“我爱我师”之本科生最喜爱的公共课老师系列访谈——Shane Burridge
Shane
Burridge
Shane Burridge
"我爱我师"
系列访谈
Q#01
- What is your
teaching philosophy like? -
I take the types of courses that I would have wanted to do myself when I was a student at university, but never had the opportunity. Also, I don't want anyone to be afraid of taking my classes because they think “Oh, my English isn't good enough to take a class by a foreign teacher”. If you're really interested in learning, and make the effort to look and listen, you'll see that I explain things very clearly. Or you can just write my teaching philosophy in three words: No Mobile Phones. But everyone on the campus probably knows that by now.
Q#02
- What is your
usual style of teaching
and why did you choose it? -
This is going to be difficult to explain, but my approach is HOLISTIC , I don't know if it translates properly in Chinese and it's not a style that you can show any other teacher how to do. You need to be a holistic person yourself. Basically it's like there is a big picture, and each lecture is made of tiny pieces that have their own unrelated meanings, but you never see the whole picture. At the end of the course, though, you should have a feeling of general understanding or awareness. For example, the 1980 TV series “Cosmos” by one of my heroes, Carl Sagan , has that type of approach. He is my biggest influence in the way I plan and write courses and lectures.
Q#03
-
If you were to recommend a course
of your own to all students,
which one would you choose and why?
How did you prepare for this course?
-
I can't really choose one over the other, because I've worked to make them all the same quality, so that if someone takes one course and enjoys it, they should feel they will enjoy any of the other courses equally. However, I will mention that Art History is a course that I think some people have the wrong idea about because they think “That's just looking at old paintings for a whole course”. Well, there is some of that, but obviously there are other things as well. I like to put variation in my courses.
MESSAGE TO STUDENTS
I know there are people who will choose a course for the reason that they can get a high grade, even if they’re not interested in the subject. My question to you is this: 20 or 30 years later, when you’re talking to your kids, or friends at a reunion, or whatever, are you going to be saying: “When I was at university, I got 78 for this course. I got 83 for that course”, or are you going to tell them about memorable thing that you learned and has stayed in your mind ever since, because you were interested in it?
文案｜王子谦
排版｜王子谦
审核｜董炤昕 丁梦雨
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