The 2019 Education Innovation Forum was held at the Hanma Mirae Gwan and Changjo Gwan on January 2nd and 3rd, 2019. This was the second forum with the theme; experience is growth, following the first forum with the theme; experience is power. Many professors and students shared successful educational achievements for the last year through presentation of learning experiences and teaching experiences. This time, KT focused on three students who participated in this forum. They were Choi Ho-jin from the department of English Education, Lee Ho-yeon from the department of English and Jung Chan- yeop from the department of Law.
Choi Ho-jin introduced a branch book for the precaution of school violence titled ‘If I were an elephant’. He wrote this book as an assignment for the class, Theory and Truth of School Violence, he attended. This book give awareness about school violence by covering a story of animals in animal lands. While other fairy tale books with conventional flow may cause students to feel bored, ‘If I were an elephant’ can have a variety of content depending on students’ decisions. Students make their own stories, moving on to the page with the contents they want them to be. For example, it always depends on students’ decisions if an elephant will be allowed to be alone thinking of suicide or to enjoy a camp fire with his friends. This feature of the book elicits an attractive approach to the precaution of school violence. Choi Ho-jin intended students to have opportunities to put themselves in others’ shoes, and wanted this book to be used in schools for giving attention to school violence. The team that he belongs to offered school violence precaution classes with the book at several middle schools, and the students said it was helpful for improving their critical thinking about school violence. Choi Ho-jin enjoyed making the book as the opportunity to use his ability related to a variety of computer skills.
Lee Ho-yeon shared her educational experience by talking about a class she had attended, Phonetics and English Pronunciations, which had been the subject based on experiences. Subjects based on experiences usually include 40% of tests and 60% of tasks. Phonetics and English pronunciations worked as follows. First, students understood how to pronounce through models of the human body such as the glottis and lungs. And then, they repeated after their professor comparing the shapes of mouths with mirrors. In that process, students taught about syllables with each other by giving presentations. Next, they practiced creating correct pronunciations while imitating native speakers for a week. After that, they compared their pronunciations with their pronunciations earlier. Lee Ho-yeon said that the class was imprinted on her memories effectively, and this kind of class is likely to improve motivation for studying compared to other classes. This class also influenced her recognition of the assignments. She thought that the assignments are things that she had to do to show them to professors before attending this class, but now she considers the tasks a way to improve her ability by herself based on the knowledge she got from the class. She realized that the degree of her growth depends on how much she prepares and does the tasks.
At this forum, Jeong Chan-yeop talked about extracurricular programs he took part in. When he entered KU, he could not adjust to the university life and was afraid of strangers. At that time, one of his friends recommended him to take extracurricular programs as an effort to improve himself in many ways. It was the contest of photo essays for university life that he participated in for the first time. He won a participation prize and this encouraged him to do other things. He consistently became interested in extracurricular activities and focused on special lectures. Moreover, he participated in the writing contest about extracurricular programs based on the knowledge and experiences that he got from special lectures. However, he had some difficulties in writing, so he visited the creative writing center for help and asked his friends for writing advice. As a result, he won the competition. He is now confident enough to attempt various things and to be active in university life. He is proud of himself because of his growth through extracurricular programs and hopes other students will be active to KU programs.
