“为了孩子健康快乐成长”教育论坛在京举行
乐成国际学校的办学理念
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
尊敬的各位来宾，女士们，先生们，
Thank you for granting me the privilege of speaking with you today on the educational model at the Beijing City International School (BCIS). With your permission I will do so within the broader context of worldwide educational and social developments, past and present, because these have framed the thinking of our small learning community.
今天，我非常荣幸能向各位介绍北京乐成国际学校的教育模式。请允许我从全球教育和社会发展的大背景,回首过去,审示当下，因为,大环境决定了我们学校面对学习的思考。
Founded in 2005, BCIS is an infant of just six years of age. Like any infant, we don’t fear change because exploration and improvement are central to our nature. Our aim is to learn from contemporary educational research and best international practice. The more we learn the better the model of learning will be for our students. Being young also allows us to be honest about ourselves, and the truth is that we are not yet good enough. When I describe what we try to achieve at BCIS, please be assured the key word is ‘try’. All our efforts are put into making our school better, and that will be the case for years to come.
北京乐成国际学校成立于2005年，像其他的新生事物一样，我们无所畏惧，因为探索和完善是我们的核心本质。我们的目标是从当代教育研究和最佳国际实践中汲取源泉，因而我们学会用更多更好的方式来满足学生的学习。我们年轻,所以面对自我，敢于承认不足，事实上我们并不完美。当我谈到北京乐成国际学校努力尝试达到目标时，“尝试”是关键。我们所做的一切都是在完善自我，我们任重而道远。
A member of the Yuecheng Education Company, our school’s mission is best stated through our motto, which is: “Empowering and inspiring through challenge and compassion”. Every plan and decision we make is aimed at fulfilling our mission. At its heart our mission is about a balanced approach to learning: there is no challenge without care and no care without challenge. Achieving that balance is essential if we are to enable our children to become autonomous, inspired young adults.
作为乐成教育公司的一员, “挑战与关爱共存,力量与睿智同成”，这一座右铭与我们学校的使命相得益彰。我们所做的每一个决定,都是在践行我们的使命。这一使命的核心就在于做到学习的平衡性：没有关爱就无所谓挑战，没有挑战也就无从关爱。我们的目标是将学生培养成为自律、睿智的年轻人，因此达到关爱与挑战的平衡是关键。
In fulfillment of our mission, our educational program is founded on three principles, namely academic rigor, personalized learning, and inquiry. These principles are very different from those upon which public and private education in many countries has been founded. However, they are closely aligned to the aim of the People’s Republic of China to become an innovation-oriented nation. I therefore respectfully commend them to your attention.
为实现我们的使命,我校的教育方案基于三个基本原则：学术严谨，个性化学习和以探究为基础。这三个原则与目前许多国家的公立或私立学校所主导的教育迥然不同。但是，它们与中国成为创新型国家的目标紧密结合。请允许我在这里向各位一一陈述。
But before I outline those three principles, I should explain the broader context within which they are applied. It is a context that is very different from the past, and one that is changing almost daily. I refer to the nature of society, the nature of the learner, and the nature of human knowledge.
在我介绍这三个原则之前，我需要先解释一下实施它们的大背景。与过去相比，我们的环境已截然不同，它的变化日新月异。我指的是社会属性，学习者的天性和人类知识的特性。
It is not my place to comment on the nature of society, in China or elsewhere, except to say that it is changing and that the expectations of ordinary people are rising in every corner of the world. But if anything, the change in the nature of the individual learner in our schools has been more dramatic. Until two decades ago he or she looked and thought something like me, perhaps like you. The classroom we attended was a dull place but at least the learning experience was not far removed from our real lives outside the classroom. Books and paper were the common currency of communication in both domains, and we dutifully accomplished the tasks expected of us.
我无意对中国或任何一个国家的社会属性发表评论,我仅仅想说它在变化，世界上任何一个角落芸芸众生的期望在膨胀，在提升。如果着眼于学校的环境,学习者个体的变化则更加令人激动。二十年前,大家彼此间所见所思与你我并没有太大差别。在我们眼里课堂是个单调而乏味的地方，但至少学习的经验与现实的生活还有着千丝万缕的联系。书籍和纸张曾经是我们学习和生活中常用的沟通工具，我们尽职尽责地履行着自己肩负的任务。
Today’s children are different; they think more quickly than us, they multi-task in ways that are inconceivable to someone of my age, and even the physical structure of their brains is changing as their neural pathways enter a symbiotic relationship with their use of multiple electronic technologies.
