SLS-9e1b - Teachers’ Perception of Reflection - The 4 Conceptual Domains of Reflection

Single quadrant subjects are concentrated in quadrants Q1 and Q3.  Q1 subjects (teachers) characterise reflection as intentional, active thinking processes, such as self-examining, finding meaning, or digging deep into impressions and feelings.   The statements indicate a conception of reflection as an activity that primarily takes place in the learner and are thus student-referent.  Q1 subjects treated emotions as springboard for deeper learning, much in line with dissonance theory.

In contrast, Q3 subjects expressed more instrumental views about reflection.  Compared to Q1 subjects, the statements made about reflection are more practical – if not pragmatic or negative. The purpose of reflection, in these cases, are closely bound to academic tasks such as supervising a course, grading, and research output.

The concentration of subjects in Q1 and Q3 suggest a positive correlation between function and content. Faculty who perceive the function of reflection as being student-referent are more likely to focus the reflective activity with a critical or transformative lens.  Likewise, subjects who perceive a teacher-referent function of reflection prefer more task-oriented foci for the content of their reflective activities.

There is also a considerable number of cross-quadrant subjects.  Subjects crossing Q1 and Q2 regard reflection as beneficial for students.  Their description of student reflection centre around service performance and emphasised individual personal or professional outcomes.  Meanwhile, Subjects crossing Q3 and Q4 describe reflection in markedly teacher-referent manner, whether as means to evaluate the service performance or program, or to gauge level of student learning. Accordingly, reflection is a way to assess students. 

The conspicuous void in Q4 suggests that the combination of reflection (a) as an assessment tool but (b) yet for critical cognition is unlikely.  That sounds reasonable. 

From the data collected and their distribution throughout the framework, for conceptual domains of reflection can be established, reflection as a process, strategy or tool for (Q1) transformative learning, (Q2) mindful practice, (Q3) evaluation exercise, and (Q4) articulated thinking.  

Q1 - Transformative learning brings together perceptions of reflection that stress its being a learning process undertaken by the student which can reach high levels of criticality with promising consequences for self and society. Such conception is consonant with what scholars of experiential pedagogy describe as transformative, critical, or emancipatory education.  

Q2 - Mindful practice is likewise a student-referent idea of reflection that is more centered on professional or academic outcomes which are honed through service work, such as being able to link or apply classroom knowledge and developing skills and attitudes that enhance competence.

Q3 - Evaluation exercise is a more instrumental approach to reflection that stresses its function as a tool for assessment or appraisal and is largely confined to being a program review. Review and assessment of student work are necessary in academic service-learning.  However, we would naturally hope for educators to go beyond immediate or practical concerns and facilitate students to move towards more far-reaching learning objectives.

Q4 - The last domain, articulated thinking, primarily treats reflection as an instrument for measuring how much or how far students draw from their experience of service. We did not have solid samples for this domain although some cross-domain subjects do come close. They tend to characterize reflection chiefly as a written task for students to demonstrate what they learned. They did not perceive reflective writing itself as a learning exercise, nor did they distinguish between levels or quality of reflection. In general, they were mistrustful or apprehensive about learning that was self-reported by students.

The details of this research has been published in a paper “Knowing where we Stand: Mapping Teachers’ Conception of Reflection in Service-Learning”, by Rina Camus, Grace Ngai, K P Kwan, Jessie Yau and Stephen Chan, in Innovative Higher Education, published online 23 January, 2021. 

SLS-9e1a - Teachers’ Perception of Reflection - What the data tells us

Everyone agrees that reflection is critical in service-learning. For many teachers, however, it is also one of the most difficult topic to teach.  One of the reasons is that the concept of reflection is not well understood, despite its importance and continued attention. To understand better the role of reflection in service-learning and its impact, we set out on a project to better understand how teachers perceive of reflection in the first place.  

