随着越来越多的中国高中开放国际课程体系，家长和同学们在做选择时往往良莠难辨。针对这种情况，我们在此提出一些有关国际体系课程背后的基本的概念，供大家参考。

首先，我们要搞清楚为什么同学们要就读国际课程体系。为了回答这个问题，我们需要了解海外大学院校的招生标准。根据美国顶尖的大学所指出的，他们主要招收具备以下优势的学生：
1） 英语水平
2） 在校学习表现
3） 课外活动
4） 个人品质

然而中国的教育体制过于重视考试分数，欠缺必要的机制来帮助学生拓展学习以外的领域。这种缺失往往为留学海外的中国学生们带来巨大的文化及社会冲击。

这也是为什么国际课程体系在中国兴起的原因。与上述大学招生要求所对应，国际课程体系应当从以下几个方面培养学生：
1） 深入全面的英文课程
2） 接近于西方的教学方式及课程设置，并采用英文授课
3） 同时具备基本的中国式课程，以达到中国高中的毕业要求
4） 多元化的课外活动，例如兴趣社团、社会义工等
5） 教育咨询服务，帮助同学们进行升学的规划和申请
6） 标准考试指南，指导同学们备考托福及SAT等考试

其次，课程的核心内容也很重要。根据同学们目标国家的不同，课程的核心内容也将有不同的侧重。举例来说，针对英国大学体系的高中会采纳A-Level或IB系列的课程，而针对美国大学体系的高中则会引入AP课程。由于美国大学数量多，范围广，且品质优良，其对口的AP课程占据了国际课程的主导地位。

那么，如何去判断一个国际课程的好坏呢？肯特咨询建议从以下的几个角度来观察：
1） 英语课程：是否由英语为母语的英、美人士授课
2） 学业课程设置：每学期开设课程的数量。例如，一个优质的美国高中体系通常可以为11年级学生开设至少6门AP课程
3） 教育咨询：大学申请是一项烦冗而复杂的工作，在有限的时间内，同学们必须完成所有的申请工作。完备的教育咨询服务可以帮助同学们更加妥善地计划和开展申请工作，并将时间、精力最优化，从而基于学生的特点，达到最佳申请结果。

As more and more high schools are offering international curriculums, parents and students sometime don't know how to tell good program from bad ones. This article aims to provide some basic concepts behind them.

Why do students need to enroll in international curriculums? To answer this question, we need to understand what overseas colleges are looking for when admitting applicants. As many top American colleges point out, they are specifically looking for virtues list below:
1) English proficiency
2) Academic performance
3) Ex-curricular activities
4) Personal quality

The Chinese education system, which focuses heavily on exam scores, lacks the necessary mechanism to help students to grow in areas other than academics. This often results in big cultural and social shock when Chinese kids get to colleges in western countries.

This is why the international programs come into existence. In corresponding to college requirements list above, an international curriculum provides students with:
1) In-depth English courses.
2) Academical curriculum that is close to western style and taught in English.
3) Basic Chinese curriculum that is necessary for students to qualify Chinese high school diploma.
4) Ex-curricular activity support, such as interests clubs, social work, etc.
5) Education counseling - help students to plan their study and application, and
6) Standard tests guidance - to help students prepare themselves for tests like TOEFL, SAT, etc.

The 2nd part is the core of the curriculum, and may differ in different program as it's closed related to the targeting country that the curriculum is preparing the students to go. If the program is aiming to help students to go to colleges in UK, it usually provides A-level or IB based courses, while programs targeting for US colleges are often AP based. As US a much bigger college enrollment, AP based curriculum have been dominating the international programs in China.

So how to tell whether an international is a good one? Kent Consulting will recommend below angles:
1) English courses - whether the program can provide native-speaking English teachers.
2) Academical curriculum - how many courses are offered each semester? For example, a good AP based program should offer at least 6 AP course for grade 11 students.
3) Education counseling - college application is a complicated and often overwhelming process. Students have to get a lot of things done within a limited time-window. A good education counseling can help students better plan their application steps and optimize time and effort allocation, to achieve the best application results from their credentials.

“童子军运动”起源于英国，现已发展成一场全球范围的青少年活动，其目的是锻炼和提高青少年的体质、意志和精神。一名童子军（在某些国家亦称“探路者”）即是这场运动中的一员。一般来说，20-30名童子军可以组成一支小分队，每一支分队都会听从一个（或多个）童子军领袖的调遣。在组织架构上，童子军小分队隶属于本地、国家、或国际的童子军协会。在运动初期，童子军组织只向男生开放。从20世纪70年代起，一些小分队开始招募女生，设立男女同组的项目，以培养青少年男女生的正常交往。

童子军运动可追溯到1908年。英国陆军将军罗伯特·贝登堡爵士结合自己服役时在南非的训练经历，创立了第一支童子军及相应的组织机构。随后，贝登堡又著书立说，将自己的“童子军训练方法”在著作《童子军手册》中加以阐释。他提倡青少年通过参加露营、军事训练等各种户外活动来磨练品性，形成公民意识，以及培养个人与团队的合作精神。

“童子军誓词”和“童子军律法”是该训练方法的基石。在一名少年成为童子军之前，他/她必须宣誓。虽然随着时代的发展，誓词会有些许的改动，但是基本的内容和精神一直保持不变：

我以自己的荣誉承诺：我将竭尽全力履行以下义务：
我将为上帝和国王（国家）效忠
随时随地帮助他人
遵守童子军律法

童子军律法则为童子军们设立了处事原则和行为准则。例如：

童子军的荣誉即是受人信任
童子军必须忠心耿耿
童子军的职责是造福和帮助他人
无论社会阶级差异，童子军是所有人的朋友，且童子军之间互为兄弟
童子军是任何动物的朋友
童子军在思想、言语和行为上是纯洁的

即使童子军运动一度因过于军事化而遭到批评，仍有包括美国、澳大利亚和加拿大在内的很多国家欣然接受这种对于青少年的训练方法。早在辛亥革命时期，童子军组织一度被引入到中华民国，然而自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来，少先队和共青团成为中国青少年的主流团体。2008年，中华人民共和国童军总会的成立把童子军的概念又带回到当今的中国。目前，一些教育界的先行者们也在致力于在青少年中推广童子军运动，以培养年轻一代自律、忠诚、勇敢和乐于助人等美好品德。

（有关信息来源于维基百科 www.wikipedia.org）

Originally from the U.K, the World Organization of the Scout Movement is a global organization. It aims to support teenagers in their physical, mental, and spiritual development by introducing particular minds and deeds. Scouts are also referred to as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or Pathfinders, is a member of this Movement. Normally, twenty to thirty scouts form a group called "troop"; each troop is supervised by one or more Scout Leaders. A troop may affiliate with local, national, and global scouting associations. Since the 1970s, some troops started to recruit girls and established co-educational programs, allowing boys and girls working together.

The Scouts was founded by Robert Baden-Powell in 1908. Inspired by his experiences with the British Army in South Africa, Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts as the first ever scouting organization. Later on, Baden-Powell described the Scout Method in his book, Scouting for Boys. The cornerstone of the Scout Method are Scout Promise (or Oath in some countries) and Scout Law. Before becoming a scout, a boy or girl must take the Promise. The text of the Promise may vary slightly over time, but the most common and widely used one is like this:

On my honour I promise that I will do my best—
To do my duty to God and the King (or to God and my Country)
To help other people at all times and
To obey the Scout Law.

Scout Law sets the principles and standardized behaviors for scouts. For example:

A scout's honor is to be trusted.
A scout is loyal.
A scout's duty is to be useful and to help others.
A scout is a friend to all, and a brother to every other scout, no matter to what social class the other belongs.
A scout is a friend to animals
A scout is clean in through, word, and deed.

Scouts should practice the Law in various outdoor activities, such as camping and military training. Through participating in these activities, the youth can develop their character, citizenship, and personal fitness qualities.

Even though the Scout Method has been criticized as being too militaristic, it is still widely accepted in various countries, such as the United States, Australia, and Canada. Scouting had been introduced to China in 1910s, but then was replaced by the Young Pioneers of China and the Communist Youth League since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. However in 2008, Scout Association of the People's Republic of China was established. It reintroduced the idea of Scouting to China. Nowadays, some pioneering educators in China are striving to promote this concept to Chinese youth and parents.

