Faculty Curriculum Retreat 2008

1. Teaching Tips: What has proven to be effective pedagogic techniques for myselfA Personal Sharing Faculty Curriculum Retreat 2008 P.S. LEUNG Department of Physiology Faculty of Medicine

2. From Students’ Points of View:Many attributes, characteristics, and techniques which contributes to best teachers or master teachers • Good preparation; Clear & patient explanation • Arousing interest of topics you teach • Quality slides and supplementary notes • Enthusiasm, passion, helpfulness, and patience • Show support and concern for students • Provide personal time to help • Has a sense of humor • YOU CARE!

3. Brief Summary of My Teaching Profile • Assigned to teach GI physiology in June 1996 • No teaching experience except a graduate from Normal U • Prepare 10 GI lectures and notes as well as a RGC grant writing within less than 3 months • In the first 2 years, course evaluation was not as good as expected • After 5-year “teach-and-learn” interaction with students, I have accumulated some very basic hands-on experience in medical teaching • Awarded Best Teacher in 2001/2002

4. Teaching Tips for effective teaching techniques for myself?- No specific ones - Three Key & General Considerations • The Audience - Medical Students The Object of Presentation - To teach GI Physiology: Its basic concept & application The Techniques - Some very basic teaching methods for myself - A teaching block of at least 3-5 lectures required

5. 1. The Students Understand their • Prior knowledge - Do remind yourself: just year-1 medical students - Gap in understanding with respect to the knowledge being taught in your topics • Background - Do take care of diverse source of the students e.g. EAS, JUPAS, and Non-JUPAS - Balanced teaching material with adequate difficulty so as to best fit their needs should be taken into consideration - Specific terms and complex concepts should be clearly defined and explained

6. Drive and Motivation - Do try to arouse their interest by linking the clinical application of knowledge you teach e.g. normal GI physiology to abnormal one, i.e. common GI disease • Attitude and commitment to course requirements - e.g. Assignment & exams • Language abilities and proficiency in the subject - Are they from Chinese secondary school? - Be careful of adequate use of medical jargons • How well they are prepared to get ready for the lectures - Do they read slides presentation and notes before class?

7. 2. Object of Presentation: Knowledge and Key Messages • Always have the ‘big picture’ of your teaching course for the students • If possible, recap previous learning, and know • Where are we now? • Significance and importance of what follows • In term of basic concepts, relations and theories - Structure them in visual format as far as possible • Limitations, gaps, unknowns or alternative theories should be explicit to the students

8. 3. Techniques • Be an advance organizer - Inform students of purpose, goal and learning objects of each lecture, and thus lead to what part of the “big picture” • Structure and sequence the learning objectives that would be comprehensible at students’ level • Try to arrange contents: simple  complex; concrete  abstract; specific  general

9. For topics that students have little prior knowledge, try to scaffold needed knowledge before main exposition, or assign pre-reading material (notes) before the lectures • Be explicit on the state of knowledge involved - Definitive and conclusions are solid and safe, instead of conjectures and in doubt Generous use of diagrams, pictures, flowchart etc. • Cite references, source or data at critical points in supplementary notes for their further information

10. Stop or slow down at important or critical points for students to mentally process the ideas in depth • Always show connection of presented ideas to relevant previous learning or to the ‘big picture’ • Stress on clinical application of the basic concepts or principles of GI to its disease • Recapitulate and present an outline or summary of key ideas at concluding stage

11. Monitor students’ responses - Make room for student to think after critical and challenging ideas/concepts • Efficient use of time - Get key messages across and spare the details, particularly when lecture time is running out - Allow additional time for students to ask or discuss questions after lectures, if possible

12. My Personal Tips for Effective Teaching: Be yourself, teach with your heart, andbe always a teacher as the first day! THANKS!