On the morning of October 22, an online conference co-organized by HKBU and UIC WPEO and IEIR on "Whole Person Education and Experiential Learning" took place in the Multi-function auditorium of UIC campus. Professor Guy Claxton from the University of Winchester, UK, shared his interpretation on "whole person" and "whole person education", and aroused an echo among the audience.
Professor Guy Claxton's explanation of "whole person education" deeply impressed his audience with a parable that compared the extent of "whole person" to different layers of a river: from the shallowest knowledge based layer to skill based layer, from a deeper layer based on habits and attitude to the next layer based on personal values, and finally reached the deepest layer of pursuing interest. At this top level, Professor Guy Claxton believed that scattered resources and relationships are all connected as a whole and gives tremendous motivation and efficiency to its owner. The "whole person education" environment we had is like a rudder, or a compass, and will lead us to the highest level of the "whole person".
In order to boost our learning capability, Professor Guy Claxton suggested that self-evaluation is a great way to improve ourselves aside from being inquisitive, foreseeing, patient, consistent, imaginative, and ability to revise from mistakes. For example, students can play a 60-sec self-evaluation game every day, including questions: Is it meaningful today? What parts of the day were linked to my past experience? Besides, discussion groups can be very effective and are able to boost our learning efficiency.
Dr, Guo Haipeng, Director of WPEO, Dr. Shi Lei, Associate Director of WPRO, Dr. Ghee Ho, Directors of Emotional Intelligence Development Center, and Dr. Xu Fanglong, Director of Sport Culture Development Center attended the conference.
Here are the interviews after the conference with Dr. Guo Haipeng, and a year-two TESL student Mr. Xu.
Study is not an exchange
Reporter: Which are ideas from Professor Claxton that match UIC's Whole Person Education?
Dr. Guo: First of all, both Prof. Claxton and UIC emphasize on practical experience, which combines experiences inside and outside campus, and become the complementary part of major course study. The next common point is ‘develop in all direction'. This encourages students to make efforts in multi-directions, beyond his/her major. This is the reason why our college chose ‘Whole Person' as a goal, hoping that our students can experience and learn a full band of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values, through Experiential Learning.
Reporter: What is your advice for UIC students in Whole Person Education style of study?
Guo: Study is not an exchange. GPA is not everything. How to score an A is not the only purpose of study. We should look ahead and learn from everything, anytime, everywhere. Define study in a wider range, because learning is a lifelong career.
The idea ‘develop in all direction' is an inevitable trend
Reporter: What did you learn from Prof. Claxton's talk in morning? Which idea inspired you most?
Mr. XU: Creativity is the word Prof. Claxton repeated many times and it is carved deeply inside me because that was greatly different from Mainland China's education system. Learning with a question in mind is the best way to build our interest on study and stimulate our potential.
Reporter: Mr. Xu, what do you think of whole person education? Can you tell us some of your experience?
Mr. Xu: Firstly, Whole Person Education focuses on the full-size development in all direction, the idea is an inevitable trend. Our college's Whole Person Education is up-to-date and practically more advanced. The eight modules of WPE require lots of practices. For example, environmental and voluntary development courses have a lot of field work outside the campus aiming to boost students' ethical growth as a whole. WPE is a banner of UIC. The idea should be promoted to other universities in Mainland China.
Reporter: Lu Yao
Translation:Cheng
Editor: Richard Xu
MPRO