In-depth interviews uncovered common tendencies as well as concerns about handling reflection in service-learning courses. We devised a framework to map teachers’ conception of reflection onto the goal of transformative service-learning. From the data set, we identify four conceptual domains echoing varying conceptions of reflection in literature: reflection as (1) transformative learning, (2) mindful practice, (3) evaluation exercise, and (4) articulated thinking – with the most popular being evaluation exercise and transformational learning.

The teachers who participated in this study are faulty members who taught service-learning at the university between 2012 and 2017. Academic departments at the university are classified according to Biglan’s classification of academic disciplines.  Faculty members who have taught a service-learning subject at least twice are invited for an interview.  We aimed to interview 12 teachers from the “hard” disciplines and another 12 from the “soft” disciplines.  We also aimed at an even split between more experienced (more than 3 years of experience in SL) and less experienced teachers.  

The interviews took place in the first half of 2017, each lasting for approximately an hour. Teachers were asked specifically what they understand by the term “reflection” and its importance in service-learning.  Based on analysis of the interviews, we identified 4 major characterisations of reflection from the teachers.  The first two relate to the function or purpose of reflection, either leaning towards being (y-d) an assessment tool for the teachers, or (y-u) a learning process primarily for het benefit of the student.  The other two relate to the substance of the activity, as in, whether the content was focused on a task-oriented (x-l) program review, or (x-r) a person-oriented critical cognition of personal values, stereotypes and beliefs.  

Using the functional and content dimensions as orthogonal axes, we contract a framework to categorise the teachers’ perceptions of reflection.  Moving along the x-axis progresses from a primarily practical focus on the task (to the left) or the project to a potentially more transformative exercise that allows students to gain deeper personal meaning from their experience (to the right). Moving along the y-axis represents a similar continuum from seeing the reflection activity in a very instrumental light (down) to treating reflection as a student-focused pedagogy for learning (up).  We are able to find a location for each and every subject in the framework that feels about right.  We also found that the majority of the subjects can be placed neatly into one of the four quadrants.  These are represented by dots in the diagram. There are quite a few subjects that seem to belong to two quadrants.  Fortunately, in all such cases, the two quadrants are neighbours of each other, and we can represent such cross-quadrant subjects as lines linking up the two quadrants.  There is no subject that belongs to two quadrants that do not share a common border - this is an indication that the framework is perhaps appropriate for a useful categorisation.  

Rotten Tree

A branch of a camphor tree in Kowloon Park fell and damaged two cars on Haiphong Road.  

That recalled something I saw in March, at the same spot.  I was running through Kowloon Park and saw a team of workers trimming some of the old, majestic trees along Haiphong Road.  

Some branches cut from the trees were laid on the sidewalk.  I went for a closer look.  Some of the branches were quite big, more than a foot in diameter.  Very heavy.  

Some of the branches looked OK from the outside.  Only through the cross section can one see how rotten they were.  In some cases one can see completely through the middle of the branch, from one end to the other.  It was just a matter of time when the branch would break off from the tree. 

That’s probably what happened yesterday.  It was fortunate that no one was hurt this time, despite two cars being damaged. 

I cannot imagine what would happen if the branch hit a person on the head.  

No Questions Welcome?

What kind of educator does not want its students to ask questions?  

Any self-respecting teacher would be thrilled to have students who are eager to learn, care about societal issues and want to ask questions.  

Teachers may feel anxious when faced with tough questions.  But teaches who care would certainly prefer to have students who want to debate rather than students who disengage. A good teacher is happy to see students becoming better and smarter and wiser than oneself.  One may feel somewhat lost, but gratified at the same time.  

So, what kind of government official in charge of the education system would tell its students that they are supposed to only memorise what they are told, that they are not supposed to form their own opinion, that they are not supposed to question what they are told?

Students, and adults, who do not ask questions, who cannot think independently, are not likely to be able to innovate, to tackle problems as they arrive - such as the coronavirus pandemic, the wicked problems that challenge the world.  

Such a society is not likely to survive.  And whose fault is it?  Not the students’. 

