| Three teachers captured the honours of the President Award for Teaching and Service for Academic Staff (2015-2016). This recognition was given to Dr Yi-Lung Kuo, Dr Edoardo Monaco and Dr May Wang. It was the second time that the annual award has acknowledged full-time academic staff with at least two years of service for their outstanding performance and achievement in the areas of teaching and service. |
| By Deen He |
Yi-Lung Kuo – Every student succeeds
Dr Yi-Lung Kuo, Assistant Professor of the Applied
Psychology Programme, DST. Photograph: Wang Xiaopeng
When his students meet Dr Yi-Lung Kuo on the campus, they always see him radiate a beam of optimism and kindness. This is his typical way to say hello, but it's more than a hello. The students feel close to him.
Dr Kuo avails himself of every possible opportunity, like through the Mentor Caring Programme and class meetings, to bond with them. His availability almost runs the gamut of popular social media and e-learning platforms. In his words, he welcomes students to contact him “whenever they want to share their thoughts relevant to coursework or personal life.”
Dr Kuo comes from Taiwan. In most of his ivory tower times, he studied special education, gifted education, and educational measurement and assessment. He received his PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Iowa in 2011. The next year he became part of the UIC community as Assistant Professor of the Applied Psychology Programme, Division of Science and Technology.
Outside of UIC, he actively plays various professional roles in government, educational associations and non-profit organisations. Several months ago, he was elected as President of the Chinese American Educational Research and Development Association.
In my interview with Dr Kuo, he reflects upon the important traits that he feels are conducive to outstanding teaching.
When did you know you were gifted or called to the vocation of teaching?
Yi-Lung Kuo: When I was a high school student, after visiting a special education school, I made up my mind to become a special education teacher. I didn’t take the Taiwan College Entrance Exam. Instead, I took an admission system through screening and recommendation to the Department of Special Education at National Taiwan Normal University as a state-funded student to start my teaching career.
Is there a word or a phrase that captures your pedagogy? How or why?
YLK: “Education for All (有教无类)” - for a long time after I started my teaching career. Recently, I prefer “Every Student Succeeds”. It is more proactive.
All students deserve a quality education. As a teacher, based on students’ individual differences, we should create an optimally open environment and maximize development opportunities. Specifically, while teaching in a regular class, in addition to providing an enriched curriculum for high-achieving students, we should ensure every possible learning resource is made available to low-achieving students.
How did you prepare to teach the class?
YLK: When I prepare a single course, my goal is very clear: how to motivate students to learn and help them to achieve course intended learning outcomes. Based on this goal, I design course activities and assignments accordingly.
What, if any, advice would you give to junior faculty just beginning their teaching careers?
YLK: First, understand university vision, including the meaning of its motto and key attributes. Second, before you go on stage, imagine if you were a student, what kind of class activities would attract you and what would make it worth your time to sit in class. Third, check your teaching toolbox and get familiar with all possible teaching resources. Fourth, embrace innovative teaching techniques and technology. Fifth, learn effective research-based instructional strategies. Finally, become an intentional teacher. Design your teaching intentionally based on the learning outcomes you want to achieve.
Edoardo Monaco: Novel Marco Polo
Dr Edoardo Monaco, Assistant Professor of the Government and International Relations Programme, DHSS. Photograph: Wang Xiaopeng
Just like Marco Polo, Dr Edoardo Monaco was born in Venice, Italy and has an avid interest in development in Asia.
He studied law at the University of Bologna before receiving attorney training. In late 2005 he went to France to pursue an MSc in International Management. “Soon after graduation, I worked on a couple of consulting projects in China,” Dr Monaco recalls, “and then again in India and South Korea for Italian and EU chambers of commerce, respectively.”
To realise his aspirations and explore what is behind China’s magical achievements, Dr Monaco began to teach at UIC in 2009 and squeezed in a doctoral programme at Yunnan University. When studying at this university in southwestern China, he researched holistic development governance in Bhutan.
He has not ceased to keep abreast of academic trends and often visits Harvard University for complementary training and research.
This academic year he is directing the Government and International Relations Programme, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences.
“I am lucky enough to really enjoy what I do,” Dr Monaco smiled. “The lines between work, research, hobbies and leisure are, in my case, rather blurred!”
