1
Experiences Working with Diverse Faculty 2007-2008
Murray State University focuses on the present situation, with reference to what is being accomplished regarding internationalization, as well as what the strengths and opportunities are with reference to current capacity at Murray State for internationalizations.
Indonesian Delegation Visits Murray State and the College of Education
A delegation from Syiah Kuala University (SKU) in Indonesia visited Murray State and the College of Education to explore possible mutual collaborative efforts between Syiah Kuala University and Murray State University. Dr. Ir. Darusman, Provost, Syiah Kuala University and Dr. Darni M. Daud, President/Rector, Syiah Kuala University, offered ideas that would result in enabling the Indonesian people to participate in the opportunities presented by Murray State University.
Dean’s Lecture Series Luncheon & Panel Discussion
A Cross Cultural Perspective featured a panel discussion responding to two questions: 1) If you were to import one educational practice from your country that you believe would enhance education in the United States, what would that be? 2) If you were to export one educational practice from the United States that would enhance education in your own country, what would that be? The lecture series luncheon helps faculty develop and implement lesson plans and facilitates activities centering on a multitude of topics including world history and traditions, diversity, and adapting to change.
Members of the panel were Ying Zhang, Beijing, China; Bin Zhou, Beijing, China; Sherilyn Loague, Ladyville, Belize; Mohamed El Awadly, Port Said, Egypt; Teresa Lopez, Valladolid, Spain; and Khwankamon Phusima, Bangkok, Thailand. 2
The College of Education & Public Schools Partnership
The College of Education is dedicated to empowering students through the creation of opportunities for engagement and leadership in an environment that celebrates the rich diversity of our campus and the communities. Educators from Toyoma University in Japan learned about and viewed classroom implementation of the CHAMPS program at Murray Elementary School and the Character Counts program at Southwest and East Calloway Elementary Schools. This partnership is designed to help international students in their career development and skill set regarding their career paths to understand American tradition and to increase competencies in oral and interpersonal communication.
MSU Education Student Teachers Teach in Belize
A dozen MSU education students assisted classroom teachers in Belize from April 14th through May 11th. Their mission – to gain teaching experience by assisting a Belizean teacher in a classroom setting four days a week, while still allowing ample free time to explore the cultural and natural wonders of Belize.
Student teachers who participated in Belize program were Annie Naas, Eldorado, IL; Whitney Hand, Marissa, IL; Lyndsey Brown, Paris, IL; Amanda Moreland, Benton; Stephanie Clark, Louisville; and Jennifer Carter, Edwardsville, IL; Robert Alexander, Hopkinsville; Nathan Conner, Carbondale, IL; Julie Lewis, Drummonds, TN; Leslie Shamblin, Newburgh, IN; Natalie Talbott, Paducah; and Amanda Rowan, Owensboro.
COE Dean Establishes Four Global Society Luncheons during the Academic Year 2007-2008 as part of College’s Emphasis on Internationalizations
The third Global Society Luncheons was held on Thursday, November 29th, from 11:00 am till 12:10 pm in AL 3101E. Guest speaker Carola Hechtel, a MSU Student from Regensburg, Germany, presented a paper titled Education in Germany. Mrs. Carola said that the goal of educational policy in Germany is to provide each citizen with opportunities to grow personally, professionally, and as a citizen in accordance with his or her abilities and preferences. The standard study period in which a degree program can be completed is at least eight to ten semesters at universities or eight semesters for degree programs with integrated practical semesters. 3
The fourth global society luncheon was held on Thursday, February 21st, from 11:00 am till 12:10 pm in AL 3101E with the keynote speaker Eduardo Cardenas, a MSU Student from Sagamoso, Colombia, SA. The keynote address titled Education in Colombia, SA, focused on the political, economic, and social development in Columbia with emphasis on the status of primary and secondary education.
The Global Society Luncheons provide a sense of community among the international students and an opportunity to develop the networking skills important to building professional bonds within the campus community.