SLS-9d2 - Cultivating Teacher Leadership

Teaching leadership is hard. It cannot be defined quantitatively.  It cannot even be defined precisely qualitatively.  It is reasonably easy to recognise poor leadership, but considerably harder to recognise good ones.  One of the reasons is that the impact of good leadership may manifest itself after a lengthy period of time.  There are many different models and theories of leadership.  Leadership also manifest itself in different forms in different contexts.  

If teaching students leadership is hard, it is arguably harder to cultivate leadership among the teachers.  For the purpose of this discussion, “teachers” include everyone who are involved in the teaching of service-learning: teaching assistants, administrators, project assistants, community partners, etc.  While students are generally young, eager to learn and experience, whose characters are still developing, teachers are generally adults, satisfied that they have learned enough, whose characters are probably well set.  They may also be quite sensitive to being manipulated.  

While teachers have a significant amount of control over the content and the learning environment of the students, the environment under which the teacher operates is much harder to change, even if we know what changes are needed to cultivate leadership for service-learning.  Here at OSL/SLLO we strive to offer an open, honest, and supportive environment to the teachers.  We strive to offer as much assistance as possibles and are eager to hear about their needs and desires.  We are honest in communicating with the teachers what are, and are not within our control. For needs that are beyond our control we make the best effort to communicate the need to those who are in control.  The following are a number of measures taken.   

1. An environment must be created through which teachers can be trained, or otherwise prepared to teach service-learning.  At the least, they should be given the opportunity, the time and other resources needed to be trained elsewhere.  At PolyU we have strived to provide workshops, teacher development courses, and the equivalent of “internship” opportunities with established service-learning courses, for aspiring teachers.  PolyU had also provided significant amount of funding for piloting projects, for innovative means of preparation for teaching.  
2. At PolyU, a SL subject proposal, the subject teacher and the intended community partner is approved as a package.  This is to ensure that the teacher has the appropriate background and is well prepared and that there is a good prospect of a strong community partner.  The project, the community, and the partner may change, in time as appropriate.  But we do our best to ensure that the course has a good start.  PolyU does insist that any new teacher be approved by the vetting committee, in recognition of the important of the subject teacher.  
3. A community of practice for SL teachers was formed from very early on at PolyU, to provide support for the teachers who are scattered across many academic departments.  There are many opportunities for the community to work together on workshops, conferences, teaching development projects, research, etc.  With the inclusion of socially responsible global citizenship in the Mission Statement in the university’s Strategic Plan, the contribution of the teachers of service-learning can be considered to be recognized.  However, in a research university, there is always tension between recognition of good teaching and performance in research, and many continue to perceive it as an uphill battle. We continue to do what we can to research on the role of the teacher in service-learning, promote innovative scholarship of service-learning, and encourage due recognition of the contribution of the teachers.   

We have worked hard to train new teachers, help them to secure funding, collaborate with teachers to find new opportunities, new partners, new communities and new issues to address. Over the years, we have seen novice teachers becoming experienced, small teams growing into bigger teams, teachers expanding into new areas and using new methods.  We have seen teachers winning awards on their SL teaching.  Some are helping to train other teachers.  We have witnessed teachers becoming active in research on SL.  One issue which is generally out of our control is due recognition of their contributions and achievements towards their career development, not for the lack of trying.  

SLS-9d1 - Case Study: Leadership in the face of the Coronavirus Pandemic

When a program is operating uneventfully issues of leadership may not draw much attention.  Leadership issues become most obvious in times of serious challenge.  When the coronavirus hit in early 2020, it offers a great opportunity to observe leadership - and the consequences of the lack of it - in action.  In Spring 2020, we were in panic mode when the pandemic imposed social distancing.  In turn, that caused the cancellation of much teaching activities. Face to face classes were forbidden. International travel became impossible. Even local projects became very difficult, if not totally impossible.  

