追 (Chasing)
Xin Wang
To Begin
I was born and grew up in Yingkou, a small seaside city in the north of China. My parents were both factory workers with a limited formal education background. Because of the Cultural Revolution that was taking place in China, my father merely received two years of elementary education and had to become a mine worker at the age of nine. My mother was forced to quit her first year of middle school and became a farmer for the next twelve years. So, though they finally got a chance to go back to the city and start a new life after the Cultural Revolution, they had to face many challenges and the major one, as my father said, “(It) was such a new life and you couldn’t fit in anywhere without knowledge”. Thus, my father started to teach himself and my mother went to a night school that was organized by her factory. I remembered when my mother was holding me while she was listening and taking notes in the night school class, she also told me that continuing learning made her very happy. By growing up in an environment that was full of regrets and continuous fighting to overcome their lacking education, I knew that I wanted to receive more education, keep learning and never give up, just like my parents. I wanted them to be proud of me and more importantly, I wanted to let them know that I could be the extension of their educational dreams.
Why I enrolled the MAED program
Not surprisingly, I received higher education and graduated with an undergraduate degree in Chinese Language and Literature Education. The reason that I chose to be an educator was because I truly believed, and still believe that everyone deserves education. By understanding my parents’ self-taught experience, I also realized that education itself, should not merely be imparting book knowledge, but equally or even more importantly, to guide and support the learners to be more engaged in learning itself, so that even without a formal educational setting, they can still effectively learn.
I was confident and quite successful at teaching Chinese students because I understood the Chinese culture as well as the students’ backgrounds and their learning needs. However, when I was teaching at an international school where the students were mainly from America, Canada, Korea and Japan, I realized that my lack of multicultural knowledge blocked me from understanding my students more profoundly. Thus, I needed to apply specific teaching methodologies to fit their learning needs. As my parents would say, “the major thing keeping you from making progress is the knowledge itself”. It was time to learn more about the outside world, such as the different cultures, histories and teaching methodologies. Thus, when I moved to the US, I found that the MAED program at Michigan State University appeared a perfect fit for what I was looking for. I was excited to learn western, mostly American culture as well as the schooling here and how I can apply the new knowledge to extend my teaching career as a successful Chinese language and culture educator to the students with multicultural backgrounds.
What I have gained from the MAED program
I started my journey towards a Master of Arts in Educational at Michigan State University in January 2010. I expected to learn the most modern and advanced pedagogy built on the profound understanding of multiculturalism, so that I could be empowered to expand my teaching scope across Chinese education programs at a variety of schools and institutions in the United States and elsewhere. Additionally, should I decide to return to China in the future, I would be eligible to help Chinese colleagues or work outside of the area of multicultural education.
For the last one and a half years (total five semesters of study), I have enrolled in ten intensive courses that helped me to improve my professional development. There are three courses particularly that went beyond my initial expectation and helped me significantly with both professional development and personal growth.
The course I enjoyed the most was EAD 860 - Concept of Learning Society and the instructor was Professor Steven Weiland. The reasons below will state why I consider this course as my most favorite.
First, it was about the topic of this course. What is a learning society? Is it merely limited to schooling or could it be something more? Some people proposed that a learning society could be the domain in which technology would provide the essential format for education in schools and at work, and for learning everywhere else as well. Was it true? If it was true, how and in what ways? Was it possible that computers and the internet could be the masters of our world? I was fascinated about all of these questions and eager to explore all the possibilities from this course.
Second, this course was unusual in the extent to which it used hypermedia, a course based network to Internet resources, such as text, documentaries, movies, audio and online exhibitions. The use of hypermedia for teaching was brand new to me. My previous learning was all from text books, professor’s lectures, the peer discussions and numerous writing assignments, but I had not had the formal learning experience with exploring hypermedia. Did that mean that I could learn from watching a movie? That certainly sounded fresh and actually, fun! It turned out that we read and watched many really interesting books, documentaries and movies. One of them was Mary Catherine Bateson, Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way (1995; Perennial). Bateson set up a great example in her book of being a lifelong learner in a global multicultural context. I read this book a couple of times just because I found a strong connection to it and really enjoyed reading it over and over.
Third, EAD 860 was also an unusual course in the College of Education’s online MA Program because it offered a self-paced format, which meant that we could earn credit for the course by completing total eight units according to our own schedule, though within the time frame of the semester calendar. I was working at several institutions when I enrolled in this course. Being able to set my own learning schedule was certainly a huge bonus to me. That meant if I had something that I needed to take care of right away, I could do so, and finish the learning and assignments later without worrying about being late for the submission. Frankly, as an adult learner, EAD 860 respected the busy life and multi roles each adult learner was playing and provided an appreciated flexibility. As a result, I felt that I was well recognized as an adult learner in general and an individual, and this respect and reorganization motivated me in learning and thus produced positive learning progress.
