Agenda

Date: November 15, 2024

Time: 9:30-11:30am

Location: Room 5203, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016

Two announcements (9:30-9:45am) In December, we will send out a call for applications. Please encourage other CUNY PhD students to apply for Teaching and Seminar Fellows for the spring of 2025.

1. In summer 2025, we will offer several travel grants to CACI members.
2. Bring your questions and/or concerns to the final seminar on December 13.

A reflection on the third seminar (9:46-10:15am)

• What was your experience in the third seminar, which focused on the roles of films in teaching China-related content at the undergraduate level?
• What changes would you like to see if we could organize similar events in the future to further explore the use of films and documentaries in teaching?
• Do you have any related suggestions.

Discuss Two Fellows’ Recent Teaching Experience (10:16-11:30am)

10:10-11:00

Christos Angelopoulos, a Teaching Fellow, will introduce his recent experience in class. We will watch a recording of his teaching. After that, let’s use the following questions to structure our discussion:

• What can we learn from Christos’s teaching experience?
• Which part of his teaching do you find most effective, innovative, or engaging?
• Which part of his pedagogical efforts do you find underdeveloped or problematic? 
• If you were to teach a similar class in the future, what changes would you like to make to your teaching or to facilitate students’ learning?
• What would you do to tailor another instructor’s pedagogical approach to your own teaching?

11:01-11:30

• Juan Corredor-Garcia, another Teaching Fellow, will make a presentation to share his teaching experience with the group.
• After that, we will organize a similar discussion, using the foregoing questions to structure the conversation.

Session

Professor Li announced the forthcoming travel grants to visit and conduct field research on China. Students were invited to think of ideas for applying during the Spring 2025 semester. Also, Prof. Li invited students to enroll in next semester’s CACI call for applications and to invite friends and classmates.

Juan mentioned that as part of the responsibilities of the fellowship, students are required to produce one class activity for seminar fellows and two class activities for teaching fellows. These activities will be uploaded into the repository.

Discussion on the use of movies

Students participated in a discussion around the use of movies, including the movies assigned for the previous section. Upon reflection, students and faculty concluded that in order to use movies to teach contents of China some good practices are:

• Scaffolding the class activity: Use films that reflect their current realities. Movies that speak to their realities that can be used as scaffolds upon which they can build knowledge.
• Structure the class activity: Provide students with context, guiding questions, and assessment.
• Duration of movies: Videos, if used in class, should be short. Otherwise, students tend to get distracted. If movies are long, it’s best to assign them to watch outside of class, while also including an incentive (summative) to complete the assignment.
• Inviting social scientists in next sessions: Students and faculty discussed the possibility of inviting social scientists to discuss the use of films in teaching in a way that makes teaching more accessible and didactic.

Presentation Christos Angelopoulos

Students and faculty watched the recording by Christos Angelopoulos. Christos introduced how he teaches this class, coming from a teaching of basic macroeconomic concepts and delving into the case of China to explain how economic reforms drive economic growth.

The session was followed by Q&A.