MSU National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Students Present Shar-A-Thon
Laura Youngblood, president of the MSU Student Chapter of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and Mohamed El Awadly and others conducted a Shar-a-thon with members of other student chapters of NSTA at the 2008 National Conference of NSTA held March 27-30 in Boston, MA. NSTA conference was presented with innovative speakers and hands-on workshops as well as special invited keynote speakers, symposia, and the exhibition of science education materials which are invaluable source of curriculum.
Dr. Koren Involved at the National level with the National Organization- The American Library Association
During the fall semester of the 2007-2008 academic year, Dr. Koren’s children’s and young adult literature classes have included a focus on multicultural and international literature, with the introduction of an instrument for evaluating literature that takes into account authorship and quality of content.
Dr. Koren’s professional involvement on the national level in the American Library Association (ALA) includes office as a Member-at-Large of the International Relations Roundtable for the term 2007-2009. ALA President- Elect Jim Rettig (formerly a librarian at Murray State University) has appointed Dr. Koren to the association’s premier international relations policy body, the International Relations Committee from July of 2008. Sara Kelly Johns, President of the ALA division the American Association of 4
School Librarians (AASL), has appointed Dr. Koren as chair of an AASL task force on international relations.
Dr. Joy Navan Finalizes Agreement for Spanish Online Certificate Program in Gifted Education
The College of Education’s Center for Gifted Studies finalized an agreement with the Centro Huerta del Rey Center for Gifted Studies in Valladolid, Spain. The Center for Gifted Studies offers gifted education courses in Spanish and prepares teachers to promote excellence in gifted education through its Graduate Endorsement Program, available online and face-to- face with cohort groups.
Dr. Joy Navan Publishes a Book on Gifted Youth
Dr. Joy Navan’s book titled Nurturing the Gifted Female: A Guide for Educators and Parents helps educators discover and strengthen gifted female students’ potential and provides a reflective exercise for applying the material to professional practice. Each chapter promotes psychological and emotional characteristics of giftedness and examines the cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors affecting gifted girls’ development.
Dr. Joy Navan’s International Publications on Giftedness in All Children
Dr. Joy Navan published two articles in Madrid, Spain, on appropriate identification procedures of potentially gifted students and curriculum and instruction for students who have been identified as gifted. These publications would broaden the communications on the role of international cooperation and exchange in developing the scope to work in a global setting.
Navan, J.L. (in press). Assessment and identification of gifted children in the United States: A Summary. In Benito, Y. and Alonso, J., Superdotación. Madrid, Spain: Síntesis.
Navan, J.L. (in press). Services for gifted children in the United States: A Summary. In Benito, Y. and Alonso, J., Desarrollo y propuestas educativas de alumnos superdotados. Madrid, Spain. Praxis. 5
Dr. Susan Edington Presents for the KEA-SP Spring Leadership Conference in Louisville, KY
Dr. Susan Edington presented a paper titled Present-day Chinese Culture and the Global Implications for United States, which focuses on cultural and educational prospects and their global implications at the KEA-SP Spring Leadership Conference in Louisville, KY, on April 4, 2008.
Pam Matlock Named Outstanding KEA-SP Advisor
Pam Matlock, Lecturer in the Adolescent, Career and Special Education Department and advisor for the Murray State University-Crisp Center Chapter of KEA-SP, has received the outstanding KEA-SP advisor award during the recent KEA-SP conference. Pam Matlock has participated in the Outreach to Teach project working on the playground make-over at an inner city Philadelphia school.
Pam Matlock Visits China as part of Murray State University's Discover II program
Pam Matlock and other members of the MSU faculty spent two weeks on the campus of Shandong University,Weihai, China, to meet with representatives from the respective colleges and made presentations in an open forum. Pam Matlock presented a paper titled An Overveiw of Special Education in America focusing on guidance on Individualized Education Plan and information for classrooms with special needs children for the faculty and students at Shandong University, in May, 2008.
