Message from the Pro-Vice-Chancellor
|
Professor Kit-Tai Hau Pro-Vice-Chancellor / Vice-President |
 |
Tertiary education worldwide targets the all-round development of students. There is now greater awareness that students have to develop a high level of proficiency in their specific disciplinary knowledge, and to master a series of multi-disciplinary skills (e.g., computation, information technology, language) as well as generic skills (e.g., creativity, critical thinking). Under such circumstances, excellence in university teaching and instruction is more important than ever before. Innovative teaching and instruction strategies have to be responsive to the new demands of modern-day education so as to provide an active and engaging learning environment.
Since it was first held in 2007, the Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo has been an important annual event at our University that contributes to the development of teaching and learning excellence through the sharing of best practice. Over the years I have witnessed growing interest among teachers in communicating with their peers and learning new teaching and learning strategies from each other on this special occasion where a community of practice is formed.
The year 2012 is a special year since it is the first year of the 3-3-4 curriculum. It may be a challenging year for teachers because of the double cohorts of new students in our campus. Particularly for the cohort of students taking the new senior secondary school curriculum, their learning styles and needs can be quite different from those of the previous cohorts. All these changes thus make the sharing of experiences among teachers this year much more important and meaningful. I am looking forward to learning much from my colleagues and I wish this year’s Expo a great success.