On the evening of October 12, Hainan University’s 11th Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series was presented in the auditorium of Siyuan Hall. Lin Jianhua, former president of Peking University and director of the Center for Future Education and Management of Peking University, delivered a lecture entitled Tacit Knowledge: Lost Link in Education. More than 4,000 representatives of faculty and students from Haidian Campus, Danzhou Campus, Mission Hills Campus, Yazhou Bay Science and Education Park, Basic Teaching Department attended either on-site and online. Luo Qingming, president of Hainan University and fellow of Chinese Academy of Sciences, chaired the event.
The lecture was given in the auditorium of Siyuan Hall (photo by Mao Xiaobo)
Prof. Lin began his speech with “the definition and conversion of explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge”, “What tacit knowledge means?” and “Why universities have failed to impart tacit knowledge?” Based on his personal learning experience and teaching career, he analyzed the dilemmas facing modern higher education and shared his views about the universities in the future. He concluded that “tacit knowledge determines the degree of mastery of knowledge”, “the goal of education should be creative thinking and the ability to take action”, and “all activities conducive to the overall growth and maturity of students are education”. The lecture has inspired the audience to think about the future development of universities.
“Improving through hardships and constantly challenging limits are crucial to a student’s growth.” Prof. Lin advised the students against confining themselves to the campus in the era of open knowledge. They should actively follow the cutting edge of sci-tech achievement in the world, learn to ask questions and strengthen their willpower. Besides, they should learn to discover what China and society need and find their own knowledge gap through engaging with the real world, and study proactively to become a contributing member to China.
The attendees listened attentively in the packed auditorium. In the Q&A session, Prof. Lin answered multiple questions and received rounds of applause.
Prof. Lin Jianhua was delivering his lecture
(photo by Mao Xiaobo)
Students were asking questions during the Q&R session (photo by Mao Xiaobo)
Focusing on the deep logic of explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge, Hainan University has made innovative exploration in recent years, systematically promoting three major reforms in full credit system, collaborative innovation center, residential college system. Under the full credit system, students can choose courses across disciplines and specialties according to their personal growth plans and interests, and the Collaborative Innovation Center encourages students to join interdisciplinary research teams and go beyond the boundary of learning, disciplines and university to enrich their “explicit knowledge”; At the same time, the “residential college system” has been established to help students realize the “sharing” of learning, living and growing, and guide them to develop critical and creative thinking with an effort to construct a new space for the imparting of “tacit knowledge”. In addition, through the industry-university integration model of “customizing majors to the needs of industrial chain” and the talent-nurturing model of “Science and Technology Backyard (STB)”, a new approach to integrating “explicit knowledge” with “tacit knowledge” has been developed, which can mobilize all related resources to help students achieve all-round development and solve the problem of “the lost link in education”.
