On January 9, at the invitation of the International Classroom Analysis Laboratory, Shi Yuchen, a Doctoral candidate of Teachers College of Columbia University and Master of Pedagogy of Harvard University came to ECNU, and made a report on “Discourse Based Curriculum: How to Analyze Students’ Debating Discourse and Thesis Writing”. Dr. Xiao Sihan, the executive director of the International Classroom Analysis Laboratory, hosted the seminar, Prof. Yang Xiangdong, Assocaite Professor An Guiqing, Associate Prof. Zhou Wenye and other teachers and students form ECNU, Shanghai Normal University also attended this seminar.

In the first half of the workshop, Dr. Shi Yuchen introduced the theoretical basis, specific implementation plans and measurement system of “Discourse Based Curriculum”. She pointed out that in the framework of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, discourse-based curriculum made education a living practice, not just a preparation for future life. In her doctoral dissertation research, based on a quasi-experimental design, she explores the mode of conversational class in a classroom, incorporating information technology to observe, document and capture changes of students’ abilities in written and oral debates. Shi Yuchen explained the coding system and its process of writing and oral debates, and showed a series of research achievements of Prof. Deanna Kuhn, a psychologist at Colombia University, which demonstrated the learning method is contribute to students’ debating and cognitive ability.

In the second half of the workshop, the audience and Dr. Shi Yuchen made a deep conversation, and exchanged their ideas. Prof. Shen Xiaomin, Prof. Yang Xiangdong, Dr. Wang Tao all raised questions, comments or reflections on the theories and methods in the report. The graduate students also enthusiastically asked questions about their own current topics, papers and some confusions. At the end of the workshop, Dr. Xiao Sihan summarized the key points of the report, and encouraged everyone to try their best to take root in the real situation and follow rigorous design of classroom research.