Organised by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Details of the workshop:

Abstract

Are you satisfied with the current means of evaluating students’ learning experiences (SETL)? Are there alternative ways to evaluate performance in education? To explore these questions, Professor D. Menchik from Michigan State University (MSU) is invited to visit Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong under the Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme. During his visit, Professor Menchik shared insights into good practices at the Michigan State University (MSU) in general, and an innovative program (a residential college program) that he is involved in at the MSU in particular. At MSU, outcomes based evaluation system is used to evaluate how much the students have learned from the teaching and learning experience. Instead of asking them how much they liked the teacher/course, this new way of evaluating focuses instead on the differences in the students before and after a particular course or program. Therefore, evaluation from this perspective is more objective because it is based on how much the students have actually learned from the course.

This seminar will also cover topics including a mentoring program for providing feedback on teaching; an incentive system for rewarding teachers who participate in teaching-related professional development; and a system that allows submission of evidence of innovative teaching in materials for annual staff evaluations or promotion reviews.

About the Speaker

Dr. Xiaoli Tian is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong. She received her Ph.D. from Department of Sociology, The University of Chicago. Her research interests include how preexisting knowledge paradigms and cultural norms influence the way people respond to unexpected transformations of their everyday routines. This interest is reflected in her two main lines of research: medical knowledge as situated practices and social interaction. She has written extensively on various forms of online interactions, including emails, blogs, online literature websites in China, social media, etc. Her writings have been published in American Journal of Sociology; Modern China; Information, Communication and Society; Journal of Contemporary Ethnography; Media, Culture and Society; Studies in Media and Communications; Chinese Sociological Review, Symbolic Interaction, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, among others.

Registration

For information, please contact:
Ms. Noranda Zhang , CETL
Phone: 3917 4729; Email: noranda@hku.hk​