Prof FUNG Jimmy C H
- Best Ten Lecturers Award, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
- School of Science Teaching Award 1998
"Real life examples, good preparation and availability enhances teaching and learning"
In my courses, I try to illustrate mathematical concepts by drawing on examples from real life, from the simple to the difficult, so students can relate them to their own degree programme. Hopefully through these examples, the students find mathematics an interesting and stimulating subject, useful to their fields. In my lecture notes, I deliberately leave gaps in some of the worked examples for the students to fill in with the objective of encouraging active learning.
In addition, I give the students lecture notes before class to help them to follow the lectures more closely as they only need to focus on my explanation of the concepts without having to copy down the detailed materials. Using transparencies for presentation is one of my frequently used methods of teaching as it is extremely effective in conducting a class in a Lecture Hall with a relatively large number of students (i.e. in excess of 70).
I firmly believe that learning can be more effective with an enthusiastic lecturer and active participation of the students. Some students inevitably fail to grasp all the concepts being introduced in a lecture, and it is essential that the lecturer is patient and is willing to go over the concepts again with them, in greater detail and at a slower pace, either during the lecture (if time permits) or afterwards during `surgery' hours. In addition to having regular office hours for each course, I encourage students to come to see me at any time. Furthermore, I sometimes run the tutorial class by myself if I know the students have some problems with a particular topic. I also like to grade the third year students' homework in order to monitor more closely their progress during their last critical year in the University. This, I believe, can encourage the students to take their homework assignments much more seriously and to try and solve the problems themselves.
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