Conversing With a Hundred People: Getting Students to Speak Up in a Large General Education Class

Date: 25 April 2016 (Monday)
Speaker: Prof. Gordon Mathews (Department of Anthropology)
Language: English

In a large class, teachers will often lecture to a sea of faces, giving up on the idea of learning who students are; and because the class is so large, teachers do not interact with students, but only lecture. This may sometimes result in many students fiddling with their phones or falling asleep. Students at CUHK are reputed to be quiet in class, but this isn't necessarily true--with a subtle shift in approach, students will indeed speak up and engage in class.

In this GE lunch seminar, the speaker will

1. demonstrate how to ask questions of students in such a way that they will engage in class and think for themselves;
2. share how to do this in the context of what a teacher seeks to teach in a given class;
3. discuss how the teacher's own objectives for a lesson can be more fully realized through class discussion; and
4. elaborate the importance of learning how to get students to speak up in class.

Speaker’s Bio Professor Gordon Mathews has been teaching in the Department of Anthropology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong for the past twenty-two years, and is chairperson of the Department. Professor Mathews is the awardee of the Exemplary Teaching Award in General Education (2014) and the awardee of the Vice-Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award (2001 & 2014). Professor Mathews has written books such as What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Lives (1996), Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket (2000) and Chungking Mansions: Ghetto at the Center of the World (2011), and edited and co-authored books on topics ranging from Hong Kong identity to the Japanese generation gap to the cross-cultural pursuit of happiness to the economics of low-end globalization. Professor Mathews is President of the Society for East Asian Anthropology, American Anthropological Association.  Professor Mathews teaches a class of asylum seekers every Saturday at Chungking Mansions.

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CUHK Students’ Approach-Avoidance Behaviours

co-organized by the Office of University General Education and CLEAR

Date: 19 April 2016 (Tuesday)
Speaker: Dr. Ng Wai Yin Will (Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research)
Language: Cantones

By observing students’ learning attitude, response and preference in class, teachers will acquire an impression on those students, which will affect their teaching strategies. Teachers are usually more enthusiastic about teaching the more enthusiastic students. To the contrary, teachers may consider increasing assessments and setting reward-and-punishment mechanism if they have an impression that their students are not working hard enough. Some teachers may be conscious of their adjustments in light of the various impressions on students while some may not.

As the impression on students is usually subjective, it is necessary for teachers to review their impression on students from time to time. If the impression is mainly attributed to the observation on students in class, student-teacher interaction outside the classroom would provide important alternative reference to teachers. Considering the fact that not all teachers are able to interact with their students outside classroom, the Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research conducted a series of in-depth interviews and surveys to explore more about students’ learning behaviours from students’ perspective. Controversial strategic learning behaviours like “free-rider”, “trumping”, “disengagement” etc. are also covered.

This is the second of a seminar series on strategic learning behaviours jointly organized by the Office of University General Education and the Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research, focusing on approach-avoidance behaviours in course selection and students’ learning. The speaker will present reported views and experiences collected from students, including a mini research on students’ strategies in course selection and the collected works written by students with their first- hand experience on learning.  

Speaker’s Bio Dr. Ng Wai Yin Will had taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for more than 20 years. He was enthusiastic about diverse experience of teaching and research. During his year of teaching, the subjects he taught included engineering science, project management, general education, as well as guiding academic research and liberal studies topics. After resigning from teaching position, he started to focus on the basic of education, contemplating on how, what and why human learnt. He is now working on research projects related to teaching and learning in the Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research at CUHK. His focus is on learning ethos and students’ strategic learning behaviors in universities.

Using Language Perspective to Teach Cultural Differences in General Education

Date: 14 March 2016 (Monday)
Speaker: Prof. Ho Chi Ming (Department of Japanese Studies)
Language: Cantonese

Language is an important communication tool for human beings and it reflects the society, culture and characters of citizens of a particular nation.  Sociolinguistic researchers attempt to study the cultural aspects of different societies by looking at the linguistics phenomenon.  In teaching general education courses, we emphasize the importance of cultivation of students’ critical thinking ability so that students can apply what they have learnt to solve problems in various situations.  Comparing with humanities subjects like sociology and anthropology with linguistics, it seems that the areas of linguistics research are something regarded as more abstract.  It is worth for us to discuss how to use language as media effectively to study issues related to society and culture in general education teaching.  

In this GE lunch seminar, the speaker will

1. discuss how to apply language as media in teaching cultural differences in University GE course;
2. apply the perspective of linguistics to explain how to use real daily life examples in teaching topics related to culture, and point out the importance of fostering students’ ability in critical thinking; and
3. discuss how to use abstract theories in teaching to achieve a better learning outcome.

Speaker’s Bio

Prof. Ho Chi Ming is Associate Professor of the Department of Japanese Studies, and Exemplary Teaching Award in General Education 2014 recipient.  He has a BA in Japanese Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a MPhil. and a PhD in Linguistics from University of Tsukuba, Japan.  He joined CUHK in 2003.  He has taught UGEC 1281 Understanding Japanese Language and Culture for 10 years.  His research interests include Japanese linguistics and teaching Japanese as a foreign language, especially on the acquisition of Japanese compound verbs, the differences in communication strategies between Japanese and Hong Kong people, and cultural differences between Japanese and Hong Kong people through the language perspective.  His most recent book publication is 60 keywords of Japanese culture (《日本文化60詞》) published in 2014. 

Teaching and Learning Challenge: What Can We See from Student's Strategic Behaviours

co-organized by the Office of University General Education and CLEAR

Date: 23 February 2016 (Tuesday)
Time: 12:30 am to 2:00 pm
Venue: Room 701, Hui Yeung Shing Building
Speaker: Dr. Ng Wai Yin Will (Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research)
Language: Cantonese

Are your students behaving? For a conscientious teacher, this can be a very difficult question. If students are not coming to class, or not working hard, they may or may not be misbehaving, as it may be their deliberate conscious choice as they choose to invest their time on more worthwhile feats. When a student procrastinates, it may be his own lack of discipline, or he himself may be victim of other students' misbehaviour. When free-riding happens in a group project, it may be due to a free-rider's shirking, a dysfunctional group, or there may be unintended perverse incentives in the way the coursework is administered.

This is the first of a seminar series on strategic learning behaviours jointly organized by the Office of University General Education and the Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research, focusing on group work issues. The speaker will present reported views and experiences collected from students from Jan to August 2015, including premiere of a video recording of a student debate on the relative merits of peer evaluation held in October 2015. Participants will be invited to discuss the influence of peer evaluation to student's strategic behaviors in group work in the second half of the seminar.

Speaker’s Bio Dr. Ng Wai Yin Will had taught at The Chinese University of Hong Kong for more than 20 years. He was enthusiastic about diverse experience of teaching and research. During his year of teaching, the subjects he taught included engineering science, project management, general education, as well as guiding academic research and liberal studies topics. After resigning from teaching position, he started to focus on the basic of education, contemplating on how, what and why human learnt. He is now working on research projects related to teaching and learning in the Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research at CUHK. His focus is on learning ethos and students’ strategic learning behaviours in universities.

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