ED. CONNECT

The Bi-annual Graduate School of Education Newsletter

ORIENTATION

SEMESTER: 1/2011

The orientation for the new students entering in

semester 1/2011 was held on May 28, 2011 at Salle D’

Expo.

President, Rev. Dr. Bancha Saenghiran gave the opening

remarks and a very inspirational speech.

This semester, there are 3 students entering the Ph.D.

program; 5 students joining the M.Ed. (Curriculum and

Instruction) program; and 14 students opting for the

M.Ed. (Educational Administration) program.

June – October 2011 ISSN: 1686-4948

IN THIS ISSUE …

Orientation 1/2011 Visiting Professor : Assoc. Prof. Dr.

Bro. Thomas Oldenski Assoc. Dean. Dr. Suwattana’s Trip to

Seton Hall, New Jersey, U.S.A. A Trip to Seton Hall - A Student’s

Perspective Internal Audit: Education Japanese Visitors’ Chinese Teachers’ Training English Language Improvement

Seminar Happy Hour Upcoming Events

H.H King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s

Birthday

In honor of His Majesty’s 84th birthday,

The Graduate School of Education faculty,

staff and students paid respect and prayed

for the blessings and good health of his

Majesty. This message will be telecast on

ABAC Channel on December 5, 2011.

Brother Thomas Oldenski (Associate

Professor, University of Dayton, Ohio)

fondly known as Brother Tom returned

during this semester to teach for several

weeks in the Graduate School of Education.

Brother Tom’s time with us was spent

mostly teaching a few class sessions in

several courses in the Master’s Degree

programs and the Doctoral program.

Brother Tom has been joining the faculty

for several weeks a year since 2005. Before

that time, he had made occasional visits to

ABAC as a guest lecturer since his first

visit to Bangkok in 2000.

VISITING PROFESSOR Semester 1/2011

It was during his first visit here, that he met Rev. Bro. Prathip Martin Komolmas and Rev. Bro. Bancha

Saenghiran, who invited him to return to Assumption University as a visiting professor. And since that

meeting he feels right “at home” with the Graduate School of Education and always enjoys meeting the

students and interacting with them.

During the past year, Brother Tom spent several months near Rome, Italy, (Manziana) on a personal renewal

program for “older” Brothers. This was followed by teaching a semester in the University of Dayton India

program located in Bangalore. Once he returns to the University of Dayton for the new academic year there,

Brother Tom will resume his teaching of Curriculum courses, which include Curriculum, Instruction and

Assessment for School Improvement, and Curriculum Evaluation, in the Master’s and Doctoral degree

programs.

Brother Tom’s ongoing advice to graduate students is “Read, read, read!” and take notes and think

about what you are reading. Be ready to keep on learning throughout your life. There is no end to what we

can come to know, if we spend our time reading and reflecting.

ASSOC. PROF. DR. BRO. THOMAS OLDENSKI

ASSOC. DEAN. DR SUWATTANA’S TRIP TO

SETON HALL, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A.

SPECIAL LECTURE AT SETON HALL UNIVERSITY

JULY 11-15, 2011

In reference to the agreement between the Graduate School of Education,

Assumption University and the College of Education and Human Services,

Seton Hall University, New Jersey, U.S.A., Dr. Joseph Stetar, Professor and

Director of Graduate Programs in Higher Education has been the visiting

professor of Graduate School for years and the faculty members from

Graduate School have visited Seton Hall as follows:

In 2007, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Methi Pilanthananond, the former Dean, Faculty of

Education.

In 2008, Dr. Athipat Cleesuntorn, Director of Graduate Diploma Program in

Teacher education and FOE-PR.

In 2009, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pornchulee Archava-Aumrung, the former Dean,

Graduate School of Education.

In 2010, Dr. Sangob Laksana, Dean, Graduate School of Education.