As Professor Weiland stated, the “learning society” is a popular but problematic phrase meant to describe recent developments in education across the life span and to guide institutions and individuals worldwide in their educational goal, programs and activities, and plans for the future. By exploring, discovering and learning from the course instructor and the contents and context that stood for the historical, organizational and cultural angles, I have gained so much beyond my initial expectation. Thus, I recognize that EAD860 is my number one favorite course.
Another course I really enjoyed was CEP 818 – Creativity in Teaching and Learning. The instructors were Punya Mishra and Kristen Kereluik. By recognizing the importance of creativity in education, both for the educators’ professional success and that of our students, we were expected to operate in a complex and chaotic ecology where our very survival and personal identity was tied up in improvising knowledgeable answers to largely unanticipated problems. “It has been argued that the solution to these concerns is an increased emphasis on creativity (Mishra & Kereluik).”
How could we become more creative so we could apply the creativity into our teaching, and pass on to our students? The course instructors encouraged us to first play with concepts and feel comfortable in doing the learning activities. We also had a guide book that was written by Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein: Sparks of Genius-the 13 Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People. The “Thinking Tools” included thinking differently, perceiving, abstracting, playing, and more. The concepts of each “Thinking Tool” sounded a bit abstract at first, but once I started playing and participating with the practical activities, the seemingly abstract concepts became much more concrete and interesting! A great example would be the Zoom-In activities. We were asked to participate in digital photography activities that helped us understand and apply the thinking skills that were being examined. For example, in order to guide us to think differently, we were introduced to the idea of véjà du, which challenged us to see a familiar situation with “fresh eyes,” as if we had never seen it before. In other words, véjà du was about making the familiar look strange and we were assigned to make a digital photography exhibition of it! How out-of-box thinking was it! What an interesting, challenging and fascinating assignment!
Here are some of the photos I took to express my idea of véjà du.
I was born and grew up in Yingkou, a small seaside city in the north of China. My parents were both factory workers with a limited formal education background. Because of the Cultural Revolution that was taking place in China, my father merely received two years of elementary education and had to become a mine worker at the age of nine. My mother was forced to quit her first year of middle school and became a farmer for the next twelve years. So, though they finally got a chance to go back to the city and start a new life after the Cultural Revolution, they had to face many challenges and the major one, as my father said, “(It) was such a new life and you couldn’t fit in anywhere without knowledge”. Thus, my father started to teach himself and my mother went to a night school that was organized by her factory. I remembered when my mother was holding me while she was listening and taking notes in the night school class, she also told me that continuing learning made her very happy. By growing up in an environment that was full of regrets and continuous fighting to overcome their lacking education, I knew that I wanted to receive more education, keep learning and never give up, just like my parents. I wanted them to be proud of me and more importantly, I wanted to let them know that I could be the extension of their educational dreams.
Why I enrolled the MAED program
Not surprisingly, I received higher education and graduated with an undergraduate degree in Chinese Language and Literature Education. The reason that I chose to be an educator was because I truly believed, and still believe that everyone deserves education. By understanding my parents’ self-taught experience, I also realized that education itself, should not merely be imparting book knowledge, but equally or even more importantly, to guide and support the learners to be more engaged in learning itself, so that even without a formal educational setting, they can still effectively learn.
I was confident and quite successful at teaching Chinese students because I understood the Chinese culture as well as the students’ backgrounds and their learning needs. However, when I was teaching at an international school where the students were mainly from America, Canada, Korea and Japan, I realized that my lack of multicultural knowledge blocked me from understanding my students more profoundly. Thus, I needed to apply specific teaching methodologies to fit their learning needs. As my parents would say, “the major thing keeping you from making progress is the knowledge itself”. It was time to learn more about the outside world, such as the different cultures, histories and teaching methodologies. Thus, when I moved to the US, I found that the MAED program at Michigan State University appeared a perfect fit for what I was looking for. I was excited to learn western, mostly American culture as well as the schooling here and how I can apply the new knowledge to extend my teaching career as a successful Chinese language and culture educator to the students with multicultural backgrounds.
What I have gained from the MAED program
I started my journey towards a Master of Arts in Educational at Michigan State University in January 2010. I expected to learn the most modern and advanced pedagogy built on the profound understanding of multiculturalism, so that I could be empowered to expand my teaching scope across Chinese education programs at a variety of schools and institutions in the United States and elsewhere. Additionally, should I decide to return to China in the future, I would be eligible to help Chinese colleagues or work outside of the area of multicultural education.
For the last one and a half years (total five semesters of study), I have enrolled in ten intensive courses that helped me to improve my professional development. There are three courses particularly that went beyond my initial expectation and helped me significantly with both professional development and personal growth.
