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本文为苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华的领军校长专访。
The following is an exclusive interview with Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou.
校长名片
费建华
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长
费建华校长是拥有30多年教龄的省级英语特级教师，曾任苏州立达中学校长、苏州中学副校长、上海闵行区民办德闳学校创校校长。他协助创办了苏州中学园区校和苏州德威外籍人员子女学校，于2022年8月正式就任苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长。费建华校长相信，孩子就像一颗颗幼小的种子，教育可以帮助他们茁壮成长，学校则激励和启发他们无限的创造潜能和学习热情。
About the Principal
Fei Jianhua
Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou
Principal Fei Jianhua is a provincial-level English teacher with more than 30 years of teaching experience. He used to be the principal of Suzhou Lida Middle School, vice-principal of Suzhou Middle School, and the founding principal of Dehong Chinese International School. He assisted in the establishment of Suzhou High School-SIP (SHS-SIP) and Dulwich International High School Suzhou and will be officially appointed as the principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou in August 2022. Principal Fei Jianhua believes that children are like seeds: Education can help them grow, and the school helps inspire and encourage their unlimited creative potential and enthusiasm for learning.
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Swipe right to see the English version
学校介绍
苏州工业园区德威联合书院是一所招收14-18周岁青少年的国际化海外教育学校，学校成立于2012年，秉承创始学校——英国伦敦德威公学的教育理念，专注于为学生提供具有挑战性、学术性的综合型教育方法。
苏州工业园区德威联合书院以优化的英国国家课程为基准，学生在11年级结束时参加IGCSE全球统考。继而在高年级获得由剑桥国际教育评估（CAIE）和爱德思授予的A-Level资格。学校教学语言均为英语，使得每个学生都能受益于结构化的文化课程。
Dulwich International High School Suzhou is an international school of overseas education for teenagers aged 14-18. The school was established in 2012, adhering to the educational philosophy of its founding school – Dulwich College London – focusing on providing students with a challenging and academically-integrated approach to learning.
Based on the UK National Curriculum, students at Dulwich International High School Suzhou will take IGCSE examinations at the end of Year 11. This is followed by A-Level qualifications awarded by Cambridge International Education Assessment (CAIE) and Edexcel in Years 12 and 13. The language of instruction in the school is English, so every student can benefit from a structured cultural curriculum.
中西融合，学生为先
01
京领：请问您与德威教育集团如何结缘？可以请您介绍一下此前的教育管理经历吗？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：我从2003年开始接触德威，那时我还是苏州中学工业园区分校（简称园区校）的副校长。我们创办园区校时，上级主管部门希望我们学校是一所扎根在苏州工业园区，更加国际化、现代化的，能够有一些国际合作的学校。
当时我们就找到了英国德威公学，德威也是英国第一所走出国门来到中国的公学。2003年德威在上海建了第一所德威英国国际学校，现在叫上海德威外籍人员子女学校。我们和当时伦敦德威的校长进行了充分的接触，我们也认可他们的品牌，所以当时在建苏州中学园区校时，我们建立了一个“地球学习村”的概念，也就是在一个中国校园里有一个外籍人员子女学校。这在全国是绝无仅有的试验，我们想真正了解外籍人员子女学校和中国学校的运作有什么不同之处和相同之处，我们想通过这片“试验田”来了解国际教育。
