ICI Lecture║Dr. Guo Wenjuan: How to Improve the Ability of Autonomous Learning and Promote the Transformation of Academic Achievements

In order to strengthen the autonomous learning ability of postgraduates, and promote the transformation of postgraduates’ academic achievements, ICI invited Dr. Guo Wenjuan, an assistant professor at the School of Education of Shanghai Jiaotong University, to made a report on “How to improve autonomous learning ability and promote the transformation of academic achievements”. The report was presided over by Associate Professor Zhou Wenye, the Director of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

▲ Dr. Guo Wenjuan

Assistant Professor at the School of Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Dr Guo Wenjuan shared her experience mainly from the following five aspects:

01. How to select a topic

Based on the phenomenon of “paper machine”, Dr. Guo Wenjuan analyzed how some high-level researchers skillfully collect and analyze data and publish SSCI papers with high quality. Drawing lessons from the “creative destruction” in Schumpeter’s Theory of Economic Development, Dr. Guo condensed a new perspective of topic selection, which is, the method of “combinatorial innovation”.

“Combinatorial innovation” contains two steps:

The first step: split the basic elements, which including the topic, perspective, context and object of the research.

The second step: recombine the elements.

Dr. Guo Wenjuan pointed out that “combinatorial innovation” can not only help young researchers expand their thinking, but also help experts to break through the bottleneck of thinking.

02. How to master empirical research methods efficiently

Dr. Guo Wenjuan believes that it is inefficient to learn empirical research method through concepts. According to her experience, Dr. Guo put forward two efficient methods: the one is to begin with the need of solving problems; the other is to learn through academic writing.

03. How to read and collate academic materials efficiently

In order to improve the efficiency of reading and collating academic materials, Dr. Guo Wenjuan skillfully combined two different reading modes: “Read to write” and “Write to read”, she designed four steps to read and collate academic materials efficiently:

1. Read extensively and encode the literature.

2. Put the encoded literature into the writing framework.

3. Extract relevant information under the research topic.

4. Further sort out the literature information.

04. How to explore the routine of SSCI paper writing

Based on Jobs’ idea of “Good artists copy, great artists steal”, Dr. Guo Wenjuan put forward three steps to explore SSCI writing routines: deconstruction, imitation and deliberate practice.

05. How to seek coopertation with others

Based on her own experience, Dr. Guo Wenjuan provided guidance for young scholars on how to seek help and cooperation. She suggested that in order to seek cooperations, students are supposed to help others actively during the learning process.

On-site interaction

At the end of the lecture, Dr. Guo Wenjuan conducted in-depth dialogue with the scholars and students presented on several key issues, such as “combinatorial innovation” and “work-life balance” and so on.

Finally, Professor Wu Gangping summarized the report. He suggested that graduate students should take Dr. Guo Wenjuan as an example, establish an optimistic attitude towards study and life, and give full play to their initiative to master effective research methods and make continuous progress.

▲ Professor Wu Gangping

ICI, ECNU