在我校国际化发展进程中，外籍教师发挥了不可替代的作用。他们在为学校带来地道的外语教学的同时，更为学校带来了不一样的教育教学理念、教学方法和文化体验，为学校带来先进的国际化教育理念。近日，大型专题报道组记者采访了两位外籍教师Robert Shaw 教授和Anne Rubienska教授。在两位外教的访谈中，让我们分享他们的不一样的教育理念和文化体验，分享他们的国际化教育理念。
Robert Shaw：培养学生独立思考能力和批判精神
来自新西兰的Robert Shaw教授曾在国外多所高校从事教学工作。从2012年开始，Robert在管理学院教授工商管理和商业伦理等多门课程。
Robert表示，他来中国只有四个月，就整体印象而言，中西学生本质差异不大。大部分中国学生会更有礼貌，更愿意与老师合作。由于长期接受标准化教育，中国学生差异性不大，但记忆力惊人。相通的一点是中西学生都面临很大的就业压力，有很强的求知欲望和成功欲望。他希望培养学生的独立思考能力和批判精神。
Robert比较了中西教学方式: 中国大学多采用30-50人小班教学，教师使用PPT在讲台上传授知识，学生在台下听课。西方多采用大型讲座，听讲人数多达200人。课后，学生会在助教组织下开展小组学习，助教多由高年级学生担任。
为了更好地激励学生，在学期第一个星期，Robert会让学生给他发邮件介绍自己，从而建立与学生的联系。之后每个星期他会布置小测试，让学生通过邮件汇报每周的进度，然后他逐个回复评语，等到期末的时候，他可以以此判断学生的进展。他希望中国能减少对考试的依赖，以论文/项目的形式考察学生的综合素质。
同时，他谈到目前中国使用的英文教材良莠不齐，他决定延长在中国教书的时间，致力于编写适合中国国情，体现中中国国情和教育目标，体现中国管理思想的教科书。他曾与我校周宁合写论文，提出使高等商业教育与国家的发展的方向保持一致的举措和建议。
附：英文采访
Q: What are the major differences between Chinese students and New Zealand Students?
A: Generally speaking, there are no major differences. I have been in China for four months; I am just a beginner at teaching in China. But my overall impression is that Chinese students are a little more polite, and they are very positive toward education. They are more cooperative than the students in the west. Students here come from a very standardized, strict education system. As a result, there is not much diversity. The students I teach here are very bright. Their ability to remember things is incredible. Most of them are very motivated, determined to succeed. They feel themselves under a lot of pressure, to get qualified, to get a job, to support themselves and the family. But that is the same in western countries. The students are similar, but they are taught by quite different methods.
Q: How do you compare the way we teach here and that in the west?
A: If you walk around this university (GDUFS), you will see similar scenes: classrooms with 30 to 50 students, mini-lectures – teachers sitting at the front with a microphone, PPTs on the screen. That is the basic pattern. In western universities, the way students are organized is different. We give large lectures – to up to 200 or more students. Those students will then have tutorials. They will have small groups with 15 people. Quite often a senior student will take the tutorial as a teaching assistant (TA). The TA actually does the teaching and leads a group in their learning. TA’s here seem to be only involved in administration. In the west TAs are paid as junior teachers or support teachers.
Another great difference between my teaching here and in the west is the use of course technology. In the west courses have websites and materials are provided through the internet. At the moment I am involved in a project to teach in this way using the online course management program called Blackboard, which is provided by GDUFS for all staff. In the meantime I put a web site on the internet for my students.
Q: What would you like your students to acquire from their education?
A: If you ask me about the goal, I would quote from the Chinese ministry of education statement – they want our students to be creative, to have new ideas, to contribute to the modern economy. We are trying to teach our students to question, to think for themselves. hey need situations at the university where they can try out their thinking, and that is the tutorial situation. In tutorials students will be challenged individually and personally. This cannot happen in large groups.
I will give you an example in business ethics. What is the goal for a business ethics course? Students come to this class thinking they are here to learn to follow the rules, to act properly, to behave well In fact, business ethics is not about following the rules. It is about when you should break the rules and how to question the rules. A business student is about improving the world – this means they have to focus on the problems in business and society and decide for themselves what should be done.. Business students try to improve things, change things, innovate, and make different things happen. University level education is all about the students thinking for themselves and being independent – thus they must criticise others.
