| Open education is a teaching method which meets the need for study of incumbents, adults and students failing to be admitted into universities. Ramkhamhaeng University is the very first university of openness in Asia as well as the only one setting up the major of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages. Though Chinese teaching has been going on for 41 years in Ramkhamhaeng University, the Chinese Studies has a history as long as only 10 years. At the present, the research on the openness of Chinese teaching in Thailand shows its limitation as well as the research on open teaching of Chinese courses. The first-handed resource I obtained through questionnaire and interview with teachers and students illustrates the present situation and analyses the problems of Chinese teaching in Ramkhamhaeng University, comparing it with the open teaching of universities in Britain, Australia and Japan on the basis of former research, offering Ramkhamhaeng University some useful reference. To have a deeper understanding of open education in Thai universities, I chose Chinese Studies in Ramkhamhaeng University as the research object to put forward the countermeasures.Chinese Studies are opened in the School of Humanity and School of Education.70 questionnaires have been given out and 52 of them have been recovered. The 22 question questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part collects some basic information of students, which turns out the 61.53% have Chinese background and 73.07% are work-study students. The second part is made up of 22 questions investigating why and how they study Chinese, what they think about Chinese teaching, what textbook they use and what their career plans are after graduation. Through the analysis of questionnaires, I found the strengths of Chinese Studies in Ramkhamhaeng University includes:teaching methods and learning system are flexible, therefore meeting the needs of adults who cannot attend universities or go after further education; students can choose their preferred way to study, either long distance course or face to face course; teachers use their self-edited textbooks, teaching students in accordance with their aptitude; Chinese courses are all-round designed, offering not only Chinese culture but also Chinese language.After comparing universities in Britain, Australia and Japan with Ramkhamhaeng University, I found the ones not in Thailand only set up for courses instead of a major. But there are something Ramkhamhaeng University should learn from them in terms of textbook editing, studying abroad in China and online communication between teachers and students.Though Ramkhamhaeng University is an open university, some problems still exist in its Chinese teaching since the course is organized in forms of classes, for examples, lack of teachers; difficulties of Chinese textbooks vary without standards; lack of IT talents skilled in multimedia.Regarding these questions, this thesis referred to the strength of open universities in Britain, Australia and Japan and put forward some countermeasures regard to Chinese teaching in Ramkhamhaeng University, i.e. strengthening teaching ability of teachers by recruitment outside new Chinese teacher or Ramkhamhaeng University Chinese graduate student; regulating Chinese textbooks editing; developing long distance education and multi-media education; collecting feedback from students and organizing external audit team to evaluate the quality of Chinese teaching; organizing Chinese international collaborating programs to promote Chinese studies and students’ understanding of Chinese society. |
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