The course I enjoyed the most was EAD 860 - Concept of Learning Society and the instructor was Professor Steven Weiland. The reasons below will state why I consider this course as my most favorite.
First, it was about the topic of this course. What is a learning society? Is it merely limited to schooling or could it be something more? Some people proposed that a learning society could be the domain in which technology would provide the essential format for education in schools and at work, and for learning everywhere else as well. Was it true? If it was true, how and in what ways? Was it possible that computers and the internet could be the masters of our world? I was fascinated about all of these questions and eager to explore all the possibilities from this course.
Second, this course was unusual in the extent to which it used hypermedia, a course based network to Internet resources, such as text, documentaries, movies, audio and online exhibitions. The use of hypermedia for teaching was brand new to me. My previous learning was all from text books, professor’s lectures, the peer discussions and numerous writing assignments, but I had not had the formal learning experience with exploring hypermedia. Did that mean that I could learn from watching a movie? That certainly sounded fresh and actually, fun! It turned out that we read and watched many really interesting books, documentaries and movies. One of them was Mary Catherine Bateson, Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way (1995; Perennial). Bateson set up a great example in her book of being a lifelong learner in a global multicultural context. I read this book a couple of times just because I found a strong connection to it and really enjoyed reading it over and over.
Third, EAD 860 was also an unusual course in the College of Education’s online MA Program because it offered a self-paced format, which meant that we could earn credit for the course by completing total eight units according to our own schedule, though within the time frame of the semester calendar. I was working at several institutions when I enrolled in this course. Being able to set my own learning schedule was certainly a huge bonus to me. That meant if I had something that I needed to take care of right away, I could do so, and finish the learning and assignments later without worrying about being late for the submission. Frankly, as an adult learner, EAD 860 respected the busy life and multi roles each adult learner was playing and provided an appreciated flexibility. As a result, I felt that I was well recognized as an adult learner in general and an individual, and this respect and reorganization motivated me in learning and thus produced positive learning progress.
As Professor Weiland stated, the “learning society” is a popular but problematic phrase meant to describe recent developments in education across the life span and to guide institutions and individuals worldwide in their educational goal, programs and activities, and plans for the future. By exploring, discovering and learning from the course instructor and the contents and context that stood for the historical, organizational and cultural angles, I have gained so much beyond my initial expectation. Thus, I recognize that EAD860 is my number one favorite course.
Another course I really enjoyed was CEP 818 – Creativity in Teaching and Learning. The instructors were Punya Mishra and Kristen Kereluik. By recognizing the importance of creativity in education, both for the educators’ professional success and that of our students, we were expected to operate in a complex and chaotic ecology where our very survival and personal identity was tied up in improvising knowledgeable answers to largely unanticipated problems. “It has been argued that the solution to these concerns is an increased emphasis on creativity (Mishra & Kereluik).”
How could we become more creative so we could apply the creativity into our teaching, and pass on to our students? The course instructors encouraged us to first play with concepts and feel comfortable in doing the learning activities. We also had a guide book that was written by Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein: Sparks of Genius-the 13 Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People. The “Thinking Tools” included thinking differently, perceiving, abstracting, playing, and more. The concepts of each “Thinking Tool” sounded a bit abstract at first, but once I started playing and participating with the practical activities, the seemingly abstract concepts became much more concrete and interesting! A great example would be the Zoom-In activities. We were asked to participate in digital photography activities that helped us understand and apply the thinking skills that were being examined. For example, in order to guide us to think differently, we were introduced to the idea of véjà du, which challenged us to see a familiar situation with “fresh eyes,” as if we had never seen it before. In other words, véjà du was about making the familiar look strange and we were assigned to make a digital photography exhibition of it! How out-of-box thinking was it! What an interesting, challenging and fascinating assignment!
Here are some of the photos I took to express my idea of véjà du.
Well, it turned out that it is something we are all familiar with and many of us like playing: a guitar!
By understanding the véjà du assignment, I, the 10-year experienced teacher, looked back at the seemingly familiar curricula and teaching methodologies, and noticed that there could be many changes to make my teaching more interesting and effective! By learning and accepting the idea of véjà du, I opened a door to bring new blood and fresh air to my Chinese Language and Culture teaching!
Here is my learning blog from the course CEP 818: http://msu-cep818-xinwang.blogspot.com/
ED870 Capstone is another course that I have learned a lot from. The course instructors were Professor Matthew J. Koehler, Penney Thompson, Chris Shaltry and Denice Leach. The major reason that I considered it a very valuable course is because it was a self-reflective course that helped and guided me to look back on the five semesters, what I have gained and how it was going to or had already influenced my professional development and personal growth.
