According to the Report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), education’s reform and development are crucial in advancing in the new era. Education is fundamental, pioneering, and encompassing, with children and youth education being of utmost importance. From July 3 to 14, 2023, the College of Education hosted the highly anticipated 2023 Summer International School on Innovative Research on Children and Youth Education: Methods and Practices. Renowned experts from prestigious institutions such as the University of Nottingham and University College London were invited to deliver 18 offline and online lectures, fostering the theoretical foundation of research on children and youth through academic exchanges. The event saw participation from over 1,000 teachers, students, and international attendees.

On July 3, the inaugural event of the project titled University of Nottingham Symposium: International Education & Development was successfully held offline. The symposium featured esteemed speakers, including Professor Volker Wedekind,(Head of the School of Education at University of Nottingham),Professor Juliet Thondhlana, (UNESCO Chair in International Education and Development), Associate Professor Yuwei Xu and Assistant Professor Tingting Yuan from University of Nottingham. The event was presided over by Professor Junqing Zhai from the College of Education at ZJU.

During the event of the symposium, several distinguished speakers delivered insightful presentations. Professor Volker Wedekind discussed the reconceptualization of vocational education (TVET) in an African context, emphasizing its role in education, training and skill development across various vocational fields. Associate Professor Yuwei Xu's presented a comparative study on gender and early childhood education, raising questions about the universality of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly concerning gender sensitive education. Professor Juliet Thondhlana focused on the internationalization of higher education, delving into the North-South cooperation through a series of presentations. Additionally, Associate Professor Tingting Yuan  provided an overview of the Diploma of Education (PGCE) and analyzed the different abilities required by teachers at different stages.

On the morning of 4 July, Dr. Natalia Candido Vendrasco from Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, delivered alecture titled Mediation in the context of informal science education: the expertise of mediators and different mediation models, taking one of her research as an example.  She offered an intuitive and profound research experience, and further helped students to realize the role, importance and requirements of mediators in informal education.

On the afternoon of July 4, Professor Volker Wedekind and Associate Professor Yuwei Xu, both from University of Nottingham, UK, conducted the Academic Writing and Publishing Seminar which drew the attention of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as professionals with a keen interest in writing and publishing scholarly articles in English journals. The Q&A session that followed witnessed eager student participation. Students asked questions based on how to choose suitable English journals, how to solve writing difficulties, how to improve the level of undergraduate papers and other puzzles of their academic growth. The two keynote speakers gave succinct and insightful answers with their unique insights and rich experiences, and provided effective optimization paths.

On the afternoon of July 7, Associate Professor Maria Evagorou from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, began with a presentation entitled Rethinking argumentation as a thinking skill and practice in science education and beyond. She noted that argumentation is a core science practice that provides students with the necessary structure to develop their communication and discourse skills, helping them advance their level of scientific knowledge.

Dr. Kate Hoskins from Brunel University London, UK, followed up with a discussion on educational inequality and social mobility. She notes that neoliberal economic thinking and human capital theory provided the basis for social mobility policies, and that there is historical evidence that mobility rates increased after 1972.

Dr. Shirin Hine from King's College London, UK, finally shared Research practices and findings of forest schools in the United Kingdom, providing a crucial insight into all aspects of forest schools. Dr. Shirin explained various unexpected problems during the research process, presented some of her observations, and mentioned some of her work on environmental education outside of this project.

On the afternoon of July 10, Dr. Jie Gao, aresearcher at University College London, UK, delivered the keynote speech entitled Using playful research methods to explore young children’s perspectives on school readiness - A Chinese story. Dr. Gao demonstrated that the preschool activities that actually took place in the park could be part of the teachers' teaching program or activities with the children. In addition, these activities were a useful complement to game-based teaching methods.

On the afternoon of July 12, Refika Arabaci, Research Assistant at Brunel University London, UK, presented a fascinating presentation named Invisible Subject: Citizenship Education and its relation to identity and citizenship of KS3 students in England. Refika Arabaci with the students continued their in-depth discussion on the current state of citizenship education in the UK and shared their insights on the future development of citizenship education.

In addition, Professor Justin Dillon from University College London, UK, gave a lecture themed on From Citizen Science to Civic Science: Involving young people in authentic research. Professor Justin Dillon presented four levels of citizen science and illustrated through a series of vivid examples how teachers should design, organize, and implement an environmental education program, emphasizing the importance of a hands-on approach to education.

Lastly, Dr. Cao Ye from King’s College London, UK, provided definitions and explanations for essential concepts such as shadow education, internalization and double reduction policy. Four key research questions on shadow education were presented.  The discussion covered the current status and impactof shadow education and education internalization on Chinese parents' anxiety and middle school students' science participation.

On the morning of July 13, Ms. Jessica MacKeen, a Research Assistant at Dalhousie University, Canada, brought us a lecture titled Methods for Modifying and Determining the Psychometrics of a Games Testing Tool to Evaluate Preschooler's Connection to Nature. She adapted the previous playtesting tools to suit the Canadian population of children aged 3-5 years old, evaluated the validity and reliability of the measurement tools, and recommended expanding the sample size to explore psychometrics further. She also suggeested using and modifying the measurement tools in multiple geographical locations for a comprehensive analysis.

On the afternoon of July 13, Professor Heather King from King’s College London, UK, gave a background presentation on the topic Making and Creating in STEM Education, addressing the social issues facing educational practice and the perspectives of educational stakeholders.

Following that, Dr. Jill Hohenstein from King's College London, UK, presented the topic of Researching Parent-Child Conversations about Origins of Species. She pointed out that parent-child conversation had a more significant impact on which hypothesis of origin of species children accepted than their parents' own beliefs. At the same time, the frequency of different natural hypotheses in parent-child conversation affected children's cognition of species evolution to a certain extent, and was closely related to factors such as children's age and parents' education level.

On the afternoon of July 14, Associate Professor Tae Hee Choi from theUniversity of Southampton, UK, gave a lecture titled How Educational Policy Supports Low SES Students' Academic Achievement: Students' Experiences. Dr. Choi first introduced the background and key terms of related to Early Childhood Education (ECE). Subsequently, she analyzed the issues that need to be considered when drawing on ECE policies, citing examples such as English craze in Korea and the comprehensive development of children in Nepal.

Subsequently, Professor Simone Blom from Southern Cross University, Australia, introduced climate change and education from four perspectives with the title Listening to the voices of children, young people, and teachers in Australian Climate Change Education Research. She introduced the Climate Change+Me project, which aimed to help children and young people in countries around the world participate in climate change and research. In addition, Professor Simone Blom analyzed the significance of climate change education from the perspective of floods and participation of all, and made a summary of education in climate change.

This exchange was a vital part of the College of Education's Seeing the World - Global Competence Enhancement Program. By innovatively integrating online and offline approaches, fostering interactive classrooms, and building a new normal for international exchange, the college aims to promote international education, broaden students' global perspectives, cultivate globally competent talents, and enhance its internationalization level.

During the 2-week foreign exchange and learning activities, the students attentively listened to lectures by experts and scholars in the field of children and youth education. This experience further expanded their perspectives on research methods and ideas while deepening their understanding of diverse education issues in the international context. With gratitude to the teachers for their wonderful lectures and the students' active participation, the project Innovative Research in Children and Youth Education: Methods and Practices successfully concluded.

Edited by LONG Ting, YAO Xing, HE Siyu, SHEN Yan et al

Photo taken by Ying Wenqing, Wang Guolin et al