至2006年，我们成功地创办了苏州德威外籍人员子女学校，在苏州中学的支持下有了“苏州德威国际学校”这个品牌。在这个过程当中，我和这所国际学校接触得比较多，所以我对德威的成长和发展也有更多的了解。
当时我是苏州中学的副校长，我们几乎每星期都要和德威的上层领导进行交流。我们共享操场、剧院等设施，我们派中文老师到德威进行教学，他们也派老师对我们的英语老师进行课程辅导，我们两所学校的学生也展开了一些互动。
我自己是一名英语老师，也有海外教学的经历。我2001年在美国教书，所以我希望能够更多地吸取国际教育的一些优秀元素，融入到我们中国的教育当中来。2015年时我在苏州立达中学做校长，德威准备在上海创办德闳。我觉得这是我能够更好地了解国际学校并把国际学校的优势融入中国教育的契机，所以我离开苏州，到上海创办了德闳。我们从2015年开始筹建德闳，2017年正式开学，到现在为止，我们走过了5年的历程。
京领：请问您的办学理念是什么？您在国际教育行业的工作经历怎样影响了您对教育的理解？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：在德闳的五年里，我看到学校的发展越来越趋向于我理想的状态，也就是在中国课程的基础上融入了国际课程的元素。作为一个中国校长，我认为我们中国的课程有很多优势。我们要在中国课程的基础上融入国际课程的特色，这是一个美好的理想，但在具体实施的过程当中会碰到各种各样的问题。两个优秀的东西放在一起未必会依然优秀，我们一定要取长补短、发挥各自的长处，同时肯定会面临一些冲突和问题。
国内课程有一个非常完整的体系框架，这是以我们严格的课程体系为基础的。而国际化的课程，特别是英系课程，强调的是全人教育、学科之间的综合、学生的创新素养、学生的批判性思维、体验式学习等等。我们的国内课程中也有这些元素，但在具体实施过程中会面临一些挑战。
我认为，每个孩子都是有差异的，但如果我们把教育的成功归结于这个孩子能不能进入所谓的“Top University”，其实我们关注的就只是头部学生。我们确实需要关注头部学生，给他们适当的空间、让他们去发挥，这个当然是非常重要的。
但很多人将考入清华、北大的学生数量视为评判学校教育质量高低的唯一标准，就导致了一定程度上对所谓“中间”或者“下部”学生的忽视。然而从判断一个人来说，其实没有什么中间和下部的孩子。德威教育集团就有一种理念——“学生为先”，这不是说以头部学生为先，而是以所有学生为先。
我在苏州立达中学担任校长时，就提出“差异化教学”的理念。每个孩子都是不同的，孩子和孩子之间肯定存在差异，我们要做的不是消灭孩子之间的差异，让所有孩子都和能够考清北的孩子一样，这不太可能实现。
我们要顺应孩子的个性化成长和发展，给他们更多的支持、足够的土壤和养分，让每个孩子都能以适合自己的方式成长，这是最关键的。所以，在德闳也好、德威也好，我觉得我们的理念是相通的，我们希望每个孩子都能真正成为他希望成为的自己。
每个孩子的认知倾向和学习能力都是不一样的。加德纳的“多元智能理论”告诉我们：每个孩子的学习方式都不一样——有的孩子是倾听型，不善于交流，只是倾听；有的孩子是互动型，在学习的过程当中需要不断地提问才能学好；有的孩子是动手型，可能不会问也不会写，但是可以动手。
如果一个小男孩在幼儿园时经常把玩具全部拆散，你常会发现这其实是他的学习方式。在每个孩子的成长的过程中，非常重要的是我们是否能够关注他的认知倾向和学习能力，从而给他一个适合发展的平台。就我们目前的教育方式而言，相对来说能做的还是比较少，原因在于我们现在还在延续着几百年前的班级授课制，也就是一个班所有的目标都是一样的，所有的孩子都按照同一个教学标准大纲学习。
其实真正的教育是跟人走的。杜威有一句话：教育的目的是什么？教育本无目的，只是人和社会给了它目的。苏州中学新学的创办者汪懋祖先生原来是北师大的教务长，他也是杜威的学生，他曾经讲过一句经典名言，要让学生“有转移环境之能力，不为不良环境所屈服”。我对教育目的的理解，就是来自于对杜威先生的理解、对西方教育的理解，关注的更多是人本身。
人的成长要比外在目的更重要，也就是我们现在所说的“儿童立场”，从孩子身上去发掘我们应该怎么教育，而不是把所有目的和观点灌输给他。虽然孩子最终要适应社会的发展，但是我们首先要探索清楚孩子本身的成长规律。所以教育对于我们来说是两方面的：一方面是我们要给孩子什么；另一方面是孩子需要什么样的成长。这两方面要结合起来，这也是中西文化存在差异和需要融合的地方。
杜威有一句话，“教育即生长”，生长是指人的自然发展，教育就是帮助一个人在自然的环境中不断成长。我们结合中西方的教育，就要把这两种观点融合在我们的实际行动中。一方面我们要结合国内课程的优势，让孩子的知识体系有更好的发展，因为这是社会和国家发展的需要；另一方面，我们绝对不能忽略人的发展需要，我们要做好全人教育。所以，我们在课程中要建立两个体系，一个是社会发展需要的体系，同时我们也要找到孩子发展的天地。
京领：作为学校的校长，在工作中，您是如何践行学校的理念和文化的？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：其实做校长最头疼的是，你有很好的理念，但是具体实施起来，只有校长一个人做是不行的，你要有一个很好的师资队伍来理解、贯彻你的理念。或者你和老师不断碰撞、互相学习，从老师身上获得更好的提升，这些都是必须要做的事。
有的家长选择学校是因为校舍很好，有的因为课程很好，有的因为校长很好，但这三个都不是最主要的，最重要的是学校的老师好，因为老师是落实教学的最根本的因素，没有老师等于没有学校。
所以对于我们来说，我们要非常重视老师的培养和培训。首先要招到与自己志同道合的老师，这样才能落实自己的理念。当老师进入学校后，由于他们之间肯定存在差异，比如工作能力、知识体系、与人交往等方面的差异，那么，如何去很好地融合他们就是管理需要解决的问题。
首先，我们一定要知道，每名老师都有其优势，也都有其不足之处。但是就像看学生一样，我们一定要放大老师的优势，通过各种各样的培训让老师弥补不足，通过各种管理机制将优秀的老师用到合适的岗位上，这样才有助于我们学校整体的发展和管理。
苏州德威8月15日开学，我们从8月1日就开始了长达两个星期的教师培训。给所有的老师进行专业的信息化培训，目的就是让老师清楚我们的理念，并且把这个理念落实到课堂教学的每一分钟去，落实到和学生的交往当中去。
当然，我们还是会存在这样或者那样的问题，看到问题就要不断去解决。因为每名老师都是不一样的，因此，互相切磋、互相帮助，形成团队互助尤为重要。这也是我们中国教育的一个特色优势，我们通过备课组、教研组让老师们不是一个人在战斗，而是一个团队在战斗。我觉得团队建立起来了，才是实施理念的一个根本，这是我的观点。
