COVID-19 has a huge negative impact on the world, and education worldwide is facing unprecedented challenges. To explore how to develop quality education in the post-pandemic era and seek solutions to the education problems worsened by the corona virus, ZJU’s College of Education held an online international summer school on Quality Education for A Post-Pandemic World from July 12 to 31, to discuss the development and reform of education in the future with the world's top education experts.

Professors from global universities will participate in this summer school and provide students with advanced studies on the dynamics of international education and reform tendencies during COVID-19. The themes of the lectures includes high quality preschool education, the application of modern educational technology in teaching, science education and health education, quality higher education and relevant research methods.

On July 12, Professor CHENG Ming from Edge Hill University presented a report entitled “Quality Evaluation in Higher Education: Views of Key Stakeholders”. She first described the differences among various types of universities in the UK, and then explored the pros and cons of evaluating quality for management purposes in higher education. On the basis of five completed research projects, she critically reviewed the four most commonly used terms related to quality assessment: fitness for purpose, value for money, student satisfaction and students as customers. She also discussed the experience of scholars and students and their views on higher quality education, and criticized the trend of indexing assessment of quality higher education. Professor Cheng further discussed with the participants on the differences between Chinese and British higher education evaluation, teachers' professionalism and education evaluation in the information age. The students benefited quite a lot from this meeting.

On July 14th, Professor Justin Dillon, from Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter, reported on the new pedagogy of science, environment and health in the post-pandemic era. Professor Dillon first introduced the content of science, environment and health education in schools, and proposed the need to update the existing curriculum structure and content, and explained with the case studies of science education in Europe and the United States. From the background of COVID-19's global transmission, he discussed that a social justice informed approach towards shaping a vision for science education in the post-pandemic era is of paramount importance and that failure to do so will only serve as a way of perpetuating existing inequalities. He also put forward ideas to invite community to engage with pressing issues in science education and promote the development of science education. After the lecture, the students were divided into groups to discuss relevant topics in this lecture, and then discussed with the professor about the identity and role of scientists in science education.

Photo by WAN Nian

Author: WANG Qinyuan, PAN Lu, WAN Nian