The Review 2008

The Review 2008 Teaching • The Review 2008 Professor Amy B.M. Tsui Professor Amy B.M. Tsui, the new Pro- Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching and Chair of Language and Education, is overseeing what she terms a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: the University’s transition to a four-year under- graduate curriculum in 2012. Her goal is to push the boundaries of student learning. “What we want students to be able to do is not just to solve problems that have been defined for them, but to address problems that have to be identified and located. We also want them to understand that new problems are created as existing ones are being solved, and that it is in the continual process of addressing them that the world moves forward.” T • Teaching Learning is not confined to the class- room or the campus. It happens across a range of student experiences, whether meeting people from other countries in campus hostels, conducting field studies in the natural environment, going on overseas exchangesor performing service activities in the community. The totality of learning experiences available to students is what makes up the curriculum and this concept will underpin the new undergraduate education at HKU. From 2012 undergraduate studies in Hong Kong will typically last four years, up from three years at present. That additional year presents a special opportunity to enhance breadth and depth in students’ learning, both within and beyond their chosen speciality. Our plan is to build on present developments on campus to formally embrace a wide variety of learning experiences. Already faculties such as Social Sciences have incorporated this idea into their curriculum. All new Social Sciences undergraduates will be required to participate in the Social Innovation Internship and Global Citizenship programme from 2008-09. An example of the programme in action is described on these pages.This is just the kind of experiential learning that the new curriculum will promote and recognise across the University. We have set out six educational aims on what we want to achieve from these learning experiences, based on University-wide discussions and consultations. In addition to our overall aspiration for academic excellence, we want students to tackle novel situations and ill-defined problems, use critical intellectual enquiry, acquire intercultural understanding and global citizenship, be able to communicate and collaborate with others, uphold personal ethics and critical self-reflection, and demonstrate leadership and advocacy for the improvement of the human condition. The University Senate endorsed the six aims in 2008 and also approved the idea of a ‘common core’ – areas of enquiry that students will be required to take beyond their major field of study. This will make up 15 per cent of the curriculum and it will require students to engage in real-life issues, such as how to interpret newspaper statistics or the social implications of genome research. Engagement is important here, whether it is with new people, new cultures, new problems or new ideas. The expectation for the new curriculum is that students will engage inside and outside the classroom, on and off campus, to develop their intellectual capabilities and professional skills, widen their perspectives and nurture the core values of a responsible global citizen. Previous page – Professor R.M. Wilkinson teaches a class in the Department of Legal Education