International teachers to study teaching in area high schools

~ The teachers went through stiff competition to be chosen for the program.

Fourteen public and private school teachers from the Middle East, Asia and North Africa will get a firsthand look at education in three area high schools under a U.S. Department of State grant-funded program.

The teachers will spend six months studying at Southeast Missouri State University. During that time, they also will participate in eight-week teaching internships at Cape Girardeau Central, Jackson and Sikeston high schools this semester.

The teachers arrived in Cape Girardeau midweek. On Thursday and Friday, they attended orientation sessions. The teachers are housed in New Hall, a campus residence hall.

Southeast was awarded a $70,077 grant from the federal government for the program.

Southeast is one of only four colleges in the United States to receive funding for the program. In all, 56 teachers are studying in the United States, 14 at each of the four schools. The other colleges are Georgia Southern, Kent State and Drexel.

Dr. Jean Benton, director of international programs for Southeast's College of Education, is directing the teaching project at Southeast. An associate professor of middle and secondary education, Benton said the goal is to instruct the international teachers on the American system of education and classroom teaching practices.

"These are the best and the brightest," Benton said of the teachers during an orientation session Friday on the Southeast campus. She said the teachers went through stiff competition to be chosen for the program.

Teachers in other nations hold up the American educational system as a model, Benton said. "The rest of the world looks to us for best practices," she said.

In the United States, students are encouraged to ask questions. Classroom discussion is common. But Benton said that isn't the case in many schools abroad.

The program at Southeast, she said, will help improve the teaching skills of these 14 international teachers. But it also should increase cultural understanding among the international teachers, American teachers and students.

Many in the group are Muslims from nations that typically aren't represented among the international students at Southeast Missouri State, Benton said.

The group includes four teachers from Bangladesh, two from Morocco, two from Egypt, two from India, and one each from Malaysia, Jordan, Lebanon and Indonesia.

Samira Bari of Bangladesh said students in her nation's schools learn through memorization. Bari, who teaches middle school students, said she wants to abandon that practice

"Students don't like it," said Bari who has been teaching school for 15 years. "I want something exciting to give them."

Bari said she has 75 students in a single class in the girls school where she teaches. Large classes are common, she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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