独家 | 北京市鼎石学校校长Malcolm McKenzie谈后疫情时代的创新人才培养

在过去的十年里，也许更早，远在新冠疫情发生之前，我们听过并进行过越来越多对教学进行根本性变革的讨论，有些观点很合理。这其中包括如下转变：从关注内容转变为关注概念，从注重记忆转变为注重技能培养，从无意识的重复性教学转变为重视教学创新，从传统课堂转变为翻转课堂，等等。

很多时候，人们以非此即彼的二元论来看待上述组合。但，这都是在新冠大流行之前的事儿了。

现在，对许多人来说，新冠疫情让我们的世界发生了巨大的变化。大家都在想，我们如何以及何时才能恢复我们熟悉的日常，有些人甚至在想我们是否应该恢复到从前的模式，还有一些人正在认真地从过去这8个月的经历中选取有价值的经验，作为未来前进道路的路标，无论我们将走向何方。

在这样的特殊时期，我们可回顾历史，以史为鉴。这并不是人类经历过的第一次因为外部事件而导致我们极大地改变世界观和做事方式的情况。有很多人现在觉得，在整个世界，在所有的学校里，一切都改变了。

但是，法语里有句老话：

事情改变得越多，它们越保持不变

所以，我们要以这个问题开始：什么改变了，什么没有变？

我们现在还没有肯定的答案。但是，我们会回到这个问题来。也许，我们能够做出的最准确的预测就是，我们应该做好继续迎接未知的准备。

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In the past decade or so, maybe more, long before the current pandemic, we have heard and had more and more talk, some of it justified, about radical shifts in teaching and learning.  Just a few of these are the following: from content to concepts, from memorization to skills, from mindless repetition to mindful innovation, from the classroom space to the flipped space, and the like.  Many times, these binaries are presented as opposites, or excluding choices.  And all this was before the pandemic.

Now, with the pandemic, our world has shifted massively, for many.  We are all wondering how and when we will regain what we knew, some are wondering whether we should even want that, and others are carefully selecting lessons from the past 8 months to take with them to act as signposts for the road ahead, wherever that takes us.

In times like this, it can be useful to gaze into the past.  This is not the first time that an external event has caused a seismic shift, like an earthquake, in how we see and do things.  Many of us feel now that nothing will ever be the same again, in the world at large, and in the world of schools.

BUT, then, there is the old French saying:

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

The more things change, the more they stay the same

So, we start with a question：What has changed, and what remains the same? We do not know, yet, with any certainty. But, we’ll come back to this question. Maybe the most accurate prediction we can make is that we should be prepared to continue expecting the unexpected.

在中国这片重视教育创新和创造力的土壤上，我们在8年前开始创建一所以创新和创造力为特色的全新学校。

我们称鼎石为一所全新的世界学校——不是一所只关注单一国家课程的学校，不是一所国际学校，而是一所世界学校。

它的意思是：我们的教学植根于中国，但与中国以外的世界建立深厚的联系。

我们学校使命的开头两段是这样写的：

北京市鼎石学校为中国带来一种全新的教育模式。它致力于融合东方、西方及国际教育的精粹，所拥有的通识教育项目追求卓越的学术精神，是一所真正的世界学校。我们日常行为的准则秉承中国儒家的“五常”：“仁”、 “义”、“礼”、“智”和“信”。

在鼎石，我们热情地拥抱这个充满活力、瞬息万变的世界，从奋发进取而又丰富多彩的人类社会中汲取营养，并为未来的世界做出贡献。

我们想强调下面这几点：

• 三大教育传统

• 向世界学习，为世界学习

• 创新人才汲取百家之精髓，便能更好地茁壮成长。

举例：

• 中国的数学

• 美国的博雅教育及讨论式课堂

• 英国的设计技术

• 西欧的哲学教育

• 国际教育的跨学科教学方法

• 智识探索——提出创造性、挑战性的问题

• 体验式学习——通过亲身体验和行动来学习
  

• 跨文化交流——学习不同文化之间的差异
  

• 真正意义上的服务教育——向他人敞开心胸
  

而且，我们以三大基石为我们的办学框架：

• 双语言和双文化
  

• 品德培养和社区归属感——个人与社区集体
  

• 中国主线——关注中国与世界——我们的出版物《世界学校中的本地文化》
  

我们认为，我们学校这些创校要素是一个非比寻常的组合，为在学生和教师中培养创新人才提供了肥沃的土壤。

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In the context of China, where innovation and creativity are so important, we set out 8 years ago to start a school characterized by novelty and invention and innovation.