Q: What kind of teaching methods do you use to motivate your students?
A: When you are trying to get your students to think for themselves, the first thing you’ve got to do is to stop them from spending a lot of time remembering things and finding out information. Nothing already written down is of much interest. What counts are the new ideas that the students produce. Students find it a challenge when they have to work on their own individual project and think up things for themselves. But, they also find it motivating: it gives them a freedom, they can select their own topic for study and the direction their project takes is their responsibility. My students spend a great deal of time working alone when they write their research papers and essays. Because of this my courses do not have examinations. Overall, I think Chinese education has got to mature beyond its great dependence on exams. Examinations severely limit what can be taught. Examinations work against creativity and originality. Students show their creativity and initiative when they write research reports and essays, not when whey memorise textbooks.
Another thing I consider important for the motivation of students is this. I believe students respond well when they are treated as individuals. At the first week of the semester, I ask each of my students to write me an email in which they introduce themselves, they say who they are, what they want to do in the class, and they attached a picture so I know who they are. That is the first step to get a personal relationship between the student and the teacher. Next week, they are given another assignment, an exercise and I will send back short comments so the students know I am taking an interest in them.
Q: Did you design a different syllabus for your course?
A: There is an amusing story about that. When I was asked to teach a management course here, I was told there was a set textbook – it was an American textbook. But when I looked up some of the companies and chief executives they quoted in the book, I thought “that company collapsed, they went broke, that chief executive went to jail for fraud.” The book was an 11th edition, which had been used for many years. The English language books teachers use here are often terrible. We’ve got to get decent textbooks written in China by people who understand the Chinese situation. I co-authored a paper advocating several initiatives, which relate to overcoming the hegemony of American management ideology . There are many western management theories that should be taught in China. But there are also many Chinese management theories that should also be taught. The students should be encouraged to be critical of the theory and relate it to the practical situation in China. I very much look forward to learning more about the techniques of management in China. Chinese scholars are writing new theory and I want to learn from them. . The new work on management shows the importance of strengthening the link between research and the teaching.
Q: Are you familiar with the internationalization approach the school is taking? How would you comment on that?
A: Internationalization in the past meant copying things from the west – there was the belief that western ways were better. “Internationalisation” is not the strong word right now. The strong word in Chinese management theory is “localization”. The word “localisation “sounds funny to many westerners. But I understand the word as it is used in China. It means “the Chinese way” – the development in China of confidence and independence. China must devise its own answers to its problems and to the problems we see overseas. Chinese insights, discussions, innovations and initiatives are to be valued. We can see this emerging in both the academic discipline and the practice of management.
You would like an example? Earlier this year Victor Zhang, CEO, Huawei Technologies UK, was invited to speak at Oxford University. I use his talk with many of my classes (http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/qeh/tmd/2013-02-13_tmd_huawei.mp4). “The Huawei Story” describes new management theory on a global platform. It takes us well beyond internationalisation. It shows how Chinese values relate to western and Chinese culture. The west can learn much from that talk and China should be proud of its innovative managers.
Anne Rubienska： 欣赏主动求学和有创新意识的学生
安妮•鲁宾斯基（Anne Rubienska），出生于英国苏格兰，2011年7月从英国伯明翰大学退休，并于同年8月开始来中国任教,现于我校MBA学院教授管理课程。 
安妮对记者说，面对非英语母语的学生，她不能单纯根据英语的口头表达判断学生对教材的熟悉程度。她会综合评判学生能力，全面考察学生的知识掌握程度和分析应用能力。她最欣赏能主动求学，跳出课本批判思考的学生。来中国教学是她一直的心愿，她希望中国学生能够更加自信。
她的父亲和祖父都是教师，曾志愿参与工人教育协会活动，为苏格兰当地的工人传授课程。她和商英学院的康蕾老师商量，利用广外资源开办类似的课程，给外来工义务授课。在今年四月她的腿部受伤，但她仍拄着拐杖，坚持到广州市总工会和广州日报主办的广州劳工大学堂给外来工义务授课。她形容自己是一条鲨鱼“不活动就会死”。她也曾遭遇一些困难，比如语言和跨文化沟通障碍，食物和医疗的不适应等等。
附：英文采访
Q：As we know, you are teaching management course in our MBA school. Could you please tell us something about your teaching methods that show your personal characteristics? Is there something different from the course taught by Chinese teacher?