今天的孩子则不同。他们思维比我们敏捷，他们可以同时完成几件事，这在我这个年纪的人眼里简直不可思议。就连他们大脑的结构也随着他们神经网络系统与各种电子技术的共生关系的变化而发生了改变。
As for knowledge, there have been two main changes. First, the amount of information available to anyone with a computer or a mobile phone is increasing at an exponential rate. This is well known. Equally notable is the fact that progressive schools are now exposing their students to a depth of knowledge that was unthinkable below university level a few short years ago. Regrettably, those schools are a small minority.
谈到知识，有两个主要变化。首先，由于电脑和手机的普及，现在每个人身边的信息量成指数攀升。这一点众所周知。其次，现在一些处于改革进程中的学校教给学生的知识也变得越来越有深度，而这一做法对中小学而言仅仅在几年前还是无法想象的。遗憾的是，这一类学校为数不多。
Our children face a future that is unimaginably different from our own experience. We know that the technological revolution will gain pace, that there will be a transformation of the geo-political and economic landscapes, and that there are grave threats to the physical environment. Beyond that we cannot predict, except that rapid change will happen and that our children must be prepared. Schools that teach according to the utilitarian principles of a system of mass education forged in the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century are condemning their children to failure in the new post-industrial, conceptual age when creative thinking and an entrepreneurial spirit will replace low cost mass production as the main source of wealth and wellbeing.
我们的孩子们面临一个对于我们的经验而言难以想像的未来世界。我们知道技术变革将日新月异，地缘政治和经济转型在所难免，这种变化对自然环境的威胁会远远超出人类保护环境的意识。但除此以外,我们对未来无法做出更多的预测，面对瞬息万变的现实,孩子们必须做好准备。对于那些仍然延续着19世纪欧洲工业革命形成的大众教育方针的学校，他们的这种做法无异于注定了让孩子们在这个时代失败。在这个新的后工业的概念时代，崇尚创造性思维和企业家精神，必将取代低成本大规模生产，成为人生健康和财富的主要资源。
Given that context, I will now return to those three principles that underlie the educational program at BCIS.
说完了大背景，我现在要回到BCIS教育项目的三项基本原则。
The first principle is that of academic rigor. Interpretations of the concept of intellectual rigor vary so widely that our school has created its own definition to which all in our community subscribe. Our definition, which is rooted in the school’s mission, is as follows: ‘“Every learner is empowered and inspired to think critically and creatively at the appropriate level of challenge.”
第一个原则是学术严谨。对知识严谨这一概念的诠释众说纷纭，我们学校拿出了一个全体社区都认可的定义。这一定义植根于学校的使命。我们的定义是：“每个学习者都将赋予其力量，启发其睿智，以批判性思维和创造性思维直面适合其能力水平的挑战。”
This definition of rigor marks a sharp departure from the traditional view that rigor demands a heavy burden of repetitive tasks. At BCIS, we believe that onerous tasks are the antithesis of rigor, because they sap students’ energy and close young minds to the thrill and joy of true intellectual endeavor. Worse still they cause profound stress, which is the enemy of student wellbeing and learning. At BCIS we strive to attain an ambience of relaxed alertness, which is that middle state somewhere between relaxation and stress where the joy of youthful curiosity can thrive. We believe that academic rigor refers to the quality and depth of the student’s learning and not to the number of tasks that she is expected to carry out.
“学术严谨”的这一定义与传统上认为严谨就需要繁重的重复性学习有着天壤之别。在BCIS，我们认为繁重的学习负担与严谨背道而驰，因为它耗尽了学生的精力，禁闭了年轻的心灵，让他们无法体会到真正的知识探索带来的兴奋与愉悦。更可怕的是，还会带给他们巨大的压力，这绝对是学生学习和健康的敌人。在BCIS，我们努力营造一种宽松而紧张的氛围，这种状态介于放松和压力之间，让青少年的好奇心得以完全释放。
Secondly, we practice what we call personalized learning. At BCIS we know that there is no such thing as the average child and therefore we do not teach to a child who does not exist. Every child is different in terms of readiness for learning, special gifts and talents, and special learning needs. Children also have different learning styles or preferences. The fact that every child is different is absolutely fundamental to the way we teach at our school. Our teachers must differentiate for every child. This does not mean that the teachers teach a different curriculum for each individual child, for that would be impossible. Rather it means that the teachers use a variety of instructional and assessment strategies that allow every child to access the curriculum in ways that best suit him or her.
