In the Spring of 2014, English 1003 and 1004 students held a symposium on the role of the humanities in their university educations. The majority of the students were in STEM fields or in business, but not all of them. They exchanged information on their educational goals and objectives, and then they went out and interviewed other students, then collaborated on group presentations reporting the results of their research. All of the groups reported a broad spectrum of responses to their questions about the importance of humanities and general education requirements. Continue reading
Curriculum and Teaching
Reflections on Learning and Writing in 1004…
I used to fear the college English writing course because I am not a native language learner. I started to learn English when I was in kindergarten, however Americans can still hear my accent when I speak and discover some of the grammar mistakes. I had already heard about English 1004 from Chinese upperclassmen last semester and they told me that English 1004 is not an easy class. Continue reading
On the importance of critical thinking
Martin Luther King once said: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” I learned how to think intensively but not critically when I was still a student in China. After three-year study in the United States, I found out that critical thinking was extremely important for a student due to the fact that every coin has two sides. Education should not be just memorization in order to get pass the exams. On the other hand, one does need a common sense or basic knowledge to learn the new material or create something new, which means learning is actually based on one’s memory. Memorization is helpful for a person in terms of understanding or creating new things, but critical thinking is the key to really see things with an open mind and come up with an even better thought that might contribute to the whole society. Continue reading
Notes on UConn Culture: In and out of the classroom
Did you know that, almost every class missed by a student is a pre-planned decision rather than an instant decision? I was a little surprised to learn this when I interviewed some of my friends who are American freshman at UConn. After I finished my research (interviews), I totally agree with Nathan “Ditching class was a minor time-saving (or week shaping) strategy” (121). Missing classes is a strategy used by almost every student in order to maintain balance between their academic life, non-academic (sports, clubs, fraternity, etc.) and their personal life.
