1.  Support System for Rural Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development -A case from China
Dr. ZHAO Yuchi
UNESCO International Research and Training Centre
for Rural Education (INRULED)

2. Background: education transformation since 2000
● Universalization of nine-year compulsory education and achieving the goal of basic adult literacy; but many counties in central and western China still face tough challenges; ● Priority transferred from quantity development to quality improvement; ● New National Curriculum for 9-year compulsory education.

3. Background: main actions targeting rural teachers since 2000
Increasing Teacher Resource Pool
1. National Free Teacher Education Programme,2007;
2. Special Teaching Post Plan for Rural Schools, 2006;
3. “Dinggang” Internship Programme for student teachers;
4. Deploy urban teachers to teach for a certain period in rural schools;
5. Volunteer programmes supported by different organizations.
Improving Teacher Quality and for Teachers’ Professional Development
1. ICT Integration in Rural Classrooms: Modern Distance Education Project in Primary and Middle Schools in Rural China;
2. National Training Plan for Primary and Secondary School Teachers;
3. National Teacher Education Network Alliance：founded in 2003 to provide teacher training resource through distance education;
4. Subject group and teaching research system.
normal universities,

4. Challenges for Rural Teachers
Poor resources and poor access/ communications so teachers feel they are ‘out of the system’;
Least experienced and / untrained or underqualified teachers;
Little / no support / feeling of isolation;
Large-sized class, teaching in bilingual/multi-lingual context, children with special needs;
Over workload/lack of incentives/ underpaid.

5. Weaknesses of traditional teacher training-Cascade model
Traditional teacher training: large, centralized, one-time (Cascade model)
Lack of transfer of new knowledge or methods to classroom practice due to the one-shot limited nature of intervention;
Curricula and training materials often developed in isolation from the needs of teachers;
Lack of qualified trainers to give good quality and meaningful training, and training focusing very much on theory but little on practice;
Logistics and delivery problems consumed good quality activities that might have an impact;
High cost of this model requiring teachers to spend a lot of time away from their posts, requiring payment for transportation, daily allowances and accommodation.

6. SBEP and Teacher Support System
Southwest Basic Education Project (SBEP)
Targeting the most disadvantaged
Capacity building/ownership
To support government policies and priorities
Teacher Support System (TSS)
To establish township-level TLRC as the entity which aim to promote the sustained development of teachers’ professionalism;
To promote the existing school-based system in project counties, townships and schools which is characterized by regular study of teaching theories, joint lesson planning and research in teaching practice;
To embed a variety of activities such as classroom observation and feedback, mentoring systems and classroom action research so as to give follow up support to classroom teachers after face to face training was delivered.

7. A shared understanding of TSS:
The group of teachers that serves as a network of exchange and support;
The presence of a group of facilitators (mentor, tutor, trainer or supervisor) who provide support for classroom practice, professional development and in-service courses;
The space that is called the ‘teacher resource centre’, which may house meeting facilities, a lending library, reprographic materials and ICT tools(telephone, fax, internet);
The mechanism for function, progress management and monitoring.

12. Outcomes:
Capacity of teacher training and support system enhanced;
All teacher received training through TSS;
Continuous support (follow-up support after large-size training) provided to teachers;
More resources were available to and used by teachers;
Positive changes in teaching and learning.

13. Lessons learned
Meeting local needs/ participatory/ownership;
Decentralized system/localized support;
Follow-up support/peer support;
Include all teachers in learning;
Build on the existing system but not a separate.

14. Another good practice of TSS in China
Teacher Support and Service System: Mentoring System, MoE-UNICEF cooperation;
Indicators for monitoring and evaluation of teacher support and service system formulated.

15. Thank you.
ZHAO Yuchi
Tel: