Issue 8, March 2015

Welcome to the e-bulletin of Communities of Practice (CoPs), where you will be able to catch up with our most updated events and information of the five CoPs in PolyU.


Promotion of CoP to New PolyU Teaching Staff

On behalf of all CoP facilitators and co-faciiltators, Ms. Katherine Shum (co-facilitator of Academic Advising CoP) introduced CoP to "Certificate in Introduction to University Teaching" students on 23 February. This mandatory programme, conducted by Educational Development Centre, is for full-time PolyU staff who are new to teaching. Students are eager to understand more about CoP, get support from others who have similar interest and make professional developments.

 

Roundtable Teaching and Learning: Why are assumptions important in our teaching, learning & research?


On 24 February, three distinguished panelists, Dr. Allan Chan (ITC), Mr. Remi Leclerc (SD), Dr. Tang Yi (MM), were invited to share their interesting interpretations on the importance of assumptions. All of them agreed that all brilliant scholars (researchers and teachers alike) understand the value and importance of (re)examining our current taken-for-granted assumptions and take them as a way to open up deeper understanding of why things work and why things do not work.
 




Pilot Study of an Integral Psychological Profile (IPsP) Psychometric Instrument for Recognising Excellent Teachers' Core Competencies


With the leadership of our CoP member Mr. Remi Leclerc, a total of 31 excellent teachers participated in the pilot study of an Integral Psychological Profile (IPsP) Psychometric Instrument for Recognising Excellent Teachers' Core Competencies conducted by Roy Horan, CEO Innovea Ltd and Adjunct Assistant Professor of SD. The objective of the pilot study was to profile excellent teachers’ core competencies, psychological traits and motivation styles arising from these competencies to help PolyU teachers improve their teaching performance by providing a meaningful baseline founded on the core competencies. Data show the IPsP profile highlights the importance of creativity, leadership and communication for PolyU’s excellent teachers. A workshop for explaining the results to the participants was conducted on 3 March.
 



Tense and Voice in Describing and Discussing Research Findings

This workshop was for academic staff members who would like to further advance their research writing skills or are keen to help students become better communicators in their disciplines. The workshop examined how tense is often used differently in describing vs discussing findings, and explored ways to write objective sentences in active voice without employing first-person pronouns “I” or “we”. PowerPoint slides are available here.
 

Staff Development Grant in Service-Learning

The Staff Development Grant on Service-Learning for CoP-SL members was open for application in February. Many members took this opportunity to further develop and enhance their knowledge and competence in designing, delivering, assessing and evaluating service-learning courses and projects by various means, such as, attending conferences/ seminars/ workshops/ courses, conducting teaching development projects, and carrying out small scale pedagogical research related to service learning.




What We Have Learned from Teaching a Service-Learning Subject in China and Hong Kong

Date: 11 March (Wed)
Time: 12:45-2:00pm
Venue: TU411
Facilitators:

Gilbert Chan (ABCT), Alex Chan (ABCT)

In this informal session the facilitators will share what they have learned from teaching a Service-Learning subject. We hope everyone interested in Service-Learning will join us for a tea gathering, a chance to view a short video about the subject and to participate in an open discussion that will include:

· the challenges in (i) farming communities in China and (ii) groups with intellectual disabilities in Hong Kong that this subject was developed to address
· what students experienced in the subject and what they learnt and achieved
· lessons the teachers have learned from teaching the subject

This session is jointly organized by the CoP on Service-Learning, OSL and EDC.

Click here for further information and registration.

 

A UGC-Funded Collaborative Forum on Service-Learning


You are invited to a lecture and workshop series by Dr. Andrew Furco, distinguished scholar on Service-Learning, at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This series is funded by the UGC as part of the Collaborative Forum on Service-Learning and is co-organised by the Office of Service Learning (OSL), the Educational Development Center (EDC), and the Community of Practice (CoP) on Service-Learning.

Andrew Furco is Associate Vice President for Public Engagement at the University of Minnesota, where is also serves as an Associate Professor of Higher Education. As Associate Vice President, he oversees the advancement of community-engaged research, teaching, and outreach initiatives across the University. He has led more than 30 research studies on service-learning and has produced over 70 publications on the subject. Prior to arriving in Minnesota, he served as a faculty member in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley and as the founding Director of Berkeley’s Service-Learning Research and Development Center. He currently serves on the board of directors for the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE).

Please register in advance as seating is limited.

Speaker/Facilitator: Prof Andrew Furco (Associate Vice President for Public Engagement and Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Minnesota, U.S.A.)

Open Lecture: Research in Service-Learning: Past, Present & Future
Date: 23 March 2015 (Mon)

Time: 2:30pm – 4:30pm
Venue: Y306
Service-Learning is now recognized as a highly effective pedagogical tool. The integration of community service into the academic curriculum in higher education is embraced wholeheartedly in many countries, and is gathering momentum in many other places all over the world. However, Service-Learning is relatively new to PolyU and Hong Kong. Participants of this lecture will have the chance to learn more about the research in Service-Learning.

Workshop 1: Assessing Students in Service-Learning
Date: 24 March 2015 (Tue)
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm
Venue: TU411

Objectively and accurately assessing students’ performance in service-learning subjects and projects is different from traditionally taught classroom-based subjects. Participants of this workshop will have the opportunity to discuss and explore principles and practices for assessing students in service-learning subjects and projects.

Workshop 2: How to Write a Service-Learning paper for publication
Date: 25 March 2015 (Wed)
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm
Venue: TU411

Service-learning is an evolving research area in its own right. Join this workshop to learn about how to most effectively contribute to this growing field.

Enquiry: oslinfo@polyu.edu.hk

Online Registration: Click here
 

Roundtable Teaching and Learning: Teaching Smart People to Learn


Date: 31 March (Tue)
Time: 12:45-2:00pm
Venue: Research Lounge, Pao Yue-Kong Library
Facilitators:

David Chan (Avnet Technology Solutions), Georgina Chan (IAEE), Frankie Ng (ITC), Eric Tsui (ISE)

Learning is the key to enlightenment! It is the bedrock of improvement and how to better understand the world.

As we gain more experience and become more knowledgeable, we paradoxically close off to other forms of reasoning and logic becoming even more determined in our own ways.

In such situations, how do we get smart people to learn? This Roundtable Teaching & Learning session brings together a distinguished line of three educators whose everyday job is to deal with exceptionally smart people.

Come join us to hear their lessons learned and success stories in helping smart people learn to unlearn.

Click here for further information and registration.

 
Community of Practice: Academic Advising (CoP: AA) – Symposium: “Towards Effective Academic Advising”

A one-day symposium “Towards Effective Academic Advising” co-organised by OGUR and CoP on Academic Advising will be held on 20 April 2015 in PolyU. Representatives from HKU, HKUST and PolyU will be invited to share their experiences in academic advising to promote effective academic advising in the following specific areas:

- Academic Advising in Faculties/Departments;
- Academic Advising in an institute’s centralised office;
- Peer Advising;
- Working with Faculty Members for effective academic advising; and
- Student needs, expectations, preferences for style of academic advising.

All are welcome. Please mark the date to join us in the symposium. Full registration details will be provided in due course. For enquiry, please email to: head.ogur@polyu.edu.hk.


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