1.PBI Theory
Problem-based instruction (PBI) is a teaching strategy which enables students to solve learning problems better. Through problem analysis and investigation, students can better enhance learning quality. Under such a model, students work in teams to enhance their cooperation and exchange ability. At the same time, their leadership will be enhanced. It could be applied to any curriculum. The application of PBI theory in international education will help students better understand problems caused by culture diversity during practical study, have a deeper understanding of cultural differences and broaden their view of the world through independent cooperation and planning for problem analysis. For example, the collaborative writing curriculum, in which the students conduct cooperative writing through PBI teaching. Teachers ask compelling questions, and students solve them, so as to improve writing skill, understand cultural differences in cooperative writing and broaden the view of the world.
2. Writing Process Approach
The composition activities have the following distinguished features:1. intentionality; 2. innovativeness; 3. Comprehensiveness 4. practicality. The main function and significance of the composition is still lying in the expression of emotions, the communication of ideas and the transmission of information. Hence, the process of writing is especially crucial. Only if students discover their problems through continuous writing process and correct them will they create better works to convey their feelings and information. Published jointly by NCTE and the International Reading Association (IRA), The Standards for the English Language Arts (1996) has mentioned that: “In recent years many students have benefited from what is known as a “process approach” to writing instruction, which focuses on different activities typically involved in effective writing, such as planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing for real audiences”. This indicates that students have got benefits from Writing Process Approach, which focuses on different writing activities and procedures, it recommends that there should be guidance in the whole writing course, and aims at managing writing manner of the students, who will experience five stages during the whole writing study period: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing.
Graham, Gillespie and McKeown (2013) write that:” highly effective literacy teachers, as they encourage students to treat writing as a process, and teach them how to plan, draft, revise, edit, and share their written work”. In the prewriting stage, the teacher can organize students to think hard through activities such as brainstorming and discussions, and ask them to decide their topics on their own. During this process, teachers could also present their own writing process to students to inspire them. In the past teaching of writing, grammar and spelling were often over-emphasized, and this has made students feel afraid of and fed up with writing. In fact, the teacher should encourage students to write freely in the first place without caring about avoiding mistakes in writing a first draft. “Another means for creating a supportive classroom environment where students’ writing development can flourish is to scaffold or support students’ writing in various ways” (Graham et al.,2013, p10), students should take down all their ideas first rather than caring too much about their expressing forms or skills. After students finish their first drafts, the teacher should ask them to read their own compositions repeatedly and to correct and modify their writings according to the feedback from the audience, the teacher as well as other classmates. The revising stage is aimed to make students convey their thoughts as much as possible through adjusting their writing styles and forms, improving the meaning coherence and so on. Then, students should revise the punctuation, spelling and grammar in their writings in order to get them published. After that, each student could transcribe and print his/her composition. And the teacher could also organize students to do the editing work and layout design before publishing these compositions in bound volumes. Each student in the class shall have one composition volume, or, there could be some other forms to apply these volumes. For instance, cross-grade sharing activities could be organized and the students could read their compositions and share their experiences in classes of lower grades. At last, what’s the most important, the teacher and students should review together the composition volumes occasionally, in order that students could learn new knowledge by restudying the old and make constant discoveries and corrections of their problems.
In teaching, the teacher should also provide students with proper materials and rich resources to cultivate their thinking ability. Also, the teacher ought to maintain an attitude of enthusiasm and trust towards his/her students, try to experience what the students feel, respect their individuality and give full play to their potentials. And students should be encouraged to write what they like and through ways that they prefer. The teacher should always respect the principal part of students in the teaching of writing, for only in this way can students make free creations and achieve personalized writing, and only in this way can the writing designs promote students to think and explore by themselves and to express their own interpretations freely. Through applying the writing process method, we can enhance the cultivation of student’s observation, thinking capacities as well as other fundamental writing abilities, and make students express their individuality, spiritual selves and their distinctive interpretations of the world. As last, it’s indispensable to train students to have the ability of modifying their own compositions, for this is also one essential quality that a great writer should have.
3. The Strategies to Improve Teacher Leadership
1). Empower Teachers to Enhance Professional Autonomy
Teacher leadership is different from the leadership of school management staff. For teachers, the leadership has a time limit and is confined to a specific field that relates to their profession, but they will not be given an official position or administrative authority for such leadership. Actually, teachers should autonomously participate in leadership to achieve professional development. The school should train and review teacher leadership, so that they will be enabled to give play to the leadership. In addition, it is necessary for the school to change the old concepts and actively create conditions for every teacher to take on specific leadership responsibilities, including the studying and life of students and the work culture of teachers.
