The Malleability and Value of Intellectual Styles: Implications for Higher Education

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Organized by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Speaker: Professor Li-fang Zhang, Head of Division of Learning, Development and Diversity, Faculty of Education, HKU
Date : 9th April, 2015 (Thursday)
Time : 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Venue : Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building

Abstract:

Intellectual styles are people’s preferred ways of using their abilities. The principal objective of this talk is to demonstrate that in an increasingly globalizing era when student populations are more diverse than ever before, intellectual styles play an even more critical role in higher education. To achieve this objective, the talk showcases chief research evidence suggesting that students’ and academics’ styles, particularly styles that are creativity-generating and that require higher levels of cognitive complexity (known as Type I intellectual styles), matter significantly in teaching and learning as well as in student and faculty development. It presents empirical evidence revealing that styles can be modified through both socialization and deliberate training. Finally, implications of research findings are proposed respectively for students, academics, student development educators, and for university senior managers.

About the Speakers:

Li-fang Zhang is Professor of Psychology and Education in the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong, where she served as Associate Dean (Research Higher Degrees) from 2007 to 2010 and is currently Head of the Division of Learning, Development, and Diversity. Professor Zhang is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and encyclopedic entries as well as dozens of academic book chapters and books. Her most recent book is entitled “The Malleability of Intellectual Styles” (Zhang, 2013; Cambridge University Press). The title of her forthcoming monograph is “The Value of Intellectual Styles” (Cambridge University Press).

Apart from publishing on intellectual styles, she has also published works in such diverse research areas as creativity, giftedness, personality, student development, teacher education, higher education, multicultural education, and the academic profession. She is Associate Editor of Journal of Educational Psychology and that of Educational Psychology and serves on the editorial boards of Educational Psychology Review, Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, Asian Journal of Education, and PsyCh Journal.

Sandwiches will be served with coffee and tea.

For information on registration, please contact:
Ms Ivy Lai , CETL
Phone: 3917 8996; Email: laichun2@hku.hk.

Invitation: MSF Professional Humanitarian Workshop in March – Humanitarian Response in Emergencies

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Message from Gallant Ho Experiential Learning Centre

Dear all,

Professional humanitarian workers from Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) will come to HKU and share with you about their stories and work in the frontline where medical and humanitarian aids are imminent.

Do come and exchange with them, or join their service initiatives to contribute for the betterment of humanity. Let’s equip yourself with the skills, knowledge and mindset in planning and managing your own service projects on poverty, global development, rural health, universal education, sustainable development, and many more!

MSF Professional Humanitarian Workshop in March:
Humanitarian Response in Emergencies

Date: 2 March 2015 (Monday)
Time: 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Venue: T6, Meng Wah Complex
Speakers include: Luke Chu, Water and Sanitation Engineer (HKU Alumnus)

About the Workshop:
Experienced field workers will share how they work differently in various types of emergency response, how we adapt ourselves and work in natural disasters and for population affected by conflicts.

About the Speaker:
Luke Chu is a civil engineer. He joined MSF in 2011 and since then has worked in Afghanistan and South Sudan as a Water and Sanitation Technician.

Registration:
https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?ueid=34935 (HKU Portal Login Required)

Enquiries:
Ms. Karen Chiu (ghelc@hku.hk / 2219 4994).

TDG Project Seminar – Project-Based Experiential Learning for Sustainability Embedded Higher Education

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Date : 16 February 2015 (Monday)
Time : 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Venue : Room 6-12B (Conference Room), Haking Wong Building, The University of Hong Kong

About the seminar

Experiential learning and project-based learning share their pedagogic foundation, while there is insucient research on exploring their integration for enhancing student learning in real-life projects. This gap in knowledge is coupled with a paucity of sustainability pedagogy in higher education. While project-based learning and experiential learning are sometimes found to be used interchangeably both in literature as well as in practice, there are dierences between the two, particularly in the areas of construction and sustainability.

