Editor's Notes: The Open University of China (OUC) has initiated a programme to nurture candidates for the inaugural session of "Outstanding Young Teachers," resulting in 104 teachers being bestowed with the esteemed title of "OUC Outstanding Young Teachers."

By sharing the stories of some of these young teachers and highlighting their experiences of learning and personal growth, our aim is to showcase the dedication and enthusiasm of all OUC teachers who are devoted to contributing to the establishment of a lifelong learning society for all.

Yang Pengkun, a professor, is the head of the English major and public English courses at Dalian Open University (OU). She is a core member of the teaching teams for courses like "Humanities English 2", "Management English 2", "Management English 3", and "Engineering English 4" at the OUC. In May 2022, she was honoured with the title of Outstanding Teacher by the Open University of China. She has also been awarded the Best Guidance Teacher in the first Student English Speaking Competition, Outstanding Teacher of Dalian OU, Outstanding Teacher of Dalian Community University, among other titles. She has won the second prize in Teaching Design at the first National Higher Education Foreign Language Course Teaching Competition, the second prize in Micro Class group at the 23rd Liaoning Province Education Informatization Competition, and the second prize for Outstanding Research Achievements by the Liaoning Province Modern Distance Education Society. She has guided students to win first prizes in the first Student English Speaking Competition and the English Ability Challenge of the Open University of China.

Time flies, and the three-year OUC Outstanding Young Teachers Training Programme has ended. Over these three years, I have experienced two unforgettable events in my life: firstly, through the Programme, my teaching ability has significantly improved; secondly, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted me to delve into and practice remote teaching methods and modes.

I. The OUC Outstanding Young Teachers Training Programme Facilitated My Growth

(1) Advocating Learning

In the first OUC Outstanding Young Teachers Training Programme, through constant class attendance, learning, and reflection, I have noticeably advanced in my own specialty area as well as in educational theory and teaching skills.

(2) Course Reform Promotes Research

While participating in the second phase of the OUC's Public English Multimodal Teaching Reform Pilot Project at Dalian OU, I served as the leader of the university's teaching reform pilot project. I applied the knowledge and skills I acquired from the Programme to design a completely online learning model. This was an innovative move at the time. Through a year-long project implementation, this new teaching model achieved significant results, greatly improving the efficiency and outcomes of self-study, as well as students' interest in and enthusiasm for learning English. It also promoted the enhancement of students' comprehensive listening, speaking, reading, and writing abilities. Through this educational reform, I put the methods and knowledge learned in the Programme into practice and achieved results. Meanwhile, it prompted me to explore new knowledge and improve new skills in my professional practice.

II. Personal Growth during the COVID-19 Pandemic

(1) Fearless of Difficulties, Constant Thinking

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation proposed to win the tough battle of "stopping classes without stopping learning," making full use of online teaching platforms and resources to conduct online teaching. At that time, due to the heavy teaching tasks and limited teaching resources, it was quite difficult to produce a large amount of online micro-course video resources and do well in live tutoring work in a short time. I stepped up to the challenge, produced over 100 micro-lectures consecutively, recorded dozens of live tutoring classes, and successfully and exceeded my teaching tasks.

(2) Accepting Challenges and Continuously Advancing

The pandemic was a revolution and a challenge for the entire educational ecology and individual teachers. During the pandemic prevention and control, we experienced abrupt changes and difficulties, mixed with feelings and contemplation, but also reaped growth and progress. The educational technology developed and learned during the pandemic prevention, the accumulated and built course resources, and the considered and explored teaching models will continue to assist me in my teaching work. Moving forward, I will integrate and utilize various online teaching platform resources and learning apps, better integrate them with English teaching, improve teaching methods, and enhance teaching effectiveness.

III. Educating Self and Others with the Spirit of Ideological and Political Education in Courses

Teaching and educating people must go hand in hand, with the latter often being more important. Only when students are both morally and intellectually competent can a teacher truly be considered successful. I hope to encourage everyone: in teaching and educating people, never forget your original intention!

By OUC News Network