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Teaching Public Administration As a Fulbright Scholar In China:Analysis and Reflectionsnature of the program that the case involved. Consequently, the amount of classtime required for each case was substantially longer than it would be in the U.S.As a result, I cut back the assignments to one short case per week.The most successful case materials dealt with adolescent smoking cessation,because I was able to locate evaluation studies conducted both in the U.S. andin China. One study was a quantitative randomized intervention study inWuhan, China (Chou, et al., 2006), while the other was a qualitative pilot studyconducted in Connecticut (O’Connell, et al., 2004). The location of one studyin China, and the contrast between the evaluation methods engaged thestudents’ interest in determining which was the “right,” or at least the “best”evaluation design.Other valuable case materials included an evaluation of the Intel ® LearnProgram, a computer training program for children in nine countries aroundthe world, including China (Center for Technology in Learning, 2006), as wellas a qualitative evaluation of a Chronic Disease Self-Management program inShanghai (Dungbo, Ding, McGowan, & Fu, 2006). These cases enabled thestudents to see Chinese programs in an international context, and also provideda range of evaluations that included quantitative and qualitative methods andprocess, outcome, and impact evaluations.Students were uncomfortable with the expectation that they would critiqueprofessional work, and seemed shocked that I found fault with the methodsused in published reports. Gradually, however, most students were able to raisequestions about various methodological issues. Even my teaching assistantexpressed surprise at this expectation when he described American methods tohis colleagues, noting that “[the professor] pays attention to the case studies andcase analysis. In the everyday classes, many concrete cases are provided forstudents. Also, the students are stimulated to criticize the cases themselves.”3. The “Good” TeacherChinese students have been found to define a “good” teacher based on his/herdepth of knowledge, ability to answer questions, and being a good “moralmodel.” They also expect the teacher to be their friend. This differs from theWestern view, which originated in Great Britain, where the definition of a goodteacher is more likely to be based on teaching skills and methods employed inthe classroom (Watkins, 2000).I did note some differences between the expectations of Chinese students,and those of American students. Chinese students were much less likely to askquestions, but seemed to have greater expectations for out-of-classroomcontact. Consistent with the notion of the teacher as friend, one of the mostrewarding aspects of teaching Program Evaluation came after class hours.Because the class was scheduled for late morning, it was convenient to takesmall groups of students out to lunch. This turned out to be a very inexpensiveJournal of Public Affairs Education 341
Teaching Public Administration As a Fulbright Scholar In China:Analysis and Reflectionsoption that was greatly appreciated by the students. I was able to find out alittle bit more about them, and their aspirations, and answer more of theirquestions about life in “the States.”One fundamental aspect of being a “good” teacher in the U.S. is a wellorganizedand detailed syllabus. This was not an expectation in China. Myteaching assistant, Dr. Li, was surprised that the “whole teaching process andcourse design are planned previously.” In fact, this was the comment about myteaching that he put first on his list of eight. He further described to the faculty,“Students can know the whole syllabus in the first course [session], whicharranges the whole process of [the] course. It is just like a contract between theteacher and student.” Students explained to me that they often didn’t knowwhat was going to be required in their other courses (papers, tests, etc.) until itunfolded during the semester.4. The “Good” StudentGood behavior and paying close attention is expected of all students in China(Watkins, 2000). Starting with the daily, “Good Morning, teacher,” through theend of the class, students were consistently well-behaved. Graduate students inthe U.S. are similarly attentive, albeit less formal in their student roles. Inaddition, attendance was better in China than in the U.S.One dimension of being a good student that is widely accepted in the U.S. isnot to use others’ ideas without citation. Chinese students do not understandthe concept of plagiarism. During orientation we had been told that previousFulbright scholars had experienced widespread plagiarism. As a result, I spentsome class time describing my expectations and made sure that my teachingassistant translated the requirements. Therefore, I was very disappointed whenmore than half of the papers had most of their content taken directly from theInternet, without citation. This made me realize that even with a translator,students did not understand significant portions of what I was saying. I think itwas difficult for students to use their somewhat-limited English to convey whatsomeone else had already said in a better way.I had told the students that plagiarism would result in the grade of zero forthe assignment. I quickly decided that this approach was not feasible. Afterconsulting my teaching assistant, I decided to let the students rewrite theassignment, but reduced the resulting grade. Unfortunately, even the rewrittenpapers were not up to American standards of citation. By the end of thesemester, I understood that the unacceptability of plagiarism is a culture-basedexpectation that they had not been exposed to as undergraduate students. Itseemed to me that one possible explanation for this difference is that, becauseChina missed out on so much development during the Cultural Revolutionand the Great Leap Forward, students are taught that it is acceptable to dowhatever is necessary to catch up. Using others’ ideas, technologies, or content342 Journal of Public Affairs Education
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