Project+Specifications

This is a pilot project to determine the feasibility of continuing education courses designed and taught by FIELDING, School of Educational Leadership and Change and offered within the Chinese post-secondary educational system, specifically within Shaanxi province, China.
 * Introduction**

The certificate course is designed to provide selected students with basic knowledge and skills related to educational learning theories, teaching and learning strategies and ways in which to evaluate student learning. Concurrently the program will provide selected FIELDING faculty with the opportunity to experience curriculum design and teaching in another country and culture. A documented evaluation of the systems and processes, and outcomes will provide valuable data to inform later discussions. The findings of this pilot will be helpful in informing any future collaborative efforts related to certificate and continuing education programs with SCEU and Fielding. Findings may also be useful in informing other projected Fielding international collaboration efforts.

Fielding School of Educational Leadership and Change will select participating faculty. The SCEU program directors will select a translator to work alongside the Fielding faculty. Selected Fielding faculty will be knowledgeable in the field of education; and familiar with the challenges facing educational systems in China, current teaching and evaluation methods in the country, desired changes, and will be respectful of existing knowledge in China. SCEU translators will have serviceable use of the English Language at the TOEFL 550 level or above.
 * Faculty/Instructors**

The pilot program will serve a minimum of five (5), and maximum of fifteen (15) students.
 * Number of Students**

The program will last three (3) months. The exact timing will be determined by join agreement between the parties.
 * Program Length**

SCEU will select the initial students for enrollment in this pilot project. Selected students will meet the following criteria: Classes will include these topics: Final determination of the curriculum content and classroom activities will reside with the Fielding faculty.
 * Student Selection Process:**
 * Students will be mainly administrative staff and/or faculty.
 * Students will have completed a course in English as a Second Language prior to enrollment in the Certificate Program.
 * Students will be prepared to learn and to study large amounts of materials, complete assignments and to demonstrate that learning has occurred.
 * Students will be available to attend all scheduled classes.
 * Curriculum/Course Outlines**
 * Strategies for adult education in vocational technical programs in the United States (Teaching Philosophy/Ideology, curriculum development, overview of teaching/learning strategies/determining that learning has occurred, etc).
 * Philosophy, methods and approaches in vocational education.
 * Teaching Methods (Lectures, On-line, hands-on, repetitive learning exercises, on-the-job-training strategies, developing Communities of Learners, Coaching Strategies, etc)
 * Developing teacher education programs for use in Shaanxi Province – Assuring Educational Effectiveness


 * Measures of Student Learning**

Upon completion of this course and prior to the awarding of the certificate, it is expected that participating students will be able to:
 * Demonstrate acquired knowledge by teaching the learned materials to the class
 * Demonstrate that they can apply the learned materials and methods by developing a similar course that can be taught in their schools in China.

Students who successfully complete all requirements will be awarded the Basic Certificate in Teaching, Learning, and Program Evaluation Methods.
 * Program Completion and Awarding of Certificates**

As the pilot is implement faculty may choose to connect Students (in China) with their counterparts in the United States via conference calls, video-conferencing, email, and other technology. If this should occur, students will have the opportunity to share their real life experiences with selected individuals in the USA, receive feedback and share ideas as they complete the basic certificate. These connections will be made at the discretion of the Fielding faculty and the Fielding ELC dean.
 * Virtual technology** (optional)

This pilot custom program will be evaluated upon completion. The written evaluation will be designed and completed as a joint effort by the Dean, Dr. Judy Witt, Fielding, and her counterpart at SCEU. This will enable both a Chinese and English version of the findings and subsequent recommendations. The report will serve an additional training resource for SCEU and Fielding/ELC in determining, preparing, and selecting future participants.
 * Overall Program Evaluation**

The budget is reflective of an attempt to assure desired program quality in the most cost-effective manner. The following agreed upon budget is for this pilot project only. Additional funding will be needed to move future efforts forward:
 * Budget and Considerations**

//FIELDING, School of Educational Leadership and Change// will lead the design of this custom program for piloting in Shaanxi Continuing Education University or its affiliate. Custom program to include: //SCEU will provide the following:// >  ·  // teaching teachers how to teach students in vocational-technical schools; ;and how to evaluate/measure learning using methods other than simple objective tests/examinations…It seems that the students are very accustomed to taking objective tests and can generally study enough to make good grades on those tests. However the tests may not in reality be the best measure or the only measure of the vocational-technical skills that they are supposed to be acquiring. The overriding educational goal is to prepare students who will become a part of the vocational/technical workforce that will have them recognized as knowledgeable and skilled workers. The challenge is to have teachers who can do that… //// The question that needs to be asked is ‘how are the teachers currently prepared?” “What are the qualifications of current teachers?” etc. (GJW) // · // There seemed to be an interest in our community college, vocational-technical, and vocational career schools and institutes here in the United States. What they are referring to as it relates to “community education” strategies seemed to be really that of having a certificate program that prepares their teachers to understand how these systems work in the United States, especially as it relates to how their teachers teach, how the teachers evaluate learning, how the teachers learn to teach???Etc… There was also a lot of interest in including spending actual time in some of these settings observing and learning side by side with their counterparts.)(GJW) // · // It seemed that they were interested as a primary objective actually seeing how US schools operate, etc. That seemed to be a repeated theme hence the request for internship, observational experiences as a part of the certificate program development and implementation. (GJW) // ·  // The Chinese students who would enroll in these certificate programs would be current young teachers in the Vocational Colleges and Schools. (They felt that these schools are comparable to our Adult Vocational Schools/ **and career technical schools**; and Community Colleges.) These students would not be enrolled until they had demonstrated English language competencies. **(We would need to be specific about what constitutes an acceptable TOEFL score for admission to the certificate programs.)** (GJW)//
 * Faculty with documented expertise in educational program design, implementation, teaching, and evaluation
 * Curriculum and Course Outlines, Study Guides, selection of reference/teaching/learning materials
 * Program administration support in USA
 * Overall Evaluation of Program Systems, Processes, and Outcomes
 * Roundtrip Airfare for all selected program faculty
 * Housing and other living expenses including food and transportation from residence to and from classes for all selected faculty while residing in China.
 * Orientation to Chinese teaching/learning methods and environments
 * Twelve Thousand Dollars ($12,000) Fee based on the presence of one faculty participant during the pilot program (teaching may be split between two faculty with one teaching the first half of the program and the other the second half). Additional faculty members will increase the fee at a rate of $12,000 per additional faculty. Fees payable directly to Fielding Graduate University.
 * Funding for any books, journals, etc selected for use as teaching/learning materials
 * Translator
 * If determined the that dean of Fielding/ School of ELC is to visit to collaborate on the program evaluation and future planning, roundtrip airfare, housing and other living expenses including food and transportation from residence to and from campus for the dean while in China