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A group of educators and officials gathered in Beijing on Dec 28 to make suggestions on implementation of the Opinions on Advancing Study Tours of Primary and Middle School Students jointly issued by 15 governmental departments like the Ministry of Education and the National Development and Reform Commission on Nov 30.
The seminar was hosted by Beijing Mind Education Technology Co (Mind Education), a leading organizer of study tours for children and students in China.
“Study tours are in essence a kind of experiential learning and the best supplementary means for classroom learning,” said Huang Bailian, former Party chief of the National Academy of Education Administration.
“Compared to the traditional curriculum taught in classrooms, a study tour presents features like irregularity, uncontrollability and non-continuity,” said Lin Weimin, principal of Beijing Foreign Languages School, affiliated to Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Lin called for further research on the study tour’s goals, contents, teaching modes, and assessments, and suggested teachers use information technology to combine the students’ backgrounds with the tour to make it more vivid and colorful. He also emphasized there should be a balance between cooperative learning and autonomous learning.
Mind Education’s CEO Wang Jingkai said study tours will become compulsory, programmatic and popular after they are included in the teaching plans of primary and middle schools.
“In a study tour, study is the goal, and the tour is a carrier,” he said.
A complete research and study tour should include at least five elements – curricula, itineraries, research and study bases, tutors and safety management solutions, according to the CEO.
Feng Jun, deputy director of the tourism development commission of Beijing’s Haidian district, said it’s highly technical to ensure that the students benefit from every activity during the tour. He attached a great deal of importance to tour planning in his speech.
CEO Wang called for a rational attitude on the study tour’s educational function, since students have different demands. He said a good travel product will benefit the industry.
Referring to “safety”, a basic principle and top priority in a study tour, the former deputy head of the basic education department of the Ministry of Education, Zheng Zengyi, urged security preparedness and called on raising students’ safety awareness.
Wang said his company has made great efforts to ensure students’ safety. It has set up a working committee for safety issues, made emergency plans for different occasions and incidents, and established standards for risk control. It has also held various publicity activities to promote students’ safety awareness.
