TEG Learning Communities (LCs) is an initiative that seeks to strengthen connections among teaching staff and create supportive networks for teaching at NUS through the establishment of funded LCs. The purpose of the LCs will be to engage in focused and sustained discussion of specific aspects of university teaching that relate to a topic of mutual concern to the group.
2024
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Bridget McCONNELL, Dept of Psychology, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS) (bridget.mcconnell@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Ozan KURU, Dept of Communications & New Media (CNM), FASS (okuru@nus.edu.sg)
Research methods and statistics courses frequently provoke anxiety or negative attitudes amongst students who are required to take these compulsory classes. Considerable research shows that students’ attitudes towards learning about a particular subject is predictive of their academic performance in that subject. This is especially so for students in non-math-focused disciplines (e.g., psychology, sociology, etc). Through regular discussion and research, this LC seeks to improve our understanding of the needs, attitudes, and feelings of this population and develop actionable interventions and testable research hypotheses to improve NUS students’ attitudes towards learning statistics.
The LC will be composed of educators who teach statistics for non-math-focused disciplines. Members will read research and meet regularly to discuss experiences and ideas. They will also participate in conducting student surveys, which will lead to testable intervention ideas to reduce students’ negative biases and statistics anxiety and improve their attitude towards learning statistics. Empirical research on the effectiveness of these interventions will be conducted by LC members, time and resource permitting. The goal of this LC is to have improved knowledge about students’ attitudes, thoughts, and feelings about statistics, ideas for how to change these to be more positive, and innovative methods for making statistics approachable.
Members:
- Sacha EPSKAMP, Dept of Psychology, FASS
- Adela ISVORANU, Dept of Psychology, FASS
- Godfrey YEUNG, Dept of Geography, FASS
- Subhayan Mukurjee, Dept of Communications & New Media, FASS
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: LEE Kooi Cheng, Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) (elcleekc@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: ONG Pei Shi, Dept of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science (FOS) (phaops@nus.edu.sg)
In recent decades, there has been a rise in students with physical disabilities, various learning disabilities and emotional and psychological conditions (Altes et al., 2024; Kendall, 2016; Moriña, 2016). Such disabilities can sometimes lead to breakdown in communication, disruptions during lessons, awkwardness, discomfort, and tension. Addressing diversity in student needs effectively requires a focus on inclusivity. Takayama (2023) emphasises that inclusion is not synonymous with diversity; rather, it involves creating an environment where everyone’s contributions are valued.
In higher education, key challenges to advancing inclusive education include teacher perceptions and readiness (Collins et al., 2018; Kendall, 2016; Moriña, 2016) and institutional policies (Takayama, 2023). Common approaches to implement inclusive education include curriculum design, pedagogical strategies, awareness initiatives, and the provision of support and resources. However, inclusive pedagogical approaches focusing on strengthening relationships and enhancing cultural competency within a higher education context appears to be limited.
Our Learning Community (LC) aims to identify pedagogical practices that foster and strengthen peer-to-peer and instructor-student relationships so as to promote inclusion within an increasingly diverse classroom. To achieve this, we draw on literature on inclusion (pre-tertiary and tertiary) as well as Felten and Lambert’s (2020) two principles for building peer-to-peer interaction: positive interdependence and individual accountability. Additionally, for faculty-student relationships, we focus on building meaningful personal connections and communicating in ways that both support and challenge learning.
We intend to conduct literature review, discuss scenarios, and learn from experts through dialogue sessions. By the end of the project, we intend to develop a guide for educators that focuses on inclusive pedagogical practices for students with diverse learning needs. The guide will feature (a) scenarios and use cases for contextualisation; and (b) pedagogical strategies/practices for the respective scenarios; and (c) recommended sources that are relevant to the NUS context.
Members:
- WONG Jock Onn, CELC
- SEAH Zong Long, Office of the Provost (PVO)
- YUEN Yim Yee, Agnes, Office of Student Affairs (OSA)
- CHEW Sui Tjien, Lita, Dept of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, FOS
- KOH Shi Jing, Nicolette, Dept of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, FOS
- Gabriel LEE Keng Yan, Faculty of Dentistry
- Sowmya Sathish, Dept of Architecture, College of Design & Engineering (CDE)
- May KOH, Science Dean’s Office, FOS
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: LEUNG Wing Sze Evelyn, NUS College (wleung@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: HWANG Wei Song, Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM), NUS College (weisong@nus.edu.sg)
In this Learning Community (LC), we will explore what Problem-based Learning (PBL) is, how to implement it, and how to assess student learning in the problem-based pedagogical environment. By PBL, we refer primarily to a method in syllabus design which makes use of a real-world problem as the vehicle of learning. Students usually need to unpack the problem and understand what scholars have said about it before looking for available solutions. In addition to being a method of syllabus design, it can also be an approach in designing individual class sessions or assignments.
Participants in this LC will read up on the scholarly literature about PBL, engage in active conversations, share best practices, and develop strategies to implement PBL in their courses. Workshop sessions will provide hands-on opportunities for colleagues to apply new techniques in their teaching and learn from one another.
The LC also encourages collaboration across different disciplines, enabling faculty members to gain diverse perspectives and insights that enhance their teaching approaches.
Members:
- Jonathan KANG, NUS College
- SAM Shu Qin, NUS College
- Michelle LEE, NUS College
- Jodie LUU, CELC; FASS
- Claire Ann CANNING, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSOM)
- Jose-Christopher Escano MENDOZA, LKCNHM, NUS College
- Theresa SU, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS
- CHAN Kiat Hwa, NUS College
- LOO Yoke Leng, NUS College
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: GOH Shu Ting, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE (elegst@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Jonathan FROME, NUS College (frome@nus.edu.sg)
This multidisciplinary learning community (LC) focuses on sharing and learning the teaching methodology from each other. The LC team consists of members from the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, as well as the College of Humanities and Sciences, and NUS College. The primary objective of this LC is to explore effective methods to guide students in project idea formulation, preparation, and presentation.
To achieve the objective, this LC intends to study the following three pedagogy strategies (or framework) in literature:
- The Project Design and Guidance methods by Javier and Jorge Enrique (2017)
- Critical Thinking in Higher Education by Davies and Barnett (2015)
- Tailoring Education with GenAI by Karpouzis, Pantazatos, Taouki, and Meli (2024)
The reading experience of the three pedagogy strategies is shared among LC members during the monthly activities, to allow members to formulate alternative teaching strategies. In addition, LC members are encouraged to attend each other’s teaching sessions for observation purposes. Furthermore, LC member to share their technology-enhanced learning tool experiences. The objective is to allow members to explore and experiment with an alternative teaching method for student project guidance.
Members:
- Uyen T. NGUYEN, Dept of History, FASS
- CAI Shaoyu, Dept of Engineering Design & Innovation Centre, CDE
- Jovan TAN, Dept of Engineering Design & Innovation Centre, CDE
- LIN Feng, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Peter Thomas VAIL, NUS College (pvail@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Julius BAUTISTA, NUS College (julius@nus.edu.sg)
Our LC emerges from the lessons we learned engaging with students through a previous TEG LC grant, supporting the Service Impact Learning Community (SILC). Among the outcomes of that initial platform, we identified video assignments as a crucial aspect of Impact Experiences (IEx) that students and faculty were having difficulty with. In this proposal, we focus our efforts specifically on improving those video-based assessments. The LC is comprised of IEx faculty and select undergraduate students, all voluntary, and focused on addressing the assessments in NUSC’s capstone experiential learning/service learning course. IEx faculty supervise undergraduate groups of 6-7 students, who undertake a social impact project of their own design in Singapore, or regionally in ASEAN countries. Students have two years to complete their projects. Video-based assessments are an ideal mode in which to capture the rich experiential nature of IEx (Carver and Collins, 2021; Hawley and Allen, 2018; Thomas and Marks, 2014; Cardace et al, 2024; Epps et al, 2021; Greene, 2014; Kuchel et al, 2014), and while both faculty and students of the LC have some competencies in using video, our current assessments do not optimally advance the academic goals of IEx, and they place unreasonable expectations on student performance.
Members:
- Jessica LEE, NUS College
- LIM Chee Han, NUS College
- Alberto Perez PEREIRO, NUS College
- Keng Khoon NG, NUS College
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator:
Shelley GUYTON, Dept of Political Science, FASS (stguyton@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitators:
- Daryl OOI, Dept of Philosophy, FASS (darylooi@nus.edu.sg)
- Ali KASSEM, Dept of Sociology & Anthropology, FASS (ali.kass@nus.edu.sg)
Interpersonal events play a crucial role in teacher identity and student learning. This includes the historical construction of the ways in which we relate to each other in higher education, the student-teacher relationship in particular (Olson, 2016; Alsup, 2019). In light of NUS’ recent efforts to build a more inclusive and equitable university, as well as our own commitments to redefining what quality education is, we wish to use the Learning Community (LC) format to explore questions about the opportunities and challenges with reshaping learning environments toward more personal awareness and care. For example: Can care and informed awareness of our learning relationships foster to better learning? How can we go about designing these into the ways we teach (and according to different disciplinary or classroom needs)? The literature on pedagogies of care and relationality have demonstrated that the implementation of these pedagogies can positively impact student learning experiences and outcomes (Olson, 2009; Noddings, 2013; Lygo-Baker et al., 2019; Gravett, 2023). This LC will serve as a space for a small group of NUS educators across disciplines to share and discuss ideas for integrating pedagogical strategies in service of developing kinder, caring, and more connected learning environments.
Members:
- Menusha de SILVA, Dept of Geography, FASS
- Jennifer ESTES, Dept of Sociology & Anthropology, FASS
- Robin LOON, Dept of English, Linguistics & Theatre Studies, FASS
- Lisabelle TAY, College of Humanities & Sciences, FASS
- Jenson DEOKIESINGH, CELC
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: CHEONG Siew Wah, Grace, SingHealth Duke NUS Global Health Institute (SDGHI)(swcheong@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Glen KOH, SDGHI (glen@duke-nus.edu.sg)
The Learning Community (LC) will be made up of faculty members, research fellows, and education associates in the SingHealth Duke NUS Global Health Institute (SDGHI) who will be involved in teaching the multidisciplinary Global Health courses offered by the Institute. In the next semester, SDGHI will run 2 postgraduate programmes – the Graduate Certificate in Global Health Practice in Asia as well as the Graduate Certificate in Global Health Innovation that will involve the discussion of Asian case studies. The LC will be dedicated to studying the art of discussion leadership through the use of cases in the classroom. An expert in the case method will be invited to share and demonstrate the art of skilful facilitation and thereafter each member in the LC will take turns during each meeting to apply the knowledge gained and skills acquired by leading a case discussion among its members. Peer learning and support will take place as the rest of the members critique their peers, share their learning reflections, and discuss ideas for change and improvement.
Members:
- Natasha TAI, SDGHI
- KAUNG Suu Lwin, SDGHI
- Anne Claire STONA, SDGHI
- Vincent PANG, SDGHI
- Taufique JOARDER, SDGHI
- Renzo GUINTO, SDGHI
- KHOO Yoong Khean, SDGHI
- Gayathri Devi D/O Nadarajan, SingHealth Duke-NUS Emergency Medicine Academic Clinical Programme
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Susan LEE, CELC (elclmss@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Anita TOH, CELC (elcatal@nus.edu.sg)
How does the teacher-student relationship (TSR) motivate learning and impact teachers’ wellness?
As graders of their work, teachers cannot develop individual relationships with students.” (Felten, 2024). Yet, teachers’ care and approachability are significant to student engagement (Tormey, 2021). The caring teacher also pays attention to students’ wellness and responds duly to text messages outside class. Concerns for boundary-setting, teachers’ wellness, and the attention paid to intergenerational engagement (Mahesh, 2021), impact teachers’ obligations to sustain positive TSR. While students’ perceptions of teachers’ relatability and credibility can affect motivation (Tormey, 2021), in turn teachers’ concern about the impact of engagement on student feedback can affect their wellness (Hagenauer & Volet, 2014).
The LC will investigate factors and possible tensions contributing to TSR in HE. We will engage colleagues from different generational groups to share TSR experience and evaluate if there have been nuanced changes in ways of building positive TSR over time. We will review literature like relationship-rich education, survey NUS students on their perceptions of positive TSR. We hope to build on TSR theories by evaluating their relevance in our context, uncover any tensions, and make recommendations for developing healthy, positive and realistic TSRs that enhance students’ motivation and support teachers’ wellness in HE.
Members:
- Jodie LUU, CELC
- Amelyn Anne THOMPSON, CELC
- HAH Sixian, CELC
- CAO Feng, CELC
- Jonathan PHAN, CELC
- Corinne ONG, Ridge View Residential College (RVRC)
- Ian TAN Jian Ann, College of Design & Engineering (CDE)
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Alex MITCHELL, Dept of Communications & New Media (CNM), FASS (alexm@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Daniel JEW, College of Alice & Peter Tan (CAPT); Dept of History, FASS (danieljew@nus.edu.sg)
Play is often recognised as an important part of early childhood education but is underutilised and devalued in higher education. This is somewhat puzzling as play has been found to cultivate relational safety and a warm classroom environment, remove barriers to learning, and awaken students’ positive affect and motivation (Forbes, 2021). Anecdotal evidence suggests that at NUS, students perceive no space for play in their undergraduate education, which aligns with observations at other educational institutions (Wallin et al., 2021). Despite this, several NUS faculty members are indeed experimenting with playful approaches to teaching and learning, which questions the assumption that there is no space for play at NUS. This Learning Community (LC) aims to bring together colleagues who are exploring, or plan to explore, playful pedagogical practices to share their ideas, experiences, best practices, and obstacles encountered. The LC will also be open to colleagues who want to incorporate playful pedagogical practices, but have not yet had the courage, inspiration or opportunity to do so. The learning community will aim to meet regularly for sharing sessions, discussions, and peer observations of teaching to better understand the challenges faced and best practices related to teaching from a playful perspective. Meetings will also involve brainstorming and workshopping new ideas for playful teaching to be incorporated in upcoming teaching by members of the LC.
The LC’s activities will culminate in a workshop for the NUS community, an online repository of resources, and a paper or poster presentation at an educational conference such as the Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) to further share playful approaches to teaching and learning. The ultimate aim is to move closer to a vision of what can be considered a “playful university” (James, 2019; Nørgård, 2021).
Members:
- Chris McMORRAN, Dept of Japanese Studies, FASS
- Olivier LEFEBVRE, Dept of Civil & Environmental Engineering, CDE
- ONG Ee Cheng, Dept of Economics, FASS
- Ahmed Hazyl Hilmy, CNM, FASS
- Sherice NGASERIN, Dept of Philosophy, Yale-NUS College (YNC)
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: TAN Wee Kek, Dept of Information Systems & Analytics, School of Computing (SOC) (wee-kek.tan@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Akshay Narayan, Dept of Computer Science, SOC (akshay.narayan@nus.edu.sg)
The number of students in the class has been steadily increasing in recent years. Large classes often lead to reduced student engagement and limit the development of positive relationships between teachers and students, as well as among the students themselves. Many educators use classroom response systems (CRS) to engage students in these large classes. Our goal is to study the effectiveness of such CRS and identify alternative methods—whether technology-based or not—that can enhance student engagement in large classes. By the end of the Learning Community (LC) term, we aim to propose interventions that could benefit academic staff teaching large classes.
Members:
- YANG Lu, Dept of Information Systems & Analytics, SOC
- Jithin Vachery, Dept of Computer Science, SOC
- Prasanna Karthik Vairam, Dept of Computer Science, SOC
- Anandha Gopalan, Dept of Computer Science, SOC
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: CHUA Dingjuan, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE (elechuad@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: CHEN Hui-Chen, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (huichen@nus.edu.sg)
This Learning Community (LC) aims to deepen the understanding of student motivation and enhance it by exploring effective classroom strategies, subject-specific contexts, and opportunities for student collaboration.
Members:
- Henry TAN, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE
- Vivian NG, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE
- ZHANG Jianwen, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE
- Annie Kumar, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE
- XU Yuecong, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE
- Rajesh Panicker, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE
- Theivendiram Pranavan, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE
2023
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: LIM Li Hong Idris, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, College of Design & Engineering (CDE) (lhi.lim@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Elliot LAW, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, CDE (elliot.law@nus.edu.sg)
The Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC) provides the second major and minor in Innovation and Design under the College of Design and Engineering (CDE). Students complete at least one major interdisciplinary course, which is taught by more than 10 educators from different disciplines.
Our LC set out to overcome barriers in learning together for teachers, build a culture and platform of openness and trust. Currently, educators find it challenging to approach a trusted member of staff for advice on teaching and learning issues. It has also been observed that students in some teams struggle to overcome disciplinary influence and work together on interdisciplinary learning.
Through a structured approach, we aspire to help educators “decouple” themselves from the challenges at hand and discuss how students can learn to work in an interdisciplinary team and develop their evaluative judgement. We will also explore innovative evidence-based approaches for interdisciplinary education, especially in how an educator can guide students in interdisciplinary projects that are not in the educator’s discipline of knowledge. By involving educators trained in different disciplines, we hope to forge a collaborative and inclusive environment for interdisciplinary education, starting from within EDIC.
Members:
- Andi Sudjana Putra, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, CDE
- Jovan TAN, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, CDE
- Aleksandar KOSTADINOV, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, CDE
- LEE Sang Won, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, CDE
- Mark Philip DE LESSIO, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, CDE
- Alvin POH, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, CDE
- Annie TAN, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, CDE
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: LAM Siew Hong, Dept of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science (FOS) (dbslsh@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: LIM Xin Xiang, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS (xinxiang@nus.edu.sg)
Pedagogical Action Research (PAR) is useful for enhancing teaching practices and enriching students’ learning experiences through an evidence-based approach. This learning community (LC) will focus on PAR, recognising that NUS educators who are trained in their respective disciplines, often lack professional training in pedagogical research. Comprising 12 members, including 5 senior and 7 junior educators, this LC aims to support discipline-trained teachers in embarking or continuing with PAR to enhance/improve teaching and learning (T&L) practices. Members will not only gain knowledge to enhance their own T&L practices but will also develop actionable steps for classroom implementation and capture the evidence of enhancement.
The LC’s planned activities will revolve around five phases of PAR within a year: i)observing and reflecting on current T&L challenges, ii) identifying specific problems and proposing actionable solutions, iii) designing PAR plans, iv) implementing PAR plans and collecting data, followed by v) analysing, evaluating, and communicating the findings. The success of the LC will be measured by the number of PAR conducted and the dissemination of PAR findings. The LC will encourage greater collaboration in PAR and enhance our T&L practices. The knowledge and experience gained from this LC will be shared with the broader community.
Members:
- WU Jinlu, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS
- CHOONG Choong Mei Fun, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS
- Zeehan Jaafar, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS
- CHUA Siew Chin, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS
- Robert LIEU Zi Zhao, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS
- Dr Maxine Allayne Darlene MOWE, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS
- CHAN Zhi Wen, Ian, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS
- Shawn LEE Ming Yang, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS
- Theresa SU, Dept of Biological Sciences, FOS
- Matthew LIM Lek Min, Dept of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: YUE Ling, Dept of Finance, NUS Business School (bizyue@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: LEE, Yen Teik, Dept of Finance, NUS Business School (yenteik@nus.edu.sg)
This community is dedicated to pioneering the development and exploring the potential of an AI Teaching Assistant (TA) powered by the innovative Retrieval Augmentation Generation (RAG) technology. Unlike traditional Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, which can provide inaccurate, outdated, or generic information, RAG leverages an information retrieval system to ground responses in factual data, ensuring greater control, accuracy, and contextualization. We aim to investigate whether and how this RAG-based AI TA can enhance faculty teaching effectiveness across various areas, including:
- Elevating pedagogical focus: Freeing up educators’ time for higher-order cognitive questions.
- Enhancing explanation delivery: Crafting more intuitive and engaging explanations tailored to individual student needs.
- Empowering creative assessment: Facilitating innovative and goal-aligned assessments for deeper student engagement.
- Promoting efficient and accurate grading: Contributing to a more efficient, consistent, and accurate grading system.
We will actively evaluate the efficacy and impacts of this technology across diverse academic disciplines, ensuring its widespread adoption and optimal benefit for all.
Members:
- LIU, Qizhang, Dept of Analytics & Operations, NUS Business School
- Deserina SULAEMAN, Dept of Finance, NUS Business School
- SHIN, Sa-Pyung Sean, Dept of Accounting,NUS Business School
- Jonathan Y. H. SIM, Dept of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts & Science
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Joel CHOW Ken Q, NUS College & Dept of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS) (joelchow@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitators:
1. Daryl OOI Shen (dooi90@nus.edu.sg)
2. Shivani Gupta (shivanigupta@nus.edu.sg)
Interdisciplinary education requires students to draw connections and insights across disciplines to gain new insights, understandings, and potentially solutions to complex multi-dimensional phenomena. In short, it requires students to integrate different disciplinary perspectives. To achieve these goals, university teachers often engage a dialogical teaching method in the hope of encouraging students to collaborate and engage across disciplinary boundaries. However, in our teaching practice, we have noticed that students tend to adopt a singular disciplinary perspective, which inhibits their ability to pick up on divergent insights crucial to developing interdisciplinary knowledge (Heiman, 2014). Students also often have difficulty engage in interdisciplinary communication and conflict resolution (Xu et al., 2022).The literature on dialogical teaching suggests that dialogical teaching can be a vital tool in overcoming these issues: by emphasizing the importance of different perspectives (Wegerif et al. 2022), and by giving students the opportunities and skills to engage with communication with students from diverse academic backgrounds and resolve differences, dialogical teaching has been shown in the literature to improve students’ interdisciplinary communication and conflict resolution skills (Carrion et al., 2020).This learning community (LC) thus seeks to better understand the literature on the dialogical teaching itself. We will read key works in the literature on dialogical teaching, with special focus on the relationship between dialogical teaching and interdisciplinary learning.Based on the collective understanding gained, we will identify, design, and implement an actual intervention in our own teaching practice in Semester 2, with the help of frameworks provided in Alexander 2020. Members will support one another by providing constructive pre- and post-feedback on the intervention and providing an informal classroom observation for another member. The reflections on the interventions will be posted on the LC’s blog. Our activities will culminate in a joint workshop, reflectively sharing with the rest of the NUS Community on the interventions and growth towards more dialogical teaching and interdisciplinary learning.
Members:
- Jinna TAY, Dept. of Communications & New Media, FASS
- YEO Shang Long, Dept of Philosophy, FASS
- Shawn WEE, Dept of Philosophy, FASS
- Melvin NG, Dept of Philosophy, FASS
- Gautham Kumaran (undergraduate student), NUS College/College of Design & Engineering
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Christian von der Weth, Dept of Computer Science, School of Computing (SoC) (dcscvdw@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitators: Jithin Vachery, Dept of Computer Science, SoC (dcsjith@nus.edu.sg)
Many SoC courses face large and still increasing class sizes. Providing an excellent and memorable learning experience for students is exceedingly challenging with classes having 300, 500 or even more students. These challenges include maximising students’ engagement, designing appropriate assessments, but also managing large teaching teams. While many established and recommended teaching methods exist, they are (a) often not directly applicable to (very) large classes in the context of CS courses, and (b) typically focus on students’ perspective. We argue that addressing the pain points of course coordinators is equally important, as it will also directly affect students’ experiences and perceptions. The purpose of our Learning Communities – all members coordinate courses with 300+ students at SoC – is to create and provide Guidelines & Best Practices for teaching large CS courses. This deliverable will be made publicly available across all faculties at NUS. It is also intended to serve as a recommendation to CDTL to advance the Professional Development Programme Teaching (PDP-T), which is an excellent initiative particularly for new faculty members.