Frankly, I was a new fish in the modern technology ocean and quite nervous about using any other functions in my computer other than checking emails and writing in Microsoft Office Word. By designing a professional web portfolio and then publishing it, I learned numerous web designing and publishing techniques, such as using Photoshop to edit pictures and making the content look neat and easy to read by using web designing tools. Here is my professional portfolio and please have a look! http://xinwangportfolio.weebly.com/
I also learned a lot from the peer reviewing. In order to encourage the students to help each other with similar backgrounds and interests, we were assigned to be housemates in different houses. I was assigned to Wharton Center with four housemates, and they are Mark McCarthy, Sabrina Vasquez, Rob Kniss and Wade James. By the time I am writing this essay, I have not met any of them face to face. However, I do feel like we all have a very strong connection as a team and our communication has been surprisingly interactive and productive! For each assignment, we first posted a thread and asked our housemates’ opinions and sometimes, asked for help for specific technique challenges, then we went through other housemates’ portfolios and read through, and then we gave a throughout feedback on their content, the page layout and even the font of the text and the choices of colors. This is a great example to demonstrate that we were not only helping each other to make our web page look better, but more importantly, we were building a very supportive team that offered caring and love, so we can all make progress together
What is Next
There is a Chinese saying “弹指一挥间” which means that time flies like it is in a flick of an eye. Looking back the last three years, I have immigrated to the US, applied for student loans that I could never get where I am regionally from, applied to graduate school and will receive a Master of Arts in Education from Michigan State University. In addition to all of that, I have been travelling between multiple cultures and going through multi layers of self-reflections. During the self-reflecting process, I smiled for what I was proud of and cried for what I was frustrated about. The MAED program from Michigan State University certainly built a bridge and helped me to go across different cultures and learn more in-depth and advanced pedagogy as well as the philosophy of living a wonderful life.
My parents’ examples illustrate that we all need to learn to make progress both on professional and personal development because “Education is less and less a preparation for life and more and more of it (Bateson, 1995).” It has been a long journey from where I was from to where I am standing now. Looking at the sunrise, we will all have a day full of challenges though still beautiful ahead of us, so enjoy!
By understanding the véjà du assignment, I, the 10-year experienced teacher, looked back at the seemingly familiar curricula and teaching methodologies, and noticed that there could be many changes to make my teaching more interesting and effective! By learning and accepting the idea of véjà du, I opened a door to bring new blood and fresh air to my Chinese Language and Culture teaching!
Here is my learning blog from the course CEP 818: http://msu-cep818-xinwang.blogspot.com/
ED870 Capstone is another course that I have learned a lot from. The course instructors were Professor Matthew J. Koehler, Penney Thompson, Chris Shaltry and Denice Leach. The major reason that I considered it a very valuable course is because it was a self-reflective course that helped and guided me to look back on the five semesters, what I have gained and how it was going to or had already influenced my professional development and personal growth.
Frankly, I was a new fish in the modern technology ocean and quite nervous about using any other functions in my computer other than checking emails and writing in Microsoft Office Word. By designing a professional web portfolio and then publishing it, I learned numerous web designing and publishing techniques, such as using Photoshop to edit pictures and making the content look neat and easy to read by using web designing tools. Here is my professional portfolio and please have a look! http://xinwangportfolio.weebly.com/
I also learned a lot from the peer reviewing. In order to encourage the students to help each other with similar backgrounds and interests, we were assigned to be housemates in different houses. I was assigned to Wharton Center with four housemates, and they are Mark McCarthy, Sabrina Vasquez, Rob Kniss and Wade James. By the time I am writing this essay, I have not met any of them face to face. However, I do feel like we all have a very strong connection as a team and our communication has been surprisingly interactive and productive! For each assignment, we first posted a thread and asked our housemates’ opinions and sometimes, asked for help for specific technique challenges, then we went through other housemates’ portfolios and read through, and then we gave a throughout feedback on their content, the page layout and even the font of the text and the choices of colors. This is a great example to demonstrate that we were not only helping each other to make our web page look better, but more importantly, we were building a very supportive team that offered caring and love, so we can all make progress together
What is Next
There is a Chinese saying “弹指一挥间” which means that time flies like it is in a flick of an eye. Looking back the last three years, I have immigrated to the US, applied for student loans that I could never get where I am regionally from, applied to graduate school and will receive a Master of Arts in Education from Michigan State University. In addition to all of that, I have been travelling between multiple cultures and going through multi layers of self-reflections. During the self-reflecting process, I smiled for what I was proud of and cried for what I was frustrated about. The MAED program from Michigan State University certainly built a bridge and helped me to go across different cultures and learn more in-depth and advanced pedagogy as well as the philosophy of living a wonderful life.
My parents’ examples illustrate that we all need to learn to make progress both on professional and personal development because “Education is less and less a preparation for life and more and more of it (Bateson, 1995).” It has been a long journey from where I was from to where I am standing now. Looking at the sunrise, we will all have a day full of challenges though still beautiful ahead of us, so enjoy!