We call Keystone a New World School – not national, not international, but WORLD.

Meaning of this – rooted in China, but making substantial links in all that we do to the world outside our country

Here are the opening paragraphs of our MISSION

Keystone Academy is a new model of education in China. It blends distinctive traditions in eastern, western, and international education, creating a new world school with a liberal arts program that is academically outstanding. All our endeavors are framed by five shared Confucian values: compassion, justice, respect, wisdom and honesty.

At Keystone, we embrace a world that is dynamic and ever‐changing. We learn from and we learn for this enterprising, global, and diverse community.

We want to emphasize these:

• Three traditions

• Learning from and for the world 

• Innovative talents thrive when they are exposed to the best from everywhere

Examples :

• Mathematics teaching in China

• Liberal Arts and discussion-based classes in the USA

• Design Technology in Britain 

• Philosophy in West Europe

• Interdisciplinary practices in the international tradition

• Intellectual questing – asking creative, challenging questions

• Experiential doing – learning by doing and action

• Intercultural journeying – learning from difference

• Authentic serving – opening your heart to others

In addition, we base all of our practice on THREE KEYSTONES

• Bilingualism and biculturalism 

• Character and community – individuals and communities 

• The Chinese Thread – focus on China and the World – our book: local culture in a world school 

We feel that the combination of these foundational ingredients of our school makes up a very unusual recipe for the growth of innovative talent in our students, and teachers  

我们从新冠疫情中学到的非常重要的一课是：

只有创新和发明还不够：我们需要更进一步，达到能够灵活地即兴发挥和调整。

那么，让我们回到开头那个问题：什么改变了，什么没变？

很多事情都没有变化，但是我们需要在在传统意义的新方式基础上，思考创新意义的新方式。

下面是关于疫情以后的教育创新的几点新想法。

首先，我想以著名小说家Arundhati Roy在今年年初评论的一句话作为引子。她把新冠疫情描述为一个“传送门”，一个通向新的可能的大门。她这样写：没有什么比回归常态更糟糕的了。

在鼎石，我们在教师和学生中进行了问卷调查，收集大家希望能够保留的新想法和新做法。大家的反馈意见总结集中为以下几点：

• 通过发展新的弹性教学方式来保持身心健康 

• 改善人际交往和沟通上的相互尊重、同理心和耐心

• 更深入地了解学生多种不同的学习方式——有些在课堂面对面教学中表现优异的学生不一定适应在线学习，反之亦然——因此，增加差异化教学非常重要，也非常有成效。

• 关于科技，继续充分利用科技作为工具能为我们提供的多种灵活教学方式，但同时也要谨记科技无法实现的工作——师生之间面对面的交流变得越来越重要……

我再分享调查问卷中我们认为能够有益于培养创新人才的一些具体反馈意见。首先是这一条：

灵活性：不确定性是个好老师。有时，生活在艰难的时期会让我们以从未觉得可能的方式改变。我们不能期望学生、教师或家长作出像以前一样的反应。

给新想法一个发展和成长的机会，不要随便放弃新点子。

赋权——给与他人机会，尤其是在需要创造力和创新精神的新世态下。

记住，如果我们给与足够的空间，学生可以发挥出多么大的潜力。

慢下来，反思我们作为教育者在做什么，为什么这么做，如何做。

………………………

加深你与学生之间的联系。从心出发去教书育人，能够真正为学生及其学习带来积极的回报。

……………………..

灵活思考是一项能够培养的技能。

所以，要不要开设一门灵活思维的课，探讨在未来数十年可能会再次发生意料不及的情况时，我们如何即兴发挥，灵活应对？

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One very important lesson from the pandemic is this:

INNOVATION AND INVENTION ARE NOT ENOUGH: WE NEED TO MOVE BEYOND THESE TO flexible IMPROVISATION

So, again, we ask: What has changed, and what remains the same?