(Information is sourced from the Wikipedia, retrieved from www. wikipedia.org on Mar. 6th, 2013)

智力通常被认为是衡量一个人“聪明”程度的指标，尤其是在学业方面。用于测量智力最流行的参数莫过于人们常说的IQ（智商），这是由德国心理学家威廉?斯特恩在1912年推出的智力测量方式。智力这个概念已经经历了相当长一段时间的发展，特别是有了许多学者、某些领域的心理学家和很多科学家的贡献，将这一概念演变成一个从情境到内容都极为复杂的混合体。其中最重要的一项进展要归功于哈佛大学教授霍华德?加德纳。基于在神经心理学和人类认知能力的深入研究，他创建了一个“多元智能理论”。通过研究大量脑损伤的案例，他探索人的大脑是如何在结构上和功能上如何与不同的潜能相关联，如语言潜能、歌唱潜能等。通过与普通和有天赋的孩子长期、频繁地接触，他努力尝试去了解孩子们的认知能力是如何发展的。他发现：人的思维是由一系列相对独立的“机能”组成的一个整体，每种“机能”之间的联系并不紧密，而且是不可预知的。这与人们理解的智力截然不同。一般人们认为我们的大脑是一台全能的“机器”，不论工作的对象是什么，它都能稳定运转。

在更多的研究和发现的基础上，他着手建立智力理论的新架构。作为一名社会科学家，加德纳教授在自然科学方面亦有颇高的建树。他首先非常谨慎地选择他要使用的专业术语并确定其内涵和外延，然后他系统深入地选择用以确定智力范畴的相关标准，充分考虑天赋异禀人群的案例，并用最新的心理学试验结果和发现来检验他的假设。最后，他得出7个独立的人类智力类型或称多元智能如下：【以下内容直接从《智力的重新诠释-21世纪的多元智能》中节选，由霍华德?加德纳撰写，1999出版】
● 语言智能：口语和书面语的敏感度，学习语言以及运用语言实现某些目标的能力；
● 逻辑数学思维智能：能够符合逻辑地分析问题，进行数学运算，科学地研究问题；
● 音乐智能：具备表演、作曲和欣赏音乐的技巧；
● 身体动觉智能：具备运用全身或者身体一部分来解决问题的潜力；
● 空间掌控智能：重组和掌控宽敞和狭小空间模式的潜力；
● 人际交往智能：能够理解别人意图，动机和欲望，从而能有效地与其他人合作的能力；
● 自知的智能：能够了解自己，包括自身的欲望，恐惧和能力，从而形成一种有效的工作模式，并且能有效运用这些信息，不断调节自己的生活的能力。【引用部分结束】

备注：本文源于《智力的重新诠释-21世纪的多元智能》，由霍华德·加德纳撰写，1999出版

Intelligence is normally viewed as a general indicator of a person's "smart" level, specifically on academics. The most popular parameter on "measuring" intelligence is the so called IQ (Intelligence Quotient), introduced by German psychologist Wilhelm Stern in 1912. The concept of intelligence has undertaken a long path to develop and evolve into a complex mixture both in context and in content attributed to the work of various scholars, psychologists in particular and many scientists in general. One of the most significant progresses was made by the Harvard Professor Howard Gardner. He found a theory of "Multiple Intelligences" based on his intensive studies on neuropsychology and human cognitive ability. He studied a great deal of cases of brain damage to understand how our brain structurally functions in terms of different abilities like linguistic ability, sing ability etc. By working closely with ordinary and gifted children, he was in attempt to understand their development of cognitive capacity. He came out with the conclusion that human mind is kind of series of independent "faculties" which have loose and unpredictable relationship with one another. This is dramatically different from normal wisdom which treats our mind as an all-purpose "machine" that can function steadily no matter what it is about.

