Sept. 14, 2015

Chinese university instructors visit campus for 12-week program

Werklund hosts instructors from Jiangso, China for language training and professional development
China scholrship council
China scholrship council

When Lan Xu looked to the west from the main campus of the University of Calgary and first gazed at the rise of the Rockies on the horizon, she knew she was in a very different place from where she calls home.

“I had seen many pictures of those mountains before,” says Xu, “but to see them with my own eyes…they are very, very beautiful.”

Xu is from Jiangsu, a broad, flat lowland province in China known for rich agricultural land fed by the sprawling Yangtze River delta. It’s home to about 75 million people and also one of the smallest of China’s 22 provinces — about the size of southern Alberta from Calgary down to the US border and reaching east to west.

For the next three months, Calgary will be Xu’s temporary home, as she and 31 other university instructors from across Jiangsu province take part in a unique professional development program created especially for them by the Werklund School of Education (WSE) and funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC).

Visiting instructors observing different faculties for 12 weeks

The program consists of two components: a five-week academic English course through Werklund’s International Foundations Program, and seven weeks in Teaching Methodology and Pedagogy courses, which will include two weeks of teaching shadowing and observation among different faculties within the university.

The participants come from different universities throughout Jiangsu. Each instructor has their own specialty in different educational areas, including management and administration, economics, engineering, science, and law.

Following the program at the University of Calgary, they will return to their home institutions to teach international students in English.

Werklund selected as one of only two Canadian sites for program

“This is the first year the CSC has funded a professional development program at the University of Calgary for university instructors,” explains Colleen Kawalilak, associate professor and associate dean (international) in the WSE.

“CSC is sending their instructors to universities in different English-speaking countries, and we’re very pleased they’ve selected the Werklund School of Education as one of only two sites in Canada for this program.”

At a special welcome ceremony on Sept. 4, the CSC-funded university instructors were greeted by special guest Mr. Zhengshun Qiao, education consul at the Consulate-General of The People’s Republic of China, based in Vancouver, as well as Dru Marshall, provost and Janaka Ruwanpura, vice-provost (international) and Dennis Sumara, dean, WSE.

While Xu and her colleagues will focus on their studies during their stay at the University of Calgary, they will also have time to explore all the area has to offer — including an up-close-and-personal visit to the Rocky Mountains.