第二，我们实施个性化学习。在我们学校, 我们知道没有所谓的平均化的孩子，因此我们不会去教育这样一个并不存在的孩子。每个孩子都是不同的，每个孩子对学习的储备水平不同，有的具有独特的天赋和才能，有的具有特殊的学习需求。事实上，我们所面对的孩子各不相同, 这是我校教学的基本出发点。我们的老师必须为每一个孩子进行分层教学。这并不是说老师给每个孩子不同的课程，因为这办不到。其实，分层教学是说老师用不同的方法让每个孩子都能以最适合自己的方式学习。
In the personalized, or differentiated, classroom the subject content and the skills that students are called upon to use may vary from child to child. Learning activities and assessment strategies are also differentiated for the individual child’s needs. Crucially, however, the same learning goals are set for all children, and the quality of their learning is assessed against the same criteria. Thus high and consistent academic standards are maintained.
在实施个性化学习或者分层教学的课堂中,老师授课的内容和学生应掌握的技能因人而异。学生的学习活动和老师评估学生的策略方法也随着学生个体的需求而不同。关键是所有学生都面对同样的学习目标，他们的学习成绩会接受同样标准的评估。如此，才能保持始终如一的高标准学术要求。
The third principle of learning at BCIS is that it is inquiry-based. We have found that learning though questioning is an especially effective means by which a child's natural curiosity can be transformed into true intellectual rigor. Inquiry-based learning is not only intellectually challenging but it is also highly engaging, which is why most children describe their lessons as enjoyable - not something that is normally true of the traditional classroom!
BCIS的第三个学习原则是以探究为基础。我们发现，通过提问来学习是特别有效的一个学习方式，因为孩子好奇的天性可以转换为真正的心智严谨。以探究为基础的学习不仅对智力要求高，同时也要求全身心的投入，这就是为什么有许多孩子将自己的课堂学习描绘成乐此不疲的地方，在传统的教室中这可是难得一见的。
Teaching through inquiry is far more demanding for the teacher than the old-style didactic method. In the inquiring classroom teachers are expected not simply to teach theories and facts, but to stimulate deep critical thinking on the part of their students so that they acquire enduring understandings that will last for a lifetime.
探究式的教学比老式的说教对老师的要求高得多。在探究的课堂，老师不仅要教给孩子理论和事实，而且要激发学生们深度的批判性思维，这样孩子获得的持久理解力才能让他们受益终生。
The modern practice of inquiry-based learning has attained a high level of academic rigor through the practice of backwards planning, described by Wiggins and McTighe in their seminal book, ‘Understanding by Design’. Briefly the planning process begins with the identification of the desired learning outcomes. This is followed by the determination of what evidence will tell us that the students have achieved the desired outcomes and met the required standards. In order to obtain such evidence, the teacher develops a continuum of assessment methods ranging from complex, context-based performance tasks to more traditional quizzes and tests. Finally, and only after the desired results and assessment methods have been planned, the teacher plans her lessons. These lessons follow an investigative sequence of questions followed by answers and then more questions that defines the inquiry approach to learning. It is this approach that we espouse at BCIS. At its best the BCIS classroom is an exuberance of engaging, joyful, rigorous inquiry.
通过逆向规划法等方法，以探究为基础的现代学习带来了更高级别的学术严谨。这一点在Grant Wiggins和Jay McTighe的原创性著作《通过设计来理解》中有所表述。简单说，这一方法首先要确定期望达到的学习结果。目标确定后，我们逆向确定一些指标，通过这些指标来衡量学生是否达到设定的教学目的和标准要求。为获得证据表明教学是否达到这些指标，老师会设计一系列评估方法，从复杂的内容为基础的学业任务到更传统的考试、测试。最后，只有在规划好教学目标，评估方法后，老师才会着手备课，考虑具体授课方法，挑选教学资源、素材。课堂上引入的问题会引起一系列调查, 随之是应对答案，而后是反思。这种系列调查很好地解读了探究式学习的方法，这也正是BCIS信奉的教学法。在BCIS最好的课堂，一定是专注、快乐和严谨探究并存的课堂。
Having said all that, we at BCIS can’t help thinking that an educational program that is rigorous, personalized and inquiry-based yet set within the confines of the traditional classroom and curriculum may no longer be sufficient. It seems to be yesterday’s solution to today’s problem, which is our new kind of child and the imponderable future that they face. If we are to provide today’s children with the critical, creative and emotional capacities to make that future a success then we must offer them a challenge commensurate with the new capabilities that they bring to our schools. At the heart of that challenge will be a different kind of program in which the curriculum is defined not by subject boundaries but by the capacity of the individual student to think and create. If we accept Ken Robinson’s definition of creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value, then we may appreciate the value of a creative education to the individual and to society, because in this country as elsewhere tomorrow’s society will depend for its success upon the capability of its citizens to create original ideas of high value.
