Description

In the first year, the teaching part includes orientation to social work, sociology and social policy. Students were given introductory lectures on the basic assumptions of social sciences. Students were given chances to interact with guest speakers who worked in a variety of practices or social services in Hong Kong. In the second trial year, this part was offered again.

Regarding the field trip section, the first year witnessed one in the Dialogue in the Dark and the other at the public housing estates. These two are to prepare students to know how to experience the local lives at the communities of the general Hong Kongers and the people with disabilities in particular. In the second year, the field trip was modified as a photo project. Students were asked to study the design of the PolyU campus and a local district in order to see how the spatial arrangement affects human lives.

Each student is required to submit a final project. In the first trial year, students focused on a number of themes. We repeat this arrangement in the second trial year. In the second trial year, students were encouraged to focus more on the ontological and epistemological issues revolving around social sciences. Some students chose to work on topics related to superstition, the Big Bang theory, Christianity and ghosts while some students chose to work on popular image of youth, modern love and disabilities. In the second trial, more opportunities were created to bring students to the issues of ontology and epistemology in social sciences.

The research part continued in the second trial. Observational notes were made at the interviews and it was found that students in the second trial were somewhat different from those participated in the first trial. Their resistance to learning was not related to peer pressure but their personal learning experiences.

Difficulties found in the pilot run
The ardent difficulty in the 2 trial years could be summarized by the concept of “cocooning”. The behaviours that the students preserve/ resume the “cocoons” in the learning process are conceptualized as “cocooning”. It involves both passive and active participation, including “avoiding” and “getting the task done”.

Avoiding responses, such as “overhearing”, “forgetting”, “ignoring” and “letting go”, which are all passive participation in class, were found as typical reactions when students are “cocooning”. When students came over for non-compulsory independent learning tasks, they tended to “avoid” every instruction. Even though the tasks were clearly explained, these students would say they could not hear the instructions. Sometimes they would say they have “forgotten” their assignments. Whether or not it is forgotten consciously or unconsciously, these students tended to “avoid” if the commission of the tasks threatens their “cocoons”.

“Getting the task done” means doing the work as less as possible to keep themselves in the cocoons. In other words, when students are cocooning, self-initiated learning would never happen. This behaviour occurred when the teaching staff reminded the students again to bring back their posters for presentation. Students did bring back their posters but quite a lot of them had only a few words/ sketches on them.

Conclusion
After this pilot run, it is found that Freshman Seminar offered an alternative classroom experience for students. Students were happy to be provided with great freedom in learning while a large number of them expressed frustration in accomplishing tasks in this learning context. This problem was caused by the lack of knowledge about students’ learning pre-dispositions and wrong assumption about students’ ability in self-directed learning and developing their inquisitive skills in 14 sessions. Meanwhile, the staff involved needs to be sensitive to students’ learning habits and able to develop pedagogical strategies that can bring some students out of their destructive “cocoons”.

In addition, the Freshman Seminar in this pilot run was too ambitious in developing Year 1 Social Science student to be ready for learning social sciences in one semester. The objectives were set too wide in scope and diverse in focus. It was somewhat impossible to deal with both students’ learning habits and attain all objectives within 14 3-hour sessions. In this regards, the staff involved needs to be able to make appropriate adjustments in the subject objectives or extend the subject duration for achieving the intended outcomes.