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Second Annual Internationalizing Michigan Education Conference 
On April 14, 2008, a delegation of ten education officials from Chongqing, China,
arrived in East Lansing for a series of meetings that culminated in the
Second Annual Internationalizing Michigan Education Conference, sponsored
by The MSU College of Education’s Office for K-12 Outreach and
U.S. China Center for Research on Education Excellence,
the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University and
the Michigan Department of Education. |
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In addition to our Lansing and Beijing sites, we have added seven additional sites offering Chinese language and cultural experiences. The sites include: |
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Chinese Teacher Certification Program
Demand for teachers of the Chinese language and culture is surging in the United State. In 2004 the College Board conducted a survey and found that 2,190 schools across the country were interested in offering AP Chinese. However, the supply of teachers who are highly-qualified to teach the Chinese language and culture is very limited in the United States. As of 2007, there were only four undergraduate programs at American colleges and five graduate programs at American colleges that redential teachers of Mandarin Chinese. In the last five years, those programs turned out zero undergraduates and 7 to 8 graduate students (source: College Board Certification Survey Data). This disjuncture between supply and demand has led to “creative” solutions to the teacher shortage. As a result, many schools are resorting to hiring un- or under-qualified teachers to teach their students Mandarin or using volunteers to teach Mandarin. The award-wining CI-MSU has partnered with the highly-regarded MSU College of Education to create an innovative program to credential Mandarin speaking teachers. The specialized, three semester program provides a high quality education to prepare teachers for certification and endorsement in Chinese as a world language. The College of Education is currently accepting applications for the first cohort in the new Chinese experimental post-baccalaureate teacher certification program.
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Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?
Is the Internet the enemy of reading, or has it created a new kind of reading, one that society should not discount? The discussion is playing out among educational policy makers and reading experts around the world, and within groups like the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books. But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.
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| Latest Center In Action Issue: Spring 2008 |
Latest Hot Topics Issue: July 2008 |
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