V Tutorial—Project-Based Learning

Project 1 What projects are there to promote higher education in China?

The following is an excerpt from an article written by Professor Ding Xueliang (丁学良) of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2001.

“大学的兴衰和大国的兴衰密切相关。从公元1000年到现在，可以看出来，哪里有了第一流大学兴起，不用多长时间，这个大学所坐落的国家就会变成这个世界上的一流国家。公元1100年左右，意大利半岛上最早的大学兴起的地方，很快成为文艺复兴的基地。当13、14世纪，大学在英国兴办起来，有了牛津和剑桥以后，英国很快有了工业革命，有了代议制。到了19世纪，当研究型大学的概念在德国兴起的时候，德国很快成了第二次工业革命的领先国家，在很长一段时间里保持了全世界最高的经济增长率。当欧洲办大学的理念传到了美国，美国办起了哈佛、耶鲁、麻省等几所大学以后，美国又成为整个工业化国家最大的经济中心。”⁽⁵⁾

As said in Professor Ding’s speech, the flourishing of universities is closely related to the prosperity of a nation. This being true, the Chinese government has initiated a number of projects to promote higher education and the development of science and technology in China. Search Chinese websites and Wikipedia to find out information about these projects. What are the following projects about? How successful are they?

• Project 211

• Project 985

• Double-First Class University Plan (world-class universities and first-class disciplines)

Project 2 People who make a difference

Find out on Wikipedia information on the following people, for example their age, achievements, life style, etc. How do their contributions and their way of life shed light on your plan of university life?

• Xu Yuanchong (许渊冲)

• Zhou Youguang (周有光)

• Run Run Shaw (邵逸夫)

• Qian Xuesen (钱学森)

• Xu Zhimo (徐志摩)

Project 3 How many years are you going to work for the country?

In the orientation program for the freshmen of Tsinghua University in 1961, Jiang Nanxiang(蒋南翔), ex-president of the university, proposed that graduates should “work in good health for our motherland for 50 years (为祖国健康工作五十年)”. Conduct a survey on 10 students on campus and ask how many years they plan to work for the country. Share your findings in groups.

Project 4 Learn to apply “8 Universal Intellectual Standards”

Research on “8 Universal Intellectual Standards” by Linda Elder and Richard Paul on the website of www.criticalthinking.org, and write down definitions of the following eight standards for good reasoning skills: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic and fairness.

Read and Mark!

Mark the following composition by an anonymous foreign language learner entitled

“Should Math Be Made a Compulsory Course for College English Majors?”

according to the eight standards for good reasoning skills (Note: 5=very good, 4=good, 3=average, 2=poor, 1=very poor). Enter your marks for the composition in the table on the next page.

Math learning can help develop our logical thinking, which will benefit our learning of foreign languages. Math as a science course involves logical thinking, geometry studying, etc. Each of its divisions offers different abilities. The deficiency of logical sense is a common phenomenon that widely exists among foreign language majors. You can find deficiency in their essays, papers and even in their talks. Through math learning, their ideas and words can be well organized; their essays and papers can be more persuasive.

Math is a tool dealing with business techniques. The students who major in foreign languages in college are not only bound to be translators, interpreters, some or many of whom will do other jobs or careers such as businessman, salesman, and so on. In fact, the knowledge a student can get from college is limited. Students of foreign languages are particularly the case. Only language can’t offer them much knowledge. After graduation, they are only persons who obtain different languages. Nowadays, business is spreading in every country, which no one can deny. The students of foreign languages need a tool, math, to deal with it in the future. They have to learn math in their college.

If we don’t learn math, then we may lose the sensitivity to numbers. For a translator or an interpreter, it’s unavoidable that they will come across the translation of numbers, which has always been a big headache to interpreters. It’s very easy for them to misinterpret the number if they lack the knowledge of math. You can’t imagine the disaster if one interprets 10,000,000 as one million during the business trade. Therefore, in order to be an excellent translator or interpreter, taking math as a compulsory course is necessary.

Time to Share!

• Share your marks in a group.

• Discuss and reason with evidence if there are disagreements.

Project 5 Explore general education at Harvard University

Visit the website of Harvard University and explore Harvard’s general education requirements of 2018.

Compare Harvard’s general education requirements with those set by your university. What are the differences? Which is more challenging? Work in groups and make a presentation to the class.