Tan Kah Kee, the Jimei-born community leader, and philanthropist is better known as a Chinese nationalist who was keen on achieving China's salvation through education and modernization. He also believed that teacher education was the key to the quality of education. Therefore, in March 1918, he founded Jimei Normal School, which was then turned into Xiamen Normal College and later Jimei Normal College. These precursors were eventually merged into today's Teachers College of Jimei University. For over ten decades, Tan Kah Kee's "chengyi" spirit, (sincerity and perseverance) has been the inspiration for the development of Teachers College. The Teachers College has been following the founding father's footsteps with the object to promote education by providing high-quality teacher education.
The college has 56 teaching and administrative staff (42 full-time teachers, 20 with senior professional titles, 17 with doctor's degree and 20 with master's degree). The college includes five teaching and research programes(pedagogy, psychology, primary education, preschool education and educational technology), three research institutes(educational science, modern educational technology and applied psychology), a teacher education experimental center, a collaborative innovation center of vocational and basic education, and a language working committee office. Today, we have five programs, each featuring different curriculum, faculty, and degree opportunities. The college offers Bachelor’s degrees in Elementary education, Early Childhood Education, Master’s degrees in and preparatory program for primary education and pre-school education undergraduate programs, master of education programs and preparatory classes for ethnic minorities, with more than 1300 students.
Under multiple practice and exploration, the college has achieved fruitful results in many aspects. In recent years, we have undertaken 1 national project, 15 provincial or ministry-level projects, more than 60 crosswise and longitudinal tasks, published over 140 academic papers and 10 books, and participated in the writing of more than 10 textbooks as chief or key editors. Up till now, the college have won 5 Provincial Social Science Excellent Achievement Awards, 1 Provincial Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award. During this period a number of provincial platforms in Teachers College have played important roles, such as “Fujian Teacher Education Experimental Demonstration Teaching Center”，“Fujian Primary School Chinese-teaching and Mathematics- teaching Discipline Leader Training Base”, “Fujian Kindergarten Backbone Teacher Training Base”, and “Fujian Provincial Backbone Teachers Training Base for Educational Technology Capability of Primary and Secondary School Teachers”.The“Xiamen Education Legislation and Policy Research Base” in theTeachers College continues to play a think tank role for Xiamen education. Our students have gained great successes in the national or Fujian provincial teaching skills competition, or other contests about poetry writing, recitation, calligraphy and chorus.The social practice team for college students to bring culture, technology and healthcare to the countryside has won the provincial excellent award for seven consecutive years, and the employment rate of graduates in college is over 95%. The college has beenawarded the title of "Fujian Innovation Experimental Zone of Talent Training Mode". The college takescultivating high-quality teachers for basic education as one of its major dutiesand also plays an actively role in the government’s poverty alleviation work by serving students of ethnic minority.
At present, the discipline of pedagogy in Teachers College has been approved as an application-oriented discipline in Fujian. The primary education major has been approved as a national first-class undergraduate professional construction site, and the preschool education major has been approved as a provincial first-class undergraduate professional construction site. The college has signed international exchange and cooperation agreements with Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand Incorporated. Under the guidance of the Jimei University’s action plan ofbuilding a first-class university, the college takes a century of practice and exploration as a new starting point to vigorously promote the construction of first-class disciplines and first-class majors.
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