Professional Development Course (PDC)

The Professional Development Course (PDC) is a component of the University’s teaching and learning policy, the ‘Integrated Framework for Curriculum Development and Review’ which can be downloaded from the ‘Quality in Teaching and Learning’ page at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/english/teaching/teaching-learning-quality.html
It aims to orient new teaching staff members to teaching and learning at CUHK, and will introduce useful and relevant tools that may help them realise the educational objectives of their courses.

All teachers at CUHK (at any level) can enrol in the PDC and receive a certificate of completion.

The course comprises three parts; each with a specific focus.

Part I: Understanding the Teaching Context of CUHK

The first part (4 hrs) focuses on the teaching context of CUHK. It aims at familiarising participants with the context of CUHK in terms of its mission, vision and values, graduate attributes, prevalent teaching and learning “cultures”, characteristics of the student populations and approaches to course design and teaching. Participants are encouraged to share their beliefs about, and goals of, their teaching, and how they may be implemented in light of the CUHK context.

Part II: Techniques & Strategies

The second part of the course (4 hrs) focuses on teaching techniques. It will introduce participants to (a) good teaching techniques and practices both drawn from the fields of education and psychology, as well as from past experiences of excellent teachers at the university; and (b) various teaching tools, including web learning interfaces, electronic devices, as well as assessment techniques, all of which may facilitate effective teaching and learning.

Part III: Practicum

The details of Part III of the Professional Development Course offered by the Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research (CLEAR) are as follows:

a. Teaching analysis
  1. The participant will nominate a faculty member with significant teaching experience as mentor. This mentor can be a faculty member of the participant’s own department / unit at the associate professor/ senior lecturer / associate director grade or above, or a teaching staff member at CLEAR;

  2. The participant will invite the mentor to attend one (or more) of their teaching sessions of a course they teach, and the mentor will meet with the participant beforehand to discuss the participant’s planning of the course, as well as of the chosen session(s). If the course employs more than one instructional mode (e.g., lecture + seminar / tutorial + practicum / lab work), then the participant may consider inviting the mentor to attend one of each sort of teaching sessions;

  3. The mentor can use the following document as reference when observing teaching sessions;
    – “Feedback on Teaching“

  4. The participant and the mentor will meet again after the viewed teaching session(s) so that the participant will receive useful feedback for consideration;

  5. The participant will write a short report (in about 1000 words) on the changes that he / she may bring to his / her teaching as a result of the comments received from the mentor and his / her reflections. The participant may include, if available, the outcomes of these changes in the report. The participant will send the report to CLEAR.

The participant should finish this option within 6 months after completing Parts I and II of the PDC.

b. Statement of Teaching Philosophy
  1. The participant will be invited to meet with a CLEAR staff member to discuss the general direction of their statement of teaching philosophy, e.g., what to include in the statement.

  2. The participant will then prepare and submit a draft of the statement that includes reflection on current practices in university teaching in the context of the discipline, how the practices address the needs of learners, what guiding principles are used when they design the curriculum with respect to different level of courses (e.g. undergraduate/postgraduate), and what innovative teaching that s/he may consider to apply to deliver for effective learning.

  3. The CLEAR staff will provide comments on the draft for the participant to consider in his/her revision.

  4. The participant will submit a final version of the statement to CLEAR.

The participant is encouraged to complete their statement of teaching philosophy within 6 months after completing Parts I and II of the PDC.

c. Workshop Reflection
  1. The participant will choose to attend at least two of the workshops that CLEAR offers all year round;

  2. Upon attending two workshops, the participant will be reminded by a CLEAR staff to submit a short report about 500 – 800 words to reflect upon how the content and ideas of one or both of the workshops may be useful to their own teaching, or may have already been applied in their teaching practice together with the effects they led to.

The participant is encouraged to attend two workshops as well as finish the reflective writing within 6 months after completing Parts I and II of the PDC.

d. Group/ Individual Project on Teaching and Learning
  1. The participant(s) will be invited to meet with a CLEAR staff member to discuss the general direction of their project, e.g., what to include in the project.

  2. The participant(s) should write a paper of around 1,500 words individually or in a group (up to 5 individuals) on topics of common interest concerning teaching and learning;

  3. The completed project paper should be submitted to CLEAR.

The participant should email us (clear@cuhk.edu.hk) to indicate their choice in Part III, and nominate their mentor for options (a) and (b). CLEAR will then make necessary arrangements. Please refer to the workshops for excellent teaching and register directly at: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/clear/pointer/seminar.html in case option (c) is chosen.

Part IV: Workshop on Research Postgraduate Supervision (for Assistant Professor Grade only)

(Recommended to New Supervisors)

The fourth part is for Assistant Professors only. This workshop will provide a practical overview of best research supervision practices, including explicit examples from various disciplines. Experienced Professors will share their strategies on how to support and manage research postgraduates successfully. This Part will run once a year. Invitation will be sent individually when the workshop becomes available.

Schedule

Several rounds of Part I & II are offering in 2020~21: