Highlights of this article:
The author is a university teacher and a mother. In the course of her classes, she can always observe and feel some details of her university education. Today, she will talk about her feelings from the unique perspective of this teacher/sister/mother.
Highlights of this article:
The author is a university teacher and a mother. In the course of her classes, she can always observe and feel some details of her university education. Today, she will talk about her feelings from the unique perspective of this teacher/sister/mother.
Wednesday vision
The full text is 4153 words, and the reading time is 11 minutes
Since last fall, I have been teaching a course in data visualization and analysis at the University of Hong Kong Chinese.
Contrary to what you might think, I am not a professor, and I don't even have a Ph.D. in this major. As an industry practitioner, I was invited to give an elective course to undergraduates on an interdisciplinary program to supplement faculty, which is common at universities in Hong Kong.
But my situation is a little special. 10 years ago, I finished my first master's degree at CUHK. I didn't expect that 10 years later, I would have the opportunity to return to the classroom of my alma mater to lecture.
For me, my students, they are not only students, but also younger siblings, but also once I was, I always unconsciously projected my own shadow of that year; and now that I am also a mother, I can't help but observe and feel this university education that I was once in, and my daughter will be in for more than 10 years.
Today, from the unique perspective of this teacher/sister/mother, I would like to talk about my feelings.
Let's start with a few short stories.
The first story happened near the halfway point of the semester, and I found a well-known senior in the industry to share with the students. I asked the teacher to not only share the knowledge and skills, but also to talk to everyone about their life stories, hoping to bring some inspiration to the students who are about to enter the society.
Honestly, in organizing this sharing session, I just wanted to do something really meaningful for the students. As for the meaning and value of this kind of meaning, in what form it will take, I have not made any thoughts and preparations.
It wasn't until after the lecture that I read something written by a child who she said came to share with her experience of moving from education (liberal arts) to data workers (science), which made her feel amazing. She said that as an interprofessional student, although she also learned some so-called hard skills such as programming and statistics, she subconsciously felt that she could not compare with those professional (non-interdisciplinary) students.
I was shocked. You know, this child, all the way through the thorns, has entered a famous school, read a more popular interdisciplinary discipline, placed in the same age group, is already very good, but still full of doubts about himself! This child, at an age when he is young and should be bold, has not yet faced various blows at the threshold of life, and has already begun to doubt himself! Will this child, even if she read the major she wants, still find a higher", repeat self-doubt?
There is more than one such child, and I can understand them, but more of a sympathy and concern. Sympathy they are already carrying a heavy psychological burden when they should be lightly loaded and accumulate strength; worry about what strength they will rely on in the future to support themselves through the ups and downs of life.
2
The second story takes place around the end of the semester and is the most gratifying moment since I tried to lecture.
Towards the end of the semester, children have also acquired enough knowledge to start doing small projects on their own, and deepen their use and understanding of a visualization software in practice.
There was a boy whose attendance hadn't been very high all along, but I noticed that every time I worked at the workshop, he followed suit, and even once he was the only member of their group that day. This child's comprehension is not the best, and he rarely takes the initiative to speak, and occasionally encounters a stuck shell and will ask for help. My impression of him is nothing more than that.
But I didn't expect that in the last class, this boy let me remember him solidly, and the visual presentation of their group surprised me, and I was really happy for him!
While giving presentations to the class, his team members introduced all the other parts of the project, leaving him with the only visual design and presentation. I watched him flip his fingers, switch between keyboard and mouse, skillfully and confidently show everyone, in one go, very smooth, estimated that this part of the eight or nine inseparable, is his painstaking efforts.
You think that's all there is to it, but what you didn't expect was that he also used methods that I hadn't taught in the classroom to do more advanced visualizations. As he continued to demonstrate and explain, I felt a commotion from the students below, while I was calm on the surface and full of joy in my heart.
I can probably brain supplement, may be in a slightly leisure afternoon or quiet evening, this child is bored to look at the technical blog or video, suddenly found a visual interaction is not the same, think it is very interesting, so began to search for research, find tutorials step by step to do, while learning to do, slowly try, forget the time... Later, he found that unconsciously, he had gone a long way and had a new breakthrough in technology.
This is the key to the breakthrough in the learning of countless technical tools, and I have used to do a lot of software in the past. This state is naturally occurring, driven by curiosity and exploration. In this state, I have no deficiencies, no gains and losses, I do not think about what purpose and gain I want to achieve, those are just appendages, just staying in this state can make people feel full and happy. I'm glad I've had students who have felt this joy.
3
The third story, surprisingly, happened after the semester course.
According to the requirements, 10 o'clock before the last class is the deadline for the submission of project assignments, in addition to submitting PPT, students should also attach the visual workbook in a specific format, so that I can check whether the data connection logic and operation are reasonable, and grade accordingly.
However, back at home, I opened the teacher's course system and prepared to grade, but I was dumbfounded! Five groups submitted only four. Open it again and take a closer look, good fellow, each has its own problem. Either simply give you a PPT file, visualize this piece for you to guess for yourself; or give the visualization workbook, but the format is wrong, as soon as you open it, you will report an error, and you can't display anything at all; and the group that uses a little brain a little bit, probably out of insurance, wants to attach all the data source files, but the files are intricate, without any logical organization, simply give me a network disk, let me think for myself, there are a number of drafts and other irrelevant file residues.
