”学校

　　协和是一所“有机”的学校。“有机”对于学校来说是有义务为孩子营造一个自然成长的环境；此外，还指在这个世界上是没有单独存在的事物，很多实际问题都需要跨学科来解决。比如对于美国很流行的STEM课程，我们看重的是STEM中建立学科之间的关联性，以及十分具有实践性和操作性的特征。　　学校有一个为期一个月的“制作3D打印环保小车”的活动，中外学生三人组成一队，从计算角度、设计雏形到打印零件、装配、组装清洁能源电池等方面，来比赛谁的小车跑得更快更远。　　通过这个项目，我们达到了以下几个目的：让学生学到理化知识，如电池成分、测量角度；让学生动手，将理论与实践联系起来；通过中外学生的组合，让他们在语言、团队合作和演讲力方面都能得到综合提升。我们觉得，这样的学习才是有意义和价值的。

协和新战略

　　在最近制定的“协和教育2025年战略”中，有三个关键词：跨文化、智能化与可持续。　　第一，跨文化。这包括跨文化的团队、管理和课程设置，是我们最大的特色及立身之本。最近学校被授权成立了“上海市跨文化基础教育研究中心”，这也表明政府希望我们将跨文化实践经验能在更大范围内辐射整个上海的基础教育。　　第二，智能化。对教育的研究是学校发展的智囊，教育不能只谈经验，而要提炼出具有通识性的功能，把国际上最前沿的信息带入学校一线的活动中。同时，智能化也指IT技术、“互联网＋”带来的促进，通过更多工具利用和平台搭建，为师生提供更多可选择的资源及发展方式。　　第三，可持续。协和未来的发展需要更多社会资源的支持与互动，如我们正考虑建设海外校区基地，希望让孩子在12年中，有机会有3个学期分别在澳洲、北美、欧洲游学。我们希望通过这种形式为学生提供更多机会，找到最适合自己的发展路径。

公开透明

　　协和教育是“幼、小、初、高”一贯制教学系统，因此我们的新学段招生有相当一部分是直接来自于系统内升学，但我们也会对社会开放。如果希望了解更多社会招生的信息，可以关注学校网站、参加课程说明会等。
　　我们的学费是物价局根据办学成本所核定。现在学费基本稳定，将来如果因各种原因导致办学成本变动较大，可能会有继续调整的空间。

XIEHE Education has four main educational products, including Fortune Kindergarten, Shanghai United International School, Team Awesome International Youth Club and the XIEHE Research Center. Currently, we have 30 kindergartens, seven primary and high schools, four international secondary schools and three after-hours schools. The number of students has reached approximately 20,000, 4000 of them representing over 40 nationalities; there are more than 3000 faculty and staff, including 450 foreign teachers. XIEHE is much like a small global village, and everywhere embodies an “East Meets West” atmosphere.

for those routes

It’s the right place and time for XIEHE to lay the foundation for its “East Meets West” concept. In the beginning, we conducted some research and found that one third of our parents have been educated in local schools, one third have experienced life and education overseas, and one third were foreign parents.

These parents place special educational expectations on their children. Due to the particular cultural experiences of parents who are returnees from overseas, they can see the advantages of Chinese and Western cultures, hoping their children can receive the benefits from them both; local parents want to choose better education resources from all over the world; foreign parents have a passion and request for Chinese culture experiences which come from the international education that they hope their children receive. Three families with different backgrounds have the same educational need - urging XIEHE education’s continued exploration on the path to “East meets West”. The advantages of a more holistic education and featured curricula has been welcomed by more and more parents.

XIEHE’s development has matched social environment changes and has adapted to the terrain people live on. Sometimes people will think that the purpose of international education is to prepare young kids to go abroad. On the contrary - the truth is, if Chinese education shuts its door and doesn’t align more closely with international education, it will push children further away. We offer XIEHE schools to the community and provide parents with much more choice - it is the best way to encourage children to stay with them and grow healthily. The better direction for Chinese education, then, is to offer an education that allows children to access more opportunities all over the world after they grow up.

interaction

Before entering a school, private schools seek not only to know the potential of students, but to also have a talk with parents face-to-face. Some people take it for granted that XIEHE only selects the parents who have a high social position and academic background. Actually, the aim is to enhance the connections between the school and the parents. After the interview, the school can know the expectations of the parents, and the parents can consider their requests for the future more - the interview can help parents avoid irrational school choices.

After entering a school, we have various methods communication with parents, including holding small conferences individually or interactive activities. For example, we have a multilateral mechanism of the Three Party Talks. Attendees are parents, students and teachers; the host is a student who leads a presentation about their academic experiences and and provides a self-analysis; teachers and parents give suggestions and guidances. Using this kind of method, it helps to stimulate student self-reflection and increases understandings between parents and their children.

In addition, our “XIELIHUI” is held by our PTA and became a non-profit organization in Shanghai. Through the process of interaction, parents became an important part of the school's educational resources. They positively help and support schools in different sections, such as holding career presentations in order to broaden students’ horizons, taking students to the mountain area and to fulfill poor children’s wishes, wearing a volunteer suit and standing in front of the school to guide students, or helping students to read in the school library.

The interaction between the two sides has improved the educational work and is one of the most important aspects of the whole education system.

“natural and integrated” school

XIEHE is a “natural and integrated” school. First, we have the responsibility of building a natural growing environment for our children. Second, people cannot survive individually in the world - many realities need to be solved by integrated-disciplines through collaboration. For example, in terms of the popular STEM program from the USA, we focus on attempting to integrate all disciplines and their characteristic practices and operations.

The school has a month-long activity called “Making an eco-friendly car”. The Chinese and foreign students are separated into several teams with 3 people each; they compete with each other, and the fastest and furthest car is the winner. The project includes calculations, designing, assembling and packaging, energy and battery skills, etc.

From this activity, we have accomplished our goal as followings: learning physical and chemical knowledge from battery composition analyses; angle measurements; gaining experiences from connecting theory with practice; improving various skills such as language, team-work and presentations. We believe these activities are valuable and meaningful.

XIEHE Education’s strategic plan

Recently, we completed XIEHE Education’s strategic plan to 2025 - there are three key words in it: Cross-culture, Intelligence and Sustainable Development.

The first is Cross-culture. It refers to the creation of a cross-culture team for management and curriculum, our most distinctive feature and foundation. We were authorized to establish a “Shanghai Cross-Cultural Research Center of Basic Education” - this shows that the government hopes for us to apply our cross-cultural experiences more widely into the whole Shanghai Basic Education scene.

The second is Intelligence. Education research is the brain-trust of school development. Education aims not only to provide experiences, but also to provide general knowledge functions and to involve current educational strategies in school activities. Intelligence also means technology and international plus improvements; these offer much more selective resources and development methods for the teachers and students by building useful platforms.

The third is Sustainable Development. XIEHE’s future development requires social support and interactivity. For example, we are thinking about building overseas school bases, hoping that our students will have opportunities to study abroad in Australia, North America and Europe. In this way, students can find suitable developmental pathways for their future.

open and transparent

XIEHE Education has a through-train education system from kindergarten to high school, so many of our students will go directly to higher grades in XIEHE; we also continue to enroll new students from outside. We encourage you to consult the school's website for more admission information.

Our tuition fees are approved by the Price Bureau according to the school's costs, and we will adjust tuition fees due to cost fluctuations in the future.

以上内容摘选自澎湃新闻网，经协和教育编译。转载已获得授权。