Unit 1 Ways of Learning

1. Unit 1Ways of Learning Text A Learning—Chinese Style

2. Key Points • Vocabulary: words in the box/ words related to “education” • Structure: structures in the Exercise • Reading: Scanning, Understanding Main Idea • Writing: How to develop the ideas by contrast and comparison

3. Teaching Procedures • Warm-up Activities • Text review • Main idea & Reading Skills • Vocabulary (on education) • Structure & difficult sentences • Writing: contrast and comparison • After-class Work • Additional Task: Interpretation

4. Warm-up Activities • Interview: About Learning Style • One student is given an on-line questionnaire. http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/ • Interview the group to collect data. • Group members discuss a recipe of successful learning together. • Report to the class. • About Education (CD-Rom)

5. Text Review:Warm-up Questions • What do you think is the Chinese-style learning? • Do you know anything about western-style learning? • Have you ever thought what underlies the different learning styles?

6. Text Review: Reading Understanding Main Idea: • What is the text about? • How does the writer introduce the topic? • How does he develop his points? • What is his conclusion? Scanning (CD-Rom)

7. Text Review: Conclusion Summary Questions: • What do you know about the differences of Chinese learning style from American one? • Why would Chinese teach children “by holding the hand” while Americans wouldn’t? • How do Americans and Chinese differ in their attitudes to creativity? Can you give more examples? • What are the advantages and disadvantages of each style? Which way do you prefer and why?

8. Text Review: Writing Style • What is the genre of this text? (exposition: to explain what or how.) • What does the writer explain? (Chinese learning style different from the Western one) • How does the writer explain? (by comparison and contrast) • How is the text introduced and concluded? (introduced with an anecdote and concluded with a suggestion)

9. Text Review: Vocabulary • Step 1: Pair work. Go over the list of new words and choose the words that are associated with education in any way. • Step 2: Class work Volunteers explain their chosen words. • Step 3: Group work—word brainstorming and presentation on China’s Education.

10. Word Brainstorming: Education system people Education targets problems

11. Text Review: Structure and Difficult Sentences • Structures: • so much so that • Assuming that… • Other structures: • whether it be… (L51) • … both of which accomplishments can…(L42) • Long sentences

12. Sentences:Paraphrase the sentence. • (Line 4) One of the most telling lessons Ellen and I got in the difference between Chinese and American ideas of education came not in the classroom but in the lobby of the Jinling Hotel where we stayed in Nanjing. • Paraphrase it with “It is not… but… that…”.

13. Sentences:Paraphrase the sentence. (Line 15) He probably got as much pleasure out of the sounds the key made as he did those few times when the key actually finds its way into the slot. Paraphrase with “not only … but also…”.

14. Sentences:Paraphrase the sentence. • (Line 79) In terms of attitudes to creativity there seems to be a reversal of priorities: young Westerners making their boldest departures first and then gradually mastering the tradition; and young Chinese being almost inseparable from the tradition, but over time, possibly evolving to a point equally original.

15. After-class • Individual work: • Text Review + Lisn. Units 1&2 Preview • other books (Listening, Reading, Fast Reading) • Pair work: Presentation (Oral Composition) • Education: Education of China • Education: Time Management for College Life • Group work: • Interview: ways of successful learning • Debate: “Development of basic skill is more important than development of creativity.”

16. About Presentation • What is presentation? • How useful are presentation skills? • How to make a presentation. • Pair work • Each has 5 minutes to prepare. • Take turn to explain ideas. • Ask questions for clarification if necessary.

17. About Debate • Group members are divided into 2 parts—pro and con. • Each part discuss for 5 minutes about the supporting ideas and challenging ideas. • Start the debate. • In the end, the group should come up with a report of the findings from the debate.

18. Interpretation “自主教育：‘管’还是‘不管’？” 一本由中国经济出版社推出的《千万别管孩子——自主教育哈佛启示录》的书近来极为畅销，问世才一月，在全国销售量已达到20余万册。其所倡导的 “自主教育” 理念在教育界引发争议。该书主人公陈宇华的父母在讲述教育经验时说，虽然他们常说“从来没管过她。”其实，他们一直在管她，而管的内容，就是反复提醒孩子的自我意识,让她认识到自己才是教育的主体，一切要靠自己的努力，才会成功，老师家长则仅仅起辅导作用。这正是自主教育的精髓所在……

19. Independent Education: To Be or Not To Be? A recent best-seller, Never Discipline Children: Enlightenment from Harvard’s Independent Education, published by China Economy Publishing House, has got a nationwide sales volume of 200,000 within 1 month. It promotes the idea of Independent Education, which arouses debate in the circle of education. Chen Yuhua is the protagonist in this book. When her parents talked about their experience of education, they said they “never discipline her.” In fact, they always discipline her, but by arousing the girl’s self-consciousness so that she realizes that she herself is the subject of education, that she can only succeed with her own efforts, and that teachers and parents are just helper and guider. These ideas are exactly the essence of independent education.

