What impressed experts the most was that Xiaoming’s article originated from the real classroom. An external examiner, Professor Linda La Velle from the University of Plymouth, commented that his thesis demonstrated the significant innovation of a Chinese high school teacher in science education.
In 2015, Xiaoming was selected to join the Professional Doctorate in Education programme, which aimed to provide experienced education professionals an opportunity to develop the critical knowledge and skills necessary to undertake their own research and thereby improve their educational practices and contexts, with guidance from an established team of nationally and internationally recognised scholars. This part-time programme takes four to six years during which students need to complete two stages of study and a doctoral dissertation.
At that time, Xiaoming already had six years of experience teaching physics, and hoped to develop a new perspective to understand education in order to better guide students. It was undoubtedly hard to pursue a EdD degree while teaching in high school and taking care of his family.
Professor Feng Anwei, the Programme Leader, said that Xiaoming was not outstanding in the first stage of theoretical study, but turned out to be an extraordinary student in the second stage.
Studying humanities during the first stage was difficult for Xiaoming, who graduated with a Master’s in theoretical physics. Reading and writing in English was a great challenge. However, he never thought about giving up. He recalled that during that period he had to spend all his weekends and holidays studying.
With such efforts, Xiaoming felt more confident in the second stage where he discovered the wonderful collision of arts and sciences. This is also the research method of his doctoral dissertation, in which the combination of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis was applied.
After teaching natural science for years, Xiaoming noticed that although students learn scientific knowledge and experimental skills in class, they do not really develop an understanding of the nature of science.
The three months Xiaoming spent at the University of Nottingham following his instructor impressed him with the difference between Chinese and Western science education. "In China, it usually takes only one lesson to introduce the concept of friction with a demonstration experiments and after-class exercises. But in high schools in the UK, students spend four classes researching online, designing the experiments, and presenting their work to come to the conclusions."
During the process, Xiaoming considered combining the spirit of scientific exploration and the efficiency of Chinese classes, which became his topic of doctoral dissertation. At the beginning of the new semester, he applied to open an optional module to teach the nature of science, with the themes of "What is science"; "reasoning"; "realism"; "explanation"; "prediction"; "causation"; "scientific evolution" using role play and drawings as the assessment. Students have the opportunity to explore sciences in different contexts of society, history and culture to understand what kind of research and data are truly scientific and credible. At the end of the course, a student even bowed to him and said, "Thank you for opening this course, in which I saw a different science."
Xiaoming’s dissertation carefully recorded the changes of students in each class with questionnaires and interviews. The results showed that students have made significant progress in understanding the nature of science. At the same time, this doctoral dissertation also referenced “how to teach the essence of science" with a real-class example. “I believe it is the meaning of this course – to allow students to recognise real science, not just the knowledge in books or tools in life,” said Xiaoming.
Knowing that the doctoral dissertation was approved unconditionally, Xiaoming expressed his sincere thanks to his supervisor, Professor Christine Hall of University of Nottingham, for her great support and help. When writing the dissertation, he would send it to her immediately after completing each chapter and by the time her feedback came, he had finished writing the next chapter. With such perfect cooperation, Xiaoming completed the first draft in approximately one year.
The good news was also known by many of his students with some asking him about his research methods and experience. The four years also quietly influenced his daughter. "She doesn't seem to be so resistant to learning English," said Xiaoming. "Whether as a parent or a teacher, education is not just what you say but what you did."
Getting a EdD degree means having the qualifications to become a researcher. However, Xiaoming still chose to contribute himself to improving science education for the younger generation. "Being a teacher and a researcher does not conflict. To be a good teacher, you must take time to do some research, to have a better understanding of education, and to teach students. The ultimate goal of education still concentrates on students. "
"I am very touched by these students whenever they achieve the doctorate degree, because they are all full-time teachers with many challenging responsibilities in their own schools They all have work and family to take care of and can only work on their thesis in their limited spare time. It is very inspiring that Xiaoming was awarded a doctorate degree without conditions, in only four and a half years. I believe we have nurtured, and will nurture more high-quality graduates like Xiaoming to bring about strong positive impact on local education, national education and beyond," said Professor Feng.