引领孩子主动“觅食”，
助力终身成长
02
京领：您认为学校应如何定位和发展自身特色？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：学校的定位在于区位和学生群体。苏州工业园区德威联合书院扎根在苏州工业园区，服务于苏州尤其是苏州工业园区的经济和社会事业的发展，与此同时，满足家长对于教育的多元化需求。但最主要的是关注学生的发展，学校要用自己优质的课程来促进学生的发展，让学生成为完整的人。在德威，我们充分利用苏州工业园区的国际化资源优势和德威所在的EiM集团的全球教育资源优势来为学生的发展服务。
京领：在学校建设方面，苏州德威有哪些创新性的尝试和实践？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：学校建设要满足课程实施的需求，因此，学校建设也是由内而外的。学习空间布局、活动场所布局和生活场所布局都围绕学生的学习需求和课程实施而展开。我们的课程需要学生有大量的走班教学，因此，在空间布局方面会满足有效走班的需求。与此同时，为了保证教师有更多与学生接触的机会和时间，教师的办公空间和学生的学习空间也是交错融合的。
京领：在您看来，苏州德威的最大竞争力是什么？应当如何发展和继续保持这种竞争力？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：苏州德威的竞争力来自于教师团队和充分的学习资源。我们有完善的教师招聘体系和严格的教师管理和培训体系，这是确保教学质量的根本。德威的外教比例很高，优质的外教团队得益于我们对外教的严格筛选和高质量的培训。
与此同时，EiM集团在全球的十多所学校、一万多名学生、上千名教师的资源可以与苏州德威共享。苏州德威的学生几乎每个月都有机会参加集团组织的各项活动，其中包括戏剧节、科技竞赛、体育比赛（如德威奥林匹亚运动会）、音乐节和艺术节等活动。学生也有更多机会参与高层次的全球学科竞赛。
京领：苏州德威不仅是德威在苏州的分校，而且本身已经有了强大的品牌效应，您觉得目前学校还有哪些需要提升的地方？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：我刚担任苏州德威的中方校长，还在深入了解情况，这需要一段时间。当然，任何学校都有需要提升的地方，从我的角度讲，我们学校现在提供的是A-Level体系课程，应该更关注如何能与现在的国内课程体系做好衔接。因为我们学校只有高中，很多孩子可能是双语学校、国际学校出来的，但是绝大部分孩子是公立学校出来的，他们怎么转化到国际课程体系中？尽管A-Level和国内体系的衔接相对来说比较顺畅，但学习方式上还会存在一些差异。
如果这些孩子今后到国外去学习，进入大学以后要获得成功，仅有考试分数还是不够的。我们完全可以像很多高中那样进行A-Level考试的培训，让孩子就是为了得高分，这样做也并不是太难。但是真正对孩子负责的做法，不只是要有培训出来的高分，更主要的还是要让孩子今后进入大学取得成功、走上人生取得成功。
我们德威有句话，“成长于德威，绽放于人生”，听起来好像是一个口号，但事实上我们希望看到孩子能够在今后的人生道路上走得更远。这就要我们动脑筋去想，怎么让孩子有一个很好的过渡？很多孩子来了以后，习惯于老师给他“喂”东西，但是到了大学，老师不会主动地将知识给学生，所以这就需要一个过渡的课程体系。
其实这对我们来说是一个非常严峻的挑战。由于现在的国内教育越来越卷，孩子们可能越来越依赖于老师将所有的课余时间都安排好。这就会造成一个问题，一旦给孩子自习时间，而不是让他们做作业的时候，这些孩子就不知道该做什么了。其实从老师“喂”给孩子，到孩子主动去“觅食”的过程，就是不同教育理念过渡的过程。
一个从小读国际化学校的孩子可能比较适应，因为他知道自己的目标是什么，于是不断朝着目标前进。但是从其他体系过来的孩子就可能会产生这样的问题，甚至会形成焦虑，这个焦虑来自于不知道怎么去适应这样的学习方法。很多家长担心全英文上课孩子听不听得懂，这种焦虑其实是不必的，作为英语老师，我可以说孩子在入学一个月后基本上都能听懂，但是学习方法的适应有时候是一个痛苦的过程。
京领：您觉得苏州德威接下来的发展目标和规划是什么？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：再高的目标，如果没有一步一个脚印地去做好，也等于没有目标。所以我们目前要把所有工作都从每个细节上把握好，我觉得这就是最重要的工作目标。
从大的方向来说，我们现在正在探索如何将国内课程和国际课程的体系更好地融合。从更小的方面来说，我是一个管理者，更多的是要关注管理细节，把细节做到位了，目标也就实现了。
京领：您认为苏州德威接下来应该如何持续提升影响力？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：我觉得提升影响力最主要的是“练好内功”。影响力就在于我们的内部机制、内部管理等各方面，还有家长的满意度。我可以说我的学校有多好，但是人家是不是认同？最主要的是家长和学生说好，那才是真的好。所以我觉得我们的心思应该更多地放在脚踏实地把学校的管理做好，让学生能够有很好的发展，让家长能够对学生的发展感到满意，这是最根本的。
尊重差异，培养创新人才
03
京领：您认为面向未来的教育模式是怎样的？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：未来教育将更注重人的个性化发展，因此教育将更尊重每个个体的特殊性和差异性。适应大规模工业化发展的传统班级授课制会渐渐被适合人的个性发展并以数字化学习为依托的自适应学习方式所取代。学校教育会更加趋向于线上线下相结合的“混合式学习”。
京领：学生的学习质量对于学校和家长都至关重要，请问您在提升学生学习质量方面有何见解和建议？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：学习能力是关系学生学习质量的重要维度。首先是要有明确的“学习内驱力”。要有自我规划、自我约束的能力，而不只是迫于老师、家长和考试的外在动力。其次是要学会“探究”。不仅仅是要通过学习来知道标准答案，更要通过学习来质疑和探究，寻找合理方案。也就是说：不是等着老师来喂给你什么，而是主动地去发现问题，通过探索和实践来寻求解决问题的最佳方案。还有合作学习的能力，学生是否既会团队合作又会合理竞争？合作学习的能力是学习能力中不可或缺的一部分。
