Following the Conference on Curriculum Reform and Teacher Education, several MTSU faculty members at the College of Education will start the new year with new perspectives on K-12 education and international collaboration.
The conference was co-hosted by MTSU and Hangzhou Normal University from Dec. 2 through Dec. 5 in beautiful Hangzhou City, China.
Besides the team of six from MTSU, other participants included scholars, principals and teachers from universities and K-12 schools from different parts of China.
The former president of Hangzhou Normal University initiated the conference after his visit to MTSU and rural schools in East Tennessee.
MTSU’s faculty presentations focused on individualized teaching and evaluation, school structure and funding.
Jwa Kim’s keynote on individualized standard tests introduced more effective evaluation models.
Amy Elleman’s “Formative Monitoring for Differentiated Instruction” explained the practice and effect of individualized teaching.
Jane Williams’ presentation on American school systems painted a vivid picture of schools in the United States and Murfreesboro in particular.
Zafrullah Khan amazed the audience by using magic tricks to illustrate effective teaching and making learning a fun activity.
Laura Clark’s story about Tennessee rural schools’ legal battle for fair funding generated a great deal of comment and discussion.
During the past 20 years, education in China and America has experienced tremendous change.
In China, we have seen the rapid economic growth and expansion of higher education, the reconfiguration of schools and classrooms, and the impact of vast urbanization and migration of workers.
In the U.S., we have seen new laws and regulations that affect education, the impact of technology in teaching and learning in not only universities but also K-12 schools, the continued cutting of state funding to public higher education and the shrinking of the K-12 school budget.
We all witnessed the enormous change in the world in economic development, reform and transformation of social systems, revolution of information technology, globalization of the economy, education and all aspects of our lives.
The changes pose challenges to educators and scholars to think hard about our education systems, the methodologies of our teaching, the ways of evaluating students and teachers, and to deal with issues that directly affect the daily operations of schools.
This conference provided a wonderful opportunity for colleagues from America and China to share teaching experiences and research findings, to network, to be inspired and motivated to dedicate our careers to better education for our children and better world for generations to come.
Besides the conference, another memorable time was the observation of a classroom at Xiasha Second Elementary School outskirt of Hangzhou City.
The teacher did not expect our visit, but she impressed us with her enthusiasm, effectiveness in teaching, and skills in classroom management.
We were fascinated by the students’ interaction with the teacher – they are very engaging, active and responsive. Most of the students at this school were children of migrant workers.
The Chinese have a saying: “It takes 10 years to grow a tree but 100 years to educate a person.”
Most of us do not have a 100-year life, but the phrase “100 years” emphasizes devotion and commitment.
Through this conference, we hope to see more exchange and collaboration between MTSU and Hangzhou Normal University.
By learning from each other, we will be able to serve our students better at the university and K-12 schools. |
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