At that point, many service-learning teachers simply decided to cancel their classes, without even trying to find alternate ways to carry on.  Some department heads made the decision to cancel the classes for the teachers.  There are also some teachers who are inexperienced or who have not yet developed a strong relationship with community partners, who then find it difficult to make alternate plans when they tried.  The SLLO team worked very hard to help those teachers who tried to save their subjects to make alternate plans, teach online, find new partners and new projects, move their projects online, …  We succeed in saving many of those subjects.  That was important as SL is a requirement for graduation.  Many students depend on taking their desired SL subjects to progress in their studies as planned, or to graduate.  Cancelling a SL subject affects not only the teacher, but also the students.  And there is also the knock-on effect - when a subject is cancelled, the students originally registered in the subject may have to find another subject to replace that, but alternative may not be available.  Even if alternate subjects are found, they may then be overwhelmed, … 

Some teachers worked hard with their partners to seek ways to conduct the services in very small groups, or move online.  Some have to change the service projects drastically, e.g., from direct service to indirect service, research, etc.  Many succeeded.  These are generally those who have experience, who have built up strong relationships with committed, long term partners.  Some developed innovative ways to conduct their services online, even inventing new services, designing new teaching aides, kits for projects, …  Some were even able to conduct services with overseas partners and communities, expanding their reach in the face of the challenge, because of the enforced thinking in a new direction.  Moving online can help us overcome physical distance, connecting with overseas communities without travelling.  Challenges can also become the motivation to be creative. 

Some teachers have been accustomed to spending much of their summer taking students on international service-learning projects, in Cambodia, Vietnam, Rwanda, etc., and many months prior preparing for those trips.  When the pandemic hit, travel were cancelled, projects switched online, and the teachers remain busy.  Yet the cancelling of travelling still suddenly left them with a substantial amount of time and mind-space.  Some used that to analyse the data collected over the years, which they have not been able to attend to properly because they have been so busy.  That generated a burst of research energy, which resulted in the publication of quite a few high quality papers.  Many academic conferences were also cancelled or postponed as a result of the pandemic.  Some researchers regularly publish short versions of their papers at those conferences which are then beef them up as full papers for publication at archival journals.  When the conferences were cancelled they decided to bypass the conference stage and send the full papers directly to archival journals.  Some traditional in-person conferences morphed into online virtual conferences or some other innovative formats.  

Among our students we see at least two types of behaviour in response to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.  Many complain about the cancelling of in-person classes, the low bandwidth of the Internet in online classes, the poor quality of the audio and video, the lack of person-to-person interactions, the forced change of plans, the uncertainty, etc.  One the other hand, some are determined to make the best of the difficult situation to learn new things, to try new ways to interact with fellow students and the community, to learn new technology.  In short, there are those who feel helpless in the face of adverse conditions, and those who try to find ways to overcome the adversity.  The difference is resilience.  It can also be leadership. We see the same among teachers. There are those who are resigned that the restrictions cannot be overcome, and those who are not. Therein lies leadership.  

SLS-9d - Leadership of the Teacher

Whenever service-learning is discussed, attention is generally focused on the student.  It is natural as service-learning is fundamentally a pedagogy for the purpose of educating the student.  We naturally ask questions such as: What services are being provided? What impact are they making on the community?  What are the students learning? How should the students be prepared? Should service-learning be compulsory or voluntary?   What are critical success factors? …

However, serious attention is also due to the teacher, who is arguably the most critical factor to the success of service-learning.  Obviously, service-learning cannot happen, let alone succeed, without the teacher planning, providing the teaching and organising the service.  There are also a number of issues that are generally not sufficiently recognised regarding the teachers of service-learning. 

