Mellon Teaching Fellows

 

Chinese 280: East Asian Culture Through Film

(Emphasis on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan this year)

Spring, 2008

 

Yanfang Tang

 

Learning Goals

 

Students would

 

  • Develop cultural knowledge about China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

 

  • Acquire a general understanding of the historical conditions of the three regions

 

  • Understand the changes occurring in social, economic and political institutions as the three regions modernized over the past 100 years

 

  • Understand these changes in a comparative light as they vary across the three regions

 

  • Develop and sharpen critical ability in thinking and writing

 

  • Develop and sharpen presentational skills orally and in written form

 

Learning Experiences

 

Students 

 

  • Read and analyzed materials from a variety of disciplines ranging from the historical to the literary. These materials, together with lectures from the professor, offered an overview of the social, political and historical issues affecting China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

 

  • Watched and analyzed 11 films from the three regions

 

  • Participated in Blackboard discussions on the films organized and facilitated by the Mellon Teaching Fellow. Students posted their own ideas, commented on or critiqued those of others, and received feedbacks from the Mellon Teaching Fellow

 

  • Engaged in classroom discussions where controversial issues from Blackboard were resolved and further questions from the professor were taken up 

 

  • Wrote response papers to explore, in writing, an issue more coherently, systematically and thoroughly

 

Evaluations

 

  • Quizzes were scheduled periodically to check students’ acquisition of factual knowledge

 

  • Midterm and final exams contained essay questions to assess students’ critical and analytical abilities

 

  • The quality and frequency of student participation in Blackboard as well as classroom discussions were minutely documented and assessed

 

  • Students’ response papers were carefully critiqued, and the progress of each student in critical thinking and argument was recorded in a detailed fashion [This is a really good assessment report.  What remains is to describe the results of the evaluations and how the evaluation information will be used.  Did the critiques of the response papers reveal that students developed “cultural knowledge. . . .”  Was it at the proper level?  What will or would you do differently?]

 

 

 

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