Recently, the Honors Class of the City University of Macau (CityU) held the first lecture of the new semester at the Taipa Campus. With the theme of “Reflections on Mathematics Education”, Professor Zheng Jianhua from the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Tsinghua University was invited as the keynote speaker, leading the students to experience profound mathematical thinking. This event was conducted using the “Honors Class X-Idea” model, focusing on enhancing students’ critical thinking and their abilities to identify research questions – an important objective in “Honors Class Student Research Training (Honors Class SRT).” The lecture attracted nearly a hundred students to participate.
During the lecture, taking “language” as the starting point, Professor Zheng expounded on the key elements of thinking, logic, and mathematics education in a simple yet profound manner. He emphasized the importance of constructing a knowledge system and paying attention to details in academic research, especially the ability to apply knowledge in practices in the current artificial intelligence era. Professor Zheng reminded the students to avoid theorizing without empirical studies. Instead, he encouraged them to embrace a practical approach to exploring the unknown and to make steady progress on their path of scientific research.
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During the Q&A session, students actively raised questions regarding the problems they encountered in their studies. Professor Zheng encouraged them to break away from the traditional learning models, master the underlying logic of how to learn, immerse themselves in the learning process, and transform the knowledge they had gained into innovations. He emphasized that this learning approach could not only enhance learning abilities but also help student broaden research horizons.
Subsequently, the students in the Honors Class were divided into seven groups for a free-topic brainstorming session that stimulated numerous unique and novel ideas. They presented their group discussions, along with their doubts about the academic studies, and received comments and guidance from Professor Zheng.
X-Idea is a learning model integrated into the current Honors Class curriculum. Through dedicated “challenging questions” and inspiring lectures, this model stimulates divergent thinking and in-depth discussions, enhance ability to identify effective questions, narrow-down problems, and clarifies research directions, thus preparing them for the subsequent SRT research training. The “X-Idea” activity series not only encourages students to explore the infinite possibilities of academic research but also emphasizes the necessity of maintaining an open and critical mindset in a rapidly changing world. These efforts lay a solid foundation for the Honors Class students as they enter society and engage in their professional fields in the future.
Source: Honors Class
