Source: China Science Daily 2016-01-07 Page 06
Written by: Wen Caifei
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

The day before the interview, Dr. Zhu Chuanqi, an assistant professor at the Department of International Business of Lingnan (University) College, Sun Yat-sen University, had just finished running a marathon in Shenzhen.

This post-1980 teacher likes the job with relatively free working time, and the feeling of sweating all over. The moment he steps onto the teaching platform, his “sense of happiness arises spontaneously”. For him, like participating in the big or small marathons, 'teaching is a job I won’t give up, even if I’m not at my best now, I’d like to be a most devoted teacher”.

Pass on knowledge and more importantly teach logical reasoning

Why want to be a “most devoted” teacher?

Dr. Zhu told the reporter of China Science Daily: “Because the undergraduate years are the most crucial years in one’s life.” Like holding a rising sun in your hand, in addition to care, there is expectation. His course “Intermediate Macroeconomics” is for junior students who have some basic knowledge about economics but sometimes cannot choose the appropriate models and methods in economics to solve particular problems. “Teaching students the way of thinking rather than just the knowledge of the course material is success in my view.” In class, the students are puzzled by why the Chinese economy has slowed in recent years. On the basis of guiding the students to understand the models, Dr. Zhu gives more extensive analysis of practical problems. In this process, he teaches the students the steps of logical reasoning—first making hypothesis, then providing basic facts, then connecting the facts, and finally drawing conclusions.

This is also Dr. Zhu’s experience since his college years. The loose management style in his PhD study in the United States taught him how to ponder over questions instead of filling the knowledge gap. For his students with high marks in the national college entrance exam, “this method is equally applicable”.

Remember every student’s name

"Although I’m not as experienced as senior professors in class, I try to remember every student’s name.” The modest teacher added: "So do some teachers.” Dr. Zhu knew quite well what it was like when the teacher could call him by his name in class, “unless you often asked questions, the teacher usually couldn’t remember your name”. Moreover, sometimes the teacher could mispronounce the student’s name, thus causing an embarrassing situation.

However, if the teacher can call a student by his or her name without looking at the name list, for the particular student, “the sense of presence will double instantly”.

When a new semester starts, as soon as Dr. Zhu gets the name list, the first thing he does is to consult a dictionary. “Nowadays some names have uncommon words that I don’t know, I must consult the dictionary and put the Pinyin pronunciation,” he said with a smile.

Remembering difficult names is easy for him, but he is afraid that a class may have too many similar names because he had such an experience. Last year his class had three students named “Siqi” and one named “Shuqi”, “I was pointing at one student while calling another student’s name, fortunately, I only made one such mistake”.

This “witty trick” is apparently working for the post-1990 students. They regard Dr. Zhu as a “nice” teacher who is “easy to communicate with”.

In his opinion, remembering every student’s name has a deeper meaning, “In my class I put more emphasis on methods than on knowledge. Passing on knowledge usually takes the form of instruction, while teaching students the methods is more often through interaction. If I don’t care for the students in little details, the classroom interactions will not go smoothly.”

Brother Legend’s passion for higher education

After class, the students call him “Brother Legend” (Editor’s note: Dr. Zhu’s given name “Chuanqi” means “legend” in Chinese.) because in class, he respects the students’ independent thinking; and after class, he offers consultancy for students who want to study abroad.

In 2015, the Board of Trustees of Lingnan (University) College presented Dr. Zhu Chuanqi with the “teaching service contribution award” in recognition of his contributions to undergraduate teaching.

Although some people regard teaching as a “hard job”, Dr. Zhu said frankly that he is happy after every lesson. “I don’t know where this sense of happiness comes from, maybe because my information is useful to the students, which brings a sense of self-identification.” Noticing that many teachers send their children abroad for study, Dr. Zhu is concerned about the current situation of higher education. “If every teacher could make more efforts in teaching and bring more ideas to teaching, our higher education would be improved”.

Nobody is a born teacher. Dr. Zhu Chuanqi, whose childhood dream was to become a chef, later became a teacher, and he takes teaching as his long-term or even his lifetime career. As long as we set our goals and devote our efforts, anything is possible.