UGC presents awards for teaching excellence
The University Grants Committee (UGC) held a presentation ceremony for the 2016 UGC Teaching Award today (September 8) to honour academics in the UGC-funded universities for their outstanding teaching performance and achievements, as well as their leadership and scholarly contribution to teaching and learning within and across universities.
The recipients of the 2016 UGC Teaching Award, in alphabetical order, are:
General Faculty Members/Teams
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The Chinese University of Hong Kong team
led by Professor Leung Mei-yee (Director
of University General Education), with Dr
Julie Chiu (Deputy Director of the General
Education Foundation Programme) and Dr Wong
Wing-hung (Associate Director of University
General Education; Associate Director of
General Education Foundation Programme)
as team members
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University team led by Dr Grace Ngai (Associate Professor of the Department of Computing), with Dr Stephen Chan (Head of the Office of Service Learning and Associate Professor of the Department of Computing) as team member
Early Career Faculty Members
----------------------------
Dr Shirley Ngai, Assistant Professor, Department
of Rehabilitation Sciences, the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University
The citations of the awardees are at Annex 1.
The Chairman of the UGC, Mr Carlson Tong, congratulated the awardees and nominees on their accomplishments, and thanked the UGC-funded universities and Members of the Selection Panel to the UGC Teaching Award for their support.
Nominations of teams and early career faculty members are newly introduced this year. Mr Tong said, "We have extended the award to cover team teaching, and set up a new category to recognise faculty members in their early career who demonstrate promise in teaching. I hope the expansion of the award coverage will encourage faculty at all levels to focus more on teaching and achieve excellence."
The three recipients of the 2016 UGC Teaching Award were selected from among 20 outstanding nominees through a rigorous process undertaken by a Selection Panel convened by Professor Adrian Dixon. The selection criteria and the composition of the Selection Panel for the 2016 UGC Teaching Award are at Annex 2.
When announcing the results of this year's award, Professor Dixon said, "The Panel was deeply impressed by the passion and commitment to teaching demonstrated by all 20 nominees." He also commended the awardees for making their teaching engaging and student-centred.
The presentation ceremony was well attended by UGC Members, Council Chairmen and Heads of the UGC-funded universities and their senior management, as well as those nominated for the award and some 40 outstanding academics.
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Annex 1
Award Citations
Team led by Professor Leung Mei-yee, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
The team, led by Professor Leung Mei-yee, with Dr Julie Chiu and Dr Wong Wing-hung as team members, works on the design and implementation of the University's General Education Foundation Programme, a "common-core" programme introduced in 2012. The programme has received positive responses from students. The team has developed innovative learning aids and enrichment activities for students, ranging from specially-designed mobile apps, Peer Assisted Study Sessions, reading and writing workshops to documentary appreciation and movie nights. The award grant will enable the team to organise a sector-wide General Education Institute aiming to nurture potential future leaders for general education programmes.
Team led by Dr Grace Ngai, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Dr Grace Ngai and Dr Stephen Chan, with a view to advancing the practice of Service Learning (SL), have formed multicultural student teams through partnerships with local non-government organisations, organised student-exchange programmes, and piloted an innovative 'global SL classroom' initiative. Over the last 10 years, Dr Ngai and Dr Chan have increased the coverage of their service projects from Hong Kong and the Mainland to Cambodia, Myanmar, Rwanda and Kyrgyzstan. They have helped the university management conceptualise SL as an integral component of the undergraduate curriculum, and implement SL as an institutional teaching and learning strategy. Dr Ngai and Dr Chan plan to use the award grant to launch an SL Development Programme to establish a sizeable seed community of SL practitioners from across Hong Kong's universities and a set of rigorous academic SL subjects.
Dr Shirley Ngai, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Dr Shirley Ngai has devised various means of bridging the gap between clinical placement for physiotherapy and classroom training, such as blended learning, a flipped-classroom approach and the use of computerised medical simulation. She has led three educational projects designed to progressively enhance the use of computerised simulation for physiotherapy teaching and learning, and these projects have positive impacts on her students' learning. Dr Ngai also engages actively in projects with colleagues from other disciplines, and shared her experiences with other medical professionals. She will utilise the award grant to develop a mobile-learning app which provides students with timely access to relevant learning resources enabling them to learn during clinical practice.
Annex 2
Selection Criteria of the 2016 UGC Teaching Award
Selection Criteria
All nominees for the Award were assessed based on the following three criteria -
(a) Adoption of learner-centred approaches, ability to engage/inspire/impact on students and demonstration of superior classroom acumen, which may include a good understanding of pedagogy, understanding how students learn and adopting suitable teaching and assessment approaches that can achieve better student learning outcomes; being able to interact with students and engage them in learning with enthusiasm; inspiring and supporting students, with respect for their diverse learning needs, to build confidence and capability (including critical thinking, analytical skills, values, etc.); and outstanding classroom (as well as outside-classroom) teaching.
(b) Course/programme/curriculum design that can reflect a command of the field, which may include demonstrating up-to-date knowledge of the field of study in the design of the curriculum and student learning resources (e.g., textbooks, e-learning resources) and adopting complementary research-informed teaching practices; and developing appropriate student learning outcomes and adopting innovative approaches to teaching and assessment which can facilitate students' achievement of the learning outcomes.
(c) Past/present achievement(s) and
leadership in teaching and potential scholarly
contribution to and impact on the development
of effective teaching practice within the
nominee(s)' own university and/or in other
universities, which may include demonstrating
educational research and innovations in
the field of study; and demonstrating leadership
in the promotion of teaching excellence
within the university and/or in other universities.
In the case of team nominations, the impact
of the collaborative work of the team on
the development of effective teaching practice
will also be considered.
The three criteria carry no specified weighting.
The Selection Panel considered each nomination
on its own merit with reference to the criteria.
Composition of the Selection Panel
Professor Adrian Dixon (Chairperson)
Member of the University Grants Committee
and the Quality Assurance Council
Emeritus Professor of Radiology, University
of Cambridge, UK
Professor Mark Wainwright
Member of the University Grants Committee
Immediate Past Vice-Chancellor & President
and Honorary Visiting Emeritus Professor,
University of New South Wales, Australia
Mr Kwok Wing-keung
Member of the University Grants Committee
Principal, Carmel Holy Word Secondary
School
Professor Alice Chong Ming-lin
Awardee of the 2013 UGC Teaching Award
Professor and Associate Head, Department
of Applied Social Sciences, City University
of Hong Kong
Professor Paul Blackmore
International Expert of the Selection
Panel
Professor of Higher Education, International
Centre for University Policy Research, King's
College London