In the next 3 years, PCP aims to involve 20,000+ new teachers, with 14,000+ from rural China. The goal of PCP is to build 200 bases of salons in rural areas, influence 3 million students, and reach out to serve 1 million rural educators.
About the Project
This project is one of the 2019 WISE Awards finalists.
Peer Coaching Plan (PCP) connects rural teachers and facilitates peer mentoring, thus inspiring rural teachers to attain social recognition and stronger self-efficacy.
Context and Issue
Urban centralism and exam-oriented education constrain rural teachers’ professional experience. Manpower and resources are draining from the rural to the urban China. Rural teachers are “left behind”, with limited resources and students who struggle more with school, compared to their urban peers. The exam-oriented education system judges the teachers merely by scores of their students. Therefore, their labor is often neglected and underappreciated. Consequently, Fewer and fewer are willing to work as rural teachers. Low morale of the left-behind teachers poses an ostensible threat to the quality of rural education.
Solution and Impact
Peer Coaching Plan (PCP) connects rural teachers and facilitates peer mentoring, thus inspiring rural teachers to attain social recognition and stronger self-efficacy. PCP consists of 3 key mechanisms: a) Learn-by-Coaching Project, b) Dream Box, an online platform and c) self-organizing salons. The Learn-by-Coaching Project equips teachers to become coaches to mentor their peers. Dream Box supports the teachers to self-learn by downloading learning-kits and sharing teaching findings. PCP kickstarts salons for the teachers to meet, share and inspire, then they take over to operate the salons. PCP affirms the uniqueness and dignity of every teacher and treats them as equal collaborators.
Since 2010, in 3,000+ schools, 78,000+ teachers have participated in PCP, with 50,000+ rural teachers. Of all the 8,500+ beneficiary teachers in 2018, 2,400 turned into coaches who can then mentor new-coming teachers. In 2018, 78% of the teachers showed strong tendency to stay involved in PCP. Through inspired rural teachers, PCP has benefitted 2.6 million students.