In 2011, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Suwattana Eamoraphan, Associate Dean,

Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Joseph Stetar, Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in Higher

Education invited Dr. Suwattana and Dr. Hua Jiang, Professor of Education

and Director of Education Research Institute, Harbin Institute of Technology

(Harbin China) for the course in Comparative Study of Educational Systems

to be co-lecturers of the Executive Ed.D. Program of the Department of

Educational Leadership, Management and Policy. The twenty eight Ed.D.

students were mainly principals and superintendents from different States,

mostly from New Jersey. This year two Ph.D. students, Ms. Jia Chen and

Mr. Suphakit Jitklongsub, received the scholarship to attend the course. The

seminar focused on building the foundation for understanding of educational

systems internationally, theory of Soft Power and implications for education,

concepts of human and social capital theory: impact for schools,

Globalization and Fragmentation: and the shaping of education, theory of

divergence and convergence in education globally and reviewed the

international education addressing the current results of Trends in

Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Program for International

Assessment (PISA) and Progress in Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Supit karnjanapun, Director of M.Ed. in Curriculum and

Instruction Program, is expected to represent the Graduate School of

Education for the next meeting at Seton Hall University in the year 2012.

SETON HALL UNIVERSITY

THE PRESIDENTS HALL

JULY 11-15, 2011

A TRIP TO SETON HALL

- A STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

As a local Shanghai student studying in Thailand and listen to the story in

the States, I am myself was very impressed by both the strong education

reforming in Shanghai for last several years and the American educators’

effort on studying those materials, finding out the main factors causing

the low performance in PISA test for USA students and what make

Chinese students achieving high in this international assessment.

This remarkable performance by Shanghai students gives the lie to

prejudices about Asian education systems supposedly based on rote

learning and leaving little initiative for students to think on their own.

Shanghai’s breathtaking economic expansion requires a constant flow of

new talent, and the city’s school leadership is committed to educating its

youth to think creatively and apply knowledge to solve new problems.

From my point of view, Shanghai education reformers’ broadening

students’ learning experiences and developing “capability” rather than

accumulation of information and knowledge and raising the bar for entry

to teaching profession are the two main strategies perfectly borrowed and

practiced from the western education methods. At the same time, the

schools with best performance are taking responsibility for leading

improvements at the weaker schools by “pairing” or “empowered

administration” by a strong school taking over the leadership of one or

more weaker schools by sending a team of experienced teachers and

administrators to improve management and teaching shows us the

importance of collaboration and sharing in education, which exactly

explained why we were been invited to join this session. I would like to

share this with my Thai classmates and professors: not only giving

applause to the winner of the teat but also studying the attitude of our

friends in the States hold, to do the autopsy to our very own education

system so as to prepare the next generation to surpass the achievement of

the old ones.

From days of reading, analyzing and debating, though none of us get a

consensus on what is the best way to improve the current education

situation in this highly complex and globalized environment, we all

enjoyed this short journey just like reading a great book as William

Styron described: “a great book should leave you with many experiences,

and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.”

I want to say thank you to Dr. Sangob, Dr. Stetar and Dr. Suwattana and

the rest of the people who joined this study together, who gave me such a

fantastic opportunity to explore this wonderful world and those beautiful

minds.

by Jia Chen (Kris)

As a first time visitor to the United States, I would like

to tell my friends in ABAC that New York City is good,

Seton Hall University’s cafeteria is great, but what best

happened during this short oversea study trip is what I

have experienced in the classroom of Dr. Stetar, where

when the West culture meet the Oriental’s, the

traditional education meet the modern trend and the

intelligence meet the intelligence.

During the one-week of intense discussion and in-depth

exchange opinion in all aspects of the education field,

we developed many valuable and innovative thoughts on

the topics of Human capital and social capital, soft

power strategic positioning, contingent and divergent

theory, nationalism vs. fragmentation. Dr. Stetar led the

class to a very interesting discussion base on the PISA

result study on the Shanghai education reform (students

rank top at 2009 PISA tests) from a USA educator’s

perspective. By the end of the day, all students in that

classroom were expected to choose one of the

participant’s countries from PISA organization and see

how the above theories applied in their unique education

system.

INTERNAL AUDIT: EDUCATION

INTERNAL AUDIT AND ASSESSMENT FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2010

The IAAT auditors conducted the audit for the academic year 2010

at the Graduate School of Education on Friday, June 24, 2011

The auditors for IAAT 13

1. Dr. Chayada Thanavisuth Chairman

2. Dr. Payungsak Jantrasurin Member (external auditor)

3. Mr. Sthaianrapab Naluang Member

4. Dr. Veerachart Nimanong Member

5. Ms. Siriwan Preechanarit Member & Secretary

1. Dr. Sangob Laksana Chairman

2. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Suwattana E. Member

3. Dr. Suvichakorn Chinapha External Auditor

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

INSTRUCTORS PARTICIPATED IN IAAT FOR MARTIN DE TOURS SCHOOL OF

MANAGEMENT ON JUNE 17, 2011

DR WIPA MHUNPIEW OF GRADUATE SCHOOL

OF EDUCATION, PARTICIPATED AS TEAM

MEMBER IN IAAT FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY AND

RELIGION ON JULY 1, 2011

CHINESE TEACHERS’