A：I haven’t had the opportunity to observe Chinese teachers working, so I can’t comment on differences. The teaching methods I use in the UK are completely different from the methods I use here.
Working with International students, one major issue is that assessment, based on proficiency in English, leads to unfair results, because those students with the greatest ability to express themselves elegantly in English get the highest marks. This is now regarded as "institutional racism", My way of avoiding this is to include assignments which encourage creative methods to demonstrate familiarity with academic material and ability to apply/analyse/synthesize, critically evaluate etc. so that students whose first language are not English can still express their ideas without language restriction. I use BLOOM’S TAXONOMY to explain how my marking system works.
Q：What kind of student characteristics do you value most? And what kind of skills or knowledge do you hope they acquire?
A：I enjoy working with students who have a sense of enquiry, students who are willing to question received wisdom; students who are willing to contribute and make "dry" material interesting by applying and evaluating the concepts; students who are willing to "take risks" and think beyond the textbook and their marks, students who are creative in their thinking, students who demonstrate compassion and sensitivity towards others, students with a good sense of humor.
I hope they get the skills and knowledge they need to live fulfilling, meaningful lives, and to improve the quality of life for others. As they get older, I hope they will understand that a good education and a "good brain" are "blessings", and that their good fortune brings responsibilities as well as opportunities. I hope they will develop confidence in their own abilities. Many Chinese students seem to lack confidence in themselves and their abilities.
Q：Could you tell me about the achievements you have made and difficulties you have met in your teaching here?
A：In personal terms, thats easy. I retired from the University of Birmingham in July 2011 and started work at GDUFS in August 2011. In doing so, I left my job (of 16 years), I left my home, my family, my friends and came here – alone. I had dreamed for years of working in China and when the opportunity arose, I took it. For many people, that’s quite a big step to take….and I see that as quite an achievement. In Europe, we talk about the University of the Third Age, which means continuing to learn, after we have retired.
Dealing with the language and food is probably the most obvious difficulty: learning how to "read" what people are meaning, or thinking is quite a struggle. Trying to avoid accidentally causing offence is a daily concern; it is only too easy to cause offence by mistake; On a more specific level, being in hospital in china is a HUGE shock and a HUGE problem for westerners.
Q：As is known, you gave lectures for a training program for immigrant workers in June 2012 and April 2013. Why did you decide to give lectures there?
A：Ms Kang Lei and I were discussing her extremely interesting and innovative research: I mentioned that in Scotland, my father and grandfather were heavily involved in an old organization, "the Workers Education Association", in which people with particular knowledge and skills (including teachers) voluntarily gave lectures and seminars (for free) to workers who had not had the benefit of an education. It was explained to me that many migrant workers in Guangzhou had not had the luxury of education, and I wondered why GDUFS was not offering voluntary classes to workers who wanted to improve their skills. Ms Kang Lei has now established a program for migrant workers, in conjunction with the Labour Movement, and she invited me to give a couple of lectures. It is an interesting and worthwhile project and I am honored to be invited and to contribute.
Q：This April, you hurt your feet. Please tell us why you still persisted in giving lectures? And what makes you work as a teacher here for such a long time?
A：There is a shortage of UK lecturers at GDUFS, my absence would place additional pressure on my colleagues and I do not want to give them extra stress and pressure. I am very professional regarding my work. My foot hurts, but my brain is still ok… as long as I can be collected and taken to/from lectures, I can continue to do my job. If I am not working, Id be sitting at home all day, getting very lonely and miserable, I need to work. Im like a shark – I have to keep moving, otherwise I die.
Teaching and learning is in my DNA: my dad was a teacher…..he adored his work, and I must have inherited the gene from him.
专题策划：大型专题报道组
专题统筹：杨冬生 廖梓彤
本文采写：李宛馨 李姝
