Foreign Professors I: Different Education Concepts

June 4^th- Foreign professors play an important role in the development of internationalization of GDUFS. Recently, the reporter of English news website interviewed two foreign professors Robert Shaw and Anne Rubienska. They shared their education ideas and cultural experience with all the students.

Robert Shaw：Cultivate Students' independent Thinking Ability and Critical Spirit

Q: What are the major differences between Chinese students and New Zealand Students?

A: Generally speaking, there are no major differences. I have been in China for four months; I am just a beginner at teaching in China. But my overall impression is that Chinese students are a little more polite, and they are very positive toward education. They are more cooperative than the students in the west. Students here come from a very standardized, strict education system. As a result, there is not much diversity. The students I teach here are very bright. Their ability to remember things is incredible. Most of them are very motivated, determined to succeed. They feel themselves under a lot of pressure, to get qualified, to get a job, to support themselves and the family. But that is the same in western countries. The students are similar, but they are taught by quite different methods.

Q: How do you compare the way we teach here and that in the west?

A: If you walk around this university (GDUFS), you will see similar scenes: classrooms with 30 to 50 students, mini-lectures  – teachers sitting at the front with a microphone, PPTs on the screen. That is the basic pattern. In western universities, the way students are organized is different. We give large lectures – to up to 200 or more students. Those students will then have tutorials. They will have small groups with 15 people. Quite often a senior student will take the tutorial as a teaching assistant (TA). The TA actually does the teaching and leads a group in their learning. TA’s here seem to be only involved in administration. In the west TAs are paid as junior teachers or support teachers.

Another great difference between my teaching here and in the west is the use of course technology. In the west courses have websites and materials are provided through the internet. At the moment I am involved in a project to teach in this way using the online course management program called Blackboard, which is provided by GDUFS for all staff. In the meantime I put a web site on the internet for my students .

Q: What would you like your students to acquire from their education?
 

A: If you ask me about the goal, I would quote from the Chinese ministry of education statement – they want our students to be creative, to have new ideas, to contribute to the modern economy. We are trying to teach our students to question, to think for themselves. hey need situations at the university where they can try out their thinking, and that is the tutorial situation. In tutorials students will be challenged individually and personally. This cannot happen in large groups.
 

I will give you an example in business ethics. What is the goal for a business ethics course? Students come to this class thinking they are here to learn to follow the rules, to act properly, to behave well In fact, business ethics is not about following the rules. It is about when you should break the rules and how to question the rules. A business student is about improving the world – this means they have to focus on the problems in business and society and decide for themselves what should be done.. Business students try to improve things, change things, innovate, and make different things happen. University level education is all about the students thinking for themselves and being independent – thus they must criticise others. 
 

Q: What kind of teaching methods do you use to motivate your students? 
 
A: When you are trying to get your students to think for themselves, the first thing you’ve got to do is to stop them from spending a lot of time remembering things and finding out information. Nothing already written down is of much interest. What counts are the new ideas that the students produce. Students find it a challenge when they have to work on their own individual project and think up things for themselves. But, they also find it motivating: it gives them a freedom, they can select their own topic for study and the direction their project takes is their responsibility. My students spend a great deal of time working alone when they write their research papers and essays. Because of this my courses do not have examinations.  Overall, I think Chinese education has got to mature beyond its great dependence on exams. Examinations severely limit what can be taught. Examinations work against creativity and originality.  Students show their creativity and initiative when they write research reports and essays, not when whey memorise textbooks.

Another thing I consider important for the motivation of students is this. I believe students respond well when they are treated as individuals. At the first week of the semester, I ask each of my students to write me an email in which they introduce themselves, they say who they are, what they want to do in the class, and they attached a picture so I know who they are. That is the first step to get a personal relationship between the student and the teacher. Next week, they are given another assignment, an exercise and I will send back short comments so the students know I am taking an interest in them. 
 

Q: Did you design a different syllabus for your course?
 

A: There is an amusing story about that. When I was asked to teach a management course here, I was told there was a set textbook – it was an American textbook. But when I looked up some of the companies and chief executives they quoted in the book, I thought “that company collapsed, they went broke, that chief executive went to jail for fraud.” The book was an 11th edition, which had been used for many years. The English language books teachers use here are often terrible. We’ve got to get decent textbooks written in China by people who understand the Chinese situation. I co-authored a paper advocating several initiatives, which relate to overcoming the hegemony of American management ideology . There are many western management theories that should be taught in China. But there are also many Chinese management theories that should also be taught. The students should be encouraged to be critical of the theory and relate it to the practical situation in China. I very much look forward to learning more about the techniques of management in China. Chinese scholars are writing new theory and I want to learn from them. . The new work on management shows the importance of strengthening the link between research and the teaching.

Q: Are you familiar with the internationalization approach the school is taking? How would you comment on that?

A: Internationalization in the past meant copying things from the west – there was the belief that western ways were better. “Internationalization” is not the strong word right now. The strong word in Chinese management theory is “localization”. The word “localization “sounds funny to many westerners. But I understand the word as it is used in China. It means “the Chinese way” – the development in China of confidence and independence. China must devise its own answers to its problems and to the problems we see overseas. Chinese insights, discussions, innovations and initiatives are to be valued. We can see this emerging in both the academic discipline and the practice of management.