Members:
- Daren LER Shan Wen, Dept of Computer Science, SoC
- Akshay Narayan, Dept of Computer Science, SoC
- Prabhu Natarajan, Dept of Computer Science, SoC
- Adi Yoga Sidi Prabawa, Dept of Computer Science, SoC
- Nitya Lakshmanan, Dept of Computer Science, SoC
- Ashish Deepak Dandekar, Dept of Computer Science, SoC
- Boyd ANDERSON, Dept of Computer Science, SoC
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: YEONG Foong May, Dept of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin Sch of Medicine (YLLSoM) (bchyfm@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitators:
1. Mr John YAP, Interreality Technology, NUS IT (johnyap@nus.edu.sg)
2. Dr FUNG Fun Man, Dept of Chemistry, Faculty of Science (FOS) (chmffm@nus.edu.sg)
This learning community comprises faculty members, teaching support staff, and NUS IT staff from different faculties, departments, and units. One key aim is to learn collaboratively about Augmented/Virtual Reality (AVR) technologies to keep up to speed about its uses in higher education from established literature. We also aim to share practices among ourselves who have used AVR in our teaching and learning activities and understand the best practices in the context of NUS. We also hope to reach out to colleagues and students to share and hear from them about AVR. ultimately, the goal is to curate a body of knowledge around AVR in among our teaching and learning community and support the use of AVR to enhance our teaching and learning in NUS.
Members:
- Greg TUCKER-KELLOGG, Dept of Biological Science, FOS
- LEE Seow Chong, Dept of Biochemistry, YLLSoM
- CHEW Yuanyuan, Dept of Biochemistry, YLLSoM
- Reuben Manjit Singh, Dept of Biochemistry, YLLSoM
- Rosalind SIAH Chiew Jiat, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, YLLSoM
- Erica ENG, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, YLLSoM
- GOH Yang Miang, Department of Built Environment, CDE
- MAK Hon Keat, Interreality Technology, NUS IT
- HAN Jia Yi, Dept of Chemistry, FOS
- Eslam Hamed Ahmed Mahmoud, Dept of Chemistry, FOS
- Cyrus HO Su Hui, Department of Psychological Medicine, YLLSoM
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Piyanee YOBAS, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin Sch of Medicine (YLLSoM) (nurpk@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Jeanette IGNACIO, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, YLLSoM (nurimjj@nus.edu.sg)
Artificial intelligence (AI) has received great attention by educators worldwide. It is of great importance that NUS educators are well-equipped with AI knowledge and skills. The NUS AI-Health Community will be established with two short-term goals. The first one is to initiate a platform for educators and interested participants to connect, learn AI-related knowledge, support each other, and generate new ideas to apply AI in healthcare education. The second goal is to improve quality of teaching through the utilization of AI technology, which can be utilised as a single tool or in combination with other teaching methods. The NUS AI-Health Community will comprise of faculty members, graduate students, and research assistants from NUS Medicine, NUS Nursing and School of Engineering. Faculty members from top two universities (Mahidol and Chulalongkorn University) in Thailand will also be part of the regional collaboration. Furthermore, long-term goals will involve the sustainability of the NUS AI-Health Community. Online platforms (such as AI-Health website, Telegram, and/or You Tube) can be created as a sharing platform for NUS educators and other interested participants. Additionally, AI knowledge learned from this project can be used to apply for future grant applications (such as Ministry of Education Grant) in the future.
Members:
- Vivien WU, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, YLLSoM
- Siriwan LIM, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, YLLSoM
- Tanushri ROY, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, YLLSoM
- Prahlad VADAKKEPAT, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, CDE
- CHUA Chua Chin Heng Matthew, YLLSoM
- Konokwan HOUNSRI, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, YLLSoM
- Anshul Gupta, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, YLLSoM
- Nopporn VONGSIRIMAS, Department of Mental Health & Psychiatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Mahidol University, Thailand
- Paungpet KASORNSAMUT, Department of Mental Health & Psychiatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Mahidol University, Thailand
- Yupin AUNGSUROCH, Faculty of Nursing, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
- Joko GUNAWAN, Faculty of Nursing, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Linda HONG, Dept of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science (FOS) (lin.hong@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: George Baylon RADICS, Sociology & Anthropology, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS) (socrgb@nus.edu.sg)
Oppenheimer did not foresee the impact of his creation, and neither did Great Britain, who bartered opium for tea, foresee the devastation on human health across China. In the modern era, arts students tend to approach science topics with hesitation while students with a background in science tend to overlook humanity with pragmatic solutions. Furthermore, embedded in the Singaporean education system is a hierarchy of disciplines, fostered by rigid testing and grade point cut offs for specific majors. When faced with an opposing discipline, students hold on to certain biases and fears that ultimately need to be overcome to nurture malleable and interdisciplinary thinking. The learning community aims to share, discuss and build upon our teaching strategies to improve student appreciation of interdisciplinarity between the arts and sciences, and facilitate malleability in not just the students’ ways of thinking but also educators’. A survey will be used to measure the student experience, specifically by measuring inter and intra-major attitudes towards interdisciplinary teaching in order to develop more effective IDC teaching strategies.
Members:
- CHNG Hui Ting, Dept of Pharmacy, FOS
- Maiya MURPHY, Dept of English, Linguistics & Theatre Studies, FASS
- YANG Jiahui, Abel, Dept of Physics, FOS
- Nawaz Muhammad, Dept of Geography, FASS
- Adelyn LIM, Dept of Anthropology, FASS
- Jennifer ESTES, Dept of Anthropology, FASS
- Kiruthika Ragupathi, Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology (CTLT)
- Veronica L. GREGORIO, Dept of Sociology & Anthropology, FASS
- Ali Kassem, Dept of Sociology & Anthropology, FASS
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Navarun Varma, Residential College 4 (RC4) (rc4nav@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitators:
1. Sreeja Nair, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) (sreeja@nus.edu.sg)
2. Sasidaran Gopalan, LKYSPP (sgopalan@nus.edu.sg)
Policy education is referred to as a “landscape” since learning about real-world policy issues has expanded from the core discipline of public policy and blended into the interdisciplinary curricula of general education, business, humanities and sciences, leadership programs, and design and engineering. Education for sustainable development (ESD) has focused on the need for competencies for imagination for transformative changes, systems thinking to understand the interdependencies of human-environmental health, and emotional intelligence to act and cope with crisis. ESD pushes the boundary of learning from expert-driven interdisciplinary content to transdisciplinarity and social learning. The discourse encourages for co-production of knowledge through engaging students with real-world problem situations and the wisdom of stakeholders.
This Learning Community (LC) will create a network to –
- Explore and map the repertoire of pedagogies that have been used in NUS and elsewhere in Asia for sustainability-related policy education courses.
- Brainstorm about the evidence on learning from such pedagogies, unpack their impact, and evaluate their potential to practice the essential tenet of ESD, i.e. collaborative environment for mutual learning among students, educators, experts, and extra-scientific actors.
- Synthesise key design principles for impact-driven policy education from these pedagogical practices and their evidence.
Members:
- Corinne ONG, Ridge View Residential College & LKYSPP
- J. J. WOO, LKYSPP
- Victoria Jane MARSHALL, College of Design and Engineering (CDE)
- Kevin S. Y. TAN, Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre
- Bernise ANG, RC4
- Kiruthika Raghupati, Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology
- Willoughby Niki LEE YanXing, Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre
- Muhammad Daud, LKYSPP
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Akshay Narayan, Dept of Computer Science, School of Computing (SoC) (dcsaksh@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: LIEU Zi Zhao, Dept of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science (FOS) (dbslzz@nus.edu.sg)
We are seeking funding for our Learning Community project, which seeks to facilitate faculty engagement through improved video production techniques, thereby enhancing teaching practices. Our proposal addresses three primary objectives:
- Best Practices Compilation: Through thoroughly reviewing the literature and establishing a collaborative platform within Learning Communities (LCs), we aim to create a valuable resource on effective educational video production and how they can be better integrated into the scheme of blended learning courses. This guide will offer practical insights and techniques, benefiting educators across various teaching frameworks.
- Identifying Faculty Challenges: We plan to conduct surveys and workshops to understand the specific challenges faculty face in educational video production and the resistance to implementing a blended learning mode. By pinpointing these pain points, we can tailor recommendations and support, fostering a culture of experimentation and innovation among educators.
- Increase Student Engagement Rate: We plan to survey the literature as well as conduct discussions with undergraduate and graduate students on why they are not motivated to watch the educational video prior to class and how we can use best practices to increase student engagement with the material prior to class.
By supporting this initiative, you contribute to the professional development of educators, promoting collaborative learning and technological proficiency across diverse teaching methodologies.
Members:
- Timothy BARKHAM, Dept of Microbiology & Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
- Marissa E Kwan Lin, Centre for English Langugae Communication
- CHONG Yuan Yi, Dept of Chemistry, FOS
- YU Jihang, Dept of Material Science and Engineering, College of Design & Engineering
- Verily TAN, Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology (CTLT)
- Lisa BRENNAN, Dept of Pharmacy, FOS
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: HO Chee Kong, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YSTCoM) (mushock@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Harris ANG, YSTCoM (musha@nus.edu.sg)
Our proposed learning community (LC) will focus on refining and enhancing music performance assessment methods and rubrics used in the conservatory. This collaborative initiative aims to address the challenges associated with current assessment practices, which rely largely on qualitative evaluations by jury members in a panel and a high degree in artistic judgments. With the current few quantifiable assessment indicators, the comments that students receive from the panel are often not sufficient enough to be more constructive and pedagogically useful to them to mount a better performance in the next jury evaluation. The Effective Music Performance Assessment Methods and Rubrics LC will bring together faculty members and professional staff who are experts in performance, pedagogy, and assessment. Participants will collaborate to develop pedagogically sound, objective, and transparent assessment methods and rubrics, creating a more equitable and constructive evaluation process that enhances student learning and artistic performance.
Members:
- Brett STEMPLE, YSTCoM
- CHAN Tze Law, YSTCoM
- TAN Wei Boon, YSTCoM
- YAP Zi Qi, YSTCoM
2022
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: HO Chee Kong, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (mushock@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: CHAN Tze Law (tzelaw@nus.edu.sg)
Traditional conservatory education relies on a master-apprentice model and is focused on developing students’ domain expertise to become professional musicians. However, with the evolution of the music industry and disruption from digitalisation, the skills and dispositions that musicians thus require would go beyond artistic mastery and presupposes critical understanding and ability to conceptualise, frame, and implement their art in a manner that is most relevant to their audiences. As such, we propose that aspects of students’ education should extend to encompass interdisciplinary dimensions while
maintaining a strong artistic core.
Our Collaborative Instruction for Interdisciplinary Education in Music learning community consists of faculty members who are practising musicians, scholars, and community leaders in the music industry. This teaching community is an evolution from the traditional master-apprentice model through a process of co-mentoring, co-instruction, and collaboration, students are thus able to tap on the various expertise from the team of mentors.