You know, in the guidance document for the project assignment, I have clearly stated which documents need to be submitted and the format in which they should be submitted. In fact, if they strictly implement it, all the data source files will be automatically packaged and compressed in the corresponding format of the workbook, which does not involve the problem of not displaying correctly, and the need to download the source files one by one!
Oh, and there's a group, not undelivered, I saw it later in the mailbox, very casually attached a ppt attachment, no workbook, and exceeded the deadline! You know, without submitting through the system, I can't give the score of the corresponding part, although the ppt email was given to me, but I can't hand it in, and the system rejected the teacher role user's permission to submit the assignment.
In order not to affect the rating, I immediately sent an email to each group through the system, pointing out the problems with the submission of each group. Some groups reacted quickly, either resubmitted in the system or emailed me supplementary documents, but the unusual group, for a week or two, the whole group of five people did not move, I did not even wait for an email explaining the situation!
I could only score hard, and then submit the final results of each person in this course before the deadline given by the department. As you can imagine, the unusual group didn't score well, and even if their class presentations were solid, I could only express regret that they strictly followed the grading criteria.
By the way, their group finally contacted me, it was a long time later, probably to see that the final results were not ideal, only to react to want to find me theory to score it, alas, these children ...
4
After reading a few short stories, correspondingly, I want to talk about my thoughts and feelings.
I would like to start on three levels.
The first level is: always feel that you are not good enough, not modest but anxious.
I was particularly able to understand the child in the first story, and even find my own shadow in her, a question that seems to be more common in the so-called "good student".
From a young age, we are taught to be humble and self-motivated, when we achieve a little bit of achievement and complacent, parents will always stand up for the first time and say, you see who is how, you are still inferior to others, you need to work harder!
Humility and prudence are of course very good qualities, but long-term repressive education will damage the spirituality of individuals, and over time, people will lose initiative and morale, because we find that this is a game that can never be won, and I will always be a loser.
How can you expect a self-doubting, fail-obsessed person to respond to reality? He did not dare or have the motivation to try what he was not sure of, and he missed the space for trial and error and learning to improve. They often need longer psychological construction to achieve tasks that the average person can easily complete. The end of the road is self-doubt and endless anxiety.
However, what kind of growth state we really expect, let me start from the second level, which is called learning in the true sense, which happens naturally.
I'm sure you, like me, envy the boys in the second story earlier. From a utilitarian point of view, he effortlessly, with a playful mentality, gradually upgraded the fight against monsters, driven by curiosity and curiosity, but accidentally unlocked the martial arts secret book, reaching the second level of learning realm that his peers could not reach.
Isn't this exactly the parenting path that countless parents envy, not chickens and dogs, but can produce results? However, on this road, we adults often do, "When the time comes, go to your homework", "Why are you still playing" and so on.
We naturally put play and learning on opposite sides. The paradox is that learning done for the sake of learning often does not achieve the great effect of learning for love. Education that learns for the sake of learning may produce high scores, but it is difficult to become everyone! Which master is not "crazy" and "demon" refined, not crazy magic can not live! And the huge "crazy" and "demonic" energy, I believe, must be inward, natural gushing, not passively to make up for the so-called deficiencies in the eyes of others.
Finally, we come to the third level, which is that things other than learning should not be ignored. It should be recognized that in addition to learning knowledge, there are many abilities that also need to be learned. For example, learn how to learn, learn how to collaborate, learn how to get along with the outside world.
You should know, I'm telling the third story. I often wonder why the good seedlings of famous schools can't even do the most basic homework on time and according to requirements? They may think that as long as the group lecture in the classroom is over, their task is over, but they do not know that it is often some details that hinder their development. These details reveal a person's attitude towards things, at least, what I read from their behavior patterns is their disdain for the rules and regulations, and the carelessness that may cause trouble for the other party.
Let's hope that society will be tolerant enough to give them enough space to accept the beating. I also hope that they will put aside their arrogance and be willing to make up for this lesson.
The above three levels do not seem to have much to do with each other, but in fact, they progress and complement each other, depicting what my ideal education should look like. The foundation of the first level is crooked, and it is not only difficult for people to taste the happiness of the second level, but often need to make up for it with a lifetime of homework. And the second level alone is not enough, because we are not learning machines, learning, but also just to better understand ourselves, get along with the world, can not be reversed.
Finally, I hope that you and I will unite our knowledge and deeds, for the sake of our children, but also for ourselves, and encourage each other!
Self-drive is the source of creation, how to make children more resilient and self-motivated? Inspiring the underlying thinking and opening up the horizon is the key.
Welcome to the $1 Children's WalkIng General Learning Camp
Use the way your child is most interested
Let children better self-awareness and self-drive
Author | Pity Mom
She has 1 daughter and is currently living in Hong Kong. The post-90s mother of the liberal arts and sciences, the full-time mother returns to the transformation, hoping to work with her daughter to become more and more frustrated and courageous.
Interactive topics
What does your ideal education look like? Welcome to share your thoughts with us!
How to search for articles
On the list page of the official account article, click in the upper right corner and enter keywords to search for past articles.