Selected Readings of American Education Research

The US-China Center is going to publish an edited book entitled Selected Readings of American Education Research in East China Normal University Press located in Shanghai, China. This book is an annual publication, which selects influential and representative articles from major educational journals in the United States. The articles will appear in English but a Chinese introduction will be added. Translated abstracts are also provided for Chinese readers’ convenience. The primary audience of the book is educational researchers inside China.

The editor aims:

1. to inform Chinese educational researchers of the current U.S. educational polices, practices, system, issues, and challenges, etc. We may always take lessons from others. How Western educational researchers approach their problems may always provide their Chinese counterparts with new visions, new perspectives, and new solutions;
2. to familiarize Chinese educational researchers with research methods and writing styles employed by U.S. major educational journals so that they may have a view of general research practices in educational sciences to get connected with the whole world in terms of research methods. A world perspective and a universally accepted way of presentation helps China effectively deal with educational issues and bridges China with the other parts of the world;
3. to help Chinese educational researchers improve their readings in English.

Welcomes & Farewells at the US-China Center

This summer, we said good-bye to some graduate assistants Xue Han, Heng Jiang, JJ Chandler, and David Kirkland. We appreciate their wonderful job at the Center. Without their dedicated contribution, our Center could not have gone so far. In the mean time, we welcomed two new individuals to work at the Center: one advanced doctoral student, Na Wei, and one first year highly talented doctoral student to work as research assistants. They each bring unique expertise and experiences which will greatly contribute to our future endeavors.

Comparative Study of Educational Research in China and the U.S.

The study on comparing educational research in China and the US has been completed. By examining the articles in one major research journal from each country, this study compares educational research in China and the United States from the following three perspectives: 1) who is doing research? 2) what are the major issues and concerns as represented in research? 3) what methodology is employed? Both qualitative and quantitative data are provided. Findings and implications are also discussed. The research group composed an article arguing that educational research development is situated in the socio-cultural context, which is important to take into consideration in interpreting research findings and understanding educational development across countries. The paper has been submitted for publication in Comparative Education.

EGC Schools

The summer has been a time of intense activity for the EGC Schools project. It started off with all three partners sending administrators on a Hanban trip to China. Administrators from the Lansing School District, the City of East Lansing, and Bay City Public Schools traveled to China and had wonderful time learning about the Chinese culture and educational system. As the summer progressed, our focus turned to helping our partners develop supply lists and acquire Chinese teaching materials for the schools. Each site now has a large array of children’s literature books and textbooks in Chinese.

The Lansing School District’s preschool program has two fully enrolled preschool classrooms and has a waiting list. The City of East Lansing has two classrooms of preschool and will continue to accept applications. Unfortunately, the Bay City Public Schools preschool has been placed on hold at this time. They will work to build a larger enrollment and hope to start the preschool program in the fall of 2007.

The culminating event of the summer was a week long professional development institute. After extensive planning on the part of staff at the US-China Center in collaboration with MSU’s Professor Anne Soderman, an intensive professional development experience was offered to all EGC Schools. This professional development was designed for English and Chinese speaking teachers to develop a deep understanding of the EGC Schools model and helped them forge collegial relations and planning practices. Fourteen teachers and a number of administrators from our sites in Beijing, Lansing, and East Lansing gathered at the College of Education’s Erickson Hall. Participants had extensive instruction in concepts of early childhood development, opportunities to plan with their teaching partners under the support and guidance of US-China Center staff, and times to network with English or Chinese language teachers from other locations. This experience will serve as a foundation for the continuing support that we plan to offer our partners as the school year begins. We are all excited to begin this new school year and support our schools in Beijing, Lansing, and East Lansing.

CI-MSU Course Design Summit

The design summit took place in the Learning Center of China Central Radio and TV University (CCRTVU), Beijing China on July 1 and 2, 2006. There were more than fifteen people attending the summit, including the President of the CCRTVU, the director of the CI-MSU, faculty, technology specialists, and instructional design specialists from both CI-MSU and CCRTVU Research and Development Center. The meeting focused on the new paradigm of designing online language learning environments, which is considered by all attendees to be motivating and tailored to the needs of American and western students who learn Chinese as a foreign language. The tentative design guidelines are to follow a mysterious, hypothetical story line that attracts students into a set of problem-based learning scenarios, which are grounded in Chinese culture, history, geography, philosophy, art, and modern living.

The Chinese Language Multimedia Textbook Exhibition and the First Confucius Institute Conference Exhibition

The Chinese Language Multimedia Textbook Exhibition and the First Confucius Institute Conference Exhibition were held in Beijing, China, on July 4—5 and July 6—7, 2006, respectively. The first Virtual Confucius Institute - Confucius Institute at Michigan State University (CI-MSU) - was the only institute invited by Hanban to display its teaching and leaning materials, online programs, and face-to-face programs at the two exhibits. The first Virtual Confucius Institute attracted many publishers, multimedia developers, and representatives from Confucius Institutes in the world. The leading four programs include: The online Chinese Courses delivered by Michigan Virtual High School, the New Chengo Chinese, the adapted Sesame Street in China, and Education for Global Citizenship Schools (EGC). The new concept that these four leading programs was based on is designing and creating learning environments for learning Chinese as a foreign language, which was quite new to most of the audience in China. CI-MSU, the leading institute for hosting Chinese learning and teaching online, will set a pedagogically and theoretically sound model for learning Chinese as a foreign language.

Ongoing Online Chinese Courses

Michigan Virtual High School will continue to offer online Chinese language courses in collaboration with the Confucius Institute at MSU. By popular demand, two sections of Chinese 1A and one section of Chinese 1B will be offered this fall.

Online Course Design

The CI-MSU team is putting their heads together designing new online courses. The design is guided by research on Second Language Acquisition and design of learning environments. The course is intended to include three sections: The Anchor Story, China Highlights, and Extended Activities. The course delineates a story line of several American teens’ travel experiences, which embed the historical events, geography, culture and philosophy of China. Interactive practice is enhanced by the use of multimedia technology.