Hi, I’m Sterling. I’m so excited to introduce myself to you in this way. Currently, I am a faculty member at Tianhua College of Shanghai Normal University. Before that, I also gained some teaching experience elsewhere. In this interview, I will share with you my educational philosophy and teaching methods, and share my personal insights on teaching. At the same time, I also attach great importance to the communication and interaction with colleagues and classmates. I have made many friends here.I’d say most of my teaching philosophy comes from the fact that I think education is the most valuable thing that we have, whether it’s formal education, like university, or it’s casual education, like learning a new instrument for trying new things. But education to me, is the core of being human, like learning and changing.My classroom is usually student-centered and also very flexible. So, when I do the lesson plan, I always adjust it to the needs of my students. For example, if there’s a topic that the students can understand quickly, we will move through it. If there’s a topic that students don’t understand and they have to spend way more time on it than I’d originally planned, we will have some discussion-based classes. I try to align my classes with student interests quite a lot. We have a wide range of examples and topics. I want my students to have lots of different ways so that they can engage with the topic. So, in our literature class we look at so many different types of poetry over the semester and full books and short stories and authors from many different countries and many different time periods and many different issues. So, I’m trying to give them lots of access to different learning materials. There’s a high level of questioning in my classes, because I want students to question things. And what I want is students to think independently.I have lived in many different countries till now. And what’s interesting to me is that there are parts of me that fit better in the US, and there are parts of me that fit better in Korea. And there are parts of me that better in China. We can see things differently from our peers’, through which, we realize that most people in the world are similar. Not only Americans. Chinese people are way more similar than they are different. And that’s the case for most people were very similar globally. In our popular culture, we often have this idea of us versus them. Our country versus their country, or our people versus their people. And when you learn more about different cultures and different countries and different languages. You realize that that idea is nonsense. There is no such thing as us versus them, and I think that’s one of the most valuable things we get from an intercultural education. Widening our perspectives and having a better understanding of how connected the world is.The rewarding thing is: I continue to harvest, while teaching knowledge, while drawing inspiration. While teaching, I am constantly learning, and I enjoy growing with my students. I especially enjoy communicating with Chinese students, whose views are completely different from those of American students, which brings me a lot of new inspirations and makes me feel very happy. In this job, my teaching style has also been challenged and honed. It updates my view of the world or culture, and I think that’s a good thing.The challenging thing is that perhaps because the education system here is so structured, students have less autonomy over their education than in the United States, where students feel less responsibility for their education. In the United States, if you are a college student, you don’t usually take a class with 30 peers. You will usually take your own classes each semester to pursue your degree, and you will usually take different classes than your friends. You will choose a course that suits your interests and your skill level. As a result, American students will have more autonomy in their own education and take more responsibility for learning. Many Chinese students sometimes struggle to manage their schedules or produce quality work, perhaps because they prefer to prioritize other things.Compared with Chinese students, American students are often less harmonious in teamwork. It is often the case that in a team, there is always one student who takes on more work, while the other student takes it easier; or one student performs exceptionally well while another performs relatively poorly. In the United States, there are often uneven work distribution or obvious differences in performance, and this imbalance and difference within the team often become a problem in the team cooperation of American students. American students like to work together only when they are at the same level, so classroom cooperation is difficult to implement in the United States. But I think Chinese students are more collaborative and better at working together. Group discussions, group work, I think it works well in my classroom. It will be difficult at first because this method of teaching is not common in China. But in my classes, class discussions or class seminars, etc., this style of teaching usually goes very well. Students’ free discussion of ideas is the key to classroom discussion, which helps students to think deeply and master knowledge, which is exactly what I hope. So it really works.By the way, if there is a test, I always hand out a “cheat sheet”, which is a piece of paper that students can bring any notes they want. Chinese students are very good at reviewing, and when I provide them with such a “cheat sheet”, they will immerse themselves in the ocean of reviewing, firmly grasp every knowledge point, and be fully prepared for the upcoming exam. This method, for extracurricular homework also works. It is like magic, to stimulate the enthusiasm and effort of students. I often hesitate to assign homework. Because today’s students tend to rely on the Internet. Faced with such a situation, I have to temporarily put aside the idea of assigning homework and think about how to better guide students to value sincerity and effort. In the face of cheating, sincerity and effort are especially valuable, and I look forward to making them realize this through my guidance.Every day when I come on campus and when I leave campus, I admire how beautiful it is. I think the environment at the campus promotes attention and education. I love that I can open the windows and hear the birds and see the trees and that the campus is always well maintained. I hope it’s something the students also appreciate is that you have a really beautiful and really relaxing campus. It’s a good environment for education.
There are many opportunities for students to grow in advance, which is also really special at Tianhua. Tianhua has a lot of international partnerships and lots of clubs and things like this. You can study abroad, and you can get help in studying English. There are so many things that the university offers that not all students have access to, but you do because you’re Tianhua student. So that’s a really good thing about it. There are lots of clever and really devoted students here, which I also really appreciate. I have a whole bunch of students that actually care and actually do their best.
I would say that it’s a major privilege for students here to have access to so many native speaker teachers. It’s very uncommon. At quite a lot of universities, you will have one or two native speakers. So if you want to study English, it’s actually like a pretty good place to do because you have lots of resources available to you. And even in our department, all of our Chinese faculty have studied abroad. So they are also excellent speakers. It’s really helpful if you’re a student that wants to study English.? Also a lot of the teachers in our department and other departments are always pursue to continue education, and get more degrees or more certifications. I know that there are several teachers in our department who are getting their PhDs right now. So that type of thing is a good environment for teachers, but it’s also really helpful to students. It means your teachers are always improving and are trying to get better at their jobs too.
As a teacher, something that I love and that benefits students is that I have the flexibility to adjust my classes to my students’ needs, which is not always how education works. Sometimes teachers are told to teach class in this way or that way. But for us, teachers at Tianhua, we are given a lot of freedom to teach the students how we think is best for us and for them, which is very lucky. I like my literature class. I pick all the books and texts we read. I’m not told what we have to teach or what we don’t have to teach. I can use my own knowledge of myself and of the students to help them learn the way that they need to, which is a big benefit here.
Sterling was introduced by ISAC Teach in China Program to work at Tianhua in Fall 2022. In the interest of personal privacy, the teacher’s last name is not revealed.
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