What they say

The assembly has been terrific. The ability for Chinese teachers to share their knowledge and expertise with each other and for other experts from outside of China to come and learn from the Chinese context and to share their expertise as well is very important. The interaction, enthusiasm and excitement of all the teachers, and the thirst for knowledge and connection, are really important, and that's what I've really valued the most from this assembly.

Christopher Powers, executive director at the TESOL International Association

Artificial Intelligence can do a lot more things in the field of education in the future. For example, it can create a virtual teaching assistant. The assistant can help human teachers in class preparation by assessing classes through video clips of classroom teaching and generate an effective teaching plan. It also can join the students in class and help them solve problems.

Maiko Lin, vice-president of Global Teaching Resources at iTutorGroup

There have been so many wonderful new ideas (at the assembly), and people have had a chance to share those ideas. I think the teachers will go back with some new ideas. Teaching large classes is often exhausting. Teachers work very hard for long hours. This (assembly) is a chance for them to get a little bit of time to think and to dream about some of the things they would like to do. Then the students will benefit, because the teachers have learned things that they will try in class.

JoAnn Crandall, professor of education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, United States

So many teachers are involved in this business... their attendance at this conference in itself is a way of them understanding how teaching is done more effectively. This is quite a good eye-opener for many teachers who come to this conference for the first time. The impact for some of them would be immediate, but for others, the impact will be seen over the next couple of years through their talks with their friends, colleagues, and school principals.

Lawrence Jun Zhang, professor of linguistics-in-education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand

(China Daily Global 07/29/2019 page5)