CAST, KNR Provide Training For Visiting Thai Faculty

Date: 7/10/06   
Contact: Eric Jome

Illinois State University's College of Applied Science and Technology (CAST) and School of Kinesiology and Recreation (KNR) are helping a university in Thailand to launch a new major in leisure and recreation management.

Six professors from Srinakharinwirot University's (SWU) International College of Sustainability Studies are visiting Illinois State this month to participate in teacher training workshops and curriculum review sessions conducted by recreation and park administration faculty from the School of Kinesiology and Recreation. Srinakharinwirot University recently developed a new major in leisure and recreation management, with courses slated to begin in 2007.

Illinois State professors Barb Schlatter, Brent Beggs, Amy Hurd and Sandy Klitzing are helping to prepare the Thai faculty members to return home and teach the new courses which cover recreation and leisure studies, outdoor education and the operation and management of community recreation and leisure services.

The KNR faculty members, with support from CAST, are also conducting a curriculum review of the new leisure and recreation management courses that will be taught at SWU. The curriculum review process helps to ensure course content meets current academic and professional practice standards. The month-long teacher training also includes site visits to recreation and park facilities in Central Illinois.

Cooperation between Illinois State and SWU includes plans for an Illinois State faculty member to visit Thailand in the summer of 2007 to team-teach the first sessions of the new courses along with the Thai faculty.

"The major in leisure and recreation management is a new program at SWU and teaching the courses in the major will be a new experience for faculty members there," said Barb Schlatter, the director of KNR's recreation and park administration program. "Illinois State has had a productive and ongoing relationship with SWU for a number of years. It is an honor for us to help SWU faculty members develop and fine-tune courses for a new major in leisure and recreation management and help prepare the faculty members to teach those courses."