KUCHING – Sixteen teachers from China and one each from Malaysia and the Philippines recently completed a three-week professional development program at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus.
The training program for the English teachers of Beijing based Australia Education Management Group (AEMG) was developed by the university’s Faculty of Language and Communication (FLC).
The teachers are deployed at universities across China including Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Southwest University, Shandong University, Inner Mongolia Normal University, and Ocean University of China.
“The participants are proficient in English. The course was designed in an action research based framework with units that expose them to doing research and pedagogy for teaching English to speakers of other languages,” said Dr Ida Fatimawati Binti Adi Badiozaman.
“We believe the most successful professional development is the one that grows from the questions in your classroom. This framework allowed for teachers to reflect on their current practice and seek ways that would create meaningful learning opportunities for their students,” said the FLC associate dean for diploma/degree and post-graduate programs.
The faculty worked with AEMG over the course of a few months to develop the training program. In addition to academic activities in class, it included a social-cultural component that introduces the teachers to various aspects of Sarawak’s culture where they were brought on excursions around Kuching.
“The course was useful and the teachers learned a lot from the lecturers, so it’s good for their career because it is focused on teaching,” said Wendy Wen, AEMG Teaching Affairs Centre manager who also completed the program.
AEMG director general Jenny Wang flew in to observe the final day of training.
“It’s been good and I’m very satisfied. We’ll have two groups of teachers coming in next year,” said Wang, adding that the development program was first initiated by AEMG, which has branches in Australia, the UK and the US, in February this year.
Swinburne Sarawak academic director Associate Professor Enn Ong and AEMG language department director Tatiana Voloshina awarded certificates of attendance and completion to the teachers.