The aim of this learning community is to develop approaches and strategies to maximise the effectiveness of this process of collaborative instruction as it is a new approach to teaching at the Conservatory.
Members:
- Frances LEE, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YSTCM)
- MIAO Kaiwen, YSTCM
- Xavier TAN, YSTCM
- Rachel HO, YSTCM
- Benedict NG, YSTCM
- SOONG Swee Kit Alan, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: TAN Kok Hian, Duke-NUS Medical School (gmstankh@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: LOH Huey Peng, Duke-NUS Medical School (annie05@nus.edu.sg)
Patient Safety is the cornerstone of high-quality and high-reliability health care and aims to prevent and reduce any potential risks, errors and harm in healthcare as well as to share best practices to deliver optimal care for the population. The newly approved Duke-NUS Graduate Certificate, NUS Graduate Diploma and NUS Master’s in Patient Safety & Healthcare Quality build expertise for this new domain. We are currently developing & finetuning the full curriculum to better serve the learners.
The TEG Community of Learning Inter-professionally for Patient Safety (CLIPS) is a new initiative that seeks to strengthen connections among teaching faculty for Patient Safety and hope to create supportive networks for teaching of this new domain at NUS. The purpose of the learning communities will engage in focused and sustained discussion of specific aspects of patient safety and health quality which is of mutual concern to the interprofessional group.
Members:
- CHOW Mun Hong, Duke-NUS Medical School
- Fatimah LATEEF, SingHealth Duke NUS Institute of Medical Simulation
- Lita CHEW, Dept of Pharmacy/Faculty of Science, NUS College of Humanities and Sciences
- LEE Li Neng, Dept. of Psychology/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,
Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Hafizah OSMAN, School of Continuing And Lifelong Education (SCALE) (slehbo@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitators: Rosemary Therese OVERELL, Dept. of Communications and New Media/
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) (overell@nus.edu.sg)
Misty COOK, Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) (elcmsw@nus.edu.sg)
In the post-COVID context, ways of learning and teaching have shifted towards online delivery. Our Learning Community will explore how best NUS educators can respond to this shift through a focus on Blended Learning. We aim to upskill on best practices in BL drawing on current research and apply these insights to our own teaching delivery. We also aim to embed the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework in our explorations and Blended Learning design effort. Alongside building our own capacities in relation to BL, we also intend to produce relevant, practical materials and resources which can empower our colleagues across campus.
Members:
- YAN Yingwei , Dept of Geography/FASS
- Sharon LAU, Institute of Systems Science (ISS)
- LIM Wee Khee, ISS
- Andi Sudjana PUTRA, Dean’s Office/College of Design and Engineering (CDE)
- HAN Ming Guang, Office of the Senior Deputy President & Provost
- NG Tao Tao Magdeline, NUS Libraries
- Belinda BEH, Office of the Senior Deputy President & Provost
- HE Wanyun, Centre for Instructional Technology (CIT)
- LIU Mei Hui, Food Science and Technology/Faculty of Science (FOS)
- SOONG Swee Kit Alan, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: SEAH Bee Kee Serena, Tembusu College (s.seah@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Rafi RASHID, NUS Graduate School/Tembusu College (ngsrr@nus.edu.sg)
Out-of-classroom learning (OCL) refers to learning experiences that occur outside the confines of the classroom. In such learning experiences, the learning often extends to a wider range of knowledge, skills and attitudes than classroom learning to engage the learner more holistically to consider the social-cultural context and multidisciplinary themes such as environmental issues. Hence, it is important to develop robust and flexible indicators for out-of-classroom learning that enable student learning to be understood and tracked and to accommodate and engage different disciplines. In addition, it would be valuable to evidence and demonstrate the impact of these OCL activities for all the stakeholders.
Members:
- Connor Clive GRAHAM, Tembusu College
- Andi Sudjana PUTRA, Dean’s Office/College of Design and Engineering (CDE)
- Doreen TAN, Centre for English Language Communication/Temasek Hall
- Naviyn Prabhu BALAKRISHNAN, Residential College 4
- Eunice NG Shi Qi, Ridge View Residential College (RVRC)
- Celine CODEREY, Tembusu College
- Kiruthika RAGUPATHI, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Wanigatunga Arachchige Nathasha Vihangi LUKE, Dept of Physiology/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSOM) (nathasha@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: YAP Suen Mei, Celestial Therese, Dept of Physiology/YLLSOM (phsyapc@nus.edu.sg)
Advanced chatbots are extremely efficient Artificial intelligence tools, which are capable in writing in the capacity of a human subject. ChatGPT is a modern chatbot launched by Open AI with a remarkable ability to write organised and factually accurate essays in a wide array of fields including medical topics. Educators should be aware of this capacity for the following purposes
- To assess the extent to which AI-generated writing could be used as assistive teaching tools.
- Give recommendations on the suitability of AI essays to be used by students in self-learning as model answers.
- To make examiners re-look into examination and assignment methods, to ensure critical thinking and analytical skills are evaluated.
- Formation of policies at university level with regards to usage of AI tools in writing.
Adequate research evidence should be available to draw conclusions on the impact of AI on the above. Our study group is planning to conduct research activities to evaluate certain domains related to the above. Our overall goal is to give recommendations addressing the above topics, after analysing data generated from our study and data from other similar studies.
Members:
- Dujeepa D. Samarasekara, Centre for Medical Education/YLLSOM
- Reshma TANEJA, Dept of Physiology/YLLSOM
- Kenneth BAN Hon Kim, Dept of Biochemistry/YLLSOM
- LEE Seow Chong, Dept of Biochemistry/YLLSOM
- Swapna TEKWANI, Dept of Physiology/YLLSOM
- Amanda WONG, Dept of Physiology/YLLSOM
- WONG Lik Wei, Dept of Physiology/YLLSOM
- LEE Li Neng, Dept. of Psychology/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS),
Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator(s)
Principal Facilitator: Jinna TAY, Dept of Communications and New Media/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (cnmjt@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Shobha AVADHANI, Dept of Communications and New Media/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (cnmsa@nus.edu.sg)
Internship is a key pillar of institutes of higher learning (IHLs) in the contemporary Singapore education scene, advocated for as an authentic learning environment for orienting students toward their future careers. This is a stance supported by government and industry*. Yet, for student interns as well as coordinators of internship programmes, the process of administering and building the internship programme is not plain sailing. Key terms such as resilience and character building are skills that are supposedly built into the process and duration of internships; while these are outcomes that are consequences of internships, they are not guaranteed. In our experiences as coordinators and convenors of internship programmes across FASS/NUS we have found uneven outcomes, uptakes and even sometimes traumatic accounts for interns and organisations. Hence, this is a project that requires a longer period than one year to provide support, and systematically build a set of resources for coordinators, to understand the experiential elements and finetune the processes of administering internship programmes.
This proposal aims to use this opportunity to gather and build an Internship Coordinators Network (ICN) where resources and best practices on internship management can be shared, and issues, assessments, as well as deep-seated processes can be examined and challenged against the de facto ways of management.
*Industry is used here as a generic term for Industry Organisations, where the industry for some departments such as Social Work, are clients in health care facilities. Industry is recognised as a general term for a much more complex set of industry and social organisations.
**”Supervisors” denotes Industry supervisors as distinct from academic supervisors.
*** “Coordinators” denotes all university academic supervisors to distinguish from the use of “supervisor”.
Members:
- WANG Wai Yee, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- LEE Chau Woon, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- Peace WONG Yuh Ju, Dept of Social Work/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- Farah BAWANY, Dept of Communications and New Media/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- CHENG Shao Meng (Merlin), Dept of Communications and New Media/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- SOH Kai Ruo, Dept of Communications and New Media/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- ZHOU Feng, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Science
- Rebecca ZHOU, Centre for Future-Ready Graduates
- Alvin CHUA Chye Huat, Dept of Social Work/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- SOONG Swee Kit Alan, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Eunice NG, Ridge View Residential College (E.Ng@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: LEE Yen Teik, Dept of Finance/NUS Business School (bizlytk@nus.edu.sg)
With NUS’ commitment to advancing sustainable development, sustainability education is a key strategy of the university to building a strong culture and consciousness of sustainability in the next generation. Both general education modules and a number of majors across the university have infused sustainability into the curriculum. In doing so, each educator applies their expertise and perspective from their respective fields to teach about sustainability. This presents the opportunity for cross-sharing of teaching experiences and practices to further deepen the quality of the university’s sustainability education. Leveraging knowledge and expertise on sustainability education from various disciplines will provide both learners and educators a more holistic understanding of the complexities in sustainability issues.
To this end, this Learning Community aims to form a multidisciplinary group of educators and administrators across the university to share various pedagogies and best teaching practices on sustainability. We will review and adapt current pedagogical approaches to sustainability education to promote student learning. We will also identify opportunities for teaching exchanges and collaborations across faculties and colleges on courses with sustainability imbued within. Together, members will form a supportive network to explore resources and identify possible synergies to advance sustainability education within the university.
Members:
• Corinne ONG Pei Pei, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy / Ridge View Residential College
• CHUA Siew Chin, Dept of Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science
• Susan OWEN, Dept of Geography/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Sean SHIN, Dept of Accounting/NUS Business School
• MAO Xianwen, Dept of Materials Science and Engineering/College of Design and Engineering
• LOO Deliang, Sustainability Strategy Unit/University Campus Infrastructure
• CHER Lijun, Sustainability Strategy Unit (Behavioural Design & Communications)/University Campus Infrastructure
• Harry LIM, Sustainability Strategy Unit (Zero Waste Programme)/University Campus Infrastructure
• Mindy ONG, Sustainability Strategy Unit (Planning & Policy)/University Campus Infrastructure
• SEOW Teck Keong, Dept of Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Norhayati Mohd ISMAIL, Centre for English Language Communication (elcnmi@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Patrick Bernard GALLO, Centre for English Language Communication (elcgpb@nus.edu.sg)
The Learning Community will examine the issue of providing high quality feedback to students in a way that is relational and sustainable. By ‘relational’ we mean feedback that evokes a positive response from the student and encourages them to learn from the feedback and produce better work. And by ‘sustainable’ we mean that the lecturer can continue providing such high-quality feedback to large groups of students over the long term.
Facilitators will organise a range of activities to provide an opportunity for the Learning Community members to develop their relational and sustainable feedback giving skills (see further elaboration under “Relevance”). Adopting best feedback giving practices will help not only to make NUS lecturers’ feedback methods more effective and efficient, but also to improve students’ uptake of feedback as well as their self-regulation skills and their growth as learners.
Members:
• Karl Erik BIRGERSSON, Engineering Science Programme/College of Design and Engineering
• Jessie TENG Sze Mei, Centre for English Language Communication
• YEO Zi Hui, Centre for English Language Communication
• Mark GAN, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Natalie PANG, NUS Libraries (clbhead@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: LEE Kooi Cheng, Centre for English Language Communication (elcleekc@nus.edu.sg)
This Learning Community will bring educators and students together to identify salient knowledge about the processes of learning, and develop tools that will inform their teaching and learning practices. We will conduct a systematic review and review readings regularly, and use the findings to recommend a series of workshops/self-paced modules as well as a self-assessment instrument for students.
