Teacher Development Course 2022

We have come to feel that the teacher is the most important element in a successful service-learning program.  The outsider usually sees the student as the core element.  They are the ones delivering the service and doing the learning, aren’t they?  That is certainly true.  Without the students, there is no service, and there is no learning.  For that reason, students are the necessary ingredient.  

But, for a SL program to succeed, the teacher is really the key driver.   The teacher has to lay the foundation and do the design of the program, for the students to participate.  Students come and go, what they learn goes with the student when they leave.  It is the teacher, who use the lessons learned to further develop the program, to sustain the program in the long run.  It is the teachers who embody the service-learning culture of the university. 

It is for this reason that we have invested into teacher development from the beginning.  We organise workshops, develop e-Learning material, and institute a kind of internship whereby aspiring teachers participate in existing classes and projects to gain first hand experience.  We take teachers with us to Cambodia, to let them observe the teachers and students at work, meet with the partner organisations, propose and develop their own courses and projects.  We started with our own teachers, then we expand to include teachers from other universities in Hong Kong, and eventually expand to include teachers from foreign countries.  

Because of the pandemic,  we have to offer the teacher development course in recent years online.  This year we have 40+ teachers from Hong Kong, mainland China, Vietnam, Philippines, India, …  The Vietnamese community translated our material into Vietnamese and provide simultaneous translation into Vietnamese for the classes.  This year we have three sections.  The participants start with a self-study using a e-Learning module on the basic concepts: what is service-learning, how to achieve the balance between service and learning, major misconceptions, reflection, …  Then we go through 4 lecture/workshops on the major components: course design, reflection, assessment, evaluation, research.  We just finished the first two sections.  Next week they will hear from and talk with experienced teachers, and observe a number of actually service projects in progress.   

The teachers are very enthusiastic.  They participate in the class discussions, in-class exercises, case studies, … actively.  They ask very intelligent questions.  In the past, we have seen many teachers who graduated from our courses to teach and propose new service-learning courses.  Many have remain good friends and allies.  Some are now partners in collaborative projects.  We look forward to another fruitful class this year.  Some of the participants are already asking for a way to stay connected, as a group.  It looks promising.  We are also seeing growing interest in this type of training.  Good signs for the region.