Chinese language and culture are going to enter The Transition Year Programme in Irish secondary schools after four years of painstaking effort of the UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland. The UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland (CII), under the guidance and support of the Confucius Institute Headquarters and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), has developed The Transition Year Teaching Material Package for Irish Secondary Schools (The Teaching Pack), which is consistent with secondary school teaching ideas and methods and user friendly to Irish teachers. The Teaching Pack has been evaluated and approved by NCCA and is going to be tested in Irish secondary schools nationwide since September 2011. It is an incredible step for Chinese language and culture entering Irish education system.

The UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland held the Chinese language and culture training programme for a day on September 3rd, intending to introduce the Teaching Pack to Irish Chinese teachers. In the training session, experienced middle school teachers from Ireland introduced the “Chinese Language and Culture in the Transition Year Guidance for Irish Secondary School (draft)” and gave a demonstration class on Chinese Economy as the material was contained in the Teaching Pack. Chinese teachers from the CII presented a model class of the first lesson of Chinese Language and explained in details the structure and content design of the Teaching Pack and how to use it in Chinese culture class. Irish teachers were organized to give trial class with the Teaching Pack afterwards and instant feedback was collected. They also practiced the traditional Chinese art form like Chinese knot, tea making, paper cutting, Tai Chi, and calligraphy under the demonstration and instruction of Chinese teachers. At the end of the training session, the UCD Confucius Institute gave the Teaching Pack as gift to all the Irish teachers participating the training programme.

The training programme has received the overwhelming welcome and acclaim from Irish secondary school principals and teachers. They gave credit to the Teaching Pack development, which they believed was close to the daily life and interests of Irish secondary school students, consistent with the foreign language teaching ideas and methods for secondary school. It contained multi-media usage and was user friendly. They believed that all above features of Teaching Pack would help to remarkably accelerate the promotion of Chinese language and culture in the Transition Year. Besides, the Irish teachers welcome more training programme like this, which is helpful to enhance their knowledge of Chinese language and culture and to boost their confidence in giving class on Chinese language and culture independently. The feedback questionnaire shows the positive effect of the training programme, that almost all the teachers participating raised their confidence from the level one or two to the level five.