Quite a lot remains the same, BUT We need to think of new, new ways, in addition to old new ways

Innovation after the pandemic – HERE ARE SOME NEW THOUGHTS

Our framework here is the comment made earlier this year from the famous novelist Arundhati Roy where she described the pandemic as a “portal”, in other words a door or gateway to new possibilities.  She wrote: nothing could be worse than a return to normality

Here, at Keystone Academy, we have researched and collected the views of our teachers and students about new thoughts and actions that they hope will lead to permanent practice.  In summary, these focus on the following:

• Wellness, through developing new forms of resilience

• Improving the respectful, empathetic, and patient aspects of our relationships and communications 

• Understanding even more deeply the really varied ways in which our students learn – some who thrive face-to-face do not do so in the virtual domain, and the reverse can be true also – increased differentiation is therefore very important and productive

• With technology, continuing to leverage the wonderfully flexible ways that technology can be a really significant tool, while also realizing what it cannot do – the importance of the teacher, face-to-face with students, has grown, and grown…. 

Here are a few specific quotes from this research that we think will improve the cultivation of innovative talents. We start with this one:

Flexibility: Uncertainty has been a great teacher. Sometimes living in uncomfortable times can allow us to change in ways we never thought possible. We cannot expect students, teachers, or parents to react in the same way as they did in the past.

Give new ideas an opportunity to develop and grow, without giving up on them.

Empowerment – give others opportunities, especially in a new situation where creativity and initiative are needed.

Remember how capable our students can be if we let them.

Slow down and reflect about what we are doing as educators, and why, and how.

………………………

Deepen your connections with students. Teaching from the heart will indeed reap the rewards for a student and their learning.

………………………..

Flexible thinking is a skill that can be developed.  

So, how about a course in flexible thinking, how to improvise when our expectation for the unexpected is fulfilled, as seems likely again and again in the coming decades?

《前景：全球重启：新冠与教育及学习的未来》

《课程、学习和评估比较期刊》2020年10月第49期

以其系列创新和创造力主题Ted Talk闻名的肯·罗宾逊爵士为期刊的《课程、学习和评估比较期刊》今年第49期写了一篇文章。

在文章中，他提出了对未来教育的两个重要担忧：

• 气候和地球——在新冠背景下加剧的恶化

• 以“压力、焦虑和有毒行为模式常态化”为特点的人际关系

我们设想学校能够致力于培养结合以下特点的创新人才：

同理心和健康身心

兼具生态教育理念和实际性环保实践

习近平主席在最近的联合国发言中提出，中国将在2060年实现碳中和——学校应该起带头作用。

而且我们应该在灵活使用数字化技术的大框架下实现上述目标，开发新的线上线下混合教学策略，设计均适用于在家学习和课堂学习的课程表，灵活调整考勤要求，研究利用假期的新方式，鼓励更开放的教学风格——实现课程大纲标准要求，而非执着于涵盖每一门课里的每一个知识点。

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PROSPECTS

Comparative Journal of Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment

Volume 49, October 2020

Subtitled A global reset: COVID-19 and the future of education and learning

Sir Ken Robinson, famous for his TedTalks on creativity and innovation, wrote a short essay for this volume

In it, he outlines two main general concerns of education in the immediate future:

• Climate and our planet – highlighted by the pandemic

• Our relationships, which are characterized by “normalizing stress, anxiety, and toxic patterns of behavior”

We now envisage schools focused on innovative talents which combine

Empathy and Wellness with

Ecological education and environmental practice of real substance

President Xi in his address to the UN recently said that China would be carbon neutral by 2060 – schools should lead the way

And do so within the framework of the improvisational use of digital technologies, inventing new strategies for teaching and learning in blended ways, with schedules that encourage home learning as well as school learning, new expectations of flexible attendance, new uses of vacation times, and more open-ended teaching styles which uncover the syllabus instead of obsessively trying to cover every single detail in a course.