Units and hours

Over the 13-week term, there will be 9 weeks of lectures, interspersed with 4 weeks of tutorials; each occasion will be 3 hours.

Class size

The class size will be ~75 for lectures.

Tutorial organization

The whole class will be divided into 7 to 8 tutorial sections (A-H) of about 12 students each with different languages (English, Putonghua, Cantonese) to be used in the tutorials.

Each section will attend only two out of the four tutorials.

To enhance opportunities for discussion, and to promote teamwork, each tutorial section (12 students) will be further divided into 6 teams of 2 students each.  Each team will organize its own small-group break-out discussion outside scheduled class hours before the tutorial session.  A designated member of the team (chosen in rotation, so that each student will be chosen at least once) will make a short presentation at the tutorial session, to be followed by general discussion.

This arrangement follows the format often used in strategic planning workshops and retreats, and is chosen to allow more time for discussions, the opportunity to engage in team work and more organized and better prepared presentations (which may be necessary when presenting in a second language).

Reading

The required reading will be of modest quantity (say 20–30 pages per week).  The contents will be covered in the quizzes.  A list of suggested reading will be provided, and it is hoped that students will read a selection, possibly in relation to the preparation of the term paper.

Term paper

A term paper is required, relatively short because this may be the first term paper that the students have ever written: 1,500 words in English or 2,000 words in Chinese.  In addition to the final product, there will be a series of intermediate tasks (e.g., outlines, section and subsection headings, topic sentences, sample paragraphs or sections) correlated to modules on academic writing embedded into the course.

Examination/ quizzes

There will be a short quiz at the end of each topical lecture (8 in all), covering the lecture and the pre-assigned reading.  There will be no final examination.

Assessment scheme

Notes

Language

The vision of CW Chu College includes internationality, and the College expects to enroll more than the average percentage of students from outside Hong Kong. This first College course should have the function of integrating students from different backgrounds into a single community, through a shared learning experience.

With this in mind, the lectures will be conducted in English. In order to promote more lively discussions, tutorials will be divided into different language sections.

As far as possible, bilingual versions (or choices) will be made available in the reading lists. Term papers and examinations may be written in either English or Chinese.