Members:
• Magdeline NG Tao Tao, NUS Libraries
• CHIN Mien Chew, Annelissa, NUS Libraries
• Kamala DEVI, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• Mandi LEE Jieying, Smart Systems Institute- CUTE Center
• ONG Pei Shi, Dept of Pharmacy/Faculty of Science
• Mark GAN, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Julius BAUTISTA, NUS College (bautista@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitators: Peter VAIL, NUS College (pvail@nus.edu.sg)
LEUNG Wing Sze, NUS College (wleung@nus.edu.sg)
The Service Impact Learning Community (SILC) is an inclusive platform for educators to discuss how Service-Learning (S-L) programs can be effectively and sustainably integrated into the NUS curricula. S-L programs are educational endeavors that aim to achieve social impact by facilitating direct student collaboration with community partners in addressing community-prescribed needs and social problems. As part of a socially-directed experiential pedagogy, students process the experience of community engagement in a way that enables them to achieve a deeper understanding and retention of curricular content (Bingle & Hatcher, 1996; Saeed & Ahmed, 2021, 323).
Under the NUS Communities and Engagement Pillar, S-L is a crucial component of the graduation requirements for all students from cohort AY2021/22 onwards. Through a series of reading groups, peer workshops, SoTL-focused publication projects and sustainable community building activities, SILC members work together in addressing the conceptual and practical conundrums that may preclude the efficient implementation of a community engagement component in our curricula.
Members:
• Jack CHIA-Meng Tat, Dept of History/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• George RADICS, Dept of Sociology/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Jessy KEE (student), Dept of Psychology/Social Work/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• GOH Fang Wei, NUS College
• NG Keng Khoon, NUS College
• Alberto PEREIRO, NUS College
• Shaun LIN, NUS College
• Yi’En CHENG, NUS College
• Alexandra DALFERRO, NUS College
• LIM Chee Han, NUS College
• Miguel Escobar VARELA, NUS College
• Kiruthika RAGUPATHI, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Bimlesh WADHWA, Dept of Computer Science/School of Computing (dcsbw@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: ZHANG Weiyu, Dept of Communication and New Media/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (cnmzw@nus.edu.sg)
This learning community aims to explore how technology can deepen social inequity, as well as how it can be leveraged to advance social good. We aim to discuss paradoxes and gaps in the consideration of e.g. ethical practices in ‘technology for social good’ contexts. Our goal is to bring together a cohort of motivated individuals from STEM and non-STEM fields to discuss important practices, pedagogies, and issues in developing and deploying technology for social good. In particular, we intend to explore literature and practices to develop an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach that helps to enhance our modules when we teach students about ethical practices in technology for social good. With facilitators from Department of Communications and New media, Tembusu College, and School of Computing, we aim to cultivate a learning community where individuals from a wide range of backgrounds share their perspectives and experiences, survey and evaluate existing practices, and develop a shared resource of examples and case studies of technology for social good.
Members:
• Alex MITCHELL, Dept of Communications and New Media/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Eric Thomson KERR, Tembusu College/Asia Research Institute
• Akshay Narayan, Dept of Computer Science/School of Computing
• Mark GAN, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Jonathan FROME, NUS College (frome@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Tait BERGSTROM, NUS Library Writers’ Center (tcb@nus.edu.sg)
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) programme that was made available to the public for free just a few weeks ago, in Dec 2022. In a very short time, it has garnered an immense amount of attention among writing teachers, prompting articles with apocalyptic titles such as “The College Essay is Dead” (Marche, 2022) and “The End of High-School English” (Herman, 2022). Why? Using its massive dataset of published texts, ChatGPT is able to respond to writing prompts with essays that would easily earn passing grades in most introductory writing courses. University students and educators are quickly becoming aware of this tool, but no one has developed any frameworks for evaluating how educators and institutions should change their current teaching practices and policies in response to it becoming widely available. Is use of ChatGPT plagiarism or a violation of academic ethics? Should instructors try to ban use of ChatGPT and similar tools or embrace them? If the latter, how must writing courses change to incorporate these tools into writing instruction? This Learning Community aims to bring together members with expertise in computing, administration, and writing pedagogy to develop frameworks needed to deal with these issues.
Members:
• Akshay NARAYAN, Dept of Computer Science/School of Computing
• LOY Hui Chieh, NUS College
• Stuart DERBYSHIRE, Dept of Psychology/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Jonathan SIM, Dept of Philosophy/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Kathyrn MCHARRY, NUS College
• David MERRY, NUS College
• Bart Van WASSENHOVE, NUS College
• LEE Li Neng, Dept. of Psychology/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
2021
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: CHEN Wenqian, Dept of Pharmacy/Faculty of Science (wen.chen@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Daren LER Shan Wen, Dept of Computer Science/School of Computing (dcsdlsw@nus.edu.sg)
Since 2016, the NUS community has actively embraced CT education under the leadership of President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan. However, feedback from educators and students about CT/CS-related modules (e.g., AR2524, COS2000) suggests that non-CS students still have difficulties applying CT/CS knowledge in their prospective domains. Our multidisciplinary learning community (MLC) aims to craft a plug-and-play curriculum that allows NUS educators to efficiently develop non-CS modules with CT/CS elements for enhancing domain-specific learning.
Our plug-and-play curriculum consists of:
• a general module that provides a sufficient introduction to CT/CS for non-CS students;
• multiple tailorable generic components that focus on applied CT/CS topics that may be seamlessly incorporated into non-CS modules.
To achieve this goal, our MLC will develop the necessary TPCK for teaching CT/CS in non-CS contexts through feedback from the coordinators of existing CT/CS modules in NUS, a comprehensive review of literature and data collected from proposed trials in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and the Department of Pharmacy. Our plug-and-play curriculum will help NUS educators to efficiently incorporate CT education and synergistically enhance student learning for CT, CS and domain-specific topics. Interested colleagues please contact Dr Daren Ler (dcsdlsw@nus.edu.sg) or Dr Chen Wenqian (wen.chen@nus.edu.sg) for more information.
Members:
• YAP Swee Kun, Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
• Cindy LEE Lai Yeng, Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
• Steven PAN, Dept. of Psychology/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Ashish Deepak DANDEKAR, Dept. of Computer Science/School of Computing
• Soong Swee Kit Alan/Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: CHEAH Kok Ming, Dept of Architecture/ School of Design and Environment (akickm@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Zhang YE, Dept of Architecture/ School of Design and Environment (akizy@nus.edu.sg)
This Learning Community will study how collaboration in interdisciplinary learning could be conceived and achieved in design courses. The investigation will be carried out focusing on the realm of built environment, which will serve as a platform to effectively integrate and concretely ground expertise of a wide range of disciplines. The aim is to develop a conceptual framework for interdisciplinary collaborative learning for design courses and beyond. The study of the learning community is planned into two phases across two years . The first phase aims to establish a common knowledge foundation and develop a preliminary vision. On this basis, the second phase attempts to collectively construct a conceptual framework and test and refine it through different design courses. The findings of the learning community will be shared with the wider NUS community and beyond with the following deliverables: a blog in NUS Teaching Connection at the end of phase one, an open symposium at the end of phase two, and eventually a peer-reviewed journal article.
Members:
• PANG Sze Dai, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
• SEAH Kiat Ying, Dept. of Real Estate/School of Design and Environment
• TAN Beng Kiang, Dept. of Architecture/School of Design and Environment
• CHEN Zhi Xiong, Dept. of Physiology/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• TANG Kok Zuea, Engineering Design and Innovation Centre/Faculty of Engineering
• Stephen TAY En Rong, Dept. of Building/School of Design and Environment
• Ervine LIN Shengwei, Dept. of Architecture/ School of Design and Environment
• Thomas KONG Kwok Hoong, Dept. of Architecture/ School of Design and Environment
• Francois BLANCIAK, Dept. of Architecture/ School of Design and Environment
• Kenya ENDO, Dept. of Architecture/ School of Design and Environment
• Eddie LAU Siu Kit, Dept. of Architecture/ School of Design and Environment
• Mark GAN/Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Linda SELLOU, Dept of Chemistry/Faculty of Science (chmsll@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Mark CHONG, Dept of Biomedical Engineering/Faculty of Engineering (markchong@nus.edu.sg)
Peer learning has been shown to have significant benefits in higher education and it can take many forms, from group collaboration to peer feedback. As we move towards an educational system where students take greater ownership of their education (and educators become guides by the side or facilitators), and where learning spaces are blended, it is essential to highlight and share best practices in peer learning and feedback. Most reported strategies on peer learning refer to the more traditional disciplinary context. Our aim is to explore this 21st century life skill of peer learning and feedback by bringing together a community of educators and students from different disciplines involved in interdisciplinary courses or programmes. Together we will discuss current challenges in peer learning and peer feedback in an interdisciplinary setting and explore resources and best practices in these areas, in addition to offering instructional recommendations that are suitable for blended learning spaces.
Members:
• Sarada BULCHAND/ Duke-NUS Medical School
• LIU Mei Hui, Dept. of Food Science and Technology/Faculty of Science
• CHNG Hui Ting, Dept. of Pharmacy/Faculty of Science
• TAY En Rong Stephen, Dept. of Building/School of Design and Environment
• TAN Chiang Wang Matthew, Dept. of Pharmacy/Faculty of Science
• Zhang YE, Dept. of Architecture/ School of Design and Environment
• Xianhui Nicholas CAI, Dept. of Philosophy/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Verily TAN/Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: WERTZ, Timothy Michael/Yale-NUS College (tim.wertz@yale-nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitators: Edmund LOW/University Scholars Programme (edmundlow@nus.edu.sg)
This Learning Community consists of faculty involved in teaching and designing the new “Reasoning with Data” and “Computational Problem Solving” modules that will be offered at NUS College beginning next year. We also hope to involve students that have completed the “Quantitative Reasoning” module at either the University Scholars Programme (USP) or Yale-NUS College (YNC). The goal of this community is to integrate best practices from both units and leverage the experience of students who have previously completed the current modules. Building on the successful peer tutoring programmes at USP and YNC, we hope to further integrate peer-to-peer learning through a robust Quantitative Centre. This centre will also serve to build community between students who have already completed the modules and their younger peers who are currently enrolled in them.
Members:
• LOO Yoke Leng/ University Scholars Programme
• Mikhail FILIPPOV/ University Scholars Programme
• Francesca SPAGNUOLO/Yale-NUS College
• CHAN Chi Wang/ University Scholars Programme
• LEE Li Neng, Dept. of Psychology/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning
2020
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Lynette TAN/Residential College 4 (rc4tyll@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: CHNG Huang Hoon/Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre (clcchh@nus.edu.sg)
This Learning Community comprises of teaching faculty from Residential College 4 (RC4) and looks to improve the student learning experience and environment through students’ interactions with peers, faculty and staff. Research extending several decades has demonstrated that peer-to-peer, student-faculty, and student-staff relationships form the basis of learning, belonging and achieving in Higher Education (Felten & Lambert, 2020, p. 5). Moreover, co-creation of teaching and learning (where there is shared decision making and responsibility in the design of the whole curricula or elements of curricula) is becoming more widespread globally with compelling evidence of beneficial outcomes.
We will meet to discuss and engage with two volumes of work on relational pedagogy and the co-creation of learning and teaching. These books (Relationship-Rich Education by Peter Felten and Leo M. Lambert, 2020, and Co-creating Learning and Teaching by Catherine Bovill, 2020) critique research on the topics of successful learning outcomes through positive relationships between teacher and students, active learning and partnership in the co-creation of learning and teaching. They also examine the importance of institutional cultures as well as explain how to create a relationship-rich environment where students will have frequent opportunities, and a diverse range of access points, to connect with many peers, faculty and staff.
