Professor of Theatre Nancy Taylor Porter recently traveled to China as part of the Society for Values in Higher Education, in conjunction with the Chinese government, to promote educational reform. The group demonstrated a teaching pedagogy developed by Mark Carnes at Barnard College called “Reacting to the Past.” Illinois College’s dean of the faculty and professor of religion, Adam Porter, and professor of English, Beth Widmaier Capo, have both been involved in the project, traveling to China in previous years and have made use of the teaching strategies.

“It’s a great way to teach English and get students to think creatively, analyzing text for its social or cultural implications instead of merely its denotative meanings. I also do an abbreviated version of a first-year seminar project I’ve done at IC three times now,” said Taylor Porter, who has been involved in the past two workshops.

Taylor Porter has found vast learning opportunities by applying the “Reacting ...” pedagogy and uses it as a tool to explore many disciplines and topics, from Shakespeare to Pluto. She said that it is often the highlight for students who are “excited by the freedom to be creative and proud of their collaborative invention.”

She hopes that IC students can benefit from the knowledge she and other professors will bring back from this experience and plans to incorporate the lessons she has taken from working with other educators in a diverse setting into future classes.