1. Teachers have to be trained before they can teach service-learning.  Teachers are generally hired to teach courses in the academic discipline for which they are trained, e.g., engineering, language, health science, business.  But for an engineering teacher/professor to teach a course applying engineering skills in service-learning, additional training/preparation in the pedagogy is required.  At the least: service-learning concepts, supervision of field work, teaching and assessment of reflection.  And then there are the social issues to be addressed through the service. 
2. Students come and go. They participate in the service-learning project for a semester, perhaps a year or two, and they are gone.  Occasionally a few may stay behind to assist the teacher, act as student leaders, or develop their own related projects.  But they all graduate in no more than a few years’ time. It is the teacher who stays and provides the continuity and sustainability of the service-learning course.  They are the custodian of the body of knowledge relevant to the course -  understanding of the issues and the community, relevant technologies and practices, relationship with the community and partners, etc.  Such intangibles are most critical to the success of the course and hence valuable.   
3. A passionate teacher in service-learning makes a great difference.  Service-learning is much more about nurturing a compassionate and responsible attitude rather than the imparting of knowledge.  A passionate teacher sets an example which goes a long way towards inspiring the desired response. A teacher who teaches service-learning without passion is unlikely to inspire the same.  

SLS-9c2a - The COMP and ITC courses

We accepted, in the end, a total of 70 students in the One World Our World program for summer 2021.  There are 48 students in the Computing Technology subject and 22 students in the Fashion Design subject.  38 students are from Hong Kong, 5 are from Mainland China.  The remaining 27 are spread very evenly over 18 countries, throughout East Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia, Europe and North America.  This is the first tome we have students from foreign universities taking our SL courses for credit.  We are hoping this is just a beginning and we are determined to make it a success.

In the Computing Technology subject (course), Students from many different countries work together to serve children handicapped children in special schools online.  They use a variety of means, such as games, puzzles, artificial intelligence applications, encounters in daily lives to engage the children.  In this case, the technology is a tool, a catalyst to stimulate, enhance the interaction.  The key is the communication , the person to person contact between our students and the children.  But the technology has to be attractive and truly inspiring. 

We have included a little bit of augmented reality and artificial intelligence into the course.  One of them in the form of training an application to recognise pictures of specific objects, such as cats, dogs, etc.  This is pattern recognition, a kind of artificial intelligence, in computer science jargon, and the underlying technology is not something that can be learned in a matter of hours or days.  But tools are available these days, that allow us to train a program to recognise cats and dogs, but showing the program many training pictures of cats and dogs.  Once trained, the program can recognise a picture of a cat or dog, when it is shown a picture that it has not see before.  This way, even children can begin to appreciate what artificial intelligence is and what it can do without having to learn the complicated core algorithms.  Everyone involved through it fascinating, for different reasons.  This is an example of what one can do with technology in service-learning, with a bit of imagination and hard work.  

It is very challenging but also fulfilling when the students find that their hard work makes an impact on some of the children who are facing very severe challenges.  These children can hardly communicate verbally. It is often hard to figure out how much they understand.  Our students are challenged to be creative, to communicate with sounds, gestures, body language, and the technology.  It is hard. But when it works, it is highly satisfying and confidence-building.  

In the Fashion Design subject, the class manage to meet in person, with some service conducted in small groups in their workshops and other spaces on campus whenever possible, for students who can attend in person.  For this summer, their clients are high-functioning young people on the autism spectrum.  These young people can function reasonably well in the real world, studying, working, among people.  But they face special challenges because of their special needs, which may be difficult to understand without interacting with them up close.   Our students are privileged to have the chance to get to know them well, having work together with them for a long time, in different settings.  But this also pose another kind of challenge.   

The medium used in this class is the design of clothing, wearables.  The clients and our students work tougher, in small groups in classes as well as the well-equipped, specially designed workshops.  The course, the projects, and the whole process have been carefully designed by the teacher to facilitate their work and interaction.  Using their minds and hands, they communicate well through their designs and the impact of those designs.  The service cumulates in the photo shoot when the clients model the designs co-created with the students.  Because of the pandemic, a cat walk in a public space is not organised this year.  In past years, these have been fun, festival occasions.  

These two courses are chosen each for its own unique approach to service-learning.  The results have been very positive, evidenced by the reaction of the students, teachers and others involved.  It looks like the international summer school on SL has made a successful beginning.  The students’ work were showcased in the virtual world created for the Symposium and Expo on July 9-10, 2021, attracting a lot of interest.  

