Educational Research and Development Association Conference (CAERDA)

On March 22-23, 2008, Professors Rebecca Oxford, Jing Lin and Jianxin Cui of Confucius Institute at University of Maryland attended the Chinese-American Educational Research and Development Association Conference (CAERDA) in New York. The theme for the 2008 CAERDA Conference is East Meets West: The Role of Chinese Culture and Language in Global Education. In the panel featuring the three CIM professors, CIM was presented as a case study bridging East and West. CIM has explored diverse ways to offer Chinese language education and to introduce Chinese culture to the American people. Within the broad conference theme, the three scholars explored teaching and learning of Chinese language. and shared CIM efforts in organizing Chinese language classes, conferences, workshops and events to build cultural understanding between the United States and China. Their talk highlighted how Confucius teaching and philosophy were integrated into all activities organized by CIM. Active exchanges of ideas during the conference and after the conference enabled the scholars and the participants of the CIM session to learn from each other and build connections.