诺大，是一个神奇的地方，我曾经设想过很多次没来诺大上学的话生活会是什么样子。但是我从来没有后悔过选择诺大。至少，诺大让我接触到了IAT（Introduction to Analytical Thought）这门课(培养学生思维深度与强度、逻辑性与严谨性的课)，让我认识了Albert？这位优秀的老师。

那么，先简单介绍一下Albert？吧~~

Albert？，不要怀疑，我没有在用问句，只是他的名字里就是有个“？”，很奇怪是吗？我也觉得。对于他名字里的这个问号人们提出了诸多猜测，其中的的两个是：他名字里有什么字是学校电脑里打不出来的，或者是中文而学校用了个问号代替...这个也许比较主流但我个人觉得这个可能性不大；或者就是他太热衷于思考，热爱提出问题并思考问题，这个是我的想法，虽然自己也觉得有点不可思议。

Albert？是哈佛毕业的，算是个艺术家和教育家吧，华裔，父母是香港人但是很小的时候就去国外生活了，酷爱李小龙，而且在思维上是个很强大的人。很喜欢argue，有一次我去找我personal tutor，看到一个老师貌似是给Albert邀请函，可能是类似于一个party之类的，然后Albert就跟他讨论起来了，离得比较远听不太清，20分钟后我走了，他们还在继续。。。我无语

Albert? Ka Hing Liu

BA, With Distinction (Toronto, 1992), EdM (Harvard, 2003)

荣誉学士（多伦多，一九九二），教育学硕士（哈佛，二零零三）

下面是他的自述，我尽量翻译。。。

Expertise Summary (1987 - 2009) 专长综述

我是一个作家与画家的集合体，一个哈佛的毕业生。我之前在加拿大的安大略科学中心科学学院、安大略艺术学院以及加拿大多伦多大学学习。在1993到1998的这五年里，我有幸在美国、加拿大和欧洲获得了七个“客座艺术家奖学金”。在不同的时间，我能够在美国纽约、加拿大多伦多、冰岛雷克雅未克的电影公司绘制、展示、写作和出版...

