Learning by doing ：experience of teaching text and image studies course at stanford university

‘Learning by doing,’ a pedagogical theory developed by American pragmatist John Dewey (1859-1952), has sent reverberations through educational systems in the 20th century. As a teacher, sticking to the ‘Learning by doing’ principle has proved to be highly productive in my educational practices. This paper puts emphasis on my experience of teaching ‘Text and Image Studies’ course at Stanford University. Such a research approach is currently theorised by myself, aiming at exploring the visual perception of texts and images. With detailed course plans, this paper provides three specific teaching cases applying the ‘Learning by doing’ method to help students effortlessly understand the structural rules of Chinese characters, the narrative forms of scroll paintings, brush strokes in Chinese painting and calligraphy.