From November 18th to 25th, Tongji University witnessed 12 teachers from Aalto University took part in the third phase of SFC Pedagogical Training Program. Through learning in Finland last month, teachers from both schools got further understanding of each other’s culture and education, as well as established a deep friendship, which all contributed to the success of this phase of training.
After arriving, Aalto teachers took a visit to Yu Yuan, the Bund and etc, experiencing the mix of tradition and modern of Shanghai. In the second day, teachers visited Fudan Nordic Centre and in the evening they spent a joyful night in Sino-Finnish Centre, where under the help and guide of SFC staffs and Tongji teachers, they learned how to make Chinese dumplings and wonton. The lively activity preheated the training program and got teachers from China and Finland know more about each other.
On November 20th, Kirsi Kettula, Project Manager and Education Developer of Aalto University, held the training course in Sino-Finnish Centre for teachers from different departments and schools of Tongji University. Teachers from Tongji were divided into small groups for free discussion and brainstorming.
What is a good university teacher? Teachers drew and described the ideal type according to the elements and capabilities they thought were essential for making a good teacher. Via discussion and demonstration, teachers realized that a further understanding of a good university teacher’s qualities were crucial for teaching activities to students from different culture backgrounds. Then teachers worked in groups to create different student profiles, drew on a flip chart paper the elements and characteristics of the students and discussed what kind of teaching activities they could use to help these students learn. Teachers wrote down the teaching activities on a flip chart paper and attached them to the student profiles. Then teachers discussed freely in a gallery walk, expressing their ideas as well as absorbing beneficial ones from others. In the end, lecturers issued diploma to all the participants.
On Nov. 21st, teachers from Aalto went on sightseeing in Zhujiajiao, experiencing traditional Shanghai culture scenes and cuisine. On 22nd, teachers conducted co-teaching and observations in different schools and departments in Jiading Campus and gave constructive comments and feedbacks in the afterwards discussion.
Aalto teachers indicated that with the development of Tongji and Aalto’s internationalization, the trend of culture diversity shown in students was more remarkable, which called for teachers to grasp pedagogical methods aiming at students from multi-cultural backgrounds. In this sense, SFC Pedagogical Training Programprovided beneficial opportunity and platform.
Teachers from Tongji University pointed that SFC Pedagogical Training Programbrought about many positive and enlightening thoughts and ideas. They also proposed suggestions for the future training course, for instance, more specific teaching cases, more detailed training content, practical teaching techniques and etc. Teachers showed a great expectation for more pedagogical training courses in the near future.
