Memo+26


 * A Comparative Study of Parental Expectations On Engineering Students Between China and the US**

Children often have contradictory feelings on the views of their parents. On one hand, parents provide valuable experience and advice to the youth; on the other hand, parents restrain children's free thinking and exploration of the society. In both cases, parents' opinions to a different extent influence the ideas and choices of children. Parents' expectation for their children have multiple implications: first, it transmits the social values and norms to the youth—often with the model of a success life. Second, parental expectation includes their understanding of the social context and their response to it. Indeed, the parental expectation to children across different cultures implicitly transmits different sociocultural codes. At the same time, children's acceptance and reaction to their parents' expectation reflects their response to the social values and the familial influence. In this paper I conduct a comparative study of the parental expectation on engineering students in Chinese and the US colleges. I explore the commonality and difference in parents' attitudes toward children in China and the US, analyze their influence to the students' choices such as major, job, etc. And I discuss the causes of the differences by contrasting the cultural, political, and economic conditions of the different societies.


 * Engineering Curriculum and the Manufacturing of Engineers**

Higher education is crucial in the route to engineering professions. The education in colleges significantly influences the development in expertise and other abilities of engineering students. Among the factors influencing engineering education, the curriculum plays a significant role in shaping the knowledge structure of future engineers. The influences of curriculum to engineering students are various: the courses in mathematics and physics shapes the knowledge basis of the students; the major courses determines their expertise; also, courses in ethics, art, humanity and social science influences students' values, communicative ability, aesthetic tastes, etc. Moreover, an often ignored field also deserves serious attention--the alternatives not realized. Given the limited lifespan of one's college education, a course is often taken at the expense of several other ones. What is lost in the course selection is likely to be the same or even more influential to the development of students. In this paper, I examine the college curriculum design in engineering majors and its influence to the development of engineering students. Drawing data from my ethnographic work in a number of colleges in China and the US, I assess the relation between curriculum and the opportunities for student development. I argue that the current curriculum needs reform to increase flexible learning; I also call for an increase in humanity, social science and art course for engineering students which would facilitate their development of diverse abilities and benefit the society by enhancing the social responsibilities of engineers.


 * Contest for College Students: An Arena for Creativity?**

Nowadays, various contests have been playing an important role in students' college lives. Contests range from technology to business plan attract enormous talents in campus. Participating in contests have a series of effects to students: they get practical experience through working on project; they are discovered by the organizers (usually companies) and gain access to interns or jobs; some of them start their own businesses with the prize money or by selling their patent work in the contests. A common theme of the contests is creativity. While most organizers claim that their contest is a competition of creativity, the notion of creativity differs with the fields of contests. At the same time, the emphasis and different interpretation of creativity to a large extent influences the participants understanding and self-training. This in turn shapes their notion of learning, expertise, and success. In this paper, I introduce my study of contests with engineering students from the US and Chinese colleges, through ethnographic interview of students and participatory observation in contests, I explore how the experience of contests participation shape their notion of creativity and how this notion influence their study and development. I argue that the interpretation of creativity by contest organizers overshadows other possible understanding of creativity; and it also limits the alternative interpretation of learning, and career success.