Jie Yu

As generative AI becomes increasingly common in university classrooms, traditional teaching centred on knowledge delivery is gradually losing its dominant role. Although AI improves learning efficiency, it also shortens the processes of discussion, negotiation, and collaborative thinking that are essential to classroom learning. In some cases, classroom discussion has become more superficial, while collaborative learning has turned into fragmented task completion. This paper discusses the importance of classroom discussion and collaborative learning in the age of generative AI. It argues that AI can support knowledge acquisition and content generation, but it cannot replace real classroom interaction, including immediate feedback, exchange of ideas, and sustained communication among students and teachers. The paper further suggests that future classrooms should shift from knowledge delivery towards interaction organisation, with greater emphasis on authentic discussion, collaboration, and student participation. It concludes that the irreplaceable value of university classrooms in the AI era lies not in knowledge transmission itself, but in the interactive process of communication, negotiation, and collaborative meaning-making.

This chapter first critically traces the didactic tradition of teaching-as-telling or aggressive teaching, which has remained dominant in the histories of China and Western education, and then explores the Taoist Pedagogy of PathmarksTaoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks as the Tao of inaction as “wait[ing] in silent readiness” (Heidegger in Letters to his wife. Polity Press, Cambridge, 1939/2008, p. 160). As it resonates with the connections among Heidegger, Lao TzuLao Tzu, and Dewey, the Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks does not methodize teaching as an industrious process from input to output but celebrates it as being-in-relation in which the Tao of inaction “acts without dominating” (Tao Te Ching, Ch. 81).

This final chapter pulls together connective threads among the preceding chapters to help readers develop another way to think about teaching, which I have called the Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks. It first discusses how this pedagogy can be cultivated through reflective experience in a recursive loop to “let learn” (Heidegger in Martin Heidegger basic writings. Routledge, London, p. 380, 1951–1952/1993b), improvize, and promote the “collateral learning” of “enduring attitudes of likes and dislikes” in students (Dewey in Experience and education. Collier, New York, NY, p. 48, 1963). It then responds to the practical question, “What does the Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks mean to me, a practicing teacher, as I face my class on Monday morning?” Finally, this chapter concludes the cumulative work of this book with a brief discussion on the essence of the Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks as releasement.

Building upon Lao Tzu’s Taoist thoughts in Tao Te Ching (Chinese Society Publisher, Beijing, China, 500 B.C./2004), Heidegger’s phenomenological works, and pedagogical insights from Dewey, this chapter explores possibilities of the Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks as the “call of the Pathway” (Heidegger in Heidegger: The man and the thinker, Precedent Publishing, Chicago, IL, p. 72, 1981a), as waying and responding to the call of Tao in “noiseless ringing of stillness” (Heidegger in Martin Heidegger basic writings, Routledge, London, UK, p. 420, 1959/1993b). These possibilities are not independent; they are intertwined. The reflective thinking in waiting and silent listening in stillness are explored as different ways of the Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks, both placed against enframing, the will to control, present in traditional didactic teaching.

Focusing on Heidegger’s complex explorations of (un)truth in clearings, this chapter suggests in traditional direct teaching of “truth,” teaching is reduced to a method instructing students to acquire knowledge under the shining Sun of Truth, a concept criticized by Heidegger (The piety of thinking. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1958/1976) as “brighter than one thousand suns” (p. 56). The powerful ethical, pedagogical, and philosophical question Heidegger raises is how to “view the stars by day” when we have to “descend into the dark of the depths of the well” (p. 56). A Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks thus encourages teachers to teach in the complex play between light and darkness rather than in the permanent and often rabid zeal of that shining Sun of Truth, which causes a blindness masquerading dangerously as enlightenment.

Lao Tzu, Heidegger, and Dewey lived in quite different historical periods and places, but their insightful thoughts resonate with each other in my exploration of the Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks. As explored in this chapter, the Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks encourages teachers to release or step back to create a “void,” a space which possesses nothing but at the same time accommodates everything. In this void, both teachers and students are put on a journey of experiencing to learn as all of them are addressed to be responsive and thus open to the lived calls on their own ways or paths.

