In the digital age, getting students into classrooms is an increasingly challenging mission for university teachers, not to mention retaining their attention.
在這個數碼時代,對于大學老師而言,讓學生們來聽課是項愈發艱巨的任務,更不用說讓他們集中精力聽講了。
“It’s much harder to teach the post-90s generation,” said Chen Jixiu, a math professor at Fudan University. “They use smartphones and tablets to search for information, even during class. They get knowledge from a variety of sources, and consider it trivial to skip classes.” According to Chen, this phenomenon has forced teachers to adopt “odd tricks” for luring students to class. Here are some weird ideas picked up by 21st Century.
Rather than providing only moral encouragement, teachers at Wuhan University of Technology are offering tangible incentives to boost student attendance.
為了提高出勤率,武漢科技大學的老師們不只從精神上鼓勵學生,更是采用物質激勵法。
Students sitting in the first row of the health psychology course taught by professor Lei Wuming are rewarded with snacks.
在雷五明(音譯)教授的心理健康課上,坐在第一排的學生會得到零食作為獎勵。
“I’ve accumulated 7,000 fans on my micro blog, and most of them are my students,” said Lei, director of the university’s Development and Education Psychology Institution. “I wanted to express my thanks to those coming to listen, and to make the class more lively.”
In the broadcasting and hosting course of Hankou University in Hubei, teacher Huang Huiqiong gives students permission to busy themselves with their cell phones during class.
在湖北漢口大學的播音主持課上,黃惠瓊(音譯)老師允許學生在課上專注于手機。
They keep their heads down until they hear something interesting. If not, they can sit through the entire class without being disturbed and even give the teacher advice following the class. “A teacher is not the boss and students have the right to make content suggestions,” said Huang.
You might hesitate to participate in class discussions, but what if you could send a message instead of speaking out loud? In the computer science course at Changsha University of Science & Technology (CUST), students can voice opinions via their cell phone.
At Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, students who arrive at the laboratory early are rewarded with a message of praise on a micro blog named “BUPT CAD center attendance machine”. It might say something like: “Edison invented the first bulb; Bell invented the first telephone; and this morning, Xiao Li printed the first fingerprint.”
The machine, which sends a message whenever a student places their finger on it, was invented by Song Meina, a computer professor. “Students wrote the posts themselves. If they come first, they are praised in front of 2,000 fans,” the professor said.
Splitting bricks by hand usually only happens in movies. But in a class at Sichuan University, Wei Yaoyong, dean of the computer science department, did just that. But he didn’t just want to attract attention.
“I wanted to tell my students that even when you only know some simple science principles, if you use them right, you can achieve great things,” said Wei. “I want them to know that university is not only about doing research, but also about employing your practical knowledge.”