由于普遍应试的教育现状，一部分孩子把通过升学考试作为学习的唯一驱动力，导致一完成关键性的考试，有的孩子会把书和试卷撕了，把课桌椅给砸了，认为苦学到了尽头。一些孩子尽管考试成绩不错，但进了大学就已经没有学习的内驱力了，甚至出现了逃课、沉迷网络、考试作弊、论文代写等问题。这是我们教育的悲哀，因为进了大学才是学术生涯的真正起步，学习应该是终身的。
德威“终身学习者”理念的背后就是把学生当成人，而不是通过考试的机器。从学校教育的角度讲，让孩子成为“终身学习者”要比“让孩子考出好分数”难得多。对解题技巧的研究、对出题思路的预判和对孩子刷题能力的训练其实要比“研究孩子的认知倾向、发现孩子的独特优势，鼓励孩子探究创新、发展孩子的高阶思维而不是刷题能力和记忆能力”难上百倍。
我在30多年教师生涯中也曾经帮助过孩子们“刷题”应考，但我更喜欢做孩子自我发展内驱力的导师，我想这是德威学生与众不同的根源。另外，孩子的成长是要付出代价和经历各种挑战的，包括失败和犯错的挑战。在德威，我们不怕孩子失败和犯错，而把这些作为学习体验的重要部分。我们会鼓励孩子从失败和犯错中寻找到人生的动力，成为一个能够在困境和逆境中成长的人。
这也正如你们看到的那样，德威在乎的是十年、二十年、三十年后，孩子还是那么乐观向上、那么充满热情、那么热爱学习。拥有在德威的学习经历后，你会看到他们的处事态度、合作能力和交流能力的深刻变化，这是他们未来迎接各种不期挑战的基础。
京领：您认为什么样的人可以被称为创新型人才？
苏州工业园区德威联合书院中方校长费建华：创新不是凭空产生的，因此，知识和能力的积累和储备必不可少，但今天的知识和能力可能会在未来被淘汰。我们今天无法离开的“智能手机”在不久的将来可能会被“元宇宙”的某种形态所取代，今天的“数学计算能力”可能会被未来的“编程语言运用能力”所取代。因此，我理解的创新型人才应该是在拥有一定知识储备和能力的基础上，不断进行批判性思考并付诸行动的人才。他们会不断地发现问题、分析问题，并通过研究来寻求解决问题的各种方案；他们会勇于试错并且不惧反复失败；他们能非常积极地面对挑战和挫折、具有包容性和共情能力、能全身心地投入他们热衷的事业，有终身学习能力和自我提升的期望。
English Version
Bridging the East and West,
Always Putting Students First
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KingLead: How did you get into the education industry? Could you tell us about your previous educational management experience?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: I started working with Dulwich in 2003. Back then, I was the vice-principal of Suzhou High School-SIP (SHS-SIP). When we founded SHS-SIP, local officials hoped that our school would be a more international and school rooted in Suzhou Industrial Park, capable of some international cooperation.
During that time, we discovered Dulwich College in the UK, which was also the first public school in the UK to go abroad to China. In 2003, Dulwich College established the first Dulwich International School in Shanghai, now called Dulwich College Shanghai. We had full contact with the principal of Dulwich College London at that time, and we admitted its brand. So, when we built the campus of Suzhou High School-SIP (SHS-SIP), we established a concept that we called the ‘global learning village’, which is a campus for children of expatriates located at a Chinese campus. This was a unique experiment in the country at that time, and we wanted to really understand the differences and similarities between the operation of schools for children of expatriates and Chinese local schools. We wanted to understand international education through this ‘experimental field’.
By 2006, we had successfully established Dulwich International High School Suzhou, and then, with the support of Suzhou Middle School, we established the ‘Dulwich International School Suzhou’ brand. In the process, I had more contact with this Dulwich International school, so I also learned more about the growth and development of Dulwich.