（太多了，我翻不下去了...有兴趣的看看下面的英文原版吧，没兴趣的忽略也没什么大碍的）

I am a painter who writes and a writer who paints. A graduate of Harvard University (EdM, Arts in Education and Human Development, 2003), I previously studied in Canada at the Ontario Science Centre Science School (OSCSS) and the Ontario College of Art (OCA, now the Ontario College of Art and Design, OCAD), as well as the University of Toronto (BA, With Distinction, English Literature and Psychology, 1992). In the five years between 1993 and 1998, I was fortunate to have been awarded seven Visiting Artist Fellowships in the USA, Canada and Europe. At various times, I was then able to maintain studios in New York City, USA; Toronto, Canada; and Reykjavík, Iceland—painting and exhibiting, writing and publishing. Arguably, the perennial shortage of professional artists remains a defining characteristic of the human condition. An introduction to this argument is outlined in my Artist’s Statement No.1, below. Such an introduction, again arguably, is problematic as the term professional artist may be an oxymoron to artists in post-Renaissance Western cultures, or even in all cultures at all times. As the American artist, Willem de Kooning, has observed, ‘…we have no position in the world—absolutely no position except that we just insist upon being around’. An explanation, in any case, could be forthcoming as to why professionally I have always been ‘talking about’ painting and writing, and why I am less concerned now with painting and writing, professionally. My continuous work in the arts and humanities is committed to both individual practice and my guidance to others in their own practices. This dual approach to expertise development is as follows: As early as 1994, I co-founded the The First Annual Galesburg Art Symposium in Illinois, USA. In 1995, I was one of only fifteen artists chosen by the 13e Symposium International de la Jeune Peinture au Canada. This was the 13th annual survey and conference of international artists hosted in Québec, Canada and I was appointed the sole delegate from the province of Ontario, Canada.
Additional experience as a Visiting Artist Speaker included engagements at Great Lakes College (1990) in Toronto, Canada; Carl Sandburg College (1994) and the Knox County Center for Developmental Disabilities (1994), both in Galesburg, Illinois; Nýlistasafnid (1996), the Living Art Museum in Reykjavík, Iceland; and the Harvard Design School (2004), USA. I also had taught at Lowell House, Harvard College (2002-03) as the Non-Resident Art Tutor and Instructor of Drawing and Painting. I was an Instructor of Art at the Massachusetts College of Art (2004) in Boston, USA and a Foreign Expert/Instructor of English Language and Literature at China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU: 2004-05; 2006-07), at both the College of Foreign Languages (responsible for undergraduate English majors) and the College of Network Education (in Adult Education and Web-based Learning). In 2006, I was an EAP (English for Academic Purposes) Tutor at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. Prior to my 2008 appointment as an EAP Tutor at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China (UNNC), I was an Instructor of English Language and Literature / Foreign Expert at China’s Shanghai International Studies University (SISU: Xianda College of Economics and Humanities, 2006-07; School of Law, 2007-08). I have been painting and writing in China or the UK since 2004, having exhibited in the West since 1988 with my first solo exhibition in 1990, and with my first publication in 1987. My art may be seen in the museum collections of the Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia, USA; Hafnarborg, Iceland; and Le Centre d’Art Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec, Canada, as well as in private collections worldwide. My poetry and critical prose have been published, for example, in the literary/humanities journals of Harvard University, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University, Toronto) and the University of Toronto. My latest Visiting Artist Fellowship (2007) was awarded by Fundación Valparaíso, Almería, Spain. More recently I was invited as a Visiting Scholar / Artist Speaker (2008) by Chongqing University, China, where I also premiered a multimedia collaboration with my brother, Ka Cheong Liu. Awarded Best Bass Player of the Year in 2003 by Canada’s Real Blues magazine, he is currently a singer and songwriter, as well as a jazz bassist frequently with the JZ Club in Shanghai.
As an EAP Tutor in China since 2004, I have focused on student creativity in the contexts of intercultural education, and on the academic contributions of poetic versus critical thinking. I am also concerned with distinctions between education and training. As a researcher, my interests revolve around the ontology of art; art as epistemology; visual culture and VCAE (Visual Culture Art Education); and particularly the relationships between artists, education and phenomenology. Between 2005 and 2006, I began my PhD research in Art Education at Queens’ College, University of Cambridge, England. I would be interested in collaborations with other interdisciplinary artists and/or researchers in the visual arts, literature, education and psychology, as well as those in architecture, music, philosophy and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) / CAM (Complementary Alternative Medicine). Updates In the summer of 2009, I presented at the Post-Graduate Conference in Applied Linguistics, sponsored by the Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics and the Division of English Studies, both at UNNC. The two conference poster designs, featuring images of the Rosetta Stone, are my latest visual works to be published. I also presented at the Symposium on English as the Language of Asian Business and Professions (ELABP), held at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 5 and 6 November, 2009. This was sponsored by the university’s Department of English and the Research Centre for Professional Communication in English. NB The question mark in Albert? Ka Hing Liu is not a typographical error. It is integral to my professional identity and has been in published form as early as 1990. More specifically, I care about precision in my ideas and prose. My intuitions or feelings, on the other hand, may never be precise. They may become clear, however, after a process of making art. Francis Bacon, the English philosopher, has put it this way: ‘Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact
man…’. Painting and writing, for me, are two ways not only to make art, but also two ways to be more certain of my questions.