Members:
• Peter PANG/Residential College 4
• Ali Kadri/Residential College 4
• Elizabeth ONG/Residential College 4
• Lyon LOH/Residential College 4
• Mustafa Izzudin/Residential College 4
• Navarun VARMA/Residential College 4
• Naviyn BALAKRISHNAN/Residential College 4
• Sekhar KONDEPUDI/Residential College 4
• SREENIVAS Bellam/Residential College 4
• TAN Lai Yong/Residential College 4
• Verily TAN/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Nina Laurel POWELL, Psychology/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (psynlp@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Stuart William DERBYSHIRE, Psychology/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (psydswg@nus.edu.sg)
NUS’ UPEC has identified a key component to achieving excellence in education, and specifically, a key component to career advancement on the educator track. This key component is “being a reflective educator”. Our primary focus will be to unpack the term “reflective educator”. This is necessary because the context in the literature is primary and secondary education environments. The higher ed context is notably different (e.g., students are more in control of their outcomes while at university and there is a greater emphasis placed on and self- driven inquiry and learning). Additionally, with the development of a career-track in education, NUS should have its own way of defining and evidencing this term to reflect the institution’s values. Terms like “reflective educator” also have a tendency to evoke an intuitive meaning – the term’s meaning seems self-evident and we may all understand the meaning of reflection within the context of our teaching differently. A clear understanding of this term will add clarity to educators’ career development pathways and add transparency and trust to the process of evaluating educators’ effectiveness. Finally, while many acknowledge its limitations, there is still a heavy reliance on student feedback as being the primary objective standard for determining educators’ effectiveness. With a greater unpacking of this term, we will work to uncover new ways of evidencing effectiveness in education that speak specifically to demonstrating reflective practice. In unpacking this term “reflective educator”, our primary aim is to reflect on what effective education is and then identify ways to measure that effectiveness. .
Members:
• Donna Maree BRUNERO, History/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Robin LOON, English Language & Literature/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Brian FARRELL, History/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Rebekah WANIC, Psychology/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Andrew HUI, Humanities (Literature)/Yale-NUS College
• Russell LEE (Graduate Student), Psychology/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• TAN Yia Chin, Psychology/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• LEE, MICHAEL Adrian/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Andre Matthias MULLER, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (ephamm@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Raymond LIM, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (ephlbtr@nus.edu.sg)
The Covid-19 pandemic has further increased the demand for online learning opportunities in almost every field. With this, the desire by NUS to develop MOOCs and reach a large global audience has intensified.
The current MOOC LC was set up to discuss key characteristics of quality MOOCs, and get MOOC developers of the LC into the space. Throughout the year, MOOC LC members had in-depth discussion around various MOOC-relevant topics and formed collaborative relationships (mainly instructors with experts in education, technology and media). In the second year we aim to fully build on these relationships to support MOOC developers with their on-the ground implementation leading to a successful MOOC launch.
Following this, we aim to share our learnings on various platforms and encourage other colleagues to embark on the development of quality MOOCs.
Members:
• Alan SOONG Swee Kit, Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
• Rafi RASHID, NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences & Engineering (NGS)
• Olivier Patrick LEFEBVRE, Civil & Environmental Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
• Hafizah OSMAN, School of Continuing and Lifelong Education (SCALE)
• Clayton MILLER, Building/School of Design & Environment
• Narayanan SHYAM, Centre for Instructional Technology (CIT)
• Thirugnanasambhandan DHANESHAN (Student), Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science
• Lohsshini Sethu PATHY (Student), Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science Sciences
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Andi Sudjana PUTRA, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering (engpas@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Alan SOONG Swee Kit, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL) (cdtsska@nus.edu.sg)
Blog site: https://blog.nus.edu.sg/dyomlc/
DYOM initiative, launched in AY 2019/2020 at NUS, aims to promote life-long learning and self-directed learning. A successful DYOM initiative requires a holistic approach to meet the needs of stakeholders including undergraduate students, educators and administrators. Currently there are no learning communities in NUS looking into DYOM. DYOM LC is a community of undergraduate students, educators and administrators who are interested in developing and promoting DYOM via group work with supervision. DYOM LC aims to develop an effective methodology that would support each stakeholder in their respective role, benefit the NUS community and eventually the education communities beyond NUS and Singapore who are interested in learning and conducting DYOM in their respective contexts. DYOM LC will approach the subject matter using Flexible Learning and Students-as-Partners (SaP) frameworks. Flexible learning is “about empowering students by offering them choices in how, what, when and where they learn: the pace, the place and mode of delivery”, hence DYOM falls within it. As partnership between students and staff is crucial in DYOM, the SaP framework is used to underpin the discussion of DYOM LC. .
Members:
• SEW Jyh Wee/Centre for Language Studies
• CHONG Yuan Yi, Chemistry/Faculty of Science
• NG Tao Tao Magdeline/NUS Science Library
• THAM Chuey Peng/Office of the Senior Deputy President & Provost
• Doreen TAN, Centre for English Language Communication (CELC)
• SIM Zhian Elvyn/Office of Student Affairs (OSA)
• Muhammad HAIZURULDIN/Office of Student Affairs (OSA)
• POK Ruey Jye (Student)/Faculty of Engineering
• Markus Alexander NG Shen Xi (Student)/NUS Business School
• Benjamin LAY Weijie (Student)/NUS Business School
• LEE Kooi Cheng/Centre for English Language Communication (CELC)
• SEAH Zong Long/NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences & Engineering (NGS)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: CHER Pei Hua/Duke-NUS Medical School (gmscher@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: LEE Wen Yau Jason/Duke-NUS Medical School (gmsjwyl@nus.edu.sg)
Medical education is a multidisciplinary field that involves clinicians, allied health professionals and education experts to train healthcare workers to be competent professionals. It is still rooted in tradition with a strong history in didactic teaching. Nonetheless, the field is evolving with a drive for adopting pedagogical innovations, such as team-based learning and technology enhanced learning, to complement and enhance the training of future healthcare professionals.
The aim of our learning community is to form a multidisciplinary group of content, education and technology experts to share research on medical education, technology and pedagogy. We will take a scholarly approach and create a platform that will enable us to read, demonstrate, and share technology and education journal articles that will promote learning and improve student engagement to fulfil learning outcomes.
We have identified several topics that our learning community will share, such as:
• AR/VR in medical education
• AI in healthcare education
• Realtime Learning Analytics
• The use of natural language processing in student reflection
• Elentra ME – harnessing its features to improve teaching and learning
• Learning Management Systems and their challenges
• Learning Theory and their delivery using technology
Through this community we seek to keep up to date and reflect on the effective use of technology to enhance learning, as well as identify research gaps for future collaborations.
Members:
• A Fahmeeda Banu D/O Abdul MALIK/Duke-NUS Medical School
• Fernando BELLO/Duke-NUS Medical School
• FOO Yang Yann/Duke-NUS Medical School
• FOONG Weng Chiong, Kelvin/Faculty of Dentistry
• Grace SOW Tian Boon/Duke-NUS Medical School
• LIM Li Zhen/Faculty of Dentistry
• LOH Swee Nam/Duke-NUS Medical School
• Mandi LEE/Smart Systems Institute
• Sarada Harichand BULCHAND/Duke-NUS Medical School
• TEH Hsin Yee/Duke-NUS Medical School
• Intekhab ISLAM/Faculty of Dentistry
• FOO Lean Heong/Duke-NUS Medical School
• FREEMAN Kirsty Jane/Duke-NUS Medical School
• Mark GAN/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Kamalini RAMDAS, Geography/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (geokr@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Shobha AVADHANI, Communications & New Media/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (cnmsa@nus.edu.sg)
Feminist pedagogical practices strive to produce a learning environment where students learn to ‘do’, ‘question’ and ‘transform’ within the generative spaces of the classroom (Burke et al, 2017, Huang and Ramdas, 2019). The classroom is framed as a generative space fuelled by a commitment to animate feminist politics and ethos through education and research, and to enact social justice that extends beyond the classroom. In Singapore, this can be especially complex and challenging for two reasons: 1) the diversity of students with different cultural beliefs and value systems; and 2) the challenges advocating for feminist change in the sociopolitical context of Singapore.
The aim of this TLC is to take stock of the interdisciplinary landscape of gender education and feminist pedagogical approaches and strategies at NUS. How have sex/gender been incorporated in what we teach? What are the different disciplinary and pedagogical approaches we adopt when discussing sex/gender in our classrooms? What might the impact of these discussions be beyond our classrooms? How might some of the strategies advance research, thinking and representation with regards to gender?
Members:
• Robin LOON, English Language & Literature/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Laetitia MONBEC/Centre for English Language Communication (CELC)
• CHIN Chuan Fei, Philosophy/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Antonia MONTEIRO, Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science
• Nalini PUNIAMOORTHY, Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science
• Zoe Jane-Lara HILDON/Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
• Sheena RAMAZANU/Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies
• ZHANG Chen, Will, General Education Unit /Office of the Senior Deputy President and Provost
• Adelyn LIM, Sociology/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Nashwinder KAUR/Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
• Namala Lakshmi TILAKARATNA/Centre for English Language Communication (CELC)
• Kiruthika RAGUPATHI/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Zeehan JAAFAR, Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science (dbszj@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Donna Maree BRUNERO, History/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (hisdonna@nus.edu.sg)
The ability to critically synthesize complex relationships and identify potential solutions from multiple disciplines confers academic and professional advantages at a time when information is readily available (Repko 2009; Mishra & Kereluik 2011; Herbert 2017). Innovative problem solving skills are a core competency expected of university graduate students. The recent launch of the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS) by NUS signals this major paradigm shift in higher education training in Singapore from a traditional single discipline focus to one that is interdisciplinary.
This proposed Learning Community leverages on the advancement of inter, and even trans, disciplinary teaching modes by the university. To this end, our aim for this Learning Community is to review, and adapt current pedagogical approaches in interdisciplinary teaching and learning in the context of Faculty of Science (FoS) and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) teaching collaborations. We will identify the opportunities and challenges that this Learning Community members face when teaching interdisciplinary courses and analyse these for any common threads or trends. Concurrently, we will evaluate the relevance of longstanding fundamental concepts in interdisciplinary teaching (see e.g., Nikitina 2006); and study through focus group discussions, seminal publications on current best practice strategies employed for successful integrated interdisciplinary teaching and learning. These exercises will allow members of this Learning Community to suggest broad concepts to be adopted or adapted to the courses they are presently teaching. Members are to share their observations of the efficacy of these concepts after implementation.
This Learning Community will also serve as a platform for broader collaborative learning on interdisciplinary teaching amongst colleagues and graduate students from the two faculties (FoS and FASS) through one informal session in month 6 and one formal seminar in month 12.
These sessions will be then be written up for contributions under CDTL’s Teaching Connections..
Members:
• Kamalini RAMDAS, Geography/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Jose Christopher MENDOZA/Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum
• Mohammed Effendy B Abdul HAMID/Southeast Asian Studies
• Hanny KUSNADI, Accounting/NUS Business School
• WONG Lynn Wei (Graduate Student), Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science
• Dennis ANG, Communications & New Media/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Linda SELLOU, Chemistry/Faculty of Science
• Alan SOONG Swee Kit/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: DU Hongjian, Civil & Environmental Engineering/Faculty of Engineering (ceedhj@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Stephen TAY, Building/School of Design & Environment (bdgters@nus.edu.sg)
YEOH Ker Wei, Justin, Civil & Environmental Engineering/Faculty of Engineering (ceeykw@nus.edu.sg)
This learning community (LC) aims to learn and implement interdisciplinary educational approaches to promote students learning, which aligns with the recently announced press release1. The LC comprises of academics and students across the Faculty of Engineering and School of Design and Environment. There are two phases planned for: (1) Learning and (2) Implementation. In Phase 1, the LC studies the book “A Connected Curriculum for Higher Education” (Fung, 2017), which is supplemented by cross-faculty/school peer reviews. Specifically, the Connected Curriculum framework is referenced. Subsequently, mind maps of ideas for interdisciplinary modules are created. Members will share their thoughts on the readings and discuss the applicability of various teaching pedagogies in monthly meetings. In Phase 2, members will identify and implement the most suitable teaching strategies for their individual module. Members will collaboratively help one another through peer review. The impact of the efforts on student learning will be assessed through both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The scholarship of the new teaching methods will be documented and shared with those who are motivated to contribute to interdisciplinary teaching. At the end of the project, we will organise a workshop to disseminate the findings and experience to the NUS wider community.
