Sponsored by the Open University of China (OUC), the 3rd International Chinese Teachers’ Development Forum was successfully held in Beijing from July 12-13, 2013. With the theme “Diversification, Innovation, and Reflection”, this forum focused on ideas and reflections on international Chinese teacher cultivation. Yang Zhijian, president of the OUC, and Zhang Shaogang, deputy party secretary of the OUC, attended the forum. Nearly 100 domestic and international experts, teachers, administrators of universities, primary and secondary schools, social training institutions, and members of the press attended the forum.The OUC organized the forum in order to establish a platform for communication, collecting wisdom, and sharing resources and achievements. The OUC invited 7 keynote speakers of different academic backgrounds to the forum. Zhang Shuanggu, standing vice president and secretary-general of the Chinese Society for Educational Development Strategy, encouraged international Chinese language teachers to seize the chance to use online education to alter teaching ideas, methods, and models in this era of open online courses. In his speech, Prof. Liu Lening, of Columbia University, America, provided practical education and training solutions related to international Chinese language teacher development. Prof. Da Jun, of Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), reported on his research about the comparison between International Standards for Chinese Language Teachers (2012) and Tennessee Teacher Licensing Standards. Mr. Yang Zaishi, who once worked at Higher Education Press, focused on the influence of the education environment on Chinese language teaching. Prof. Cui Yonghua, of Beijing Language and Culture University, talked about educators who trained Chinese language teachers: their roles, pressures, challenges, professional knowledge and abilities, vocational qualification standards and evaluation. Prof. Zhu Ruiping, of Beijing Normal University, analyzed the requirements for international Chinese language teachers (including requirements related to personal qualities) and put forth some suggestions about how to adjust and improve the volunteer training course system. The Deputy Director of the Credit Bank Management Office of the OUC, Ji Xin, focused on how to make full use of the “Credit Bank” to stimulate the development of international Chinese language education.
The forum attracted more than 130 high-quality abstracts of research papers from universities, primary and secondary schools, and social training institutions from all over the world, including the United States, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Britain, etc. Leading scholars from key universities at home and abroad composed an expert committee for academic discussions and research. Additionally, the forum established the “Excellent Student Paper Award” and “Excellent Tutor Award” to encourage young scholars to participate in the discussions.
The forum also organized an exhibition to display academic achievements, including accomplishments from the previous two forums — Theory Research on International Chinese Language Teacher Cultivation and Current Situation of International Chinese Language Teacher Cultivation and Its Solutions. Other traditional and digital media publishers such as Sinolingua Press, Beijing Language and Culture University Press, and CNKI also exhibited their publications.
The OUC’s MyEChinese distance learning platform provided multifaceted technological support for the forum, such as live video and transcription, weibo participation, remote participation, online paper submission, online evaluation, and so on.
Prof. Cui Yonghua (far right) awards certificates to winners
Prof. Liu Lening speaks at the forum
By Wu Di, the OUC