我们认为将一个（学术）严谨，个性化（学习）和以探究为基础的教育方法，放到传统的教师和课程框架中是无法发生的。就好像是旧瓶装新酒，所谓的“新”，是我们的新生代和他们所面临的不可知的未来。如果我们希望用创造力、批判和情感方面的能力来武装今天的孩子，使他们拥有一个成功的未来，那么我们必须为他们量身定制适当的挑战目标。这种挑战的核心其实是一种不同的教育，它的课程不是按照学科界限来编排划分，而是根据学生个体的思维能力和创造能力来划分。如果我们接受Robinson的见解，他认为创造力是形成有价值原创思想的过程，那么我们就会更加赞赏创造性教育对个体及社会的价值，因为对中国和其他所有的国家而言，未来社会的成功取决于公民创造有价值的原创思想的能力。
In this new kind of program the approach to learning will not be inter- or trans-disciplinary in the accepted sense; instead the students will draw upon the traditional academic disciplines, the arts and technology as they engage in purposeful enterprises. Students will be motivated by their inherent passion to create useful and beautiful products and services related to the real world, from which many of their resources will be drawn. The boundary between school and the world beyond will be comprehensively breached. In the minds of our children it already has, but too many schools are reluctant to accept this fact. The conventional classroom is irrelevant for children whose personal heroes are renaissance thinkers such as Leonardo da Vinci or Steve Jobs.
在新的教育方案中，学习的路径也不再是我们所理解的学科交叉或者跨学科学习；相反学生把传统学科、艺术和科学技术运用到他们预定的有目的的创作项目之中。学生将激发出天生的激情，创造出与现实生活相关的实用而精美的产品与服务，而现实生活则是他们灵感的源泉。学校和外部世界的界限将被完全打破。尽管太多的学校还不愿意接受这个事实，但在学生的心目中，这种界限早已消失。传统的课题与这些孩子无关，他们心目中的英雄会是像莱昂纳多·达·芬奇这样文艺复兴时期的思想家，或者是史蒂夫·乔布斯。
Something like this will surely be the model of education in the 21st century, a model in which education is defined by aspiration, achievement and a proclivity towards creativity and change, a model through which students will develop the nimbleness of intellect required to navigate an uncertain future. Such a model will be empowering, inspiring, inclusive, challenging, and very highly personalized. At BCIS we are making the first small steps towards this goal in a new venture called the Bridge Project. We are planning to modify our facility to create a structure to inspire the collaborative learning practices that will allow us to evolve with, rather than react to, our ever-changing world. These steps will take us into unknown territory, but by working as a team we can make it happen. As a pioneer school we intend to share our learning with others, and to learn from them, as we innovate our program. Ladies and gentlemen, you are most welcome to join us on that journey.
这样的发展注定将成为21世纪的教育模式。这种教育是由愿望、成就和面对创造与变化的需求来定义的，以这种模式，学生将发展敏捷的思维为他们不可知的未来导航。这种模式就是激发力量，启迪灵感，兼容并蓄，赋予挑战，并与高度的个性化学习并存。在BCIS我们正在迈出一小步，通过“桥计划”进行初步尝试，我们试图搭建一个激励跨学科学习的项目，以应对不断变化的世界。虽然前途未卜，但我相信在团队的合作努力下我们会梦想成真。我们希望在追求教育创新的同时，与大家分享，向大家学习。女士们，先生们，我非常高兴地向您发出邀请，欢迎您加入我校的创新之旅。
Readings:
参考文献：
Carr, N. (2008, July-August). Is Google making us Stupid? The Atlantic. Available: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. London and New York: Routledge.
Marzano, R. J. (2003). What Works in Schools. Alexandria VA: ASCD.
Marzano, R., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J.E. (2001). Classroom Instruction That Works. Alexandria VA: ASCD.
Powell, W., & Kusuma-Powell, O. (2011). How to Teach Now. Alexandria VA: ASCD.
Robinson, Ken. Changing Education Paradigms. Video on TED.com
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria VA: ASCD.
Yong Zhao (2009). Catching Up or Leading the Way. Alexandria VA: ASCD.