Daily guided excursions around the campus, city, and the surrounding locale were provided by the Shandong University faculty and one of the highlight of the expeditions was learning to make the local dumplings.
A photostory presentation with artifacts was presented by Pam Matlock to three sections of the 5th grade class after the students had completed a unit of study on Asia, February, 2008, at Mayfield Elementary School. Mayfield, KY. The students were invited to interact with the Chinese artifacts and discuss about cultural resources as China moves onto a global stage.
Pam Matlock and other members of the MSU faculty presented a paper titled Matchmaking, Cupping, and Passing the Test focusing on aspects of the 6
Chinese culture including the importance of family, traditional medicine, and academic pressures during the Murray State University’s International Education Week at Curris Center, in November, 2007. Pam Matlock used her travel experiences to Beijing and Xi'an to analyze the effects of cultural change in China and its implications for MSU’s Discover China program.
Dr. Tom Lough Collaborates with International Universities
During the 2007-2008 academic year, Dr. Tom Lough was supported by a grant from the SEED Foundation to travel internationally and work with science teachers in other parts of the world. While doing that, he also promoted collaborative projects between these teachers and teachers back in the MSU service area. The countries he visited included Russia, Venezuela, and China. These experiences have helped him to develop a deeper international perspective of education and the universal needs of learners everywhere. Dr. Lough has also developed a grant that provided a Japanese language teacher for three years to two local high schools. This has had a significant impact on scores of high school students, resulting in MSU offering 300-level Japanese language courses for the first time in the fall 2008 semester in response to increasing numbers of incoming students with previous Japanese experience and interest.
Dr. Lough has participated in systematic study of the Russian and Chinese languages so that he could communicate more effectively with MSU counterparts on these international consultations.
On March 28, at the 2008 national conference of the National Science Teachers Association held in Boston, MA, Dr. Lough presented the results of a collaborative project between teachers and students from Egypt and from the USA who carried out a comparison of the waters of the Nile River and the Mississippi River. This session was well-attended and has generated much interest. The presenters have been encouraged to present an updated version of the project at the 2009 NSTA conference.
Robotics Camps Connects Via Webcam with the Colleagues at the University of Toyama, Japan
The MSU College of Education sponsored six sessions of weeklong robotics camps from June 16-20, 2008, in Alexander Hall to upper elementary and middle school students for exploring with the new powerful NXT robotics 7 system from LEGO. Started in 1998 by MSU COE associate professor Dr. Tom Lough, the annual camps were designed to bring young learners into contact with fundamental concepts of robotics and to provide hands-on experience in exploring and applying these concepts. Each session finished with a “robotic derby” composed of projects and events that gave the campers plenty of opportunities to apply their new robotics knowledge and skills.
The elementary and middle school students demonstrate their robotics projects to the counterparts at the university of Toyama in Japan and take questions by involving them in scholarly activities.
Dr. Joe Baust, Director, Center for Environmental Education, Offers Bregenz Austria Environmental Program
The Center for Environmental Education at Murray State University has offered a two-week experience that centers on “sustainability and environment” in Austria in a period from 1999 to 2008. This program is part of the Kentucky Institute for International Education and was conceived by Dr. Joe Baust who has directed and provided instruction for each summer since 2000. This summer is the final year of this program for graduate students majoring in environmental education.
Environmental grants and contracts help support part or all of the participants’ international experiences which is evidence for commitment on the part of the college.
To expand knowledge of environmental issues, Dr. Jacqueline Hansen along with twenty six teachers, professors, and directors are traveling to Austria, Germany, and Switzerland during the summer of 2008. The participants will accumulate expert advice on environmental education issues as they relate to sustainable development and conservation.
Dr. Jacqueline Hansen Creates Educational Kits Commemorating African American History
As the education writer for the Stamp Services division of the United States Postal Service, Dr. Jacqueline Hansen works with a team of experts to create education kits related to special stamps issuances for National Stamp Collecting month and Black Heritage month each year. Each spring, the 8
Black Heritage series features prominent African Americans throughout the ages. This past February, the education kit focused upon Charles W. Chesnutt, a renowned black author who has enriched the culture of life through literary products. These kits are disseminated to 265,000 American teachers commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of a pioneer writer.
