Knowing your shortcoming and willing to change, I think that how we grow from a newbie to a professional. I don’t even think you need to unlearn something. Our perceptions are getting maturer as we experience things. There are different layers of learning and understanding. Sometimes the understandings at different layers are contradictory. I think those ideologies that we abandoned in the end are still valuable. It’s just that you know that you will not use them anymore.
Author: Qichao Wang
Comment on They’re people too! by Qichao Wang
I agree that the educators should treat the students as people. If we cannot enjoy the beauty of this world, why should we work so hard to make it better? Besides that, maybe we should let the students know that in the outside world, there are people want to push you for their own benefits and you should be prepared for that situation.
Comment on Language⇌Image⇌Action by Qichao Wang
Thanks for sharing the experience in art studios. It seems the understanding of multi-tasking is different in your area from mine.
Comment on Free Food Anyone? by Qichao Wang
There is a style of design called minimalism. Minimalism tries to get rid of the functions/structures that are not essential to achieve the original purpose of an object. A lifestyle of minimalism is to throw away the stuff that we have not used for the past two months (with selection in mind). This may help to focus.
Comment on Thoughts on Diversity by Qichao Wang
I like this statement, “furthermore, I understand the importance of the topic of micro-aggression but if it is overemphasized, it will sabotage students’ curiosity on different cultures.” I feel maybe we focus too much on the techniques of avoiding aggression and forget to mention the core in those contexts: respect and goodwill.
Comment on Teaching as acting by Qichao Wang
Hi Jaclyn. Thank you for your interest. I agree it’s not possible that we can catch every single student’s attention all the time. Just like the end of my blog said, we should accept the existence of those students. Just like any movie, there will always be someone not liking it. I don’t think it’s the educators’ fault that someone does not listen.
Comment on Won’t We Need to be Able of Critical Thinking Ourselves? by Qichao Wang
Interesting story from Armani! I found students tend to use the easy route. Go directly to the answer and try to avoid the process is definitely one of the easiest routes. Actually, in some cases, we all want to skip the “unnecessary” and get the targets. If I can skip the work and get the salary, I won’t refuse it. It’s a good strategy to me. I view this mindset as problem-oriented learning/engineering/strategy. However, there are many things that are too beautiful to skip. I don’t want to skip to the end of a movie when I just start to watch. I don’t want to become a grandpa without experiencing dating a girl and getting married. I think our job as educators are to making the processes become the students’ “problems” and fun experiences.
Comment on My Story by Qichao Wang
Stupid me! When I heard the Saudi women do not drive, I thought it was discriminant against women automatically. It’s refreshing to hear the explanation from you, someone who is actually from that place. As a Chinese, I also have the feeling that I’m representing Chinese people back in the country. Thank you for sharing this. Now I understand more.
Comment on Do you speak English? by Qichao Wang
When I was traveling, I always got confused on the question “where are you from?” Whenever I said, “I’m from Virginia (Tech),” I would get another question, “where are you originally from?” I guess those people were actually want to be nice and to verify their assumption before they make further comments.
Comment on The Nervous Instructor by Qichao Wang
I found some of the literature only talks about how good certain things are and ignore how hard it is to achieve those certain things. I guess that what prevents the good theories being applied to the reality. I think maybe sometimes we just have to get out of our comfort zone to do the right things. Choosing what to gain usually means choosing what to lose in the meantime.
