Generally, a salon refers to a gathering of people where ideas are shared to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of participants through conversation. The Faculty of Education, Southwest University (SWU) in its quest to improve the knowledge, presentation capabilities, and research skills of all students initiated the “Academic Salon” program wherefour orfive participants share ideas on an educational issue across the globe, and in turn get feedback from experts and professionals in the educational field. Since its inception, the salon has helped all students through the expert’s feedback in building their confidence and research self-efficacy.

On 27th December, 2019,the fifth academic salon of the academic year 2019/2020was holdat the TianjiabingBuilding which happens to be the last for thissemester. The salon started from 3:00PM and endedat5:30 PM. Overall, fourstudentspresented on the fifth academic salon, namely:Anwar Shahana, Sidarovich Katsiaryna, Parveen Khalida, and Vivian Iragunima.All the students of grade 1 also attended it.It was aprivilege to havethehead-teacher Dr.Liu Yi (Louis), Associate Professor Zhong Wanjuan and Associate Professor Hu Yanjuan with usas expertsto give us insightful feedback on the various presentations.Dr. Liu also chaired the salon and concluded it at the end.

The first presenter, Shahana presented on the topic: Primary education in Pakistan with focus on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She gave a brief background about the context of the study (Pakistan, specifically KPK province). She enumerated several challenges faced by both public and private schools at the region.The experts commended on her improvement in heroralEnglish ability and for a good presentation. She was admonished to add more references to her work and summarize key ideas.

Katsiaryna was the second presenter. The caption of her topic was: Discovering teachers’ leadership strategies to promote creativity in Belarussian universities. Her main goal was to explore how leaders employ diverse strategies to ensure creativity in the country focusing on university leaders. She further elaborated on an ongoing Teacher Professional Development (TPD) geared towards enhancing teacher methodologies in ensuring creativity.The following is her reflective report on her presentation:

“During the academic saloon I presented preliminary topic of my research and progress of my studies for the first semester. I decided to concentrate on Teachers’ leadership and 21st century skills promotion. The working title of the research sounded: “Discovering teachers’ leadership strategies to promote creativity in Belarussian universities”. The presentation demonstrates background on the Republic of Belarus in order for listeners and experts to evaluate the scope of the research, and is filled with the information about the system of education in Belarus with the emphasis on higher education. Together with representing the background information I dwelled on the problems that the current system of higher education faces and some reasons of the problem. With universities and colleges tasked with preparing students for jobs that do not currently exist, several researchers believe that schooling as we know it will not produce workers and citizens ready for the world in which we will be living. For that reason I focused the presentation of the research on the problems of promotion of education which corresponds the requirements of labor market and society, making education more reflexive towards feedbacks and offers of the participants of educational process, changing top-down approach of educational management and changing the image of teaching from transferring existing knowledge to discovering knowledge by a student. Society needs to equip students with competencies and skills rather than facts, and creativity is one of them. It may be possible if teachers work collaboratively with other faculty, staff, and community members to improve teaching practices that enrich the learning environment and lead to higher achieving classrooms, so in other words, they should become leaders and use leadership techniques not only methodological part that was emphasized recently by many scholars. The purpose of the study is to discover the leadership strategies teachers may use to promote creativity.

Presenting current ideas and results allowed me to get positive feedbacks from colleagues and realize that I am moving in right direction with the right pace. At the same time respected experts helped me to understand that I have to pay attention at the connection between leadership and creativity and express it in my research, as not enough attention was paid to this factor during the presentation. Moreover, more attention should be paid at the research group and population that I am still to discover while talking to the representative of educational sector in Belarus. Professor Zhong Wanjuan also paid my attention at distributed leadership that can also be one of the strategies used by the teachers who want to develop creativity in students. Another thing that I did not mention during the presentation is that I am mostly concentrating on teachers who work with undergraduate students that I will definitely add in my second presentation at the Salon. In general I consider all feedbacks to be beneficial to my further research, but first I have to reflect on them and discuss with my supervisor and continue researching literature and articles to get deeper in the topic.”

Khalida, the third presenter wanted to know the impact of principal leadership styles on the job satisfaction of Secondary School Teachers in Punjab Province. Her presentation was very clear and informative. She talked about several leadership styles and theories which she considered significant to her research study.She wrote down the following inher reflective report:

“I was the 3rd presenter and it was my first experience to present in presence of 3 experts. I present my research proposal on the topic “Impact of principal leadership styles on the job satisfaction of secondary school teachers in Punjab province of Pakistan”. While presenting this problem of my country, I defined 2 variables:principals leadership styles and job satisfaction of secondary school teachers. I described all leadership styles of principals which they usually adopt in schools. I gave background of the study, literature review of the problem and a short methodology. I cleared my objectives of study and significance of the study and showed the importance of my problem statement. Research questions and Research hypothesis were also discussed. I related some theories to clear my point of view about the topic. A brief description of methodology was consisted of population, target population, sample size and participants. I mentioned references at the end of PPT. So I tried my best to make it comprehensive and logical.

Dr. Louis gave good appreciation for my work. He said “It is a beautiful presentation, all aspects are very clear”. He gave me suggestion to work hard more and try to do well in further studies. He advised me to borrow questionnaire for this study, it will be more clear and specific.

One student Segun, who is also my classmate gave valuable feedback about the title of the presentation and provided constructive remarks regarding theories. One more student Michael added useful tips to make it more comprehensive.

Professor Zhong gave very valuable comments for my presentation that conceptual framework should be included in the research proposal. She advised to do pilot study and check the reliability and validity of my questionnaire. She advised to write significance of study in my own words.Professor Hu talked about my research questions.She gave ideas to make questions better and more objective. She asked about my sample size that why I am taking 10 teachers from every school. She advised me to add background of secondary schools of Punjab so that reader could be clear about study background and sample size.

According to my context, it is very good exercise to present in salon and having the good advices of the experts. I am very grateful to Faculty of Education for conducting such kind of trainings and sessions. This exercise will surely give us good command in improving our academic writing. It will also help in defense of thesis proposal.Thanks to Faculty of Education, South West University.”

Vivian presented on community education strategies for the implementation of Development Programmes in Rural Communities of Rivers state, Nigeria. She emphasized on the kind of natural resources available for the particular rural community but yet its inability to progress. Her goal was to identify the right strategies which would be accepted and appropriate for the community to ensure its progress. Much was not said about the study methodology; population, research design, etc.The experts advisedherto tie the research to hermajor (Education in Economics and Management). Prof. Zhong questioned the significance of the study and requested her to apply it to a wider context. She was also questioned on how the study links to leadership or management and was admonished to present a better study next time.

Afterwards, a supplementary Class Meeting was chaired by Dr. Liu Yi (Louis) toemphasizeseveral important issues before the winter holiday, and then studentswatched a short video on safety measures made by the International College, SWUto end this rewarding day!

撰稿（Contributors）： MichaelAdarkwah;

Sidarovich Katsiaryna;

Parveen Khalida

供图（Photo Providers）:张思晗（Melody）;

Md Mirajur Rhaman Shaoan

编审（Editor）: 刘屹(Louis)