(Correspondent CAO Zhe and CHENG Zhongmei)"The Scientific Method", a compulsory course for doctoral students in CUG, is presented by a number of experts and scholars such as Academician ZHANG Benren, Academician ZHAO Pengda and Academician YIN Hongfu, aiming to nurture innovative thinking in students, and has become one of the featured courses on campus. It has been offered since 1998 and passed down from generation to generation by leading academics. This course helps to make students more passionate about scientific research, helps them identify new research patterns, tap their potential and generate innovative ideas for research, so that students can learn some research methods and develop a global vision and organizational skills, building a strong foundation for future learning and research.
This semester, the course was lectured by WANG Yanxin, LAI Xulong, WANG Hua, CHENG Jinhua, JIANG Shaoyong, MA Changqian, and WU Donghua on Nanwangshan Campus and by YUAN Songhu, WANG Lizhe, WANG Hongmei, WANG Shaoqiang, CHENG Sheng, ZUO Renguang, and MA Teng on Future City Campus. Students in class were asked to watch the CCTV interview TV show “My School Days” where YIN Hongfu, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former president of CUG, was invited to share his story. The 14 teachers come from different educational backgrounds involving arts and sciences. They are not only experts in their respective fields, but also administrators at all levels. Their success is inseparable from hard work and an enquiring mind, as well as their own unique research methods developed in the process. The teachers shared their learning and successful research experience with students and depicted to them, from different aspects, the fascination of academic research and the truth containing the scientific spirit and method. The class was so inspiring that the students learned a lot from it.
Mr. WANG Yanxin introduced technological innovation and its classification to the students, and explained its mechanism and conditions required from the macro, meso and micro perspectives. In the end, he concluded the lecture with President Xi Jinping's concluding remarks at a symposium of scientists, and called on the students to adhere to the "four facings", that is, facing the forefront of world science and technology, facing the main battlefield of the economy, facing the country's major needs, and facing the people's life and health, and cultivate the scientist spirit with patriotism, innovation, truth-seeking, dedication, coordination and education as its core.
Mr. LAI Xulong's lecture showed his years of experience and reflection on academic and scientific research. In the class, he shared with students his experience of studying in the United States and in the United Kingdom, and what he had learned from scientific research after returning to China. Afterwards, he introduced some basic research paradigms, allowing students to understand the fundamental methods and ideas of scientific research, and more importantly, to learn the scientific spirit required for academic research.
With the title of "Several Questions about Social Science Methodology", Ms. WU Donghua gave a detailed and in-depth explanation of the characteristics as well as, basic research approaches to social sciences, and differences between social science and natural science. She pointed out that it is necessary to look at, analyze and solve problems from a philosophical viewpoint, and take Marxist methodology on social science research as a guideline.
When the course was over, a questionnaire on the teaching effects was delivered by Graduate School to the doctoral students who attended the class. The results suggested that 96.2% of the students were satisfied with the course, and 90.8% of them expressed that they had learned from it as expected. They also said that they had got the most in the development of scientific thinking, the cultivation of the socialist core values, and the recognition of the importance of interdisciplinary training.
Learning from these excellent teachers is like standing on the shoulders of giants, which allows doctoral students in CUG to learn things such as their research direction, scientific methods, scientific research experience and insights on life. Pursuing PhD is a journey of creation and of learning "how to learn". The course of "The Scientific Method" is designed to help students to know themselves, understand the social situation, and see where they stand, so that they will have a specific plan and clearer understanding of the future study and research. “Remain true to our original aspiration” is not only the request of General Secretary Xi Jinping to the society, but also his expectation of the students. To be an excellent scholar is the requirement for the prosperity and the rise of the nation, and is also the call of the new era.
