Shanghai Adream Charitable Foundation

ranted "public charitable foundation" status in 2014, becoming the first not-for-profit NGO in Shanghai to do so. Since 2008, Adream has endeavored to address the issue of differential access to quality educational resources and services in China. The foundation advocates a more humanistic educational philosophy to complement China's exam-based education system. This initiative intends to address a glaring gap in the country's current education system: the emphasis on knowledge acquisition and regurgitation at the expense of essential life skills and emotional maturity. Adream believes that education should cultivate students to become critical thinkers and doers. Adream's core initiative is the "Adream Center Network," a project designed to connect schools all over the country with one another, while providing professional development opportunities for local teachers and school administrators. Through the project's eponymous Adream Classrooms, local teachers are introduced to a different concept of education via the Adream Curriculum, an interdisciplinary curriculum that emphasizes critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, creative expression, and appreciation of cultural difference. This curriculum is designed with significant input from international and national educational institutions, multinational corporations, local teachers, and volunteers from civil society. The curriculum operates on the three following core principles:

1. Questions are more important than answers;
2. Methods are more important than knowledge;
3. Trust is more important than assistance. Now, what do these principles mean exactly? Simply put, they all point to our valorization of process over results; this emphasis on process is designed specifically to serve as a counterweight to the Chinese education system's valorization of results over process. Principle (1) encourages students to pose questions and to think critically about them. In contrast to the traditional model of education in China, where each question is invariably accompanied by a "standardized, conventional" answer, we encourage students to explore the possibilities. After all, real-life problems do not come with readymade solutions. Principle (2) focuses on the way students approach an issue as opposed to the result. It is great if one could achieve the desired results, but at what cost? We advocate rational approaches to problem solving - considering all the factors at play in an issue - as opposed to employing any means necessary to achieve an objective. The current context of China necessitates such a paradigm shift...

Principle (3) highlights the need for teachers to trust the intelligence of their students. In China, teachers will often resign themselves to providing "slower," "dim-witted" students the answers to certain problems instead of letting them work it out at their own pace. This constant intervention has the unfortunate effect of stunting the intellectual and emotional development of students, making them become over-reliant on authority figures to point the way for them. There is more than one way to approach a problem, and each individual perspective is just as valuable as conventional wisdom. Trust begets confidence. Assistance begets reliance. So how does Adream ensure that its curriculum is integrated into the local curricula? First, the foundation donates an "Adream Classroom" to the beneficiary school. The "Adream Classroom" is a modern multimedia classroom, replete with tablet computers, books (an 1000-book library, to be exact), electronic whiteboards, internet connection, and customizable furniture. In this classroom, students are arranged in groups instead of a rank-and-file manner that is characteristic of Chinese classrooms. The classroom walls are left blank - students are to project their imagination and creativity in filling in these blank spaces. By letting students decide on the form and content of their classroom, Adream wants them to feel a sense of ownership over this space, and therefore a sense of belonging and homeliness. Learning becomes much more enjoyable and interesting if the environment is a nourishing one. The foundation also conducts training programmes for local teachers, versing them in the curriculum's educational philosophy and in alternative instruction methodologies. The primary focus of these programmes is to help teachers make the transition from lecturers to learning facilitators. In other words, to help them become teachers who teach students how to learn, as opposed to what to learn. To incentivize teachers to change their ways, or at least to consider weaving parts of Adream's educational philosophy into their daily instruction, the foundation has established Adream Bank, an incentives program that rewards teachers for their participation in the curriculum. Teachers accumulate credits on this online system for teaching courses, participating in training programs, and training other teachers. The credits can then be redeemed for monetary rewards, electronic equipment, additional professional development and/or networking opportunities, and even a trip to another country! After all, more motivated and happy teachers mean more motivated and happy students! For more details on Adream's programs, please visit us at our website, which is available in Chinese and in English:

Chinese: www.adream.org
English: www.adream.org/en