The Main Features of the Department
1. The department focuses on the core of education so as to increate the graduates’ competitiveness.
The heart of education is the development of students’ potentials through quality curriculum designs and implementation. The department was also named as "Education and Human Potentials Development" to help students get focused on the heart of education. Students graduated from the department are expected to obtain the professional knowledge and skills in education and human potentials development, which are essential to be quality elementary school teachers and provide critical advantage over other competitors in teacher hiring market.
2. We adhere ourselves to the superior tradition of teacher education, as wells as to keeping up with future education trends.
We were originated from the Department of Elementary School Teacher Education in the Teachers ' College. Our faculty has always been adhering to the superior tradition of cultivating excellent teachers as well as to offering courses to meet future educational trends. At the same time, we attempt to respond to the key question in contemporary global educational thoughts: what are the critical competencies in modern world and how to cultivate them in our students? The term "Human Potentials Developments" emphasizes the cultivation of critical competencies/abilities that can be adapted and applied in a variety of circumstances. We offer an abundant and diverse program of courses that students can choose from to develop various capabilities, such as: creativity, memory power, leadership, interpersonal skills, communication skills, emotional cultivation, sensitivity, empathy, willpower, resilience, concentration, logical thinking skill, critical thinking skill, and so on. These are much-needed capabilities for all human beings to survive in the future global society.
3. The department ties closely the "Education" and "human potentials development".
Although "Education" and "human potential development" are two different areas, the combination of the two can achieve a complementary effect. The former focuses on the methods of education, and the latter on educational goals (ie, development and cultivation of various capabilities). By combining the two areas, the educational methods can be highlighted and the educational goals be explicated. In other words, the objectives of curriculum design are to develop human potentials, and the development of human potentials is bound to be achieved through curriculum design.
4. The department attempts to balance both domain-free and domain-specific curriculum designs.
In our department, the students may choose to study the professional knowledge of curriculum design and apply their knowledge skills in various learning domains. However, this type of professional jobs must be cooperated with relevant subject matter experts. The students can also choose to study specific areas of curriculum design, including: the language domain, the multicultural education, or science education.
5. Our students are expected to graduate with a clear expertise and a broad career route.
Students graduated from our department can be called "Curriculum Designers" or "Human Potentials Developers." These two types of experts can be applied not only in formal education settings, but also in social education, adult education, organizational on-the-job training, and children's potentials development. Therefore, if our graduates are not employed as elementary school teachers, they can initiate their own educational enterprises or engage in various educational jobs related to curriculum design or human potentials development. Therefore, there are a variety of career opportunities for the students graduated from our department.
6. We have a strong faculty team with a very good combination of different expertise.
Since 2010 school year, there are 26 full-time faculty members in our department. The faculty members’ expertise includes five areas: curriculum design, instructional technology, human potentials development, multicultural education, and science education. Our faculty members not only could support each other in collaborative research projects, but also cooperate with each other by offering abundant courses for students in undergraduate program, master programs, and doctoral programs, meeting their individual, diversified and flexible career plans.
7. Our curriculum and instructions are not only distinguished both in quality and quantity, but also interwoven with the teachers' exemplars and teachings.
The department not only provides courses relevant to education and human potentials development, the faculty members model their own teachings through directly demonstrating how to perform education and human potentials development. In other words, we employ our own curriculum design expertise in our own courses to engage students in rigorous learning process of curriculum design and curriculum development. By gradually enhancing the quality of our curriculum and instructions, we demonstrate the process of quality curriculum design and curriculum development, which we believe is the best manifestation of our own expertise in curriculum design and human potentials development.