This seminar reports on a HKU Teaching Development Grants (TDG) project in which Project-Based Learning (PjBL) and Experiential Learning (EL) are integrated to enhance learning in sustainability embedded higher education. PjBL may involve real-life projects, with examples like case studies, eld trips and site visits. EL may include in-class demonstrations, eld trips, site visits and other forms of hands-on student participation as part of the learning process but may not necessarily be based on real-life projects. The project team and supporters will share the research ndings as well as the latest thinking and practice of project-based experiential learning for sustainability education across the University.

Registration of seminar

Attending this seminar is FREE, but advanced online registration is required on the first come, first served basis via https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=35322, where further information is also available. For enquiry on this seminar, please contact Dr Kelwin Wong (kelwin.wong@connect.hku.hk), or Dr. Wei Pan (wpan@hku.hk, +852 2859 2671) of the Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong.

Deadline of registration: Thursday 12 February 2015.

Seminar rundown

12:15 – 12:30noon Registration
12:30 – 12:35 Welcome Remarks
Prof S C Wong, Head of Department of Civil Engineering, HKU
12:35 – 12:40 Introduction
Dr Wei Pan, Department of Civil Engineering, HKU
12:40 – 12:45 Overview of Project-Based Experiential Learning in The Common Core Courses at HKU
Prof Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Director of The Common Core Course Programme, HKU
12:45 – 12:50 Project-Based Experiential Learning for Sustainability Embedded Higher Education: The Perspective of CETL
Dr Cecilia Chan, Head of Professional Development, Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), HKU
12:50 – 1:10pm Project-Based Experiential Learning for Sustainability Embedded Higher Education
Dr Wei Pan and Dr Kelwin Wong, Department of Civil Engineering, HKU
1:10 – 1:25 Q & A
All participants
1:25 – 1:30pm Closing Remarks
Dr Wei Pan, Department of Civil Engineering, HKU

Project team members and supporters

The project underlying this seminar is carried out and supported by a
University-wide team including:

  • Faculty of Engineering
  • Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
  • University Common Core Course Programme
  • Gallant Ho Experiential Learning Centre
  • Estates Office

CETL Seminar – Assessing the stages of scientific inquiry: An assessor’s toolkit

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Organized by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Speakers: Dr Vikki Burns, Director of Teaching Quality Enhancement for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Birmingham, UK
Chair: Dr Susan Bridges, Associate Professor, Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning/ Faculty of Education, HKU
Date : 17th February, 2015 (Tuesday)
Time : 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Venue : Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building

Abstract:

It is clear that science, health sciences and engineering students need to be able to understand and engage with all stages of the scientific process to become effective graduates. However, many of our traditional assessments still focus on subject specific knowledge, rather than the broader skills and understanding necessary for scientific inquiry.

This seminar will explore how we can construct novel, valid tasks that assess each stage of the scientific process. It will focus on specific, pragmatic examples of assessments that can be adapted for the basic, clinical, and applied sciences and engineering. Through these examples, the seminar will illustrate how the nature of the assessment task can guide student behaviour and promote more effective learning.

The seminar will be relevant to any member of staff involved in assessing students in science, health sciences or engineering, particularly those looking for ideas to move beyond more traditional assessments. Anyone with more experience or expertise in innovative assessments is encouraged to attend and contribute to the general discussions after the presentation.

About the Speakers:

ESP-UoB-7499.jpgDr Vikki Burns is Director of Teaching Quality Enhancement for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, UK. She is currently visiting The University of Hong Kong on a Universitas 21 fellowship.

Dr Burns has recently rewritten the classic book ’53 Interesting Ways to Assess Your Students’, which will be published by Frontinus Ltd in 2015. This accessible book provides ideas and considerations for different types of assessment. It focuses on tips for practitioners rather than in depth theoretical discussions. As such, it’s the ideal companion for a new member of academic staff, or anyone who wants evidence based ideas but who doesn’t have the time to search them out from the primary literature.

Dr Burns is also on the management group for the University of Birmingham’s new Teaching Academy, and supports other academic staff to develop and evaluate their teaching practices. She has recently established a national network for Sport and Exercise Sciences departments at research-led universities to share good practice and build collaborations, and is looking forward to building more international links during her sabbatical in 2015.

