Guest Lecture on the Scholarship
of Teaching & Learning
by Dr Harry Hubball
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In February 2009, CDTL was privileged to have
as guest lecturer curriculum development expert,
Assoc Prof (Dr) Harry Hubball from the University
of British Columbia (UBC). Dr Hubball is a 3M
National Teaching Fellow and was instrumental
in developing the UBC Faculty Certificate Program
on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. He
is also the co-chair of this programme.
During his lecture, entitled “Integrating programlevel
learning outcomes and institutional teaching
development plans: The scholarship of curriculum
and pedagogical practice in higher education”,
Dr Hubball highlighted various strategies for
implementing effective learningcentred
curricula,
one of
which is the importance of cultivating
curriculum learning
communities . He also
talked about evidence-based
indicators for a successful
programme, including the
quality of its demonstrable
learning outcomes , the
quality of its graduates as
well as its research profile. The lecture was
interspersed with lively discussions between Dr
Hubball and the audience, several of whom related
the challenges of implementing learning-centred
curricula in their respective disciplines.
Dr Hubball’s lecture is available online at CDTL’s
channel on NUScast (http://www.youtube.com/user/NUScast), under the t itle “CDTL-The scholarship
of curriculum and pedagogical practice in higher
education”. Dr Hubball will be visiting NUS in February
2010 for a follow-up seminar. We look forward to learning
more from him.
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Dialogue with
Graduate Students |
| As par t of CDTL’s ongoing effor ts to engage
with students, the first installment of the Student
Dialogue series was conducted on 13 March 2009.
Graduate students from the School of Computing,
Faculties of Science and Engineering, as well as the
Communications and New Media Programme met
Assoc Prof Chng Huang Hoon and Dr Wu Siew Mei
to exchange ideas and share perspectives about their
learning experiences in NUS.
During the session, participants discussed several
issues, including the pros and cons of having
a faculty-specific or mixed Teaching Assistant
Programme, whether the postgraduate syllabus should
be less exam-centric, as well as the importance of
cultivating effective research skills and developing
good working relationships within academic practice.
As most of the participants were overseas students for
whom English was their second language, they also shared their
experiences of
having to overcome
various communication and
language barriers, such as understanding
different accents and taking notes effectively in
English. One participant related his experience of
teaching undergraduate students for the first time
and opined that CDTL could conduct more workshops
on teaching and engaging students, especially since
many of them lacked prior experience in teaching.
They also suggested making past CDTL workshops
and seminars available as archived videos on IVLE,
so that they could learn from these sessions.
The dialogue session ended on a positive note,
the issues raised providing greater insight into
graduate students’ learning needs.
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Visitors to CDTL
Over the previous semester, CDTL played host
to several overseas guests who were in Singapore
on fact-finding trips to learn more about our
educational facilities and teaching practices.
In February, CDTL received Assoc Prof Ngo Sy
Tung, Vice Rector of Vinh University, Vietnam and
his team, as well as Prof Kang Myungkoo, who is
the Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Education at Seoul
National University. Both groups were introduced to
the functions of CDTL and the extensive range of
programmes and pedagogical support services the
centre provides to NUS faculty and students. A five member
delegation from Osaka Prefecture University,
led by Prof Nagateru Araki, also visited CDTL on 16
March. In addition to being shown around CDTL, they
also sat in to observe a workshop on basic inferential
statistics conducted by Mr Krishna Booluck, CDTL’s
Research Assistant.
Top: Prof Kang
Myungkoo (left)
and Dr Wu
Bottom: Prof Bloxham and Prof Ogihara (third
and fourth from left respectively) with their
NUS hosts.
On 23 April, CDTL had the pleasure of receiving
education experts Prof Jeremy Bloxham, Dean of
Arts & Science at Harvard University and Prof
Satoshi Ogihara of Osaka University, who were
guest speakers for the Annual Teaching Workshop
organised by the Faculty of Science. Together with
Assoc Prof John Richardson (Director, University
Scholars Programme) and Dr Lakshiminarayanan
Samavedham from the Faculty of Engineering, it was
a good opportunity for CDTL to share information
on pedagogy with both guests and also learn about
teaching and learning initiatives in their respective
universities.
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CDTL would like to congratulate: |
• Dr Wu Siew Mei on her
appointment as the Director
of the Centre for English
Language Communication
(CELC) from 1 June 2009.
The CDTL team has
benef ited greatly from
her leadership and guidance
over the last five months,
especially in terms of
developing the various programmes CDTL
offers to faculty and students. We wish her
every success in her new appointment. |
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• Three of our colleagues received their Long
Service Award in March 2009. They are:
Management Assistant Officers (MAOs) Ms
Aini Jaafar and Ms Doreen Thia who have
been with the centre for 10 years, and our
Specialist Associate Ms Ma Lin Lin, who
has been with CDTL for 15 years. We would
like to extend our appreciation for their
dedication and valuable service to the centre
and the University.
CDTL’s long service award recipients.
From left: Doreen, Lin and Aini
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CDTL would also like to welcome:
• Ms Charina Li Ong, who joined our team in
January 2009 as an Educational Technologist.
You can find out more about Charina on page
7 of this issue.
• Ms Pansy Kok Mee Hwa, who joined our
team in March 2009 as an Assistant Manager
for our Centre. |
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