I was the vice principal of Suzhou Middle School at that time, and we had to communicate with the top leaders of Dulwich College almost every week. Even until now, our schools share playgrounds, theaters and other facilities. We send Chinese teachers to Dulwich College in London, and they also send teachers to tutor our English teachers. Students from our two schools also interact.
For me, I was an English teacher and have experience teaching overseas. I taught in the United States in 2001, so I hoped to absorb some excellent elements of international education and integrate them into our Chinese education. In 2015, I was the principal of Suzhou Lida Middle School, and at the same time, Dulwich College was going to start Dehong in Shanghai. I felt that this was an opportunity for me to better understand international schools and incorporate the advantages of international education into Chinese education, so I left Suzhou and founded Dehong in Shanghai. We started to build Dehong in 2015 and officially opened it in 2017. It’s already been 5 years!
KingLead: What is your philosophy for running a school? How did your experience of working in the field of international education affect the way that you look at education?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: During my five years in Dehong, I saw that the development of the school had become more and more in line with my vision; that is, the elements of the international curriculum had been integrated with the basis of the Chinese curriculum. As a Chinese principal, I think Chinese curriculum has many advantages, but we would like to integrate some features of international courses on the basis of Chinese courses. This is a lofty goal, but in the process of implementation, we knew we will encounter various problems. Combining two independently excellent ideas together may not always turn out equally excellent. We must learn from each others’ strengths and fully use and practice our own strengths. At the same time, we will certainly face difficulties.
The Chinese national curriculum is a complete and systematic framework, which is based on our strict curricular system. International courses, especially British courses, emphasize holistic education, integration between different courses, innovative literacy, critical thinking, experiential learning, etc. We also have these elements in our domestic curriculum, but there are some challenges in implementing them.
I think that every child is different, but if we attribute the success of education only to whether the child can enter a so-called ‘top university’ or not, that means in fact, we only focus on the top students. We do need to pay attention to the top students and give them proper space to develop, which is very important.