20. Education in the West

21. There is no common agreement in the West concerning the best method of education. A variety of views can be found among parents, teachers and students. Indeed, it might be argued that it is this very existence of contending points of view that is characteristic of Western education. This can be seen as far back as in the work of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, who encouraged his students to question everything, even their most fundamental beliefs. Not even then there was no general agreement that this was the best way to teach. Socrates, after all, was condemned to death by his fellow citizens for corrupting the morals of the young by his way of teaching. Many later periods of Western history were no more tolerant of encouraging students to challenge traditional beliefs: Darwin’s theory of evolution, for example, was for a time banned from schools in some American states on the grounds of religious belief.

22. Much of the current debate over education surrounds the extent to which learning should be teacher-based or student-based. Which of the two should decide what should be learned, how it should be learned, and when it should be learned? Comparing Western and Asian methods of learning it is generally true that Western methods are more student-centered, expecting students to discover things for themselves rather than relying on their teachers to tell them. An extreme version of the student-centered approach can be seen at Summerhill, a school in England established by the educationalist A. S. Neill. There children have complete freedom to decide what they are going to learn and which lessons they will attend. If they wish they need not attend any at all. Mainstream education in England is far more strict, demanding that children attend lessons and follow a national curriculum. This curriculum and the importance of achieving good exam results tend to reinforce a more teacher-centered approach, as both teachers and students find the pressure of time leaves less opportunity for an exploratory approach to learning.

23. The extent to which learning is teacher-centered or student-centered also depends on differences between subjects. In recent years, for example, there has been a trend in the teaching of mathematics in school classrooms in England away from having pupils work on their own or in small groups back towards a more traditional approach, with the teacher guiding the entire class step-by-step through a lesson. This followed research that suggested that, as far as maths was concerned, a more teacher-centered method was more effective.

24. A few points about western education • Knowledge acquirement • Communication skills • Creativity • Problem solving skills

25. 1．获取知识。这个在任何教育中都不可免的。区别就在于，如何让孩子获取知识，是被动输入，还是主动输入的问题。外国的大学教育是这样的，每个讲师或者教授在课程开始之前，都有一个book list（书名列表），教授会要求学生在这个课程授课时间内把这些书读完，教授在课堂上也会涉及这些书的内容，但不完全。课程结束后，无论是paper（相当于一些小论文吧）或者test（考试），都会从这些书上面来。MBA课程就更为夸张一点，我在美国的朋友说大概一个星期要读完一本书。而且国外特别注重的是Plagiarism(抄袭问题)，一旦发现抄袭，后果严重。所以相对来说，国外的教育在主动性方面，会更有针对性。高中老师也会给学生一些阅读的任务，也是蛮多的paper的。2．沟通能力（communication skills）。国外无论是大学，还是高中，都强调沟通能力，所以都有一系列的group study(小组学习), 或者project work（这个我真的不知道如何翻译了，大概相当于小组任务吧）。在这种学习中，学生的沟通能力，人际处理能力都得以锻炼，而且外国人非常强调团队性（teamwork），还有领导才能（leadership）。在一个团队当中，学生要知道什么时候做一个组员（team member），什么时候要做一个领导，如何去聆听别人的意见，如何让别人接纳自己意见，如何让别人服从自己的领导，等等。在这方面有兴趣的朋友，可以起看一下the apprentice（中文译名叫作学徒或者飞黄腾达）。

26. 3．创新能力（creativity）。在团队中，你要帮助自己团队赛过别的团队，或者使自己在团队中脱颖而出，除了靠努力之外，努力所培养的，是一种竞争意识；竞争意识所培养的，就是这种创新能力。举个例子，世界上如此多品牌的雪糕牌子，为什么有些能成功，有些却不能，一方面，是因为质量，口碑，另一方面，是一个品牌的市场了，市场渠道，市场宣传，广告，这些都是靠创新能力的。所以很多国外公司招人的时候，并不看重你的专业背景，因为说到底，只要你不是做医生/律师/研究人员/技术人员，任何领域的发展，都离不开销售与市场，所以很多公司在招人的时候，更看重的是你的沟通能力，你的团队协调性，你的领带才能，所以不难看到国外很多公司的销售，都是五花八门的专业的。4．解决问题的能力(problem-solving skills)。一方面，让学生具备解决问题的能力，能够帮助学生更独立，另一方面，可以让学生遇到问题的时候，更乐观，而不是遇到问题，就跳楼去了。

27. Reference • Feng Pengpeng • Zheng Yanfang • http://www.gzmama.com/viewthread.php?tid=1772789&page=1&authorid=5067519

28. The end. THANK YOU!