An interview with Prof. Yang Xianshun, eighth Guangdong Higher Education Star Teacher Award (undergraduate) winner

Time:June 8, 2017

Author: Wang Yong

Publisher: News Center

Prof. Yang Xianshun, party secretary and vice dean of JNU's School of Journalism and Communication, is a Ph.D. tutor for advertising majors and teaches undergraduate courses including logic and copywriting. Over the last three decades, he has presided over a number of teaching reform projects, including "Research on the Education Model of China's Advertising Innovation" and "Research on the Teaching System and Practice of Cultivating Innovative Talents in Advertising." In 2009 and 2014, he won first prize in the sixth and seventh Guangdong Province Higher Education Teaching Achievement Awards (ranking fourth and first respectively). On May 23, he was selected for the eighth Guangdong Provincial Higher Education Star Teaching Award (undergraduate) winner, announced on the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education website.

(Prof. Yang Xianshun)

Yang introduced modern pedagogy into classes early in his teaching career. For example, he tried to use John Dewey's problem-solving teaching method in his copywriting courses, encouraging students to find problems, ask questions, analyze and then solve the problems. He also encouraged students to win many important prizes in major professional competitions, including first prize in Volunteer Theme Slogan Solicitation of Shanghai World Expo 2010 (adoption award).

In class Yang cultivates students' critical thinking ability. He highlights the skepticism advocated in critical thinking and advocates that students think more, not blindly believe books and obey authority when they run into problems. Students should be able to screen and make a clear distinction between right and wrong. "We encourage students to run their own professional festivals, such as the Guangdong Provincial College Students Advertising Festival," Yang says. "Sponsored, planed and organized by the advertising department of our university, it is a good platform for cultivating comprehensive ability of students."
"Prof. Yang is humorous, and he delivers his lectures step by step, very patiently," says Lin Xiaoning, a student in School of Journalism and Communication’s class of 2014. "What impresses me most in his logic class is the reasoning part, in which some inference questions are unexpected. Prof. Yang will always keep us thinking and then give the answer until we fully conduct thinking and discussion."