Prof DAI Wei Min
- Best Ten Lecturers Award 2001
"Playing a catalyst in teaching and learning"
Teaching and learning are bi-directional and interactive processes. I believe an instructor should act as a "catalyst" in teaching in order to assist students to overcome every difficulty they face and to make learning an enjoyable process. This is particularly important for teaching a large class of the first year undergraduates with diverse academic background. I learnt from my teaching experience that a good "catalyst" should feature the following aspects: (i) do thorough preparation for lecture notes and class presentation. These include careful selection of suitable materials from the textbook, references, and the Internet sources and logical organization of the materials; (ii) use IT tools. The PowerPoint and 3D animations are very effective media for class presentation. WebCT is another powerful tool I used for grade posting and teaching materials retrieval. It enables students access to lecture notes, past quiz and exam papers without limitation; (iii) use e-mail mailing list to establish close contact with ALL students. I used it to distribute question answers and to remind students about class activities such as tutorials, quizzes, and exams; and (iv) be available to students. Usually, some students do not positively approach instructors for help. I always feel happy when they come to me in person or through e-mails and give them a hand immediately, if possible. Beside those mentioned above, I believe there are many other roles a good "catalyst" can play in facilitating effective learning. Nevertheless, energetic, hard working, patient and warm-hearted are the basic elements of an instructor devoted to teaching.
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