SLS-9c2 One World Our World - Service-Learning International Summer School

Service-Learning is by nature boundary crossing.  The people that we serve generally belong to a community different from our own.  Hence, internationalisation comes naturally to service-learning - in this case the boundary that is being crossed is national.  That national boundary can be crossed in many ways.  We have taken students to serve in foreign countries.  We have taught online classes attended by PolyU students jointly with students from a foreign university - where students are enrolled in courses offered by their own university.  We have organised many projects in which students from foreign universities work - without academic credit - alongside PolyU students. We have sent students to exchange at foreign universities, with and without academic credit.  

We have long sought to provide opportunities for students in other universities to participate in our service-learning program as part of their own core academic studies.  On way to allow that to happen is for these students to take our service-learning courses for credit, which can then be used to satisfy the graduation requirement for their own studies.  When academic credit is involved, however, the situation gets more complicated.  On the one hand, there are few channels for PolyU to grant academic credit to students from another university.  Similarly, each university has strict rules for their students to transfer the credits earned at another university to satisfy the graduation requirements for their home university.  One of the easiest ways for that to happen is for the two universities involved to become exchange partners.  So this is where we have concentrated our efforts recently.  

We worked with our Academic Registrar and the International Affairs Office to develop an international summer school for service-learning, which we named One World Our World (OWOW).  As the name hints at, the theme is respect for social diversity and inclusion, through participation in community engagement.  Participating students will enroll in one of two service-learning subjects: “Community Engagement through Expressive Textile Arts and Fashion” (ITC2S02) or “Technology Beyond Borders: Service Learning across Cultural, Ethnic and Community Lines” (COMP2S01S). They will learn about the challenges faced by their target community and acquire knowledge and skills to serve them through an innovative service project. In collaboration with their peers and community members, they will actualize the project to create real impact. Through this service, students will learn to develop empathy and a sense of social responsibility. Supplementing the service project will be talks from world-renowned experts, open dialogues, interactive hands-on workshops and local field visits, on the theme of social diversity and inclusion.  

In this age of “Make my country great!”, frantic arms race, cynical exploitation of other people’s natural resources, strive for racial, spiritual ad cultural purity, xenophobic nationalism, and more along the lines of self-preservation, it is all the more important to cultivate respect for diversity and inclusion among the younger generation.  However, respect, acceptance, and compassion does not happen simply by lumping together young people from different countries together.  If they are not well prepared, if the environment is not conducive, the opposite can happen.   When they sign up to work towards a a meaningful goal in community engagement, the common goal unifies them, helping them transcend their differences.   When they see how they can achieve great things by integrating their different strengths, they learn that respect for diversity is not just empty words.  When they experience the joy of working together for a greater cause, they learn that fraternity of human kind is more than just a dream.  This is what international service-learning, when done well, can achieve.  

We worked out the arrangements to associate our program with PolyU’s International Summer School for summer 2020.  Foreign students from PolyU student exchange partners will have their subject registration fees waived.  Unfortunately, the Coronavirus hit, social distancing was imposed and PolyU decided to cancel the international summer school.  We were busy making adjustments to our regular SL subjects, moving many service projects online so that the SL subjects do not need to be cancelled.  We had no time and the manpower to make the necessary changes to offer the SL international summer school in another form.  Hence we decided to shelf the program for 2020.  

By 2021, social distancing has not yet been lifted.  But we have had time to prepare and move a large part of the program moved online, while keeping some elements in person if possible.  Because of the pandemic, the number of students from foreign universities participating is relatively small/  We suspect that for students, to participate in such a program at a foreign university completely online is something quite new and might not sound particularly attractive.  But the program is popular with PolyU’s own foreign students.  So we end up with quite a good range of students coming from many different countries.  

By the same token, we have to thank the subject teachers, Dr. Jin Lam and Dr. Peter Ng, for having the courage to let foreign students into their class, and putting in the extra effort to make One World Our World a reality.  Hurray to the pioneers.  

