This is a speech at ECNUAS HS Assembly on Oct 11, 2021
Photo taken in Anting New Town, Oct 9-10, 2021. There was a 12-hour time difference between the two images.
Good morning teachers and students!
This is the first HS assembly of October due the long national day holidays. As usual, I am going to announce and explain the educational theme of this month and summarize the house point competition of last month.
Out of the 12 learner attributes and 5 categories of learning skills, the high school principal’s office chooses Inquirers and Research Skills as the theme of October 2021. As always, we encourage students and teachers to write about their learning stories about the themes.
Inquirers and Research Skills are good fit for this month. When we proceed towards the middle of this semester, all of our students will have to engage in substantial learning activities in and outside classroom in this month before the mid-term exams, which will take place in the first week of November. Besides, a series of interesting and educational events in the month of October will all require our students to demonstrate and further develop research skills and the spirit of inquiry. Many students are working on the planning and organization for the world mental health day activities, the second Fun Run event, Sports Day, and Visual Arts exhibition for the high school community. I am also aware some students are preparing their IGCSE or AS re-take exams which will start in late October. Inquiry based learning and research skills are obviously part of all these activities and events.
Hence, let us take a careful look at the two key terms in the educational theme.
Inquirers
You develop their natural curiosity. You acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and research and show independence in learning. You actively enjoy learning and this love of learning will be sustained throughout your lives.
Research skills
You demonstrate information literacy such as finding, interpreting, judging and creating information. You also demonstrate media literacy, interacting with media to use and create ideas and information.
Being an inquirer, first of all you should always show curiosity and even love towards learning. Your brain likes the state of curiosity, and with curiosity you are better prepared for learning new knowledge and skills, and you will feel more rewarded during and after learning. Curiosity does more than making you be good at learning and in love with learning, it also improves the results of learning. Actually, when it comes to academic performance, research reveals that curiosity is equally important as conscientiousness (inclination or urge to take classes and do assignments) and intelligence (how smart you are). Brain science supports this finding too. It appears that curiosity associated with anticipatory activity (预期活动) in nucleus accumbens (伏隔核), midbrain(中脑), and hippocampus (海马体) and memory benefits for incidental material are supported by midbrain-hippocampus ( 中脑-海马体) involvement and connections between these regions.
Being and inquirer you must be an independent and self-regulated learner. You will set your own goals and paths of learning, you will also continuously reflect on the methods, processes and results of learning. Moreover, as learners in an international education, your inquiry-based learning does not stop within the scope of courses that you study with your teachers. You go beyond learning in classrooms. You will learn to conduct independent inquires. In fact, this is not only our school’s expectation but also the requirement of your future university study and career. Quoting the Student Guide of the Cambridge Independent Project Qualification, which our school just starts to teach this year, it says,
“When you get to university, you will find that you will be asked to conduct independent research. Your essays, dissertations and term papers will need to be on topics of your own choosing, and you will be evaluated or marked on your ability to use the appropriate research methods and critical thinking skills to produce robust work…in the world of work you will also increasingly be called upon to produce research reports to support your business. Job applicants who can do high quality independent research are much more attractive than those who cannot…” (p. 7)
In terms of research skills, I remember I talked about a definition of information literacy and media literacy, as well as a range of skills associated with the two types of literacy. You can find my speeches on my website if you want to review what I said a few months ago. Today, I just want to re-iterate a few points that might be related to the information that you see or create on media, including social media, and other sources, that seem to be so easily obtainable.
Please always remember several important information and media skills that are related to your current study and life.
• Find and use reliable information resources such as websites or social media
• Separate facts (what really happened) from opinions (someone’s points of view)
• Evaluate text and image for perspectives (“it is created for a reason”)
• Deconstruct a text based on principles of logic
• Create media responsibly (know what to say, how to say it, gauge the impact before you say it)
I know teachers are training you with regard to how to search and choose reliable sources and materials for your academic study. What is not fully discussed in these academic classes could be your media literacy in your daily lives. Last month, we organized a campaign to raise the awareness of cyber-bullying and inculcate skills of dealing with it. After this campaign, I believe more students are more responsible for what they say, what they pass, and what they create on media especially social media such as Wechat Groups, Wechat Moments, and Tik Tok. More students should better know how to critically evaluate the information that you receive from the media. These are also research skills, and with more and more accessible technology, this type of life-related research skills become equally important than that associated with your academic study.
Please remember that not all messages or information you saw from the media are true. You must use your critical thinking skills to filter, analyze, and evaluate what you see or receive. You must understand that many media have particular purposes especially commercial or political purposes. In the face of information blowing at you all the time, importantly you should use your skills of media literacy to construct your own meaning for your own benefits. Moreover, you need to understand that information is supposed to assist you and enable you but not to overwhelm you or distract you when you work on a project. Therefore, you should always consciously remind yourself when you have sufficient information already and hence decisively shut off so as to concentrate on what you should produce and deliver informed by available knowledge.
Next part of my speech is about September 2021 House Point competition results. Following O House winning the competition for a few months in a row, R House takes the first place this time. Congratulations to R House students and leaders.
……
……
References:
Association for Psychological Science. "Curiosity is critical to academic performance." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 October 2011. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111027150211.htm
Stenger, Marianne. Why Curiosity Enhances Learning. December 17, 2014.
Matthias J. Gruber, Bernard D. Gelman, Charan Ranganath. States of Curiosity Modulate Hippocampus-Dependent Learning via the Dopaminergic Circuit. October 02, 2014. https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(14)00804-6
CIEA. A Learner’s Guide to the Cambridge International Project Qualification. For examination from 2020.
Comments