Pam Bump
Equinox Staff
Last week, 22 educators from Shanghai, China visited the Keene State College campus, as the college continues to focus on global collaborations and gain insight from other educational systems around the world.
One of the 22 visitors, Jinfei Huang, Principal of Dagong Middle School in Shanghai, China, said, “It was very informative since we experienced in person the difference between Chinese and US education systems. In addition to touring the campus of US public middle and high school, we had the opportunity to talk to students, teachers and school leaders. We also briefly observed some classrooms.”
Huang, who works within the Chongming District of Shanghai, added, “Among all the activities during our visit, I like visiting school and classrooms the most since it gives us direct experience of teaching and learning. We can easily related to our own teaching and administrative practice.” Huang shared that this visit was his first abroad professionally.
The visit was organized by Associate Provost Ann Rancourt and Assistant Professor of Education and the Director of Institutional Assessment, Yi Gong.
According to Gong, “They were here for three days. They visited the Department of Education [DOE], Keene State College and three local schools – Keene High School, Keene Middle School and the Marlborough School.”
Gong explained that although the visit would have created a good discussion with KSC students, the short timing of the visit did not leave any time for students to participate in discussion with the Chinese educators.
Associate Provost Ann Rancourt explained that it was difficult to involve students on this visit further as she mentioned, “We wanted the students to have an opportunity to talk to these professors about their experiences, but it [the major planning of the visit] was over break. We weren’t able to get information out to students.”
Gong shared that visiting kindergarten professors from China were able to participate in a lesson with the Early Childhood education department and its students in the past years at KSC.
Rancourt also explained, “The goal of the visit at Keene State College was for the principals of the various schools to have an opportunity to hear about the different types of academic programs we offer at Keene State [College] and the kinds of collaborations we might forge with their schools to encourage students to apply and attend Keene State [College].”
Rancourt also added that the college would like to encourage other students, such as those from the schools in Shanghai, China, to apply to KSC in the future.
Rancourt also shared that China was not the only country that KSC was looking to collaborate and work with in the future. Rancourt stated that, “India is another country that we’re looking at and establishing relationships with. We are also trying to forge relationships with two countries in South America right now, primarily Ecuador and Chile.”
Rancourt said, “If our students don’t have an opportunity to travel to a place like China and other countries because it’s cost prohibitive then we need to provide our own students the opportunity to interact with students from other countries. That means trying to have more of a focus of recruiting students from other countries to attend Keene State [College].”
Rancourt shared that she too visited schools in other countries with KSC in the past. “We share so many of the same goals in wanting to educate our students and in caring about our students,” Rancourt said about her visit to China.
Although both Rancourt and Gong agreed that the visit went smoothly, Gong mentioned, “I do think one way to improve this kind of thing is to have more in depth discussions.”
Gong addressed that, as the United States and China have different educational systems and goals, it is important to collaborate and develop an understanding between the two countries. One difference that Gong pointed out, was the idea that students in China often focus on their major specific courses rather than the full course load of required classes, such as courses in the liberal arts, at their own institution.
“In China, those subject areas [within the Liberal Arts] are not considered major courses. Students only focus on those major courses,” Gong said.
Rancourt explained that the collaboration between the Chinese visitors and KSC would allow each side to gain insight on different topics from each other.
“The Chinese students surpass American students in the sciences and math completely. American students surpass Chinese students in creative thinking and innovation. One of the things that teachers in the United States do is try to help students be more creative. That’s one of the things that the Chinese want to get from us–to have their students be engaged in the more creative thinking and processing. What we want from our Chinese colleagues is to learn how to get our students more adept at science and math,” Rancourt noted.
KSC sophomore Mimi Levesque, a communication studies major at KSC, said that she believed these types of visits sounded “very cool.”
Levesque noted, “It shows that we’re reaching out internationally.“
Levesque added that these types of visits at KSC were great additions to other programs such as studying abroad with the Global Education Office.
Levesque said, “Being here, or in another country for more than one semester would allow someone to get fully immersed in a culture.”
Despite their differences, both KSC faculty and their Chinese colleagues were able to make “wonderful conversation” about educational issues, according to Gong.
As a final thought on the international visits of colleagues from China and others of the past few years, Rancourt explained that students should focus on collaboration rather than competition in the future.
“Our Chinese colleagues and many of us believe that in the twenty-first century, if students don’t know how to collaborate with each other, we’re not gonna be able to solve the challenges that this century presents. It’s about collaboration,” Rancourt concluded.
Shanghai’s Dagong Middle School Principal Jinfei Huang similarly noted, “I believe such kind of international visits can help both sides learn from each other and find something that can be adapted to each other’s educational practice.”
Pam Bump can be contacted
at pbump@keene-equinox.com