2021 Teacher Development Course in Service-Learning

We just concluded the 2021 version of our Teacher Development Course. It has been a very hectic 2 weeks.  We ran this annual Teacher Development Course from 2 to 12 July, in 3 parts.  We ran a Service-Learning Symposium in Putonghua, mainly for the community in Mainland China, on Friday, 9 July, morning, with ~100 people.  We ran a Symposium and Expo online, with speakers, posters, videos, workshops, with a total of 800 people attending various parts over two days.  We made a presentation at a Service-Learning conference in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, 7 July.  Now, we can breath a little easier.  

We have been running a Teacher Development Course on Service-Learning since 2014.  The first time it had only about 5 people.  We took them to Cambodia to see the projects, speak with the students, teachers, and NGO partners.  Then it got more systematic, with training in Hong Kong and field experience in Cambodia, with more people attending.  Initially we offered it only to PolyU staff.  Then we made it open to staff from other universities from Hong Kong.  Then we opened it up to universities in foreign countries.  When covid-19 wiped out travel in 2020, we offered it online.  This year, we offer a 3-part course, and open it further to secondary schools.  The first part is online e-Learning, covering basic concepts.  The second is a face to face, 3 day course on all aspects of designing a course, designing a project, teaching reflection, making assessment.  The third is experiential, taking these teachers to observe some face to face service as well as online service, meeting with experienced SL teachers, NGO partners in Hong Kong as well as overseas via Internet, discussing their own proposals, …  There are 30+ teachers in the face-to-face sections.  

Then they make posters of their own proposals, put them on a workspace, and comment on each other’s proposal.  Today we wrap the class up with a nice lunch at Hotel ICON, and a final discussion on their proposals.  The quality of the proposals are getting better.  Most are going in the right direction, reasonably well thought out.  Some still need a bit of work.  But all have the potential to become good subjects.  We are very happy to see that.  

We consider this Teacher Development Course one of the most important component of our work.  Teachers are at the core of service-learning.  Without them service-learning will not succeed.  People tend to focus on the students when they consider service-learning.  But students come and go, taking what they learn with them.  What remains and sustains the program are the teachers.  It is most important that the teachers are motivated, have clear concepts about service-learning, keep learning and improving.  They are the most critical success factors.  

This year we are seeing a new phenomenon - secondary schools and their teachers getting more and more active in service-earning.  We are hoping to help to build the momentum for a great movement in secondary schools.  

The Birth of a Whale

It starts with a palm tree.  

A leaf dries up and falls off.  Up close, one realises how big it is.  From the base of the stem to the tip of the leaf, it is easily 15 feet long.  

There is a sharp bend in the stem about one third of the length up from the base.  With imagination, it is possible to see an animal arching its back buried somewhere in that bend. 

The bend is isolated by sawing off both ends.  Then the sides are trimmed.  The result is a curved block.  It can rock but it does not really look like anything. 

The pieces that does not belong are cut off.  The head, the tail, the fins start to appear.  The hardened surface is sanded.  

And a baby whale is born.  

Live authentically - 涼瓜火腩飯

This is truly authentic Hong Kong food for the people - 涼瓜炆火腩飯 - braised bitter gourd and roasted pork belly with rice.  

For those who are not familiar with it, this is 涼瓜火腩飯， 涼瓜即是苦瓜，in English, bitter gourd.  When one eats 燒腩， it should be freshly roasted, still hot or at least warm, and the skin crispy.  But when the belly is roasted, the texture has become completely different.  It should become spongy, soaking up the soy-based source and the fragrance of the biter gourd.  When it is done well, of course.  Nowadays it is difficult to find it done well, in the cha chaan teng (茶餐廳, tea restaurant) that charges you 50-60 Hong Kong dollars for a dish. 

This is my favourite. Washed down with milk tea, Hong Kong style 港式奶茶. The milk used is evaporated milk.

Let us live authentically.  Eat what we truly like.  Believe what we truly believe.  Tell the truth (while staying safe).  No lies, please!