The Second Global Teacher Education Summit was held successfully from October 17th to October 20th in the year of 2014. It was sponsored by Beijing Normal University, and was mainly organized by the Center for Teacher Education Research of Beijing Normal University, which was the Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Science in Universities, Ministry of Education,PRC.Besides,two co-organizers of this Summit were China Institute of Education Policy and Faculty of Education, which were both from Beijing Normal University. The theme of the Second Global Teacher Education Summit was Quality of Teacher Education and Learning: Practice, Innovation, and Policy, which was in the spirit of a successful inaugural conference held three years ago in 2011 where participants from different countries gathered to address issues in teacher preparation for the new century. By initiating an inquiry into the practice, innovation, and policy of teacher and student learning, the Summit seek to provide a platform for an international and cross-cultural dialogue with educators and researchers from different parts of the world, so that a broad view on the improvement of teachers and teacher education quality can be established.
The number of participants of this Summit was 561, among which the Assembly was 291, the sub-forum was 270. Participants were from the United States, UK, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, the Netherlands, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and other countries and regions.
The opening ceremony of this Summit was hosted by Professor Zhu Xudong, who was the director of the Center for Teacher Education Research of Beijing Normal University, and the vice-Dean of Faculty of Education in BNU. Two key invited speakers at the opening ceremony were Professor Chen Guangju, who was the vice-President of Beijing Normal University, and Professor Li Jiayong, who was the the vice-Dean of Faculty of Education in BNU. Professor Zhong Binglin, who was the President of the Chinese Education Society and was former President of Beijing Normal University, attended the closing ceremony and made a speech.
During this Summit, we invited 16 keynote speakers from the world: Professor Anthony Clarke from Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of British Columbia, Canada; Professor Ann Lin Goodwin, vice president of the American Educational Research Association, and vice president of Education College at Columbia University; Professor Paulien Meijer from Graduate School of Education University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands; Professor Chen Xiangming from Education Department in Peking University; Professor David Hansen from Teachers College at Columbia University; Professor Christopher Day and Gu Qing from Institute of Education in University of Nottingham; Professor Chris Davison, Dean of Education Department in University of new South Wales, Australia; Professor Chi-kin Lee John, Vice-President of Hong Kong Institute of Education, College of Curriculum and Teaching Department; Senior researcher LO Nai-Kwai from Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University; Professor Lynn Paine from the Department of Education, Michigan State University; Professor Michael Schatz, Dean of Education Department, University of Innsbruck, Austria; Professor Cheryl Craig from Curriculum and Instruction Department in University of Houston; Professor John Loughran, Dean of Education Department in Monash University; Professor Manabu Sato from Gakushuin University in Japan; Professor Zhu Xiaoman from Beijing Normal University. Keynote speakers and other internationally renowned scholars made sixteen different speeches on the theme of 'Teacher Education quality and Learning: Practice, innovation and Policy '.
The 2nd GTES received 219 academic papers and abstracts. They were presented, discussed and communicated about within five parallel sessions. This conference also had three sympathies, with respective theme: “Multiple Models of Teacher Learning: Experience from China” “Partnering for 21st Century Learning” and “The Challenges and Opportunities of Modern Teachers: Narratives in Films”. A special dialogue was designed about “University-School Partnership” and the scholars from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau offered their perspectives on the collaboration between universities and other institutes or organizations, like schools, regions, and governments.
“Tin Ka Ping Foundation”, as the sponsor of “The 1st GTES” (2011), continued to sponsor “Tin Ka Ping Teacher Education Research Forum for Young Scholars(pre-conference)”. 57 “Tin Ka Ping Teacher Education Yong Scholars” have been selected and will be funded for attending this conference. These scholars come from various universities and colleges, such as The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of Macaw, Beijing Normal University, Northeast Normal University, Nanjing Normal University, Shandong Normal University, Shanxi Normal University, Guizhou Normal University, Qujing Normal University, Daqing Normal University, Zhaoqing University, and Anyang Higher Normal Schools for Pre-Education Teachers. The Young Scholars presented their research around the five topics, including “Teacher Quality Attribute-Teacher Identity”, “Teacher Quality Attribute-Affective Domain”, “Teacher Quality Attribute-Teacher Competence”, “Teacher Education System”, “Teacher Education” and “Teacher Learning”. Their presentations were commented and they were inspired academically by ten world-wide senior leading scholars in Teacher Education.
This conference also had three separate forums. As one of the three, “Teacher Development Forum: Promoting Students’ Performance Quality from International Perspective” was co-established with Haidian Institute of Education Sciences”. Three world-known scholars- “Professor Manabu Sato, Professor Gu Qing and Professor Cheryl Craig delivered keynote speeches on Learning Community, Teacher Resilience and Teacher Evaluation System respectively. In the especially arranged session“Haidian Education Lecture”, LO Nai-Kwai, the Senior Research Fellow and Professor, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, delivered a speech, entitled “Student Academic Achievement in International Perspective: Applications of PISA 2012 for Teaching and Learning”
In the “Forum on Professional Development of Teacher Educators”, each of the four keynote speakers delivered a speech. The speakers are Yasuyki IWATA, (professor of Curriculum Center for Teachers, and the director of President, Tokyo Gakugei University), LI Fang, (Dean and Professor of Beijing Institute of Education), LIANG Fuzhen, (director and professor from Center of Teacher Education, Taiwan Chung Hsing University), and VONE Soukuan, (Director and Professor from Educational Research Center, Faculty of Education, University of Macaw). The attendants also discussed and communicate with each other on professional development for teacher educators.
In The Forum of 'Kindergarten teacher education: mechanism, pattern and quality evaluation”, three professors give keynote speeches. They are Professor Pak Enhui from Ewha Womans University of Korea, who is also the vice-chairman of World Preschool Organization in Asia-Pacific and director of the Ewha Children's Education and Care Research Center; Professor Liu Zhanlan from the Early Childhood Research Center of Teaching Research Department of Central Institute of Educational Sciences; and Professor Jane Chu Ying , the head of Preschool Institute of National Chengchi University of Taiwan. In this forum, attendees discuss and exchange ideas on issues related to the field of kindergarten teacher education .
School visits is a feature of this Summit. Domestic and foreign experts、scholars and other participants go to several schools for campus visits, and they also have activities such as classroom observation, classroom evaluation, and communication related to teaching. Schools that are visited include West Elementary School, Huang Cheng Gen Primary, Beijing High School, Haidian Art Teacher Primary School and so on.
Professor Zhu Xudong, who was the director of the Center for Teacher Education Research of Beijing Normal University, and the vice-Dean of Faculty of Education in BNU, give a summarize of the Summit in closing ceremony. The theme of this Summit is 'Quality of Teacher Education and Learning: Practice, Innovation and Policy', papers of participants and all the discussions and communications reflect four characteristics: 'practice oriented teacher education', 'multi-field of teacher education research', 'interdisciplinary of teacher education research', 'research methods combining theory and empirical research'. In this Summit, more and more scholars are concerned with themes related to 'teachers’ inner psychology', 'the essence of learning', 'support teachers' professional development', 'the complexity of teaching profession' and so on. All of this let us recognize that teacher education should pay more attention to human issues rather than technical problems, we should learn more about the nature of learning, we should learn more about teachers’ need for professional career, we also should know that teachers themselves are learners,what we need do is to give them ongoing support.
This Summit promotes theory studies and practice explorations on issues related to the quality of teacher education, provides more macroscopic and broad horizons for teachers’ quality and enhancing the quality of teacher education. It is a grand conference for collision of ideas and growth of friendship.
Conference Organizing Committee of The Second Global Teacher Education Summit
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