However, many people regard the number of students admitted to top schools like Tsinghua University and Peking University as the only criterion for judging the quality of a school’s education results, which leads to a certain degree of neglect of the ’middle-level’ or ‘lower-level’ students. However, in terms of judging a person, there are actually no such ‘middle-level’ or ‘lower-level’ children. Dulwich Education Group has a philosophy – ‘student first’ - which does not mean to put the top students first, but to put all students first.
When I was the principal of Suzhou Lida Middle School, I put forward the concept of ‘differentiated teaching’. Every child is different, and there must be differences between children. What we need to do is not to eliminate the differences between children and make all children the same as the children who can pass the entrance test for Tsinghua University or Peking University. This is unlikely to be achieved.
Instead, we must adapt to each child’s individual growth and development and give them more support – enough ‘soil’ and ‘nutrients’ so that each child can grow up in a way that suits them. This is the most important thing. Therefore, in either Dehong Schools or Dulwich International Schools, the educational philosophy is the same. We hope that every child can truly become who they want to be.
Every child has different cognitive tendencies and learning abilities. Gardner's ‘Multiple Intelligences Theory’ tells us that every child learns differently - some children are good at listening, but not at communicating; some children are more interactive and need to learn in the process of asking questions; some children are hands-on, but may not be good at asking questions or writing essays.
If a little boy in kindergarten is constantly taking his toys apart, you will often find that this is actually how he learns. In the process of each child's growth, it is very important whether we can pay attention to their cognitive tendencies and learning abilities, so as to give them a suitable path for development. As far as our current education method is concerned, there is still relatively little we can do. The reason is that we are still practicing pedagogy from hundreds of years ago. That is, all the goals of a class are the same. Children all follow the same syllabus.
In fact, the real education is to follow people’s development. Dewey once said: What is the purpose of education? Education has no purpose; only people and society give it purpose. The founder of Suzhou High School New School, Wang Maozu, was originally the provost of Beijing Normal University, and he was also a student of Dewey. He once said that students should ’have the ability to change the environment and not succumb to a bad environment’. My understanding of the purpose of education comes from Mr. Dewey and from Western education, which is focusing more on people themselves.
The growth of a person is more important than the external purpose, which is what we now call the ‘children's position"’: to discover how we should educate from the child, rather than instilling all the purposes and viewpoints into them. Although children eventually have to adapt to the development of society, we must first explore the laws of their own growth. Therefore, education for us has two aspects: on the one hand, what we want to give our children; on the other hand, what kind of growth the children need. These two aspects should be combined, and this is also the place where there are differences between Chinese and Western cultures that need to be integrated.
Dewey had a saying: ’Education is growth’. Growth refers to the natural development of a person, and education is to help a person growing in a natural environment. When we combine Chinese and Western education, we must integrate these two viewpoints into our practical actions. On the one hand, we must combine the advantages of domestic courses to help children's knowledge develop better because this is necessary for social and national development; on the other hand, we must not ignore the developmental needs of people, so we must practice good, holistic education. Therefore, we need to establish two systems in the curriculum: One is the system required by social development, and at the same time, the other one must benefit each child’s development.
KingLead: As the principal of the school, how do you practice the school's philosophy and culture at work?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: In fact, the most troublesome thing about being a principal is that even if you have a good idea, but in practice, it is not enough for the principal to do it alone. You have to have a good teaching staff who are capable of implementing your ideas, or you and your teacher continue to have conflict while learning from each other, improving as a result. These are all things that must be done.
Some parents choose one school because the school buildings are extraordinary; some because the curriculum is good; and some because the principal is very good, but these three are not the most important. The most important thing would be that the school's teachers are good because the teachers are the essence of implementing the teaching in the school. No good teachers are equal to no school.
So for us, we must attach great importance to the cultivation and practical training of teachers. First of all, you must recruit teachers who share the same values and vision as you, so that you can implement your ideas. When teachers enter the school, there must be some differences between them, such as differences in competence, knowledge, and communication. How to integrate them well is a problem that management needs to solve.
First of all, we must know that every teacher has specific strengths and weaknesses, but just like how we treat our students, we must magnify the strengths of teachers, improve the gaps in their knowledge, and use excellent teachers in suitable positions through good managemet, so as to help the overall development and management of our school.
This semester, Dulwich International High School Suzhou started on August 15th, and we started our two-week teacher training from August 1st. The purpose of providing training to all teachers is to make teachers clear about our philosophy, and to implement it into every minute of a class and communication with students.
