Guest
Shi Pei
Interview Background
After she, the principal of this public junior high school that once faced challenges of “insufficient academic abilities of students, low effectiveness of teachers, and lacking school vitality”, adopted measures such as “targeted education”, “confidence nurturing”, and “characteristic cultivation”, the school’s “education and teaching condition has been significantly improved, educational features strengthened, and overall educational quality enhanced, leading to a significant increase in parents’ satisfaction with the school”. Particularly noteworthy is the school’s performance in the “‘Green Indicators’ Comprehensive Evaluation of Junior High School Academic Quality in Shanghai”, where the school’s “students’ self-confidence and learning motivation” index has rapidly increased, while the myopia rate among students has continued to decrease. The school received praise from both the education system and society. In today’s program, we have invited Ms. Shi Pei to share her story with us.
Presenter:
Established in 1985, Shanghai Pengpu No.4 Middle School was originally an average public junior high school located in Jing’an District. In recent years, however, with the policy guidance of the “School Strengthening Project for One Hundred Public Junior High Schools in Shanghai” and fueled by regional forces, this once-struggling public junior high school has successfully navigated its way out of the obstacles it faced with regards to student enrollment from its designated catchment area and experienced a rejuvenation. How did you feel when you first arrived at the school?
Shi Pei:
In the eyes of the students, there seemed to be a lack of the youthful energy and radiance that children should possess at this age. Students should not be categorized as “good” or “bad”, as each possesses his unique talent and strength. As a public junior high school adhering to the concept of “Including the Excluded”, the school acknowledges the objective differences among students, and it is each educator’s responsibility to ensure that each student has the opportunity to develop and grow. If we teach all children with the same content and teaching methods and use a standardized criterion to judge and educate them, their individuality will go unnoticed, and their growth will remain unfulfilled. In recent years, therefore, I have fully utilized the advantages of small-size classes to explore “targeted education”.
Presenter:
How do you deal with students’ differences and respect their individuality? And on this basis, how do you provide tailored education for each child, offering fair, high-quality, and balanced education to each of them?
Shi Pei:
How to create opportunities and platforms for every teacher to realize their value is an issue I have constantly been pondering since I became principal. In this process, I have led our teachers to develop the “Pengsi · Shouzheng” course series, with “Traditional Chinese Culture” as the main theme. The series covers four major course areas: “Volitional Quality, Humanity and Arts, Scientific Innovation, and Physical & Psychological Health”. Those captivating and diverse courses provide abundant resources for students’ growth and help them develop both comprehensively and individualistically.
Shi Pei:
Furthermore, based on the personality differences of students, we have implemented targeted education: Supported by information technologies and science learning, we conducted precise diagnosis of teachers’ teaching and students’ learning conditions. Dependent on the diagnosis, we established three development goals for teachers and students, namely confidence, self-governance, and autonomy. With the guidance of these goals, we formulated such four targeted teaching strategies as enriching intervention methods, restructuring teaching time and space, empowering students’ learning and growth, and emphasizing the orientation of student cultivation, as well as specific guiding approaches, including comfort in emotions, coaching in abilities, and assistance in methods. Additionally, we focused on students’ learning abilities and teachers’ teaching leadership to carry out accurate assessments. By doing so, we have continually refined our educational methods, consolidated the classes’ substantial results, and provided significant support for students’ growth.
Presenter:
In the process of implementing targeted education, what do you think is lacking for students or teachers before they become strong?
Shi Pei:
It might be “confidence”. Our nurturing of confidence is not done blindly, but rather based on the specific circumstances of the school, students, and teachers. Through targeted instruction, we enable children and teachers to enhance their confidence, find their directions, and identify suitable methods through correct comparison.
Presenter:
I heard that you’ve done a lot of detailed work in this area and witnessed many touching stories. Would you mind sharing some with us?
Shi Pei:
There was a child who had a rather challenging academic start when he first entered school. However, his interests were incredibly diverse, ranging from scientific innovation to sports, and he was also good at recitation. This ordinary student, in the traditional sense, participated in the inaugural “Future Media Professionals” Creative Practice Event, thanks to the encouragement from teachers and parents. Despite tough competitors, he persevered through each challenge and emerged as the recipient of the first-place award. Winning an award is a tremendous encouragement for children and also serves as a great opportunity to cultivate their interests and spark their motivation. Our school thus organized a grand award ceremony for him. While honors are temporary, identifying children’s strengths and providing them with continuous support and encouragement can drive them to explore and research. The child has now advanced to the ninth grade, showing steady improvement in his grades. The school’s support for his interests and hobbies hasn’t affected his academic performance, but actually helped him become a better version of himself.
Presenter:
What role does the nurturing of confidence play for teachers, as you mentioned earlier?
Shi Pei:
Confidence nurturing is crucial for teachers as well, not just for students. Teachers are the most valuable resources in schools. Only when our teachers have confidence and expectations will our children have vitality and a promising future. To motivate teachers and inspire their fighting spirit and confidence, I have also fine-tuned evaluation methods. We have proposed the principle of “Three Things to Compare and Not to Compare Respectively”, namely not comparing the starting point but the progress, not comparing abilities but efforts, and not comparing horizontally but vertically. We soothe teachers’ apprehensions, establish their self-confidence in their role, create a culture of learning from the accomplished, and foster a “learning to surpass” atmosphere. As a result, the entire teacher community has transformed.
Shi Pei:
The power of role models is limitless, and the guidance of spirits is profound. To further enhance the sense of happiness and achievement in work among teachers, I emphasize the creation of a “sense of occasion” in the school. Ceremonial activities are not merely formalities, but rather a catalyst for instilling a sense of mission, responsibility, and honor in individuals, which will, in turn, internalize as a sense of belonging and happiness. We insist on organizing a series of activities in our school called “Spreading the Good Voice of Our School”. Through the sharing of stories between teachers and students within the campus, we have summarized what is worth praising in the daily educational work of the teachers. This facilitates emotional resonance, intellectual alignment, and synchronized actions among those who share and listen to these stories.
Presenter:
I heard that another one of your traditional activities is the “Awarding Ceremony for Figures Touching the School” held at the end of each year, which is combined with a theme of welcoming new students.
Shi Pei:
Yes. I believe that solemn ceremonies and grand awarding can inspire teachers’ sense of pride and value, thereby awakening their enthusiasm for their work, their personal potential, and good humanity.
Presenter:
A wise principal, confident students, and responsible teachers — when these elements come together, they create a school that constantly moves forward. The transformation and remarkable turnaround of Shanghai Pengpu No.4 Middle School indeed fully demonstrates the full implementation and continuous optimization of Ms. Shi’s educational philosophy. Thank you for accepting our interview. We’ll see you next time.
Shi Pei:
Thank you. Good bye!