Teaching Qualifications (that don't take too long to get)?

Is there such a thing as a teaching qualification that takes a semester of full time study to acquire and might even be done by distance ed? It's occurred to me I am going to spend the next semester studying curriculum design by myself anyway and what's been bugging me is, at the end only I will know. So how about I get some certification instead? A whole other degree seems a bit much to be starting just now. A Masters is possible but also probably too much. I'm looking for a certification that repays time spent acquiring it in money and knowledge and yet doesn't take that long to actually acquire. Hard work, yes, great; lots of study, super, I'm there; but also takes two years and every coin you have...? Not so interested.

What's a good, internationally viable, short-term certificate / diploma / degree course that a nice man with time on his hands and ambition in his pants can do these days?

Given the country you come from... Don't necessarily write off the idea of a Masters degree... There are some good online options... that as an Australian you can use the government HELP scheme to pay for... It applies to Masters level courses as well.  I did mine a couple of years ago, and because I did not have to pay for it upfront, it was possible to do.  I will pay for it when I go back and work in Australia, and earn lots of money, but not needed upfront.  Not sure that it isn't too late for next semester study... but I would at least consider Australian options.  There are shorter options at graduate level, including certificate options, which are part of the Masters programs, effectively. But worth looking at.  You may even find it better to study just subjects targeting what you want to learn, and not even worry about the qualification... but I would certainly not write off the Masters options, especially when the Course work Australian ones can be studied in 1 year full time, or 2 years part-time and may actually give you what you want for the future, even if the Masters programs do not include "practical teaching experience" because you can potentially use your Chinese teaching experience to make a Chinese employer happy.

DELTA or Masters seem to both be worthwhile

Remember with Masters programs that it is a load of units so you can do it in any number of ways, you don't need to have the money saved up to go and be a student for a year, they are very keen to have working people doing them over a few years

Okay, I'm (mostly) convinced. Howevaire... a Masters in what?

What are people getting these days?

Your best option is going to be one that gives you what you want in the future.  So if you are really interested in curriculum design focus on that. Your options probably range from the Linguistics, through TESOL to Education.  I already had my Masters in Education before I got the Masters in Applied Linguistics. To be honest I actually use more of my education things than I do the Linguistics ones in practice. TESOL things will combine the two, but many of the TESOL Masters require practicals to be done that can be difficult overseas. I am sure some others will give you more ideas. Longer term if you do want to go the International school route then potentially the Masters in Education would possibly be more useful.

Google (or near-equivalent) has shown me a bewildering plethora of Master of Education degrees. And that's just restricting the search to courses available online from Australia. They seem all to set as a prerequisite a four-year undergrad education degree or at least some undergrad degree with a one-year education certificate/diploma slapped over the top.

I am bewildered. There is a plethora.

Have a look at the University of New England and at Charles Sturt University. They have both have long strong histories with Distance Education courses. I have studied through both.  My first Masters degree in Education was pre the technology advances in 2000, and was a mixture of on-campus and distance, but I assume that it uses much more technology now. It was just starting to in significant ways when I studied. My second in Applied Linguistics through UNE I finished at the end of 2011. I did not have education qualifications when I studied for my Masters degree. Both of those universities will definitely take account of "experience" so far as entry goes... As long as you have an undergraduate degree. They both may actually also be good sources of "subjects" that can specifically give you what you want short term... and could potentially use later to take further. Some MEd degrees are aimed specifically at teachers with several years experience. In the Australian context MEd degrees normally do not qualify you to actually "teach" in school but you would be aware of that... but they are also studied by people who want the content for other reasons.

Okay, now I'm torn.

One, a teaching qualification seems like it might include lots of (what I think of as) mundane stuff, like classroom management.

Two, a M.Ed could well include some of the bigger theme stuff like designing curriculum, getting into the theories behind choosing a level to teach at, knowing what is a level... and so (naively) on. But it's not a teaching qualification.

I might be thinking more of a PGCE (or whatever is the Australian equivalent).

Teaching qualification will probably mean spending time in country to do practical teaching in schools... or already be teaching in an International school which had someone the university would accept supervising you... It is not easy to do... You could do a significant part of it online, probably among your best distance options are actually the two schools I told you, but actual teaching qualification not easy to do while overseas. I know there have been a couple of foreign universities run courses in China. I know they've been mentioned on the board before at some stage. You would also actually need to teach after doing the course before you actually qualify for full teaching certificate in Australia. It is more than just the paper qualification to be fully certified.  I am not sure what you actually want. Do you want to teach school or do you want to teach university level?  Formal teaching qualification at secondary level would require you to have the appropriate subject as a major in your previous study.  Do you want to increase your knowledge in some area to improve your skills or get a formal teaching qualification even if it takes a year or two? It would take a minimum of a year full time to do it in or from Australia. You can actually do a course work Masters degree in the same timeframe.

Why not do a Masters which has named exit awards across each year?

Something like the MA TESOL from Sheffield Hallam: across three years it goes PgCert Teaching EAP; PgDip TESOL; MA TESOL. 

Not a teaching license if that's what you want but a swift route to a rather hot qualification (EAP is all the rage these days) with the option of carrying on later.  I personally did the PgCert TEAP but then moved to Leicester for a course they have on education policy and international development.

I'm doing an American teaching certification through iTeach. http://www.iteachus.com/ . I am getting a Texas certification because that's where my family is based in the US. The practice teaching is indeed a major hurdle to overcome, but it isn't impossible. I have a coworker who is doing a course through a different setup and getting Washington D.C. teaching license, and he claims he can do his practice teaching at our current school, but I am dubious.

I am just about to finish my coursework and try to set up my practicum. I'll update if it turns out I can do it from China with minimal hassle.

Apparently in Australia and maybe elsewhere semi-British, there's a movement away from one-year post grad teaching certificates to two-year Masters of Teaching degrees.

I don't know anymore. I'd do it if I were employed to do it. I'd learn teaching by teaching (and studying teaching), and I'd love it and do well at it. Meanwhile, I don;t know what the hell.

Is there such a thing as a teaching qualification that takes a semester of full time study to acquire and might even be done by distance ed?

Depending on nationality, if you have a base level Australian teaching (e.g. B.Ed) qualification, you can then specialise by doing a PGC in a specialisation such as TESOL. This involves 4 topics which could be done over one semester online: its a huge workload though. Most of the major unis run these although Macquarie is a leader in the TESOL field. BTW, nearly all of these involve a supervised practicum.

As for becoming a teacher with a one semester added onto a general degree, I don't think so. Not in Oz anyway.

I am just about to finish my coursework and try to set up my practicum. I'll update if it turns out I can do it from China with minimal hassle.

I will be completing a M.Ed. next spring and plan on starting an Ed.D. in the fall of 2015.  I am suppose to do a practicum, maybe two depending on my route, but have been told it would be no problem to do it out of the country.  I plan on doing the Ed.D. through a university in Texas.  I have considered doing the course work for principal certification while in China and I was informed by several universities that it would be no problem.

Hopefully, it will work out for you.

When I was a boy (postgraduate), you could still find university academics with a mere Masters.

What I'm aware of, having taught in one form or another for nigh on twenty years (but unfortunately only at tertiary level), is naive methodological decisions persist. I'm likely still doing the same dumb things that still make the same naive sense they always did and what I'd want from a teaching qualification is freedom from past mistakes. I'd like a light to be shone on future pathways to actual teaching. I'm not starting from scratch, but I'm not starting from any fabulous professional basis either. Something that acknowledges both of those issues/facts/achievements would be good.

Not seeing it.