From January 26th to February 10th in 2017, International College appointed 6 teachers, including Yang Shuai (associate professor, leader of Professional Research Group), Liu Jiali (lecturer), Wang Roujie (lecturer) and Lv Dongru from English Teaching and Research Group, Lin Shihan and Sun Shengxuan from Art Teaching and Research Group, to Birmingham City University (BCU) for three weeks teaching training.

These teachers arrived in BCU on January 26, who were welcomed by Professor Bashir Makhoul, vice dean of BCU, Professor Annie Lu, vice dean of business school and Mr. Gabriel Ceballos, the director of International Office. On January 27, vice professor Yang Shuai and lecturer Liu Jiali talked with the subject administrator of business school and the administrator of accounting separately, about cooperation issues such as curriculum setting of business major and accounting major. Meanwhile, teacher Lin Shihan and Sun Shengxuan were discussing curriculum issues about jewelry design major with director of jewelry college in BCU. On January 31, teacher Wang Roujie and Lv Dongru discussed cooperation towards English teaching with the director of language center.

Meeting in BCU

During the training period, teachers visited several campus, jewelry college and language center of BCU and took part in curriculum about jewelry design, economics, marketing, business strategy, accounting, etc. They expressed that, this trip was quite tense and full, which had broaden their horizons greatly. They learned the teaching patterns of English teachers and the latest teaching concepts, such as flipped classroom that foreign teachers asked students to preview videos and other materials and learn knowledge by themselves. Then teachers would examined how their students understand new knowledge through asking relevant questions and explained key points in accordance with the situation. They spent most of the time on group discussion and case study, using reality cases close to our daily life, which can easily raise students’ interest to explore. These updating teaching methods provide better ideas for when teaching back in China.

Accordingly, BCU is a public comprehensive university and second largest university in Birmingham, which history could track back to 1843. Colleges cover business, humanities, development and society, art, and so on. As our partner, BCU has launched several business majors such as accounting, finance, international trade and other art majors such as art design, jewelry design, luxury brand management and global media management, degree level covers both undergraduate and postgraduate for international students.