Freedom And Pressure: A Study On The Learning Experiences Of Chinese Undergraduates In The United States

Undergraduate education plays an important role in the construction of China's higher education as a powerful country.Undergraduate foremost has become an educational consensus.The United States as a powerful country in higher education around the world has cultivated a goodly number of excellent expert professionals.The characteristics and strengths of American research universities' undergraduate education are well worth exploring.The learning experiences of students who are receiving higher education in the United States are a feasible way for us to understand American research universities' higher education profoundly.This study attempts to interpret the characteristics and advantages of American research universities' undergraduate education from the learning experience of Chinese undergraduate students studying in the United States,so as to provide enlightenment for the construction of China's higher education power.This study has theoretical and practical significance.This study uses qualitative research method,takes the University of WisconsinMadison,a research university which located in central America,as the fieldwork place,takes sixteen Chinese students studying there as the study objects,and collects basic research materials like interview records and syllabuses through in-depth interviews and field observation.By coding the transcripts of the interviews into three levels,the learning experience of undergraduates studying in the United States has been divided into three parts: campus environment,teaching resources,and individual effort.In the part of campus environment,students discusses the natural environment,the infrastructure,and the policy support of the university of Wisconsin-Madison.In the part of teaching resources,curriculum resources,faculty resources and interactive resources between teachers and students have been talked about.In the part of individual efforts,students' personal efforts have been divided into school work and extended learning.Through narration interspersed with comments,the study describes the experience of Chinese students studying in the United States.Through the integration and analysis of the learning experience of Chinese undergraduates in the United States,combined with the analysis of the macro social background,the reform of educational system,and the micro campus policy support mechanism of China and the United States,the research shows that American research universities' higher education has four main characteristics.Firstly,the university respects students' study freedom.Undergraduates have been given full autonomy in the selection of major,curriculum,teacher and learning time.Secondly,Students work under great pressure.The university has established a scientific and efficient system of homework and examination,which makes use of a large number of homework and high-frequency examinations to promote students to increase their investment in learning.Thirdly,the course design pays great attention to practicality.The university closely integrates practical teaching and theoretical teaching.Students are no longer passively controlled by theory,but participate in the construction of theory.Fourthly,the interaction between teachers and students is close.The university has developed "Discussion" as a curriculum form and “office hour” system to promote the communication between teachers and students.Based on the above analysis,the study puts forward four suggestions after rethinking profoundly the current situation of undergraduate education in China: to provide more opportunities for students to choose for learning,to reasonably increase their academic burden,to closely integrate theoretical and practical teaching,and to strengthen the institutionalized construction of teacher-student interaction.