For more information about these kits, please visit the following website at http://www.usps.com/communications/community/classroom.htm.
The Dean’s Lecture Series on Multicultural Education: Dr. James P. Comer Speaks at the College of Education’s Multicultural Education Program on Partnerships in Education
Dr. James P. Comer, a Medical Doctor and Associate Dean for Student Affairs and a Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at Child Study Center, Yale University http://www.med.yale.edu/comer/about/profiles.html#comer , delivered a lecture titled Higher Education’s Role in Improving Schools through Stewardship of Place Thursday, March 6, 7:00 p.m., 2008, in the auditorium, room 240, Alexander Hall. Dr. Comer, who developed the Comer Process – a system of education focused on child development in inner-city schools, has been instrumental in improving the educational climate of more than six hundred schools nationwide. Dr. James P. Comer focused on more than thirty years of his community involvement, experiences, and educational commitment by presenting The Field Guide to Comer Schools in Action on March 7, 9:30 A.M. – 10:45 A.M., 2008, in the auditorium, room 240, Alexander Hall. This presentation was followed by the 2008 Dean’s Multicultural Series Luncheon which was held at 11:30 A.M. in room 3101E Alexander Hall. The presentation titled Building Communities: Building Schools focused on effective framework for whole school reform and explored viable approaches to resolving them.
The Dean’s Lecture Series was sponsored by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, and Office of the Dean College of Education, with assistance from the Dean’s Multicultural Committee for the Dean’s Multicultural Education Series. The purpose of the Dean’s Lecture Series is to explore how to redesign our schools to be more inclusive in terms of race, class, and gender bringing to light what really works to transform schools, students, teachers, parents, and communities. 9
The Curriculum Resource Center
The mission of the curriculum resource center is to support and advance the university's commitment to cultural diversity and nurture its emphasis on internationalizations. Its purpose is to offer programs and services that assist students of all cultures in their achievement of academic, cultural, and social success. The center is a resource for history, literature and culture, and it supports students in acquiring greater understanding of the multicultural perspective.
Faculty International Teaching Experience
Dr. Chhanda Islam has been involved in important assignments with the Pathmark Associates under the leadership of the Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education of the Bangladesh Government to develop mandatory assessment programs to provide accountability to school boards and to examine the impact of curriculum revision. To achieve Murray State University’s Internationalization strategic planning goal, she works in partnership with a number of innovative Bangladesh schools, studying, discussing, and documenting the challenges, as well as to developing research papers and materials that help educators change their pedagogical practices.
International Publications
Dr. Chhanda Islam published a book titled Literacy Leadership: Linking Theory, Best Practices, and Technology, published by Bangla Academy, in December, 2007, which features a comprehensive approach on how to study the connection between leadership and literacy instruction. It demonstrates how to provide quality literacy programs through effective leadership and how to prevent literacy problems in students before they lead to school failure and for maximum impact on literacy learning.
Dr. Chhanda Islam has edited her father’s best selling book, The Socio- Cultural Study of Folklore, published by Bangla Academy, Bangladesh, in December, 2007. It is a required text adopted by Rajshahi university, Bangladesh, in order to bring up-to-date information specified by the text. The Socio-Cultural Study of Folklore facilitates a deep understanding of folklore and discusses its significance to the scientific and ethnographic 10 studies as well as relationships with linguistics and approaches to behavioral/cogitative and social science and disciplines.
The College of Education offers interdisciplinary programs that further the university’s goal of providing students with the knowledge and commitment to be socially responsible citizens in a diverse democracy and interconnected world.
Murray State has considerable experience in delivering high quality education and training to international audiences both on campus and overseas and raises the international profile of the university through strengthening its commitment to international activities.