Of course, we will still have problems of one kind or another, and we must continue to solve them when we see them. Because every teacher is different, it is especially important to learn from each other, help each other, and form a team to support each other. This is also a characteristic advantage of our Chinese education. Through lesson preparation groups and teaching groups, teachers are not fighting alone, but as a team. I think that the establishment of the team is the foundation of the implementation of this concept. This is my point of view.
Helping Students “Hunt” for Knowledge to Help Them Grow
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KingLead: Could you please tell us what your opinion is on how to understand the position of a school and develop its unique features and characteristics?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: The school's orientation should be based on its location and student. Dulwich International High School Suzhou is rooted in Suzhou Industrial Park, so firstly, its purpose is to serve the economic and social development of Suzhou, especially the Suzhou Industrial Park itself, and at the same time, meet the diverse needs of parents for education. But the most important thing is to pay attention to the development of students. The school should use its own high-quality courses to promote the development of students and make each student become a whole person. At Dulwich, we take full advantage of the international resources of Suzhou Industrial Park and the global educational resources of the EiM Group, of which Dulwich is a part, to serve the development of students.
KingLead: In terms of school construction, what innovative attempts and practices does Dulwich International High School Suzhou have?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: School construction must meet the needs of curriculum implementation. Therefore, school construction should be from the inside out. The layout of learning, activity, and living spaces are all developed around students' learning needs and the curriculum. Our courses require students to have classes under the class-selection-system-teaching method; therefore, the space layout will meet the needs of effective classroom teaching. At the same time, in order to ensure that teachers have more opportunities and time to contact students, teachers' office spaces and students' learning space ares also staggered and integrated.
KingLead: In your opinion, what is the greatest competitive advantage of Dulwich International High School Suzhou? How do you develop and maintain it?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: The competitive advantage of Dulwich International High School Suzhou comes from the team of teachers and learning resources. We have a complete teacher recruitment system and a strict teacher management and training system, which are fundamental to ensure the quality of teaching. Dulwich has a high proportion of foreign teachers, and our high-quality foreign teachers benefit from our strict selection of foreign teachers and high-quality training.
At the same time, we share the resources of the EiM Group, in which there are more than ten schools, more than 10,000 students, and thousands of teachers around the world. Students in our school have the opportunity to participate in various activities organised by the EiM group almost every month, including drama festivals, technology competitions, sports competitions (such as the Dulwich Olympia Games), music festivals, and arts festivals. Students also have more opportunities to participate in high-level global academic competitions.
KingLead: Dulwich International High School Suzhou is not only one campus of Dulwich College in Suzhou, but also has a strong brand. What do you think the school still needs to improve?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: I just became the Chinese Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou, and I am still learning more about the school right now. It will take some time. Of course, any school has areas that need to be improved. From my point of view, our school now provides courses in the A-Level system, and we should pay more attention to how to connect with the current domestic curricular system. Due to our school only being a high school, while many children may transfer from bilingual schools or international schools, most of the children come from public schools. How can they be acculturated into the international curriculum system? Although the connection between A-Level and the domestic system is relatively smooth, there are still some differences in learning methods.
If these children study abroad in the future, their test scores alone will not be enough to succeed in college. We can train for A-Level exams like many high schools, and it is not too difficult for children to get high scores, but the real responsibility for children is not only to have high scores from training, but also to let children succeed in college and life in the future.
We at Dulwich have a saying: ‘Grow in Dulwich, thrive in life’, it sounds like a slogan, but in fact we hope to see children can go further in the future. This requires us consider how to make a child have a smooth transition before and after their education here? After many children come, they are accustomed to ‘being fed’ things from the teacher, but when they arrive at the university, the teacher will not take the initiative to give knowledge to the students, so this requires a transitional curricular system.
In fact, this is a very serious challenge for us. As domestic education is becoming more and more competitive, children may become more and more dependent on teachers to keep all their after-school hours in order. This generates a problem in which children don't know what to do when they are given time for self-study instead of homework. In fact, the process from the teacher ‘feeding’ the children to children start to taking the initiative to ‘hunting’ is the process of transitioning between different educational philosophies.
A child who grew up in an international school may be more comfortable because they know what their goals are and keep moving toward them. But children from other systems may have these problems and could even develop anxiety, which comes from not knowing how to adapt to a more independent style of learning. Many parents worry that their children will not understand all their English classes. This anxiety is actually unnecessary. As an English teacher, I can say that children can basically understand after a month of school, but the adaptation to new ways of learning is sometimes a difficult process.
KingLead: What are the development objectives and plans for Dulwich International High School Suzhou?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: No matter how high the goal is, if it is not done step by step, it means that there is no goal., so we have to grasp every detail of all work in the moment. I think this is the most important work goal at the moment.