2). Create Platforms to Propel the Development of Teacher Leadership Through Multiple Channels
By referring to the perspectives of school leaders and management staff, various platforms should be continuously created to let teachers actively participate in management, so as to spot issues, take on responsibilities and improve themselves. There are numerous problems in the teaching practices of school education, and teacher’s ability in communication and cooperation can be fully demonstrated in their solutions. The school and teachers must participate in various interdisciplinary research and cooperative studies, the subject communication and coordination with other sister schools are also conducive to the development of teacher leadership.
4. The Concept of cosmopolitanism
In general, contemporary cosmopolitanism includes ethical cosmopolitanism, moral cosmopolitanism, politics cosmopolitanism, cosmopolitanism about justice, and culture cosmopolitanism while different people can refer to these conceptions with different terms. For instance, Simon Caney emphasizes that cosmopolitanism can be divided into three types: juridical cosmopolitanism, ethic cosmopolitanism, and politics cosmopolitanism(p388). In this notion, judicial cosmopolitanism refers to cosmopolitanism about justice and ethic cosmopolitanism is similar with culture cosmopolitanism. Appiah also used to note the cosmopolite idea of cosmopolitanism as well as the differences among varied cultures. Appiah pointed that two aspects of cosmopolitanism: “One is the idea that we have obligations to others, obligations that stretch beyond those to whom we are related by the ties of kith and kind, or even the more formal ties of a shared citizenship” (Ikenberry, & Appiah, 2006), and “the other is that we take seriously the value not just of human life but of particular human lives, which means taking an interest in the practices and beliefs that lend them significance” (Ikenberry, & Appiah, 2006). Cosmopolitanism exactly means to look at the world from various perspectives.
5. The impact of cosmopolitanism on education
The earliest goal of international education is to promote cosmopolitanism targeted at world order and peace. Through official courses, students will understand the cosmopolitanism under the ideology of internationalism. Moreover, modern international education is an educational system that suits the modern social and economic development, promotes the diversified educational development, respects individual student differences, focuses on the dominant role of students, and establishes and refines the orientation of respecting individual differences. Student innovation ability is cultivated through approaches such as student independently deciding the study plan, course selection guidance system, and optional course system and credit system. By working together, students not only deciding the writing process plan but also communication and the development strong relationships between students of different cultures and backgrounds.
Problem-based instruction (PBI) is a teaching strategy which enables students to solve learning problems better. Through problem analysis and investigation, students can better enhance learning quality. Under such a model, students work in teams to enhance their cooperation and exchange ability. At the same time, their leadership will be enhanced. It could be applied to any curriculum. The application of PBI theory in international education will help students better understand problems caused by culture diversity during practical study, have a deeper understanding of cultural differences and broaden their view of the world through independent cooperation and planning for problem analysis. For example, the collaborative writing curriculum, in which the students conduct cooperative writing through PBI teaching. Teachers ask compelling questions, and students solve them, so as to improve writing skill, understand cultural differences in cooperative writing and broaden the view of the world.
2. Writing Process Approach
The composition activities have the following distinguished features:1. intentionality; 2. innovativeness; 3. Comprehensiveness 4. practicality. The main function and significance of the composition is still lying in the expression of emotions, the communication of ideas and the transmission of information. Hence, the process of writing is especially crucial. Only if students discover their problems through continuous writing process and correct them will they create better works to convey their feelings and information. Published jointly by NCTE and the International Reading Association (IRA), The Standards for the English Language Arts (1996) has mentioned that: “In recent years many students have benefited from what is known as a “process approach” to writing instruction, which focuses on different activities typically involved in effective writing, such as planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing for real audiences”. This indicates that students have got benefits from Writing Process Approach, which focuses on different writing activities and procedures, it recommends that there should be guidance in the whole writing course, and aims at managing writing manner of the students, who will experience five stages during the whole writing study period: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing.