With more findings done, he embarked on the task of building a new frame work on intelligence theory. As a social scientist with strong background on nature science, Professor Gardner started with careful check on terminology, then selections on criteria from its root and consideration on exceptional people's cases, support from psychological experiments and findings etc. At the end, he came out with seven separate human intelligences: [the following categories are cited directly from the book of "Intelligence Reframed-Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century", written by Howard Gardner 1999]
● Linguistic Intelligence: sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals
● Logical-mathematical Intelligence: capacity to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically
● Musical Intelligence: entails skill in the performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patterns.
● Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence: potential of using one's whole body or parts of the body to solve problems of fashion products
● Spatial Intelligence: potential to reorganize and manipulate the patterns of wide space as well as the patterns of more confined areas
● Interpersonal Intelligence: denotes a person's capacity to understand the intentions, motivations, and desires of other people and, consequently, to work effectively with others
● Intrapersonal Intelligence: capacity to understand oneself, to have an effective working model of oneself-including one's own desires, fears, and capacities-and to use such information effectively in regulating one's own life [end of citation]

Note: the paper is sourced from the book of "Intelligence Reframed-Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century", written by Howard Gardner 1999

阅读是英语学习很重要的技能之一。然而，由于有限的词汇量和缺乏对英语背景知识的了解，中国学生想真正掌握出众的阅读理解能力并不是一件容易的事。而且，一般意义上的培训对于有效提高同学们的阅读理解能力收效甚微。

意识到这个问题，肯特咨询准备推出一对一的在线阅读理解课程。这个课程主要是让学生在享受阅读乐趣的同时又能提高阅读理解能力。我们参考了一些资深教育专家的意见，为不同年级的同学推荐一系列英文原版的课外读物，并由来自美国或者加拿大排名前50的大学在校生担任辅导老师指导学生阅读每一本书。通过这个课程的学习，学生会逐步具备阅读和欣赏英文原著的能力，并可以结合自己的兴趣挑选更多的书籍阅读，从而养成良好的日常阅读习惯。在课堂上，学生可以展示自己对每本书重要内容的理解和认识，也能获得老师的意见反馈。因此通过如此一天天的积累，学生可以打下扎实的英语阅读理解的基础。

这个课程的教学方法是推荐上述书籍给学生，然后在他们阅读前安排特定的作业。每读完一本书，学生都将与老师通过网络连线进行互动。首先，学生会根据对书本主要内容的理解做陈述，然后老师会做出评价，并分享更多他们的理解和思考。除此以外，学生和老师将展开关于作业的问题、主要人物、及印象深刻的剧情和冲突的讨论。接着，老师和学生将从书本挑选一个或者多个场景进行角色扮演练习，让课堂变得更加有趣。通过角色扮演练习，学生可以更深入理解书本的内容。

通过这些多元化的教学方法，例如角色扮演，分析性阅读还有其他许多内容，肯特咨询希望学生将从阅读狄根斯，惠特曼，莎士比亚等等伟大作家作品中获得乐趣。

Reading is one of the most important skills in English learning. However, it is a critical challenge for Chinese students to really equip themselves with excellent reading comprehension skills due to their limited vocabulary and lack of background information about English. It is difficult to train them in a general.

Having noticed this problem, KCG is launching a one on one online course named Reading Comprehension Course. This course is designed to improve students' reading comprehension skills from the joy of reading. Tutors from top 50 universities in US or Canada will guide students through each selected book. Throughout each lesson, students can build up good habit of reading interesting and informative books or topics they like. And students can exercise their capabilities to understand and analysis content of each book, and receive constructive insights and feedback to help improve their analytical skills. Thus, they will build up a solid foundation for English reading comprehension day by day.

The methodology is to introduce books sourced from authorized educational institutes, or strongly recommended by experienced professionals and counselors, and assign particular homework such as typical questions to students before they read. After reading, they will interact with tutors through the internet. As the first part of the lesson, students will present their general understanding of the book, and then tutors will guide students into complex comprehension and reflection. In addition, students and tutor will conduct discussions on the assignments, characters, and significant episodes and overarching themes. To make the class more effective and engaging, tutors and students will pick one or a few scenarios from the book to role play, in order to enhance the students' understanding of the book.

Through these various methods of teaching, e.g. role playing, analytical reading, and many others, the staff here at KCG hopes that we can help introduce students to the pleasures of reading authors like Dickens, Whitman, Shakespeare, and many more!