Service learning and greater flexibility for incoming undergraduates at NUS, 22 February 2021 https://news.nus.edu.sg/service-learning-and-greater-flexibility-for-incoming-undergraduates-at-nus/
Members:
• WANG Qian, Building/School of Design & Environment
• Alexander LIN, Building/School of Design & Environment
• GENG Guoqing, Civil & Environmental Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
• GOH Yang Miang, Building/School of Design & Environment
• Paul ONG, Civil & Environmental Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
• TAY Xin Yi Mavian, Building/School of Design & Environment
• YAN Siyang (Student), Civil & Environmental Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
• Mark GAN/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Rebecca Amelie WANIC, Psychology/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (psyraw@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Nina POWELL, Psychology/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (psynlp@nus.edu.sg)
Much work has documented increasing levels of stress in students, with little attention to how mindset or environmental factors contribute. Singapore presents an interesting landscape for exploration, producing high-achieving students who report high levels of stress, which may be exacerbated by the impact of a failure-intolerant parenting culture. Much has been done to assist student wellbeing outside the classroom, but few have focused on the unique role of educators, who may assist in promoting student success through the impact of pedagogical practices on student wellbeing. Psychological research highlights that subjective factors play a large role in both the experience and impact of stress. One such factor is the cultivation of a resilience mindset. Faculty are uniquely positioned to assist students in the acquisition of a resilience mindset given their contact with students and educational leadership roles. We will explore theory and research on the connection between resilience, stress and success and identify ways faculty can incorporate resiliency-enhancing techniques in the classroom. Through reflection on current pedagogy and development of novel exercises, we will evaluate how resiliency-minded instruction can reduce student stress, improve educational outcomes, and promote student motivation to face new challenges in the classroom and beyond. .
Members:
• CHER Pei Hua/Duke-NUS Medical School
• Yuzuru HAMASAKI, Japanese Language program/Center for Language Studies
• Derbyshire, Stuart William Geo, Psychology/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Gretchen COFFMAN, Geography/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
• Verily TAN/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Elliot LAW, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering (engel@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: NIL
The Innovation & Design Programme ( iDP) aims to train graduates with an entrepreneurial mindset who understand innovation and are able to apply their knowledge and skills to solve problems or design new products, services, and experiences. In the iDP, students learn various tools and processes for ideation and design by working together in multidisciplinary teams on hands-on projects that have real-world impact. Those who are keen on entrepreneurship are encouraged to further develop their projects for commercialization.
This Learning Community aims to bring together educators who are involved in the iDP to explore best practices to define, nurture, and assess key student learning outcomes in a multidisciplinary project-based learning programme such has the iDP. These learning outcomes include domain knowledge and skills, professional skills, and personal attributes that are expected of iDP graduates in a world that is increasingly characterized by rapid change, uncertainty, and complexity.
This Learning Community also seeks to be a platform for its members to reflect and consolidate important lessons that we have learnt since the inception of the iDP a decade ago, chart future directions as we look to strengthen the programme over the next decade, and embolden us to share our experience with others. Through this effort, we hope to make the impact of the iDP more tangible to internal and external stakeholders by anchoring what we do on firmer educational frameworks and making public our philosophy and best practices.
Members:
• Andi Sudjana PUTRA, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• KHOO Eng Tat, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• TANG Kok Zuea, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• YEN Shih Cheng, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• Mark CHONG, Biomedical Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
• Koenraad MOUTHAAN, Electrical & Computer Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
• LOH Ai Poh, Electrical & Computer Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
• Mark Philip De LESSIO, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• EE Wei Han, Eugene, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• LIM Hong Wee, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• NEO Kang Wei, Kenneth, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• SOH Eng Keng, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• TEO Shohei, Brian, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• SIM Zhi Min, Dean’s Office/Faculty of Engineering
• PU Fang Chiong, NUS Libraries
• WONG Kah Wei, NUS Libraries
• Kiruthika RAGUPATHI/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Greg Tucker-KELLOGG, Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science (dbsgtk@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Nalini PUNIAMOORTHY, Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science (dbsnp@nus.edu.sg)
Before the Covid-19 pandemic (the Before Times), online teaching at NUS was primarily a scenario planning exercise: an e-learning week here or there to ensure business continuity preparedness. During the enforced e-learning of the pandemic, teaching staff have been forced to innovate.Although classes will gradually return to face-to-face teaching, a year of online learning will, and should, change teaching forever. The experience of learning changes the expectations of teaching. We cannot expect to go back to “The Before Times” any more than we can ask students to give up their smart phones. But which innovations are worth keeping? This learning community (LC) will examine and refine what teachers and students have learned about best e-learning practices over the last year. Every member of the community must be committed to the principle that teaching and learning in the After Times will be different than it was in the Before Times. Each LC member from the teaching staff will implement and report on their own e-learning innovations; each student member will report on their elearning experiences. Individual perspectives will be tested by peer observation. This LC will make recommendations to CDTL and CIT for professional development programmes and LumiNUS changes, respectively.
Members:
• Roman CARRASCO, Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science
• LING Shuo-Chien, Physiology/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• Antónia MONTIEIRO, Biological Sciences/Faculty of Science
• LEE Kan Ting Marcus (Student), Computational Biology Programme/Faculty of Science
• Ira AGRAWAL, Physiology/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• JEON Ah-Jung, Medicine/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• LEE, ADRIAN Michael/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Marina Jose KANETI/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (sppmjk@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Taha HAMEDDUDIN/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (spptah@nus.edu.sg)
Borrowing the concept of interoperability from computer systems, the objective of this learning community is to enhance faculty and students’ ability to connect knowledge as well as exchange, and make use of, information between course modules and programme curricula. The overarching goal is to support both the learning community participants, and faculty at LKYSPP more broadly, to craft a coordinated and holistic teaching and learning experience for the graduate students across our public policy school. Such experience would allow students to move beyond learning where course modules are only seen as individual, stand-alone components of a respective graduate degree. Our vision is to create an interoperable environment where the flow and integration of information between course modules allows both the faculty and students to understand the degree programmes as a multifaceted and yet holistic process that prepares our graduates for the professional world of policy making and policy analysis.
Members:
• Kanti BAJPAI/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• Benjamin CASHORE/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• Francesco MANCINI/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• Alfred WU/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• KHUONG Minh Vu/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• Sanjana GOSWAMI/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• Adam LIU/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• Adrien BUSSY/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• Drew THOMPSON/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• Anubhav GUPTA/Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• Mark GAN/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
2019
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: HAN Zhe, previously Pharmacy/Faculty of Science (FOS) (zhe.han@mcphs.edu)
Co-Facilitator: Paul GALLAGHER, Pharmacy/FOS (phapjg@nus.edu.sg)
A transdisciplinary and integrated approach is emphasised in higher education internationally and at the National University of Singapore (NUS). However, integrated teaching and learning faces numerous challenges not least of which is the limited experience and familiarity of academic staff in the delivery of integrated curricula.
This Learning Community addresses the crucial issue of developing an integrated approach to teaching and learning. It creates peer support among champions of integrated learning. We will focus on the design, development and delivery of Collaborative Learning Workshops (CLWs) which challenge students to work in teams to apply knowledge from various disciplines in solving real-world problems. In the process, students will also enhance their communication and critical thinking skills. The design of CLWs is rooted in collaborative learning and student-centred pedagogy.
Faculty from NUS Pharmacy and partnering academic units (e.g. Depts of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine) will join this Learning Community, along with representatives from local healthcare institution and student organisation. This membership allows the learning community to be a platform for dialogue between faculty members, employers and students and to facilitate the implementation of an integrated pharmacy professional curriculum (http://pharmacy.nus.edu.sg/bachelor-of-pharmacy/).
Understanding and experiences gained through this learning community are applicable to all disciplines and will be shared with educators in NUS and beyond through teaching guides, video, presentations, and workshop.
Members:
- CHUI Wai Keung, Pharmacy/FOS
CHEW Eng Hui, Pharmacy/FOS - Priscilla HOW, Pharmacy/FOS
- WANG Aiwen, Pharmacy/FOS
- CHEN Zhi Xiong, Physiology/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSoM)
- TAN Kong Bing, Anatomy/YLLSoM
- THE Sin Yee (Student), Pharmacy/FOS
- TAI Chen Wei (Student), Pharmacy/FOS
- LEE, MICHAEL Adrian/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: James KAH, Biomedical Engineering/Faculty of Engineering (biekahj@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: KUAN Yee Han, Tembusu College & Office of Student Affairs (rctkyh@nus.edu.sg)
“Corporate for Good” initiatives are often a way for many organisations to contribute back to society and create meaningful social impact. As an educational institution, NUS presents many possible pathways to realise its corporate giving within the context of delivering a world-class education. While internship programmes have been embedded in many programmes, community engagement is often considered as an extra-curricular activity. Furthermore, we also recognise the increasing desire of our Gen Z students to find meaning and social impact in their learning (Willms, Friesen, & Milton, 2009). Existing studies have shown that students are more engaged if they observe that their learning could impact people’s lives (Taylor & Parsons, 2011). These have therefore motivated us to propose a Learning Community where members from different faculties can examine published frameworks on community-based learning and share best practices that could be embedded into these frameworks. Our aim is to allow members to co-learn how their degree programme, curriculum or a specific module could be re-designed to consciously incorporate elements of community-based learning in a discipline-specific manner, based on an established framework to achieve more effective community engagement. Community-based learning embedded as an integral component of a module or curriculum could provide formal and proper training to students to maximise social impact. This is a unique concept which we believe could maximise our student’s exposure to needs in the community and allow them to learn more, gain more empathy, give back to society while they earn their modular credits.
Taylor, L. & Parsons, J. (2011). Improving student engagement. Current Issues in Education, 14(1), 1-32. Retrieved from http://cie.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/cieatasu/article/viewFile/745/162.
Willms, J. D., Friesen, S. & Milton, P. (2009). What did you do in school today? Transforming classrooms through social, academic and intellectual engagement. (First National Report) Toronto: Canadian Education Association.
Members
- Stephen HSU/Faculty of Dentistry
Norman NEW/Ridge View Residential College (RVRC) - LIM Cheng Puay/RVRC
- ZHOU Wentao, Nursing/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSoM)
- Muhammad NAWAZ, Geography/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS)
- Bimlesh WADHWA, Computer Science/School of Computing (SoC)
- Dujeepa D. SAMARASEKERA, Dean’s Office/YLLSoM
- Jonathan CHEN (Student), Computer Science/SoC
- Angeline LIM/Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre
- Kiruthika RAGUPATHI/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Andre Matthias MULLER, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH) (ephamm@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Raymond LIM, SSHSPH (ephlbtr@nus.edu.sg)
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have gained significant popularity around the globe. NUS has joined the non-profit MOOC platform EdX (www.edx.org) in 2019 in an effort to increase its educational reach beyond the confines of the University. The NUS community is now encouraged to develop quality MOOCs in diverse subject fields. Unfortunately, MOOC development can be a daunting endeavour considering a number of barriers and lack of experience. In addition, high drop-out and low completion rates hamper the inherent potential of MOOCs once they are set up. The MOOC LC aims to discuss and share aspects related to designing and developing quality MOOCs in a scholarly manner. This will be achieved by bringing together a) NUS faculty who are at different stages of MOOC development, b) professional staff who have relevant expertise, resources and skills, c) online learning experts, as well as d) research staff and students with user experience. The following topics will be discussed in various formats: MOOCs basics, barriers and facilitators to development, who are the MOOC users, role of the instructor, helpful tools, accreditation and evaluation of MOOCs. We anticipate that the output of the LC will lead to more quality MOOCs being developed by NUS staff.
