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2017.0324

Aim for the Top Through Creative Teaching

For the past three decades, National Taiwan Normal University has been the leader in the field of education, Chinese language and art and other humanity subjects. What’s more, we have been actively involved in creative teaching, bringing unique teaching method in Mandarin for Freshmen and English Remedial instruction.
1.Creativity and Entrepreneurship Program by three universities 
Under the support of the Aim for The Top University Project, NTNU, NCCU and NTUST started the idea of Creativity and Entrepreneurship Program run by three schools and has held three years. This is the first creativity program that unite students from three different schools. There are 20 spots for each school and six in a group, which means a company. Every year, there are around 8 or 9 groups that acquire 3 to 4 patents. The Creativity and Entrepreneurship Program is learned from the Business School of Stanford, following the steps of Design Thinking, Maker space, Coworking Space, Crowdfunding and Intrapreneurship. 
2. Experts Involved in the Progress 
In every two months, the progress of the program will be viewed by experts in the industry. At the semester-end presentation, teachers and experts are invited to attend. For example, Chairmen from Taiwan Graphic Design Association, creative directors from design company and other professionals. Every year, the students will hold an exhibition in Taipei New Horizon and Songshang Cultural and Creative Park.
3. Work on the same topic for three years
The topic of the program is "riding a bike in Taipei!" for three years. It’s hoped that the result become products on the market and we encourage students to start a business. Vice President of the Office of General Affairs Hsu Ho Chieh said that although three universities are close, it’s not easy to gather students from three schools to discuss. For three years, the teachers have spent lots of time and energy to discuss how the program worked. In respond to the success we achieve in the program, the Ministry of Education hopes that the three schools can found a creative college, which is under planning.  
NTNU tries to give students a different Mandarin course. In the courses, some teacher leads the students to care about the declining industry, some work with students on the development of fonts in Chinese. Still other teacher gives assignments that require students to write about charity crowd funding. 
Started last year, NTNU has been promoting the reform of Mandarin courses. In the past, student read about ancient Chinese, but now, they are in classes that stimulate them to think and act. After long term observation, NTNU found that 30% of the students have reached 14 out of the 15 scale and only less than 5% are under 10. It’s clear that students are well-taught in terms of their Mandarin ability and Mandarin classes in universities should focus on critical thinking and academic writing instead of increasing their language ability. 
In addition, there are more and more foreign students enrolling in NTNU. We provide free Mandarin courses to foreign students, who can take TOCFL to know their Mandarin level. English Remedial instruction
It has become a fact that there’s double peak phenomenon in student’s English ability. The government and private sectors have invested a huge sum of money and power to bridge the gap. That’s why we have designed the Project of Adaptive Screening, Streaming, and Instruction for Omniform Nutrition of English for college students. We hope to divide students into different groups by screening and arouse their interest in English through creative teaching method. The PASSION project has been implemented in the oversea division for one semester and received positive feedbacks.