Colorado State University – Pueblo Announces Visiting Professor from Russia 
       
Pueblo- The College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Colorado State University – Pueblo will host a visiting professor from Russia for the next two months in the department of English.
 
Visiting professor Galena Pshegusova is chair of the English Language Department at Rostov State University in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Pshegusova supervises a staff of almost 50 people, develops and teaches communications courses, and writes and edits departmental publications. She has published more than 60 papers, most of them related to communications and the English language.
 
Pshegusova’s visit, will allow her to observe and study American education. Russia’s education system is currently experiencing a transformation from a broad, mostly theoretical knowledge to a competence-based approach. This change in technique is a result of the relatively new market economy in Russia.
 
In an effort to motivate institutions of education, Russia’s Ministry of Education began giving grants to those institutions that demonstrate an interest in improving the quality of education and research. Rostov State University is responsible for assessing the standards and quality of its programs, and Pshegusova hopes to learn ways to address some of the problems associated with the evolving teaching techniques. 
 
Among the problems Pshegusova hopes to address is lack of teacher and lecturer motivation, lack of teacher appraisal methods to improve the quality of education, and resistance to new teaching methods by some teachers. 
 
In her application for visiting professor, Pshegusova indicated that she believes once teachers in Russia realize the benefits that can come with new and improved teaching methods – such as an increase in salary, premiums or a decrease in academic load – they will willingly adopt the new techniques. 
  
Colorado State University - Pueblo is a regional, comprehensive university emphasizing professional, career-oriented, and applied programs. Displaying excellence in teaching, celebrating diversity, and engaging in service and outreach, CSU-Pueblo is distinguished by access, opportunity, and the overall quality of services provided to its students.