Teaching for Wider Learning: Teaching General Education in 21st Century

Teaching for Wider Learning: Teaching General Education in 21st Century

Speaker: Dr. Jerry Gaff (Senior Scholar, Association of American Colleges and Universities)
Date: 3 June 2014 (Tuesday)
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Venue: 701, Hui Yeung Shing Building
Language: English

Teaching general education is always difficult because, if a good combination of breadth and depth is generally regarded as ideal for quality undergraduate education, the definition of breadth is always evasive, and teaching breadth seems the responsibility of general education. For teacher who is responsible for teaching one course in general education, how can he/she introduce a wider perspective to students  while teaching his/her expertise? In this workshop, Dr. Jerry Gaff, renowned scholar in general education and teacher development, will invite teachers to think through what the most important things to teach are, and how these things can be taught in general education courses. The workshop is interactive, with exercises that expand the views of teaching and learning, can improve teaching, and make teachers more sensitive to their students as learners.

Speaker’s Bio

Dr Gaff is the senior scholar of Association of American Colleges and Universities and is an expert in assisting college and faculty members or administrators to improve their academic programs in various ways, such as developing better quality and coherence in GE curricula, internationalizing the curriculum, using diversity and technology to aid learning.  His articles include “Avoiding the Potholes: Strategies for Reforming General Education” (1980) and publications include New Life for the College Curriculum (1991), Strong Foundations: Twelve Principles of Effective General Education Programs (1994) and Building the Faculty We Need: Colleges and Universities Working Together (2000; co-authored).