4th floor Faculty Lounge

This is the 4^th Floor Faculty Lounge in Teaching Building 31 on the campus of South China University of Technology.  I am assigned to room 401, just down the hall. There is not much collaboration going on in this lounge or anything else for that matter. Notice the hot water machine on the back wall, most of the staff pass by there before and after classes to get hot water for their tea, but even then, hardly a word is spoken between faculty members.  Nothing on the walls, no soft comfy chairs, no professional periodicals, no magazines or reading materials, nothing on the windows or floor, a very austere-no frills approach to dispensing knowledge and information.

Collaboration, conference and teamwork are not qualities that are valued at this Chinese University.  Most professors teach six or seven classes, many are three or four days a week with 50-60 students in each class.  From my observation is largely lecture with some sort of Power Point presentation.  Students are expected to participate only if they are assigned or called upon to do so, other wise they take notes, memorize their textbooks then regurgitate the information on an exam. Khan Academy or flipped classrooms, student interaction and participation are not regarded as educational experiences merely student entertainment. 

As you can tell from the photo of the lounge, most professors are very serious and their expectations of students is to be respectful of that seriousness