On Wednesday,
March 25th, 2009 at 7 pm, TDF hosted a discussion panel
on “Teaching through a Global Recession”. 3 guest speakers talked
about different aspects of how the financial crisis is affecting teaching and
teachers in China as well as the Chinese government’s new directions in
education. The speeches were delivered in a discussion group manner with
questions and comments being given as the talk went on.
Here are the speech notes in Microsoft Word and in PDF
format as well as the recording of each in MP3 format. Note: you may right-click your mouse on each link in order to save it onto your computer.
1
Mr. Wang Xiaoyang,
the first speaker, talked about the Chinese government's investment in
education and their expectations. Mr. Wang is a director of the National
Association of Foreign Language Education (NAFLE), China Education Society
and Executive Editor of English Teachers Magazine. He has more than 20 years
working experience as a high school English teacher, a textbook editor, and
an NGO manager.
Mr. Paul Murphy,
the second speaker, talked about the changing attitudes in corporate training
– the move from budget allocation to looking for results – a return on the
investment not without the influence of the present financial crisis. Mr. Murphy
is Beijing Manager of Language Key
Ltd, a training facility with training centers in Hong Kong, Shanghai,
Guangzhou and Beijing. He also touched on issues regarding
trainers and the criteria for selection.
Ms. Kelly Brantner,
the last speaker, spoke about student’s needs in her institution’s EMBA
program – a program aimed at work-experienced persons wanting to upgrade
their corporate skills. Ms. Brantner is Beijing's Executive Project Director
for Rutgers University She spoke about students enrolling in the EMBA program
and the skills they most lack when starting out – skills that are not taught
in university training but could very well be in the future.