In general, we are now exploring how to better integrate the domestic courses and international courses. From a ‘zoomed-in’ perspective, as a manager of the school, I am more concerned with the details of management. When the details are in place, the goal can be achieved.
KingLead: How do you think Dulwich International High School Suzhou will continue to improve its influence in the future?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: I think the most important thing to improve influence is to continuously develop our school better and stronger. Our influence lies in our internal mechanisms and management, as well as the satisfaction of parents. I can say how good my school is, but whether people agree with me or not? The most important thing is that parents and students agree that we are good, which is important. So I think our mind should be more down-to-earth and to manage the school well, so that students can develop and parents can be satisfied with the development of their children. That is the foundation.
Respecting Differences and
Cultivating Talent
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KingLead: In your opinion, what should a future-oriented education model look like?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: In the future, education will pay more attention to the individualized development of people, so education will pay more attention to the particularities and differences of each individual. The traditional class teaching system that adapts to the development of large-scale industrialization will gradually be replaced by adaptive learning methods that are suitable for the development of human personality and based on digital learning. School education will be more inclined to ‘blended learning’, combining online and offline teaching.
KingLead: The quality of students' learning is very important to both schools and parents. Do you have any insights and suggestions on improving the quality of students' learning?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: Learning ability is an important dimension related to the quality of students' learning. The first is to have a clear ‘learning drive’, which includes having the ability to plan ahead and be self-disciplined, rather than just be forced by the external motivation of teachers, parents and exams. The second is to learn to ‘inquire and explore’. It is not only to know the standard answer through learning, but also to question and explore your learning to find a reasonable solution. That is to say: Instead of waiting for the teacher to feed you the knowledge, you should take the initiative to discover problems and seek the best solution to those problems through exploration and practice. The next is also to have the ability to learn cooperatively. Will students work in teams and compete reasonably? The ability to learn cooperatively is an integral part of learning ability.
Due to the current state of education, which is generally test-oriented, some children regard passing the entrance examination as the only driving force for learning. As a result, after completing the key tests, some children will tear up their books and test papers, smash their desks and chairs, and think that their hard work has finally come to an end. Although some children have good test scores, they have no internal drive to study after entering the university, and some of them even have problems such as skipping classes, indulging in the Internet, cheating in exams or essays, etc. This is the problem of our education because entering university is the real start of an academic career, and learning should be life-long.
Behind the 'lifelong learner' philosophy of Dulwich is treating students as human beings, not exam-passing machines. From a schooling perspective, it is much harder to make a child a ‘lifelong learner’ than to ‘make that child get good grades. The research on problem-solving skills, the pre-judgment of the idea of a problem, and the training of children's ability to solve problems are actually a hundred times more difficult than ’studying children's cognitive tendencies, discovering children's unique advantages, encouraging children to explore and innovate, and developing children's higher-order thinking’.
In my more than 30 years of teaching, I have also helped children take exams, but I prefer to be a tutor of children's drive to self-development. I think this is the reason why Dulwich students are different. Plus, sometimes it would cost some challenges even failures for children to grow up. At Dulwich, we are not afraid of children failing and making mistakes, instead, we see them as an important part of the learning experience. We will encourage children to find motivation in life from failures and mistakes, becoming a person who can grow up through adversity.
This is also, as you can see, what Dulwich cares about: that ten, twenty, thirty years later, the children are still so optimistic, so enthusiastic and so fond of learning. After studying at Dulwich, you will see profound changes in their attitude, cooperation, and communication skills, which are the foundation for them to meet unexpected challenges in the future.
KingLead: What kind of people do you think can be called innovative talents?
Fei Jianhua, Principal of Dulwich International High School Suzhou: Innovation is not created out of nowhere. Therefore, the accumulation and reserve of knowledge is essential, but today's knowledge and capabilities may be eliminated in the future. The ‘smartphone’ that we cannot put down today may be replaced by some form of ‘metaverse’ in the near future, and what we call ‘mathematical computing power’ today may be replaced by the ‘programming language ability’ of the future. Therefore, the innovative talents, as I understand it, should be those who, on the basis of certain knowledge and abilities, constantly think critically and put ideas into action. They will continue to identify problems, analyze problems, and research to find solutions to those problems. They will have the courage to trial and error and not afraid of repeated failure; they can face challenges and setbacks very positively, can be inclusive and empathetic, have the ability to devote themselves fully to their passions, and possess the life-long learning ability and hold some self-improvement expectations all the time.