Sandwiches will be served with coffee and tea.

For information on registration, please contact:
Ms Ivy Lai , CETL
Phone: 3917 8996; Email: laichun2@hku.hk.

CETL EPSU Seminar – Educational Video Production: Design principles for meaningful learning

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Organized by e-learning Pedagogical Support Unit, CETL

Speakers: Mr Steve Roberts (Instructional Designer, CETL, HKU)
Date : 11th February, 2015 (Wednesday)
Time : 12:45pm – 2:00pm
Venue : Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building

It would take an individual over 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global internet networks each month in 2018, with video consisting of 79% of all consumer internet traffic in 2018 (Cisco, 2014). Whilst this vast access and consumption of video by no means implies viewers are engaging with or learning from high-quality content, it does indicate that video is a dominant online modality for information ‘chunking’ and broadcasting. In light of this ubiquity of video, the ease in which technology can be leveraged to create viewing environments, and its potential as a medium to provide input, higher education (HE) has been integrating video into teaching and learning at a rapidly growing rate. Flipped classrooms, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), blended-learning classrooms and distance courses are a few of the many contexts in which video is employed as a tool for learning.

But, given this huge uptake, perhaps it is worth pausing to consider the nature of the videos which are being produced. Are we sufficiently reflecting on questions such as: What is the difference between video for education and entertainment? What is the impact of visuals and audio, and the relationship between these modalities, on student cognition and learning? Does adding graphics to spoken words help students’ learning? Is talking over PowerPoint slides more or less effective than a talking head alone? Does adding on-screen written text, which parallels spoken text, support or hinder learning?

If you are curious about the answers to these questions, join this seminar where we will discuss approaches to multimedia design; explore foundational ideas on cognitive load and working memory; collaboratively analyse multimedia design principles to aid cognition and learning by looking at several examples; and finally reflect on the relevance of these theories and approaches to our own contexts.

About the Speakers:

Steve Roberts has experience in a range of local and international contexts as a teacher, teacher trainer and courseware designer. He is currently working as part of the EPSU team to develop Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and provide pedagogical support to faculties integrating technology into their teaching and learning environments. His research interests include the potential role of digital technologies for communication and education in international development.

Sandwiches will be served with coffee and tea.

For information on registration, please contact:
Ms Ivy Lai , CETL
Phone: 3917 8996; Email: laichun2@hku.hk.

CANCELLATION – Seminar: New Frontiers in Teaching Excellence

CANCELLATION

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the following seminar on “New Frontiers in Teaching Excellence” by Professor Michele Marincovich will be CANCELLED.
Thank you for your attention.

Speaker: Professor Michele Marincovich, Senior Advisor to the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education of Stanford University
Date: January 27, 2015 (Tuesday)
Venue: Senate Room, 10/F, Knowles Building
Time: 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Language: English

Abstract
The past decade or two has already seen a shift toward greater emphasis on teaching even at leading research-intensive universities. Yale finally has a teaching center open to faculty, for example, and Stanford recently announced plans for the creation of faculty teaching fellowships, essentially teaching sabbaticals. But where will new sources of motivation, energy, and funding come from in the pursuit of faculty teaching excellence? This seminar will focus on looking ahead to future sources of development, especially at the institutional, student learning, and technology level, and will encourage audience participation in the generation of suggestions and possible opportunities.

