circle.institute: a well-rounded education “圈”面教育

In my teaching style, I focus less on test outcomes and more on instilling the proper independent study and research skills that will benefit the learner throughout their academic and professional careers. Although there are progress and final tests in all my classes, I make sure that they test not for rote memorisation of materials, but for critical thinking and learning processes.

在我的教学风格中，我不太注重考试结果，而更注重灌输适当的独立学习和研究技能，这将使学习者在整个学术和职业生涯中受益。虽然我所有的课程都有进步和期末考试，但我确保它们不是为了死记硬背材料，而是为了批判性思维和学习过程。

In my classes, students learn from each other as much as they learn from me or the textbook. In order to ensure mastery of the material, I ask the students to teach it to others via a presentation or by giving help with their homework.

在我的课堂上，学生们互相学习就像他们从我或课本上学到的一样多。为了保证对材料的掌握，我要求学生通过演示或帮助他们完成家庭作业的方式来教别人。

I provide all the tools to be successful in class, what a student does with those tools depends entirely on them. Language learning and developing critical thinking skills in history, politics, or economics, is all about input, analysis, produciton: reading/listening/watching, taking notes and evaluating arguments, and trying to compose your own material in the form of essays, presentations, and videos.

我提供了所有在课堂上取得成功的工具，学生如何使用这些工具完全取决于它们。语言学习和发展历史、政治或经济方面的批判性思维技能，都是关于输入、分析、产出：阅读/听/看、做笔记和评估论点，并尝试以论文、陈述和视频的形式撰写自己的材料。

I take this saying quite literally and believe that the best ideas come when one is not specifically looking for them. I advise my students to do their readings outdoors and use the help of audiobooks, which not only allows one to kills two birds with one stone by exercising and studying at the same time, but also improve your listening and speaking skills while consuming written material.

我从字面上理解这句话，并相信最好的想法是在没有特别寻找它们的时候出现的。我建议学生们在户外阅读，借助有声读物，不仅可以一边运动一边学习，一举两得，而且可以在消耗书面材料的同时提高听说能力。

I am a proponent of holistic, well-rounded education, and emphasise the importance of learning from history in my lessons—be it in language, politics, or economics. Apart from that, it is also vital to come back to things one has studied previously to draw inter-curricular connections which are essential in university admissions.

我提倡个体性的、全面的教育，并强调在我的课程中学习历史的重要性，无论是在语言、政治还是经济方面。除此之外，还必须回到以前学习过的东西上来，找出大学招生中必不可少的跨学科联系。

I do not spoonfeed my material to students, but make them guess meanings of words based on what they've previously learnt and make them create their own neural connections which have a greater chance of staying in their long-term memory. That means I appreciate quick educated guesses with proper reasoning and not precise answers. This is a scientifically proven study technique called active recall.

我不会把我的材料填鸭式灌输喂给学生，而是让他们根据他们之前所学的知识来猜测单词的意思，让他们建立自己的神经联系，这样就有更大的机会留在他们的长期记忆中。也就是说，我欣赏的是有正确推理的快速教育猜测，而不是精确的答案。这是一种经过科学验证的学习技巧，叫做主动回忆。

When teaching proper critical thinking and argumentation skills, this is the only effective tool. It relies on questioning assumptions and deconstructing arguments to arrrive at something resembling the truth, while still leaving room for personal interpretation.

当教授正确的批判性思维和论证技巧时，这是唯一有效的工具。它依靠质疑的假设和解构的论据来得出一些类似于事实的东西，同时也为个人的解释留下了空间。

Reaching proficiency in a language takes time—up to 2200 classroom hours for speakers of Chinese to become proficient in English, according to the US Department of State. This is why at Circle Institute we combine content from sciences, history, anthropology, economics, and politics in our curriculum to increase the learning efficiency. That means that whichever class the students take, there will always be a language component to it which is adapted to their level, allowing them to receive a first-class education in English and at the same time practise their language skills.

根据美国国务院的统计，中文使用者要在英文达到精通一门语言的水平，需要2200课时的时间。这也是为什么在Circle Institute，我们在课程中结合了科学、历史、人类学、经济、政治等内容，以提高学习效率。也就是说，无论学生上哪一门课，都会有适合他们水平的语言内容，让他们在接受一流英文教育的同时，也能锻炼自己的语言能力。