Education Track (Summer Session)

EDUCATION TRACK: 

Week 0: online 
Like the business track, the education track also had a one week online session before summer session actually started to reduce the in-class workload. The one week online session included reading assignments from online journals, watching videos/movies, posing questions about assignments, and replying to colleagues' questions on Blackboard. Nothing too strenuous. Professor Wyman mainly uses online journals/resources so students don't have to buy as many books.



Week 6: in-class 

Readings: 
Classes usually began with a 2-hour discussion of the readings of that day's assignments and review of the summer readings/reflections. After discussing the articles, in groups, the entire class would re-group and answer questions posed by the professor. Each small group was assigned a question that corresponded to the reading and would go through the worksheet as a group.

In-class Movies:
The later half of the class was spent watching education-related movies. About 2 hours of class time was spent after lunch watching a movie and taking notes, upon which, a 1 hour discussion of film analysis ensued.

Movies:
Beijing Bicycle, Not One Left Behind, Together, The Return Home, 187 (Samuel L. Jackson)

Article Contribution: 
For homework, each student is required to bring a scholarly journal to class which was relate to the major theme of that day (i.e.: Mao, Confucius, Deng Xiaoping, Socialism, etc.) and summarize the article's significance to your peers in small groups for 1 hour in class. Though the professor claimed that the significance of this activity was to create an archive of scholarly articles that our colleagues would be able to use as resources for their final paper.  Google scholar or the articles that you thoroughly read in the summer (Week 0) were probably the most useful.

Homework activities: 
Homework activities were entirely group project-based. Here are the homework assignments for each day.

Day 1. Timeline Poster: Create a poster of 10 important events/people that influenced Chinese education.

Day 2. Analects skits: Created skits based on sayings from Confucius' Analects. After watching the skit, the class has to try to guess which 3 Analects quotes your skit was based on.

Day 3.  Little Red Book Posters: Draw propaganda posters that reflect quotes from Mao's Little Red Book.

Day 4. Video Montage Project: Create a powerpoint presentation using video clips provided to juxtapose themes, teaching practices, or historical/culturally significant observations in Chinese classrooms. This project was actually interesting and pertained relevant information related to Chinese education. While the rest of the activities and discussions conducted by the professor maintained at a on-the-surface level of discussion (most information which was covered in the Cultural Class taken in the previous weeks), these video clips were our first real insight into what a Chinese classroom was like.

Guest Speaker:
The most interesting part of this class was an interview with Professor Yu who shared his experiences of growing up in China and experiencing the Cultural Revolution. We were able to ask him questions and hear his feelings about Mao and the changing policies that China went through when he was growing up.

Final Paper:
If you write anything related to education and Mao, Confucius, and Deng Xiaoping, you will get an A on the paper. The final paper is 5-8 pages, double-spaced, and the format he requires makes it very easy to get to 7 or 8 pages because Prof Wyman breaks down different topics he wants you to cover. The paper topic is very broad and everyone gets an A on it if you turn it in and use 6 academic sources and 3 videos (of the videos watched in class).

Research Course

Lit Review:
For most of the assignments you will assigned partners, so make sure you sit next to someone you can count on.You will have the option to find a topic. I would suggest you do an easy surface level topic that is simple to write on. After you and your partner find five scholarly journals, you will need to synthesize your journals to one paper that is five pages long. Again, you need to find a partner that is dependable. The course uses APA 6th Edition format, so become familiar with it. Content for whatever reason is not near as important as your APA format, including sources.

Reading Assignments & Forum Questions:
You will have assigned readings for each day and will be required to ask two general questions on an online forum (Blackboard) in reference to the textbook for the class or APA format booklet. Your professors will differ in their grading, but I can tell you that if I asked "what's your favorite color?", I would have received full credit.

Survey & Methodology:
You and your partner will have to create a survey on the topic you chose for the lit review. You also need to explain your methods, which you will learn about in class or by reading the text. Some good advice would be to put your survey on google docs and pass around to everyone you know, it's far easier that going person to person on the street and bugging them to fill out a survey. I sent it to every contact in my email.

Quantitative & Qualitative Research:
If you don't know what these are (who would?), do some research, it will help you through the dizzying lectures.

Research Findings:
After your survey is complete, you and your trustworthy partner will have to create a powerpoint presentation consisting of charts and graphs that are used from your survey. If you're not familiar with Excel, get a little training; youtube could be a good source for that.

Final:
The final is a little bit out of the thesis hand book and mostly out of the APA guide. They will actually give you a copy of the APA test.