下面来谈谈Albert？和IAT的课程~

我们的Introduction To Analytical Thought好像除了某几个2+2（2年国内2年英国本部）的专业不用学以外其他大一学生都要必听的，所以都是大课，在报告厅或者阶梯教室上。这门课是没有课本的，我们的教材就是一个Albert为了这门课特意建的一个博客和那个博客里的一共75篇博文和将近70个视频短片，视频多数是从电影里截的，还有些是访谈节目等。

该网站为：，有兴趣的可以去看看

我们需要学习怎样从这些材料中找到思考点并进行合理的思考。在WebCT里我们有一个类似于论坛的东西（WebCT是学校的一个学习系统，学校给学生提供学习资料等，貌似是英国、中国、马来西亚公用的，因为域名是英国的），在那上面同学们可以各抒己见、argue、向Albert提问等。不过大家都比较懒，并没有达到Albert的预期目的，what a pity~

除了Albert的主讲和他的强调思维力以外，还有2位老师教我们Logic(逻辑)和其他一些同样是Analytical Thought需要的东西。

Albert讲课很有意思很生动很犀利，有一节课，他给我们展示了盛装护肤霜的小瓶子，瓶子看起来挺大的，但盛装护肤霜的部分只有瓶子总深度的三分之一左右，他拿钳子把瓶子拆开，来看里面到底是什么构架，说这就像是遇到问题的时候通过思考来探求真理。然后又就着这样的护肤霜算不算是欺骗展开了正反的argue。

还有一次，他穿了西装加披风，在报告厅上IAT的课的时候，为了探讨人在课堂上，特别是很大的课堂上讲课就一定要穿的西装革履吗，人为什么要打扮的很professional，衣服和知识有关系吗？他如果不穿衣服思维难道就不足以教我们IAT、当我们的老师吗？为了让我们思考，他在报告厅——可以说是我们{zd0}的教室，或者说是诺大盛人最多的地方，把西装、衬衣全脱掉了，只剩下个背心和早就套在里面的运动裤。那个时候天气已经挺热的了，他之前居然穿了那么多在讲课。

这个是个事实，Albert自己也知道，他在很多地方教过课，每次情况都是这样——他的学生分为很鲜明的两派：特别喜欢他和他的课的，特别讨厌他和他的课的。我很难理解为什么有人会讨厌他的课，因为我和我的很多好朋友都是归属前者的。

有传言说他下学期就在我们学校任职到期了，也就是不再教我们了，所以很想再问问他怎样继续练习思考能力，于是乎，给他发了邮件，今天下午要去见他，很高兴很激动，同时也做好了充足的心理准备，做好了在他强大的思维面前败下阵来的全面打算。。。不得不说是一个悲剧。

按照他的说法，他把人的思维分为四个阶段（如果我没记错的话）：Baby，Child，Graduate，Sage。Baby的思考力近乎为零，Child有了一些接受能力，Graduate——也就是我们应该达到的程度，他所有的教学都是希望我们能够到达这个程度，就是拥有自己的思维能力，可以像很多东西，用严谨有逻辑性的思维，Be Logical and Critical。他介于这个之上，但还未到达{zg}的一个层次，{zg}的层次，是已经炉火纯青感觉没有在想但其实已经什么都想得很透彻了的一个境界。恩，我表达的有些不太准确，因为他只是着重强调了第三个层次——好吧，这个论述不合逻辑，应该说是由于他只着重强调了第三个层次，所以第三个层次给我的印象比较深刻，而其他几个级别被我稍微的忽略了没有留下深刻印象，在没有xx理解的情况下市无法表达清楚的。。。。唉。。。但愿我IAT没挂科。

其实，很多上了IAT的人都想清楚了一件事情，就是关注学习的点不在于考试挂不挂科，而在于学没学到知识。考试其实并不是百分之百的能够检测出来一个人的收获，所以，对于挂科与否而已不十分纠结，只要自己学到了东西就没有对不起自己。

再其实，我虽然同意上述说法但觉得考试还是有必要的，因为考试毕竟是检测一个人是否学到东西的载体。

以上，大家可以看出，IAT是个多么折磨人又让人享受的东西，也可以看出Albert是一位多么让人崇敬又让人无奈的一个老师。我不知道下一届IAT会是什么样的情形，但是这门课真的让我我收获了很多很多