From July 21 to august 19, 2023, IMU’s program for overseas research and studies of senior teachers/teaching administration personnel was implemented. 28 teachers and teaching administrators from 12 schools of IMU completed 4-week research and studies at University of Wales Trinity Saint David(UWTSD), Swansea, Wales.
Mark Flagg, Caroline Lewis, Katie Gardner and Marion Phillips, who are from the Institute of Education and Humanities of UWTSD, taught two courses for the teachers and administrators of IMU. The two course are “Leadership and Administration in Education” and “Approaches for Educational Studies” which involve (1) History of leadership and concepts about administration (2) Leadership and administration in education and their multiple roles (3) How a teacher becomes a qualified leader and administrator? (4) How a teacher becomes an excellent coach and mentor? (5) Philosophy and ethics in studies of social sciences (6) Ontology, epistemology and methodology in studies of education (7) Qualitative and quantitative approaches for educational studies (8) Approaches for survey, interview, case study, questionnaire survey (9) How to choose research questions, review literature, sample, collect data and analyze data and (10) How to ensure the reasonability and effectiveness of research. Four teachers used “student-centered” teaching model, laid emphasis on heuristics questioning in class, organized multiple forms of group discussions and had in-depth exchange and discussions about above-mentioned topics with the teachers from IMU, combining the specific cases in Britain.
Lecturing
Lecturing
Group discussion
Group picture
Group picture
Besides, UWTSD arranged a campus tour and cultural tour every week for IMU’s teachers. They visited Swansea College of Art, Institute of Engineering and Computer Science and Lampeter campus of UWTSD and had discussion and exchange with teachers from the College of Art, Institute of Management and Health and Institute of Engineering and Computer Science to know about the institutes’ facilities and their teaching models. During the cultural tours, the teachers visited Rhossili Bay, the most beautiful beach in Britain, Bath, the only city listed under World Cultural Heritage in Britain and Cardiff, the capital of Wales and experienced the local customs and traditions.
Visit to College of Art
Visit to automatic control laboratory
Visit to Lampeter campus
During the research and studies, all teachers from IMU were registered as students of UWTSD. Some of them went to the library of UWTSD to look up the research materials and others went to British Museum to look up and copy research materials. Some of the teachers attended the international conferences in their research fields that coincided with their research and studies in UWTSD and discussed the international scientific research cooperation with experts in their fields at the conferences.
On the afternoon of August 17, 2023, all the courses were over. UWTSD arranged luncheon party for the teachers and organized the closing ceremony. Ian Walsh, academic dean of Swansea campus, Jeremy Smith, dean of Academy of Voice and Dramatic Arts, some of the course teachers and teachers from International Department of UWTSD attended the closing ceremony. Ian Walsh conferred the Award of Attendance of the Education Short Course on teachers from IMU. Course teachers summarized the course study and IMU teachers gave their feedback and shared thoughts about their studies.
Closing ceremony
Award conferring
Picturing with course teachers
Group picture for closing ceremony
On August 19, 2023, the research group came back to China. After coming back, every teacher handed in their essays about feelings of their research and studies, in which they said that they would use what they got in their research and studies at UWTSD into their teaching and scientific research. This research journey is the first large-scale overseas research activity organized by IMU after the COVID-19 pandemic, which broadens the international horizon of the teachers involved, improve their capability for international communication and critical thinking, better their reflection on the reform and innovation in education, further enhance their understanding of British teaching and administration and is conducive to establish more perfect administration system and the system to evaluate teaching.
