SLS - Building and Piloting 2a2 - The First 5 Pilot Subjects

Five Pilot Subjects were approved and funded in the first round, in early 2011.

1. Chinese as a second language in Local Schools.  Proposed by Dr. John Wakefield of the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies.  As a Discipline-Specific Course for students in their own department. 
2. Teaching English as a Service-Learning Experience.  Proposed by Dr. Cathy Wong of the Department of English. As a Discipline-Specific Course for students in their own department.
3. Biomedical Engineering Services to Under privileged People with Physical Disabilities. Proposed by Dr. M. S. Wong, Dr. Aaron Leung and Dr. Raymond Tong of the Department of Health Technology and Informatics. As a course open to students in their own broad discipline. 
4. Community Psychology. Proposed by Dr. Charles Chan and Dr.Kevin Chan of the Department of Applied Social Sciences. As a course open to all students.
5. Service-Learning and Civic Engagement in the Information Age. Proposed by Dr. Stephen Chan, Dr. Grace Ngai and Dr. Vincent Ng of the Department of Computing. As a course open to all students.  

Funding was provided to the approved proposals to develop the courses, run the courses and conduct evaluation on the effectiveness of the courses. The two other proposals were asked to make certain changes and resubmit subsequently.    Most of the proposals did not just arose out of thin air.  Most were made by individuals or teams with prior relevant experience. 

“Community Psychology” proposed to conduct assessment of adolescent health and preventive screening, physical health promotion activities, mentoring of children from disadvantaged families, etc., in the Kwai Tsing and Tsing Yi Districts.  Through the course, students learn and apply key concepts in community psychology such as community participation, empowerment, and sense of community to the formulation and implementation of community interventions targeting community health, individuals’ wellness,and civic society at a higher level.  Students are guided through structured reflection opportunities such as action plan and goal statement, application journals, and reflective reports.  Dr. Charles Chan was an expert in clinical psychology.  He was very experienced in youth development and have been conducting many related projects such as youth mentoring for many years.  He had been a key member of the early years of service-learning at PolyU when we were building the foundations for the program.  Sadly, Dr. Charles Chan has since passed away due to illness.  He has been remembered fondly by many.  Fortunately, Dr. Kevin Chan has continued to teach this course sincethen.  

The teaching of language as a community service is a common and obvious theme.  In Hong Kong the majority of the population speak Cantonese.  Hence it is a critical need of new immigrants and ethnic minorities to learn to speak Cantonese.  On the other hand, English is very popular and necessary for academics and business.  For students studying Chinese, English or translation, service-learning helps them strengthen their own academic studies while they learn to be more engaged with community.  A variety of such courses employing innovative practices have since been developed.  

“Biomedical Engineering Services” is an interesting case.  The proposers have been taking their students to sites in mainland China to practice orthotic interventions for children with cerebral palsy prior to making the proposal.  It had already been a very successful endeavour in training the students in practical academic skills as well as community engagement.  They have even be collaborating with foreign universities, who send their students to Hong Kong to travel to China with our students on these projects. Hence the vetting panel had little hesitation in approving the proposal.  The teaching team have been running their project into mainland China each year ever since. Unfortunately, they have not managed to run the project as a part of the SL subject yet. There seems to be complications relating to reconciling among the clients’ availability, the partner university’s availability, PolyU’s academic calendar and perhaps some other logistical issues.  This reminds us that service-learning can be much more challenging to manage than regular academic subjects, because of the balancing between academic and community objectives, the partnership with external organizations, the logistics of the field work, the financial costs of the travelling and equipment/material, and other matters.  

“Information Age” is an ambitious proposal. The team had already carried out many service projects in Hong Kong, mainland China and Cambodia prior to making this proposal. The project in Cambodia in summer 2010, was, in fact a key factor in convincing the Task Force on Service-Learning that credit-bearing SL is feasible at PolyU.  They have already offered a short, non-credit bearing course on service-learning in the previous year.  In the pilot in summer 2011, 47 students from 8 different departments, representing 5 different faculties, registered for the course.  There were students in the 3-year undergraduate programs.  They are not required to take service-learning.  They took the subject for extra-credit, beyond the number of credits required for graduation.  There were organised into 3 teams.

1. Team 1 ran a week-long workshop on computers for young refugees in Hong Kong.  It is estimated that there are ~10,000 refugees in Hong Kong.  Few have any realistic prospects of resettling in other countries. 
2. Team 2 went to Xinjiang to run a week-long orkshop for the students in a school associated with a factory owned by a business woman from Hong Kong. 
3. Team 3 went to Cambodia and run 3 projects:
1. A sub-team ran a programming workshop for a vocational school, the Asian Human Resource Development Institute, ran by a missionary from Hong Kong.  We have become good friends and cooperate on many projects since then.   
2. A sub-team ran a summer workshop for a primary school for children living at Phnom Penh’s infamous Stung Meanchay Garbage Dump.  Every time it rains, the school will be flooded because there were big holes in the roof.  The kids are poor but smart and lovely. They have retained a special place inour hearts. We are happy to report that the school is now in much better shape.
3. A sub-team ran information technology workshop at the community centre at New Life Fellowship, a Christian church. They have had a big impact on many young people who came from the rural areas to Phnom Penh to study and work. They have helped us on many projects since then.   
4. A sub-team ran workshops for the staff and girls at White Lotus, a women’s shelter for young girls formerly trafficked for sex, operated by 2 American lady missionaries.  We have great respect for their dedication and compassion.
5. A sub-team ran workshops at the House of Rainbow Bridge, a hospitalfor children with HIV AIDS, run by missionaries from Hong Kong.  Initially, the hospital was set up for the sick children to die with dignity.  Subsequently, the children stabilised but continue to have to take a lot of medicine. Each kid    has a small medicine basket and the staff ensure that they take their medicine .  

The Cambodian Team was particularly challenged by the difficult environment and enormity of the problems - and very intense.  On the other hand, the work was also extremely rewarding because of the very visible impact on people’s lives.  It was estimated that the students spent 150 hours each on the course, including the academic content, cultural preparation, health precautions, project preparations and execution, reflection, and presentation.  

The course has since spawned a number of other SL courses.  The many projects have since served in Hong Kong, Cambodia, Myanmar, Rwanda, Kyrgyzstan, and there are plans for more.  They have also developed very strong connections to, in close collaboration with the soon-to-be-established Office of Service-Learning many projects sites outside Hong Kong. And have introduced Sl teams from many other departments to those sites.  We will elaborate on these developments in subsequent chapters.  

On the other hand, we had also received proposals from outside the university.  For example, we received a proposal from an educational non-profit organization.  Unfortunately, the proposal was heavy on leadership development but relatively light on service-learning.  It also relied heavily on external speakers to deliver the teaching.   It was felt that service-learning is a core component of our undergraduate program.  Hence it is more appropriate to develop our own longer-term teaching capacity for service-learning courses.  Partly related to this experience, it is felt that for sustainability, we should not rely too much on part-time or short term staff for the core teaching of service-learning.  

We had also, on occasion, received enquiries and proposals on student-based organizations.  These are typically focused on student exchange or community service.  Generally these proposals emphasise cultural exposure or volunteer service.  But are lacking in academic learning objectives, rigorous teaching and assessment.