About the speaker
MICHELE MARINCOVICH, Ph.D., is Senior Advisor to the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and former Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Stanford University (1980-2013). Her major publications, “Effective Practices at Research Universities: The Productive Pairing of Research and Teaching,” (with Constance Cook in A Guide to Faculty Development, 2nd ed., edited by Kay Gillespie, Doug Robertson, and Associates, Jossey-Bass, 2010), “Teaching and Learning in a Research-Intensive University” (in The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: An Evidence-Based Perspective, edited by R. P. Perry and J. C. Smart, Springer Publishing, 2007), The Professional Development of Graduate Teaching Assistants (Anker Publishing, 1998, with Jack Prostko and Frederic Stout), and Disciplinary Differences in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (with Nira Hativa, Volume 64 in the Jossey Bass New Directions in Teaching and Learning Series, 1995) reflect her pioneering work creating effective faculty and TA development programs for the research-intensive university. At Stanford since 1976, her impact has been recognized on campus with the distinguished Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Outstanding Service to Undergraduate Education and off campus by election as executive director of the Professional and Organizational Development Network for Higher Education and by invitations to speak on campuses in the U.S. and abroad.

Enquiries
Please email jaypat@hku.hk or call 2219 4832.

CITE & Faculty of Education Joint Seminar – Teaching Cartography at Scale in a Massive Open Online Course

Message from Centre for Information Technology in Education within the Faculty of Education

CITE Seminar Series 2014/2015

CITE & Faculty of Education Joint Seminar – Teaching Cartography at Scale in a Massive Open Online Course

Date: 23 January 2015 (Friday)
Time: 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
Venue: Room 101, 1/F., Runme Shaw Building, The University of Hong Kong
Speaker: Prof. Anthony C. Robinson, Assistant Professor, The Pennsylvania State University
Chair: Dr. Timothy HEW, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, HKU

About the Seminar
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become an important trend in distance education. By their nature, MOOCs provide increased global access to college courses without tuition cost to students, and they challenge traditional models for higher education which emphasize high levels of one-on-one contact between instructors and students. In this presentation I describe experiences from designing, developing, and teaching the first MOOC on Mapping. The course, called Maps and the Geospatial Revolution, has been taught twice through Coursera, a major MOOC platform. More than 75,000 students from over 200 countries have enrolled in the course to date, signaling a large demand for basic cartographic education. This talk will reflect on the wide range of challenges and opportunities regarding MOOCs for geographic education and research, including the experience of teaching a class at scale to novices around the world.

About the Speaker
Dr. Anthony Robinson is Assistant Professor, Director for Online Geospatial Education programs, and Assistant Director for the GeoVISTA research center in the Department of Geography at Penn State University. In the former role, Robinson directs Penn State’s Online Geospatial Education efforts, including its Master of GIS and Post-Baccalaureate GIS Certificate programs, which have served over 5000 students with more than 30 courses since 1999. Robinson teaches Maps and the Geospatial Revolution on Coursera, a MOOC that has enrolled over 75,000 students from more than 200 countries. For the GeoVISTA Center, Robinson’s research focuses on the science of interface and interaction design for geographic visualization software tools. He has developed interface design and usability assessment methods for integrating geographic visualization tools with work in epidemiology, crisis management, and homeland security.

Please register at
http://www.cite.hku.hk/news.php?id=540&category=seminar

Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme Seminar

Coordinator: Dr Suki Ekaratne, CETL, The University of Hong Kong
Date: 13 February, 2015 (Friday)
Time: 12:45pm – 1:45pm
Venue: Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building

Abstract

Grants for overseas reciprocal visits through ‘Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme’

This seminar provides information and an overview of the “Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme” which aims to enhance the scholarship of teaching at HKU through grants for exchange visits. It will explain, and also showcase examples, on how this funding opportunity can be used by HKU teaching staff to share experience and to collaborate on teaching and curriculum development initiatives with overseas reputable universities through reciprocal visits.

The seminar is open to all teaching staff interested in finding out more about this Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme. Staff will be provided an overview of the scheme, how to lodge an application, the key objectives, amounts they can apply for, eligibility and advice in preparing an application. Staff who are thinking about applying in the next round (having a 17th April closing date) are strongly encouraged to attend. The Circular on this scheme can be found at http://intraweb.hku.hk/reserved_2/tlearn/tefs/TEFS-List-A-2014.pdf. Staff who are not sure, or would simply like to know more about the scheme, are also welcome.

Online Registration

For information on registration, please contact:
Ms Ivy Lai , CETL
Phone: 3917 8996; Email: laichun2@hku.hk.

