Since April 2012, S&P Consulting has been cooperating with the Shanghai Pudong Institute of Education Development (PIED) with the aim of building and developing platforms for an international exchange in the education sector.
Chinese Educational Experts in Hamburg
As part of this project, S&P Consulting invited the Chinese PIED experts for school and teaching development to Hamburg on April 21, 2015. Together with the Leadership Foundation for Professional Education and Global Learning, a 1-day workshop was organized for the intercultural exchange between Asian and European pedagogues.
Changed Requirements for the School as Institution
The workshop focused on the changed requirements for the school as an institution and teaching in the information- and knowledge-based society. The change induced by both globalization and rapid technological development has become the norm. The availability of information is constantly increasing. At the same time, the half-life of knowledge declines. Young people and organizations are expected to keep the learnings up to date and to further develop skills. Competences to obtain and evaluate knowledge and to establish an interdisciplinary thinking become essential. A one-way knowledge transfer in teaching has to be expanded or even replaced by a resource-oriented education of interdisciplinary key competences for a life-long learning.
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The experts for school and teaching development are aware of this challenge and the necessity for change in educational systems, both in Europe and Asia. During the workshop, the question how to initiate and implement such changes in a systemically relevant way generated an intense debate. Targeted changes in teaching require an altered self-image of the school as an institution as well as an altered self-image of teachers.
Induce Changes with the PERFORMANCE SIMULATOR®
This lengthy process is supported by Prof. Dr. Wilfried Schley from the Leadership Foundation for Professional Education and Global Learning who has been accompanying the project in the German-speaking area as a systemic consultant and with empirical studies since years.
An innovative tool to sensitize teachers and schools for the necessary changes and inhibiting factors are the simulations of the PERFORMANCE SIMULATOR®, which have also been implemented within a pilot project at the PIED last year.
In the second half of the workshop, the participants discussed in groups and in activating settings about the simulations and their relevance and impact on the educational practice. Special emphasis was given to the cultural and socioeconomic differences between China and Europe, respectively Germany. Apart from the content-related discussion, Prof. Dr. Wilfried Schley demonstrated the importance of moderation for the methodical use of the simulations within innovative Blended Learning concepts.
For both parties, the intensive and successful workshop was a start for a long-term, media-supported communication between the educational experts of the institutes in Germany and China.
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