Recently, Xiamen University announced the winners of the 15th Teaching Competition. Xie Hao, a teacher selected by International College, won the first prize in the English Teaching Competition.

A total of 95 teachers from 37 colleges, departments and affiliated units participated in the competition. The excellent results in the competition not only show the strength and elegant demeanor of teachers in International College, but also reflect the wisdom and strength of our teaching team, which is another great achievement in the construction of our teaching team.

Teacher Xiehao at the Competition

To learn more about her experience, we interviewed Teacher Xiehao after the competition. 

Question 1: what did you gain from this competition?

The whole process from receiving the notice to prepare till the final competition is very difficult. I was extremely nervous and stressed before the competition because of lack of experience. International College is the most powerful backbone that always supports and encourages me. I really appreciate the leaders of International College and Trade Union, who constantly cheer me on when I was not so confident and carefully arrange expert guidance, which gave me reassurance before the competition.  I would also thank Professor Fang Huanghai for his guidance during his busy work. He taught me a lot of valuable experience and skills which greatly improved the depth of my course. Meanwhile, I would also like to thank many colleagues in the English teaching and research group, especially Wang Zhendong, Lu Dongru, Wang Roujie, Lin Yingting and other teachers, who have rich experience in competitions and solid teaching skills. They helped me in many aspects, such as teaching state display, courseware planning and time arrangement, and provided me with extremely valuable suggestions.

I deeply felt that the strength of the individual is limited, while the strength of the team is infinite during this competition. Although I won the first prize, I also saw my weakness and the direction of my future efforts. Every contestant has his own unique style, which is worth learning. To be a good teacher, I still have a long way to go.

I am very grateful for the experience of this competition, which gave me the opportunity to learn the valuable experience from senior experts, outstanding colleagues and other constants. This is the biggest gain from the competition.

Question 2: What difficulties did you encounter during the competition?  How did you deal with the difficulties?

The course I chose in this competition is “second language acquisition”. This is a highly theoretical course, which easily becomes boring. I was worried about how to balance “professional” and “interesting” at the early stage of preparing. It’s required to prepare 3 courseware, but I prepared an extra courseware which is more interesting than professional. When I was confused and didn’t know how to balance, a senior expert’s advice that the content of the course should be deep, while the teaching methods can be in simple language, enlightened me and finally found the direction of lesson preparation.

Question 3：What do you think is your biggest highlight in the competition?

It should be “student-centered”. I strongly agree with the “people-oriented” educational philosophy. Therefore, when I prepare the courseware, I considered the following two points: First, the content of second language acquisition is relatively boring and obscure, and learning this course in English is a challenge for many undergraduates. Therefore, when designing the teaching language, I adopted a more concise and lucid way to reduce the learning barriers from language. Second, the transmission of knowledge is important, but what is more important is what students can think about, explore, and even overthrow after acquiring knowledge. Therefore, I pay more attention to the level of knowledge. Transfer knowledge at the beginning, and connect with reality at the end, which arouse students’ thinking. This is also a problem I often think about and pay attention to during my daily lectures. I hope that students will not only learn knowledge from my class, but also cultivate multi-perspective thinking.

Question 4: What qualities do you think an International College teacher should possess?

After completing the study in China, the students of International College will go abroad for the further study. They will explore and learn more about the world, and have unlimited possibilities and development after going abroad. Therefore, as their teachers, we need to have an open mind and an inclusive mentality to guide them to explore a vast, diverse and rich world. 

Question 5: What’s your understanding of the profession of “teacher” and the ideal teacher-student relationship?

 I would like to share a famous quote from Skinner: “Education is what survives when what has been learned is forgotten”. About career philosophy, I hope that I can bring students more than just transmission of knowledge. In the future, some of them may be engaged in work unrelated to English and will not use the knowledge I have taught them in class. Even in such circumstances, if they can still remember what I said or my inspiration to them at a certain moment, then I am successful. My ideal teacher-student relationship is as teachers, as friends, as relatives and neighbors.

Congratulations from students

During the interview, we admired Ms Xie for his rigorous and serious teaching style and highly responsible attitude towards students. Many of Teacher Xie’s students at home and abroad congratulated her leaned about the good news of Teacher Xie’s award.

Profile

Xie Hao, majors in TESOL, and obtained her Master Degree of Arts from University of Leeds. With TEM-8 certificate, she has solid knowledge on second language acquisition and TESOL. She joined in International College of Xiamen University in 2016.