Reflective Journals (Week 1)
Felix (Fan Yang) 10180209
The first week of BES class has finished, I learned some information about this course through unit plan. As we can see from the unit plan, there are some information about my teacher and this unit, especially some details of assessments. Here I would like to give a summarization to the first BES class. The teacher introduced some successful skills in the first class. In general, these skills can be divided into two aspects: critical thinking and student centered learning.

Critical thinking is defined as the ability to think clearly and rationally. It includes the following aspects: better understanding the logical relationship between ideas, further extending ideas and innovation, addressing questions systematically and identifying important ideas. This is the one of most important and necessary skills during our study and career in the future. Therefore, each of us needs to practice this skill continuously. For example, when you make a research, you should ask yourself what is the purpose of this research? Will you draw different conclusions after this research? Can you better solve problems that during your research?
The second aspect of class content is student centered learning. Student-centered learning is a new educational approach which pays more attention to the role of students in a class. Therefore, both teachers and students need to adapt to this educational styles. Teachers should listen to viewpoints of students carefully and give them some advices rather than give them direct experience. Furthermore, teachers should teach students how to apply knowledge that students learned from class to practice. Besides, teachers also teach students some professional knowledge about their future careers. As main participants in class, students should form habits of independent thinking and team work.