More information:
Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme 2014-15

Public Lecture: What Defines a Global University?

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Professor Eric Thomas

Public Lecture by Professor Sir Eric Thomas
Vice-Chancellor, University of Bristol, UK
UK Education Champion, since 2013
President of Universities UK, 2011-13

Date : January 12, 2015 (Monday)
Time : 5:30pm Tea Reception
6:00pm Lecture by Professor Sir Eric Thomas
Venue : Conference Room, 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
Enquiries : 2219 4892

For registration details, please click here.

Lecture abstract

The words “world class”, “global” and “international” are used with undisciplined frequency by huge numbers of universities in their public relations, marketing and student and staff recruitment. In many respects such use has so undermined the very description that external observers attach little importance to it. There are, however, universities that do transcend their location and their activity and that would be agreed by most observers to be world class and globalised.

This lecture will look at the criteria that could be used to construct these definitions and analyse their strengths and weaknesses. It will ask the question as to whether there are only a tiny number of universities that should responsibly use these epithets or whether many universities have so many of the characteristics that it is fair that they describe themselves in this manner. It will also look at the factors and events that have shaped our major universities into thinking and planning in a global manner rather than the more parochial normality of twenty years ago.

Speaker’s profile

Professor Sir Eric Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol, a position he has held since September 2001. He was awarded a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2013 for services to Higher Education.

He graduated in Medicine from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1976 and proceeded to obtain his MD by thesis in research into endometriosis in 1987. He trained as an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist and worked at both the universities of Sheffield and Newcastle. In 1991 he was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Southampton and then became Head of the School of Medicine there in 1995 and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Biological Sciences in 1998. He was a Consultant Gynaecologist from 1987 to 2001.

In July 2013, Sir Eric was appointed as the new UK Education Champion by the Government as part of its strategy to promote the UK education sector internationally. Sir Eric will also co-chair the new International Education Council alongside the Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts.

From 2011-2013, Sir Eric was President of Universities UK. He was previously Vice-President of UUK, Chair of its England and Northern Ireland Council and Chair of the Research Policy Committee. He was a Trustee and then Chair of CASE Europe from 2007-2014 and a member of the CASE Board in North America from 2010-2014.

Sir Eric is a Trustee of IntoUniversity and a Lay Trustee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He chaired the government Taskforce into Increasing Voluntary Giving in Higher Education, which reported in 2004. He was Chair of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) from 2003-2007 and was a member of the Board of the South-West Regional Development Agency from 2002 to 2008.

CETL Programme: Introduction to Teaching and Learning @ HKU

Organized by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Date: 15th January, 2014 (Thurs) 
Time: 9:30am – 3:30pm
Venue: Multi-purpose Zone, 3/F, HKU Main Library

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This one-day ‘Introduction to Teaching and Learning @ HKU’ programme is a foundation programme in teaching and learning at the University of Hong Kong and is designed for teaching staff, regardless of previous teaching experience, who are new to teaching at HKU. The overall aim is to provide new staff with a better understanding of specific issues relating to teaching and learning context in Hong Kong and at HKU. Staff will hear from leading Senior Academics in areas of strategic importance to the University.

During this programme, participants will be able to gain knowledge and to engage in discussions relating to issues relevant to teaching and learning at HKU. These will include the overview of the 4-year undergraduate curriculum reform delivered by Professor George Tham, Associate Vice-President of HKU, the demography and culture of HKU students, English as a medium of instruction, the common core curriculum, the role and nature of academic advising and about e-learning at HKU. Participants will also have the opportunity to talk in small groups to Outstanding Teaching Award (OTA) winners at HKU and learn about the diverse ways that have made HKU teaching more outcomes-based and how these have enhanced the learning effectiveness of their teaching.

Online Registration

The maximum capacity is 80 on a first-come-first-serve basis. Registration will close on 8th Jan 2015 (Thurs) at 5pm.

For information on registration, please contact:
Ms. Ivy Lai, CETL
Phone: 3917 8996; Email: laichun2@hku.hk.