TRAINING

A delegation from HaErbin Universities, HeiLongjiang province, China

visited Assumption University to attend a short training program from

July 19th -22

nd, 2011. They came from different Universities of HaErbin

City. The delegation consisted of instructors, professors, department

heads, or school leaders. It was a good opportunity for GSoE to share

ideas and communicate with them.

TRAINING:

July 19 to July 22, 2011

On July 19, 2011 Dr. Sangob Laksana, Dean of GSoE and Dr. Wipa M.,

program director of Ph.D. (EL) conducted the training. Dr. Sangob

introduced the Thai Educational System, a talk on education in

Assumption University and the Graduate School of Education,

encouraging those interested in further studies at Au or GSoE. He

emphasized that the level of academic research of University directly

affects the quality of graduating students.

On the following days, Dr. Richard L., Dr. Watana V., Dr. Surapee S

and Dr. Yan Ye, held the training program on topics related to Teaching

and Learning in Higher Education, Educational Administration and

Leadership, Thai Culture, Assessment in Education and Curriculum

Development, Comparative Teaching, English, Instructional Design etc.

Each instructor had their own teaching style which was a good exposure

for the delegates making them aware of different styles of teaching

compared to the traditional Chinese style.

Certificates were granted to all participants at the end of the

program. - Yuhua Xie

JAPANESE

VISITORS

Mr. Hiroki Ohta and Ms. KAHO MIZOKAMI

visited the Graduate school of Education.

Mr. Hiroki Ohta, president of Japan Asia Culture

Center Co. Ltd., wishes to extend future relations

with our school.

Talks regarding our school conducting training

programs to their clients who are mostly Japanese

employees working in their country but wishing to

learn Thai and English, here in Thailand.

Our school has always welcomed international

students and has conducted special training courses

for them. This will be yet another wonderful

opportunity.

ON SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

ACTIVITIES

The seminar was conducted by Dr Ye Yan, who

invited Dr Richard Lynch. Our Graduate and

Doctoral students were the participants of this

seminar. As an icebreaker, the professors share

their personal teaching and learning experience

at Assumption University with the students; this

encourages students to feel free to talk, open

discussions like these bring confidence and

improve conversation skills.

The students also had group activities; they

were divided into three groups each with a team

leader. The teams had to build paper towers

with limited material and give meaningful

names to their accomplishment. This activity

covered many areas of knowledge such as team

cooperation, leadership theory and above all

this, it was a good opportunity to express their

ideas in English.

Liu Rongrong

M.Ed. (E.A) student

ENGLISH LANGUAGE IMPROVEMENT SEMINAR: AUGUST 20, 2011

STUDENT ACTIVITY

HAPPY HOUR

In order to plan student activities such as seminars, school visits etc and

to elect the student committee chairperson, the Happy Hour was

organized at the students lounge on Wed, August 31, 2011. All the new

batch students were invited.

Ms. Jane Kanjanaphoomin was

elected as the student committee

chairperson and Ms. Jamie Crisci

was elected as the assistant

committee chairperson.

It was mutually decided by all

attending to conduct the seminar

in Pattaya on December 10-11,

2011

4th

International Conference

October 1, 2011

“Reaching All Learners: The Challenge of Diversity”

Assumption University of Thailand, Huamak Campus

At

The Hall of Fame

For registration visit: www.education.au.edu

UPCOMING EVENTS

Programs offered:

Master of Education, Curriculum

and Instruction (C&I)

Master of Education, Educational

Administration (E.A.)

Ph.D., Educational Leadership

(E.L.)

Advisors: Dr. Sangob Laksana

Dr. Suwattana Eamoraphan

Editor: Mrs. Niti Sampat

For more information please contact:

Graduate School of Education,

Assumption University

Ramkhamhaeng 24, Bangkok 10240,

Thailand

Tel: +66(0) 2300 4543 – 62 ext. 3718

Fax: +66(0) 2300 4143

Email: education@au.edu

Admin: Mr. Nikom Rord-Kwan

Mrs. Niti Sampat