Professor Yong Zhao

Yong Zhao is University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education at the College of Education, Michigan State University. He also serves as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology and the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence for Michigan State.

Zhao received his Ph.D in Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996. His research interests include diffusion of innovation, teacher adoption of technology, computer-assisted language learning, globalization and education, and international and comparative education. Zhao has published extensively in these areas. His articles have appeared in AERJ and Teachers College Record.

In 2003 he received the Raymond B. Catell Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association. This award recognises ‘a scholar who has conducted a distinguished program of cumulative educational research in any field of educational inquiry within the first decade following receipt of their doctoral degree’. His most recent publications include What Should Teachers Know about Technology: Perspectives and Practices (IAP, 2003) and Research in Technology and Second Language Education: Developments and Directions (IAP, 2005). His current work focuses on the impact of globalisation on education and the integration of Eastern and Western educational practices.