Learn

Don't get me wrong. By no means I tried to imply the method of doing research is mysterious and could not be mastered.

In fact, it is quite the opposite - I always hold the belief there is nothing that could not be learned.

But, I am also convinced there is nothing that could be taught.

(As what Hercule Poirot told Arthur Hastings in Murder on the Links, if you do not see the difference between the two, you see nothing.)

The common misconception by many so-called education specialist is that you can teach someone by giving them information. (The new generation educationalists use a different jargon: you can guarantee the teaching by satisfying the number of contact hours.) Their subconscious example is, you can force-feed any bird who says quack-quack to make a Peking duck full of fat.

But, our students are not poultry; they are cows and horses and donkeys - just see what they are expected to do after graduation.

And, you see where we are getting at? Being taught is a passive process, while learning is an active one. Teaching a class is something like feeding a herd of cows or sheep - you can put grass into their stomach, but they need rumination before the nutrient could be absorbed.