Keji Fan, a PhD student in the School of Education, describes presenting her doctoral research at a national conference in Birmingham, which was made possible by the St John’s College Opportunities Fund.
Thanks to the St John’s Opportunity Fund, I was able to present my doctoral study at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) this September in Birmingham. My research is to examine the impact of infusing critical thinking in the school curriculum on Chinese students’ critical thinking skills and academic performance. I have developed a suite of teaching and learning resources that can be used in schools.
Based on my fieldwork, it turns out that these resources could successfully improve students’ critical thinking skills. The findings of my doctoral study have the potential to inform the current Chinese government policy reform to develop students with critical thinking capacity in order to compete in the global academic arena.
As a third-year PhD candidate at the School of Education at Durham University, I have started the thesis writing journey. This is my first time presenting results in a genuine public forum and receiving formative feedback.
My first national conference turned out to be excellent. Firstly, my research findings and materials on the intervention have been disseminated. I was able to showcase my study clearly to the audience. People’s questions in the interactive session helped me to understand what they were concerned about from their own research background. This reminded me that I should explain these points in my thesis.
In addition, my presentation skills have been exercised greatly. As my supervisors and colleagues from the Durham University Evidence Centre for Education (DECE) came to my presentation, I felt supported. My supervisors also knew me better, in terms of presenting research and answering queries in front of the public.
Secondly, in the two-and-a-half-day conference, I met researchers who shared similar research interests with me. Their presentations were fascinating and could suggest ways of linking the research with educational practice. After the conference, I continued to keep in touch with those like-minded researchers. Without access to the conference, I cannot build a network with them.
In conclusion, financially supported by the St John’s Opportunity Fund, my academic conference experience has just started. I hope that I can enrich some others’ academic life like this one day.
John's Chronicle 
I enjoyed this account from Keji Fan; I thought that it was an effective use of the fund and that clearly the author had increased in experience and confidence as a result. Research in this area is important. My own PhD – back in 1980 – dealt with cognitive development in pupils and everything I have since learned about education has persuaded me that this is a critical area. Never more so than in worlds where discerning approaches to news/propaganda, and the advent of AI, are going to change knowledge and our understanding of the challenges we face. This is an area historically too lightly dismissed by educators, and especially by government who are overly concerned with measurable outcomes (often at a trivial intellectual level) rather than with deeper understandings. Teacher educators, unions and teachers themselves are too easily satisfied with learning which is fact/data based rather than intellectually challenging.
Professor Trevor Kerry – John’s 1960-63
LikeLiked by 1 person