September 23, 2016
East Carolina University’s College of Education welcomed visitors from Hiroshima University Sept. 18-21.
The international educational exchange and partnership has existed for 20 years, allowing faculty and students from ECU, Pitt County Schools and Hiroshima University to share and learn from each other.
Each summer two Pitt County teachers and an ECU faculty member are invited to go to Hiroshima, present at a conference and meet graduate students who will come to ECU in the fall.
While in Greenville, the Hiroshima University graduate students visited classes at Elmhurst and Wahl-Coats elementary schools and C.M. Eppes Middle School. They also toured the Teacher Resource Center in Joyner Library and attended an ECU middle grades education assessment course, where they participated in small discussion groups to compare and contrast American and Japanese education.
Sandra Hopfengardner Warren, graduate studies coordinator and teacher support project director in the College of Education, helped plan the visit.
Dr. Grant Hayes, dean of the College of Education, hosted a welcome event where the Japanese graduate students met their Pitt County host teachers and reviewed lesson plans that they would teach while in the schools. John Tucker, professor and university historian, and students in his Asian studies class attended a dinner for the exchange students at West Dining Hall.