Remarks by Chair, 2019 UGC Teaching Award Selection Panel at the Presentation Ceremony of the 2019 UGC Teaching Award cum Launching Ceremony of HKTEA (10.10.2019)
Presentation Ceremony of 2019 UGC Teaching Award cum
Launching Ceremony of HKTEA on
10 October 2019
Remarks by Professor Jan Thomas
Chair, 2019 UGC Teaching Award Selection Panel
Carlson, Council Chairmen, Heads of Universities, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening to you all. I am delighted to be here and it has been a privilege to chair the Selection Panel of the UGC Teaching Award again. Tonight, we celebrate the outstanding teaching achievements of colleagues in the UGC sector.
2. The Award recognises teaching excellence of both individuals and teaching teams. This year, a separate award category is established for teams with members from different universities. This not only increases the recognition of team teaching, but also encourages sector-wide collaboration. In the past few months, Members of the Selection Panel reviewed 19 nomination submissions from universities. We were truly impressed by the nominees' commitment to students and their learning. Their teaching approaches, innovation and leadership have enhanced students' learning experience. The initiatives undertaken by the teams are also internationally significant.
3. The Selection Panel met the seven finalists last week and discussed with them their teaching philosophies. After careful deliberation, the Selection Panel agreed that three of the finalists should receive the 2019 award. Now let me announce the three awardees.
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Firstly, Dr Tushar Chaudhuri from Hong Kong Baptist University
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The next awardee, who is from the category of early career faculty members, is Professor Darwin Lau from The Chinese University of Hong Kong
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The third awardee, who is from the category of teams, is the Common Core@HKU: Transdisciplinarity-in-Action Team from The University of Hong Kong
Dr Chaudhuri is committed to diversification and internationalisation of students' learning experience through innovative teaching programmes and international projects, as well as creative use of cutting edge technologies. Through the online telecollaborative projects, he combines language education with global topics, such as sustainable urban development. These projects have reached and impacted over 1 000 secondary and tertiary students, who have been connected to more than 15 universities and over 25 schools in Hong Kong and Europe. The learning experiences have greatly enhanced students' sense of global awareness and intercultural understanding. Dr Chaudhuri will use the award grant to set up a multi-institutional Community of Practice to provide a platform for multiple initiatives on technology-enhanced language education in the Greater Bay Area.
Congratulations, Dr Chaudhuri!
Professor Lau, an expert in robotics, is known for his achievements in the learner-centred and experienced-based learning ideology. He is dedicated to bringing about meaningful hands-on experiences both within and outside the classroom to improve students' learning interest and outcomes. Professor Lau has introduced the "hands-on lectures" in which learning tools are used to aid students in better understanding abstract concepts. This makes learning more fun and relevant to the practical world and increases student motivation. Professor Lau will use his award grant to implement two initiatives. One initiative is to transition a course into a "student-driven course" through the development of a custom smartphone teaching app, and the other one is to deploy telepresence robots equipped with virtual reality capabilities to improve the experiential learning element.
Congratulations, Professor Lau!
The Team is led by Professor Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, with Dr Xiao Hu, Professor Gina Marchetti, Mr Mathew Pryor and Dr Julian Tanner as team members. The Common Core is designed to broaden students' intellectual and social perspectives, and develop in students' some of the skills they need in order to address the complexities of life. The Transdisciplinarity-in-Action initiative moves across pedagogical questions, styles, content, and methodologies, and through this movement, stimulates student learning, creativity, and responsibility. The Team will use the award grant to build transdisciplinary student teams, primarily across the eight UGC-funded universities, but extending to the Asia-Pacific region and focused on three of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals - Good Health & Well-Being, Gender Equality, and Sustainable Cities and Communities.
Congratulations, Professor Kochhar-Lindgren and his team!
4. In a moment, the awardees will share with you their teaching philosophies. Before that, I would like to thank my colleagues in the Selection Panel – Dr Don Westerheijden, Principal Carol Yang, Professor Daniel Shek and Professor Simon Bates for their support and hard work. I am also grateful to UGC for entrusting me with the work of chairing the Selection Panel. Thank you.