Graham, Gillespie and McKeown (2013) write that:” highly effective literacy teachers, as they encourage students to treat writing as a process, and teach them how to plan, draft, revise, edit, and share their written work”. In the prewriting stage, the teacher can organize students to think hard through activities such as brainstorming and discussions, and ask them to decide their topics on their own. During this process, teachers could also present their own writing process to students to inspire them. In the past teaching of writing, grammar and spelling were often over-emphasized, and this has made students feel afraid of and fed up with writing. In fact, the teacher should encourage students to write freely in the first place without caring about avoiding mistakes in writing a first draft. “Another means for creating a supportive classroom environment where students’ writing development can flourish is to scaffold or support students’ writing in various ways” (Graham et al.,2013, p10), students should take down all their ideas first rather than caring too much about their expressing forms or skills. After students finish their first drafts, the teacher should ask them to read their own compositions repeatedly and to correct and modify their writings according to the feedback from the audience, the teacher as well as other classmates. The revising stage is aimed to make students convey their thoughts as much as possible through adjusting their writing styles and forms, improving the meaning coherence and so on. Then, students should revise the punctuation, spelling and grammar in their writings in order to get them published. After that, each student could transcribe and print his/her composition. And the teacher could also organize students to do the editing work and layout design before publishing these compositions in bound volumes. Each student in the class shall have one composition volume, or, there could be some other forms to apply these volumes. For instance, cross-grade sharing activities could be organized and the students could read their compositions and share their experiences in classes of lower grades. At last, what’s the most important, the teacher and students should review together the composition volumes occasionally, in order that students could learn new knowledge by restudying the old and make constant discoveries and corrections of their problems.
In teaching, the teacher should also provide students with proper materials and rich resources to cultivate their thinking ability. Also, the teacher ought to maintain an attitude of enthusiasm and trust towards his/her students, try to experience what the students feel, respect their individuality and give full play to their potentials. And students should be encouraged to write what they like and through ways that they prefer. The teacher should always respect the principal part of students in the teaching of writing, for only in this way can students make free creations and achieve personalized writing, and only in this way can the writing designs promote students to think and explore by themselves and to express their own interpretations freely. Through applying the writing process method, we can enhance the cultivation of student’s observation, thinking capacities as well as other fundamental writing abilities, and make students express their individuality, spiritual selves and their distinctive interpretations of the world. As last, it’s indispensable to train students to have the ability of modifying their own compositions, for this is also one essential quality that a great writer should have.
3. The Strategies to Improve Teacher Leadership
1). Empower Teachers to Enhance Professional Autonomy
Teacher leadership is different from the leadership of school management staff. For teachers, the leadership has a time limit and is confined to a specific field that relates to their profession, but they will not be given an official position or administrative authority for such leadership. Actually, teachers should autonomously participate in leadership to achieve professional development. The school should train and review teacher leadership, so that they will be enabled to give play to the leadership. In addition, it is necessary for the school to change the old concepts and actively create conditions for every teacher to take on specific leadership responsibilities, including the studying and life of students and the work culture of teachers.
2). Create Platforms to Propel the Development of Teacher Leadership Through Multiple Channels
By referring to the perspectives of school leaders and management staff, various platforms should be continuously created to let teachers actively participate in management, so as to spot issues, take on responsibilities and improve themselves. There are numerous problems in the teaching practices of school education, and teacher’s ability in communication and cooperation can be fully demonstrated in their solutions. The school and teachers must participate in various interdisciplinary research and cooperative studies, the subject communication and coordination with other sister schools are also conducive to the development of teacher leadership.
4. The Concept of cosmopolitanism
In general, contemporary cosmopolitanism includes ethical cosmopolitanism, moral cosmopolitanism, politics cosmopolitanism, cosmopolitanism about justice, and culture cosmopolitanism while different people can refer to these conceptions with different terms. For instance, Simon Caney emphasizes that cosmopolitanism can be divided into three types: juridical cosmopolitanism, ethic cosmopolitanism, and politics cosmopolitanism(p388). In this notion, judicial cosmopolitanism refers to cosmopolitanism about justice and ethic cosmopolitanism is similar with culture cosmopolitanism. Appiah also used to note the cosmopolite idea of cosmopolitanism as well as the differences among varied cultures. Appiah pointed that two aspects of cosmopolitanism: “One is the idea that we have obligations to others, obligations that stretch beyond those to whom we are related by the ties of kith and kind, or even the more formal ties of a shared citizenship” (Ikenberry, & Appiah, 2006), and “the other is that we take seriously the value not just of human life but of particular human lives, which means taking an interest in the practices and beliefs that lend them significance” (Ikenberry, & Appiah, 2006). Cosmopolitanism exactly means to look at the world from various perspectives.
5. The impact of cosmopolitanism on education
The earliest goal of international education is to promote cosmopolitanism targeted at world order and peace. Through official courses, students will understand the cosmopolitanism under the ideology of internationalism. Moreover, modern international education is an educational system that suits the modern social and economic development, promotes the diversified educational development, respects individual student differences, focuses on the dominant role of students, and establishes and refines the orientation of respecting individual differences. Student innovation ability is cultivated through approaches such as student independently deciding the study plan, course selection guidance system, and optional course system and credit system. By working together, students not only deciding the writing process plan but also communication and the development strong relationships between students of different cultures and backgrounds.