This chapter reflects on my history of teaching in China and the USA to interrogate the pedagogical perspective of teaching as the giving of truth. My interconnected reading of Heidegger, Lao Tzu, and Dewey led me to a Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks, a teaching philosophy to empower teachers to teach through non-teaching without implying a binary opposition between the two. Drawing on Heidegger’s critique of modern technology and his analysis of the nature of language, Lao Tzu’s Tao of inaction, and Dewey’s critique of traditional direct teaching, I see a Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks as a “non-willing” (Heidegger in Discourse on thinking: A translation of Gelassenheit. Harper & Row, New York, p. 60, 1944–1945/1966), a refusal of the will to control.

Lipstick is one of the most commonly used cosmetics, which is closely associated with female attractiveness and influences people’s perception and behavior. This study aimed to investigate the impact of light sources, lipstick colors, as well as gender on the subjective assessment of lipstick color products from the prospective of color preference, purchase intention and sexual attractiveness. The correlation between color preference evaluations when applying lipstick on lips and on forearms was also explored. Sixty participants completed their visual assessment of 15 lipsticks worn by 3 models under 5 light sources, with uniformly sampled correlated color temperature (CCT) values ranging from 2,500 K to 6,500 K. The results indicated that the light source significantly influenced color preference and purchase intention, while lipstick color significantly impacted on sexual attractiveness. The interactions between gender and other factors were also observed and are discussed. Compared to men, women were found to be more sensitive to different light sources and hold different attitudes toward different lipstick colors under different CCTs. Interestingly, no significant correlation was found between lipstick color preference ratings on the lips and forearm, which conflicted with the commonly recognized way of lipstick color selection. These findings should contribute to a deeper understanding of the consumer attitude toward lipstick colors and provide a useful reference for lighting design in situations where cosmetics are specified, manufactured, retailed and generally used, both professionally and in the home.

Understanding the factors influencing the aesthetic experience of architectures is an important topic in empirical aesthetics. In this study, we examined the effect of three architectural factors, i.e., ceiling height, openness, and contour, on viewers’ aesthetic appreciation through a series of experiments. In previous studies on architectural aesthetics, participants were usually asked to view an image of an architectural space for a few seconds. The long viewing time allows them to focus on different parts of the architecture and then make an aesthetic judgment. The long viewing time, however, also makes it difficult to obtain viewers’ aesthetic scores for a large number of architectural spaces in a short period. In this study, we shortened the visual presentation time to 200 ms, which allowed the viewers to have only one fixation on the image, and asked the viewers to make an aesthetic judgment. It was found that the experiment with a 200-ms viewing time could establish how the three architectural factors influenced aesthetic judgment as well as previous experiments with a 3,000-ms viewing time, suggesting that aesthetic judgment could be made within one fixation. Additionally, we investigated the impact of color on architectural aesthetic judgment by presenting grayscale images. We found that the three architectural factors influenced aesthetic judgment in similar ways for both color and grayscale images. In summary, we found that color was not a main factor modulating viewers’ architectural aesthetic judgments, and we also presented a way to quickly obtain aesthetic scores for architectural spaces.

E-commerce research usually focuses more on how to protect consumers’ rights and increase their purchase intention from the perspective of consumers. However, we still lack understanding of e-commerce sellers, especially cross-border e-commerce sellers. Based on the stimulus-body-response theory, this paper built a moderated mediation model to test the relationships among social support, perceived benefits, perceived usefulness and sellers’ willingness to retain. The results show that social support has a positive impact on perceived benefits and sellers’ willingness to retain; perceived benefits play a partial intermediary role between social support and sellers’ willingness to retain; and perceived usefulness moderates these mediating effects. The research results further expand the perspective of e-commerce research and reveal the mechanism and boundary conditions of the influence of social support on the retention willingness of cross-border e-commerce sellers.

Based on the intertwined complex conversations among Heidegger, Dewey, and Lao Tzu, this book explores the possibilities of the Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks as a clearing between truth and untruth, responding to the spiritual call of Tao as inaction and teaching as releasement. In this book, Yu provides a critical exploration of the rich dynamics in the “direct” conversations among the three great thinkers of east and west, highlighting the implications of their ideas for education throughout. As more educational researchers, teacher educators, and teachers recognize the limitations of didactic teaching-as-telling, the author brings an alternate pathway to light.

Projections regarding future energy consumption and carbon emissions are crucial when the aim is to design policy for global emissions control. What is the different models’ take on the projections for global emissions and, in particular, China’s role in the global picture? Do they anticipate similar results? If not, why are the results different? What key parameters do they use, and how do they affect the final findings? This Article attempts to answer these questions and, starting from there, to further analyze what it means for the challenge of China’s future emissions reduction potential and for the overall goal of global emissions reduction.