What was the most difficult part of the award evaluation? How did you react to it?
Edoardo Monaco: The evaluation process has clearly been thorough and rigorous, involving virtually every aspect of being an academic at UIC. I must say I simply kept true to myself all along, sharing, when asked, the fundamental aspects that underpin my work ethics and beliefs as an educator.
How do you get students to ask questions in class?
EM: Students are the real stars of the GIR programme. They constantly surprise me for their intellectual curiosity, their investigative nature, their boundless aspirations, even their wit and humour. I believe the key lies in trying to reduce the complexity of international affairs to “manageable” concepts that students may govern and utilise promptly. Plus, I try to highlight real-world, day-to-day implications of global events, so that students may easily relate to them.
What have you learned about yourself through the teaching experience?
EM: I see teaching as a responsibility to share, inspire and enable: share knowledge and experience coming from formal education, constant research and direct observation; inspire so as to allow students to identify their true interests and tap into their full potential; enable them to ultimately rely on their own capabilities and chase their aspirations. My ultimate goal is, in fact, that students may “remember” me, after graduation, but not “need” me any longer, as by then they should be fully ready to face any challenge using the very tools acquired at UIC.
What do you think of UIC’s effort to improve its teaching and learning quality?
EM: UIC’s mission is unique, noble and truly groundbreaking. It has opened a new dimension into academic education in China, and concretely changed the lives of thousands of students so far. Throughout the course of their studies, you can almost see horizons expanding and barriers falling in their eyes. I believe further growth for UIC is just an inevitable, natural evolution because the fundamentals are strong and the dedication of all involved - from top management to office staff - immense.
May Wang: Woman of parts
Dr May Wang, Assistant Professor of the Applied
Economics Programme, DBM. Photograph: Wang Xiaopeng
If you watched the Cantonese music drama “I Have a Date with Spring” staged by our staff and students two years ago, you would be probably impressed by one of the main actresses. Her beautiful singing and dancing greatly amused the audience. She was also one of the hosts in the evening gala of the UIC 10th Anniversary Celebration. She can fence, she plays badminton and tennis, she practises yoga… She is versatile Dr May Wang.
Dr Wang obtained an MPhil in System Engineering and Engineering Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003 and turned towards a PhD programme in the School of Business at the University of Hong Kong. In 2009 she started her spell at UIC as Assistant Professor. Courses she taught encompassed Management Science, Marketing Research, Business Research Methods, and Management Information Systems.
As for her teaching belief, she has quoted Plutarch’s words that “The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” She believes it encompasses the idea that “teachers should seek to empower or capacitate students with the necessary skills to take control of their own learning and emulate the behaviours that teachers expect from their students to acquire, or in another word: student-centred learning and outcome-based teaching and learning.” To follow the creed, her teaching style varies depending on the backgrounds of the students and the natures of subjects.
Though devoting most of her time to teaching and guiding her students, she evinces a keen interest in research on E-Commerce, Recommendation Technology, Online Marketing and Online Consumer Behaviour.
Dr Wang believes in the synergy between teaching, research and services for a scholar, which in return, is beneficial to students. In the 2015-2016 academic year, she was Programme Director of Applied Economics, Division of Business and Management.
How important do you feel such recognition is for you and for teachers of UIC?
May Wang: This recognition is not only to encourage teaching staff to continuously help our students become effective learners and life-long learners but also to enhance the awareness of the importance of teaching in UIC.
What, do you believe, has been your most effective tool in reaching students?
MW: Good communications between students and instructors, which are enabled by Blackboard, WeChat groups, discussion groups and continuous sharing and learning among students in and after class, are the most effective tools in reaching students and identifying their difficulties in learning.
What does the profession of teaching give to you?
MW: Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. I am so glad to see that most of my students are capable of critical thinking and that some of them have worked very hard to achieve excellence out of their comfort zone. I can see that many students can achieve graduate attributes in their year 3 or year 4.
What challenges in the future do you see?
MW: Both teachers and students should be life-long learners. I will keep on learning and continue to work in this direction to further improve my teaching effectiveness. I still have a lot to learn from my colleagues.
(UIC magazine New Dimensions presents the college‘s latest achievements in the areas of teaching, learning, research, and engagement with society. 1) To download the original PDF file, please click here. 2) To view an online version, please click here.)