Members
- SEAH Siang Joo/SSHSPH
- Alan SOONG Swee Kit/Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL)
- Rafi RASHID/NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences & Engineering (NGS)
- Olivier Patrick LEFEBVRE, Civil & Environmental Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
- Hafizah OSMAN/School of Continuing and Lifelong Education (SCALE)
- Clayton MILLER, Building/School of Design & Environment
- Narayanan SHYAM/Centre for Instructional Technology (CIT)
- Thirugnanasambhandan DHANESHAN (Student), Biological
- Sciences/Faculty of Science
- Alex LIU Kaiyi (Student), Geography/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Daniel JEW, College of Alice & Peter Tan (CAPT), & History/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS) (rc3jyhd@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitators: Eddie LAU Siu Kit, Architecture/School of Design & Environment (akilsk@nus.edu.sg)
Bellam SREENIVASULU, Residential College 4 (rc4bs@nus.edu.sg)
Learner-centred pedagogies (Weimer, 2013; Fink, 2013) are increasingly impacting the global academy, based on evidence of their efficacy towards deep learning (Blumberg, 2009). However, university teachers can sometimes struggle to gain support in their understanding of, growth within, and practice of these pedagogies, as the teacher-centred paradigm focusing on transmission of content is still, arguably, often the (receding) norm.
This Learning Community will read key chapters of Maryellen Weimer’s Learner-centred Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice. Originally published in 2002, Weimer’s book popularised the concept, organising learner-centred approaches into a framework with five dimensions. In Semester One, we will study each of these five key areas of potential change, and share reflections relating the ideas to our own current practice.
Based on the collective understanding gained, we will identify, design, and implement an actual intervention in our own teaching practice in Semester Two, with the help of the rubrics provided in Blumberg (2009). Members will support one another by providing constructive pre- and post- feedback on the intervention, and by providing an informal classroom observation for another member. The reflections on the interventions will be posted on the LC’s blog.
Our activities will culminate in a joint workshop, reflectively sharing with the rest of the NUS community on the interventions and growth toward more learner-centred practice.
Members
- KUAN Yee Han/Tembusu College & Office of Student Affairs
- Paul ONG, Civil & Environmental Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
- Lynette TAN/Residential College 4
- Daniel SNG, Mechanical Engineering/Faculty of Engineering
- Kankana MUKHOPADHYAY/CAPT
- Bryan Benjamin GOH Yu Xian (Student), History/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
- Joel CHOW Ken Q, Philosophy/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
- Jeanette CHOY/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Nicholas CAI, General Education Unit/Office of the Senior Deputy President & Provost (SDPPVO) (pvocxn@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Kenneth CHONG, General Education Unit/SDPPVO (pvocbsk@nus.edu.sg)
The General Education (GE) Unit of the Office of the Senior Deputy President and Provost (SDPPVO) comprises 28 full-time instructors and teaching assistants who are tutors for the GEQ1000 (Asking Questions) and GER1000 (Quantitative Reasoning) modules. The proposed Learning Community aims to establish a regular platform for our teaching staff and invited guests to 1) reflect upon and improve our teaching practice, 2) discuss issues related to student engagement beyond the classroom, 3) encourage and facilitate cross-discipline and pedagogical knowledge exchange and collaboration, and if possible, 4) explore and develop new content, with a special focus on General Education.
Members
- SOON Wan Mei, Amanda, General Education Unit/SDPPVO
- WANG Hui Ting, General Education Unit/SDPPVO
- LAU Chee Loong, Desmond, General Education Unit/SDPPVO
- ZHANG Chen, Will, General Education Unit/SDPPVO
- WI Chee Yong, Andy, General Education Unit/SDPPVO
- LIM Lit San, General Education Unit/SDPPVO
- Mark GAN/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: Dara Leah RICHARD, Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) (elcdlr@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: LEE Gek Ling, CELC (elcleegl@nus.edu.sg)
The Inclusive Education Learning Community explores learner-centred education for diverse student cohorts that include students with disabilities, students from under-represented minorities, first-generation university students, and lifelong learners. We have adopted Hockings’ (2010) definition of inclusive education as “the ways in which pedagogy, curricula and assessment are designed to engage students in learning that is meaningful, relevant, and accessible to all” (p. 1). We agree with Lawrie et al. (2017) on the need for “initiatives that operate both within and across institutional contexts and engage multiple stakeholders” (p. 9).
Our learning community aims to account for existing inclusive practices in our interactions with our students, identify student strategies to negotiate barriers, and propose ways through which we can make our pedagogical, curricular, assessment and institutional practices inclusive with two threads of inquiry. The first thread involves designing on-the-ground interventions for marginalized or under-represented students. These interventions are largely based on Universal Design for Learning principles and focus on pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and institutional support. The second thread involves a pilot project that can lead to longitudinal study to better understand the barriers marginalized or under-represented groups encounter, as well as student strategies to cope and negotiate barriers.
Members
- Shobha AVADHANI, Communications New Media/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS)
- Gene Segarra NAVERA/CELC
- Jamila OSMAN, Central Library
- Deborah CHOO/CELC
- Marissa E Kwan Lin/CELC
- Nazerene IBRAHIM/CELC
- Inthrani Raja INDRAN, Pharmacology/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
- Salome Antonette REBELLO/Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
- Agnes YUEN/Office of Student Affairs
- LEUNG Wing Sze/University Scholars Programme
- Angeline LIM/Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre
- Nilanjana SAXENA/School of Continuing and Lifelong Education
- Kiruthika RAGUPATHI/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: CHNG Hui Ting, Pharmacy/FOS (phacht@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitators: CHONG Yuan Yi, Chemistry/FOS (chmcyy@nus.edu.sg)
NG Tao Tao, Magdeline, NUS Libraries (slbnttm@nus.edu.sg)
“It was quite a different Anne [than] I had known as my daughter. She never really showed this kind of inner feeling. She talked about many things, we criticized many things, but what really her feelings were, I only could see from the diary. And my conclusion is, as I had been in very, very good terms with Anne, that most parents don’t know, really, their children.”
– Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank
The above excerpt were thoughts shared by Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank, the girl who was a victim of the Holocaust and wrote the famous “The Diary of Anne Frank”.
Like Otto, as educators, do we really know our students? Why do they seem disinterested, disengaged and unmotivated in class? Based on mutual interest and common challenges encountered in our journey as educators, our Learning Community has identified motivation in learning as our teaching and learning issue. Specifically, we would like to learn more about:
- What motivates or demotivates NUS students in their learning
- How to engage or motivate students, given the different contexts and determinants of learning
Members:
- Ivan LOW Cherh Chiet, Physiology/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
- LEE Li Neng, Psychology/Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
- NG Shun Geng, Information Systems & Analytics/School of Computing
- Noopur Vinayak JOSHI, Architecture/School of Design & Environment
- SEOW Teck Keong, Biological Sciences/FOS & College of Alice & Peter Tan
- TAY En Rong, Stephen, Building/School of Design & Environment
- YEO Heu Ming, Jeremy (Student), Mathematics & Chemistry/Faculty of Science
- Jeanette CHOY/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: CHEAH Kok Ming, Architecture/School of Design & Environment (akickm@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: Hans TAN, Industrial Design/School of Design & Environment (didtyhh@nus.edu.sg)
Project-based learning (PBL) has been the modus operandi for teaching design to meet our diverse needs – furniture, architecture, infrastructure, landscape and the city. Mirroring the industrial practices, these projects produced by students may have commercial or speculative value, generating an engaging conversation that easily side-lined an equally important discussion on the students’ learning. We forget about the learner, the learning process and lost the yield of pedagogical lessons. There is an assumption among most design teachers that a well-conceived design project is a tacit manifestation of successful learning. A successful project delivery does not mean that the learner has undergone an intended learning process or attained all the learning outcomes. The desire for project-centricity could also lead to the adoption of master-apprentice model of teaching, where the teacher gives specific instruction for students to complete the project. This process usually leaves little room for independent thinking.
The proposed Learning Community(LC) assigns equal importance to both Project-centricity and Learner-centricity in project-based learning. It is the aim of the LC to study how successful project delivery also reflects a strong underpinning of effective learning. It will examine assessment protocol and methods of evidencing learning to derive a set of critical lens to better sense-make the dual-deliverables of a project-based learning (PBL) for teaching design.
Members
- TAN Beng Kiang (Advisor), Architecture/School of Design & Environment
- LOH Ai Poh (Special Advisor), Innovation & Design Programme/Faculty of Engineering
- TANG Kok Zuea, Innovation & Design Programme/Faculty of Engineering
- Nikhi JOSHI, Architecture (Conservation)/School of Design & Environment
- ZHANG Ye, Architecture (Urban Design)/School of Design & Environment
- CHEW Jia Ying, Industrial Design/School of Design & Environment
- Donn KOH, Industrial Design/School of Design & Environment
- Kenya ENDO, Architecture (Landscape)/School of Design & Environment
- LIN Shengwei, Ervine, Architecture (Landscape)/School of Design & Environment
- Tsuto SAKAMOTO, Architecture/School of Design & Environment
- KONG Kwok Hoong, Thomas, Architecture/School of Design & Environment
- Mark GAN/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: TAMBYAH Siok Kuan, College of Alice & Peter Tan (CAPT) (rc3tsk@nus.edu.sg)
Co-Facilitator: TOH Tai Chong, CAPT (rc3ttc@nus.edu.sg)
The world of contemporary higher education is dynamic and constantly evolving. Students are increasingly challenged to acquire 21st-century competencies so that they can be ready for the workplace. Consequently, there are rising expectations on educators to help students meet these challenges. In this learning community, we examine how we can enable students to grow and develop, not just as workers for the global marketplace but also as unique individuals.
This learning community will assess and consider the impact of innovative programs and initiatives that contribute to student learning outcomes in the new learning spaces of residential colleges (RCs). ‘Learning spaces’ is a conceptual space beyond the confines of the physical spaces and formal curricula. These learning outcomes include leadership, metacognition, and others that are difficult to define or measure. These programmes and initiatives are situated within formal or informal curricula, and involve learning in local or overseas contexts. They incorporate a spectrum of interactions and sharing of responsibilities among students, educators and other partners.
In summary, the learning community will:
- Maintain a balance of diversity of learning outcomes and a focus on residential colleges
- Focus on learning outcomes that are difficult to define or measure, starting with programs and initiatives related to self-reflection, co-creation and reflective writing.
Incorporate views from all stakeholders (educators, professional staff and students)
Members
- Naviyn Prabhu BALAKRISHNAN/Residential College 4
- CHUA Siew Chin/Ridge View Residential College
- Eric KERR/Tembusu College
Kankana MUKHOPADHYAY/CAPT - NG Jia Yun/Ridge View Residential College
- Susan SEE THO, Accounting/NUS Business School
- Alan SOONG Swee Kit/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)
Name of Facilitator (s)
Principal Facilitator: WONG Yao Hing, previously Lee Kuan Yew of Public Policy (LKYSPP) (yaohingwong@cuhk.edu.hk)
Co-Facilitator: Agnes TAN, LKYSPP (spptana@nus.edu.sg)
NUS has responded to the Government’s SkillsFuture initiative through, among others, the provision of credit-bearing modules under the NUS Lifelong Learners (NUS L3) programme and NUS CET500 programme where participants study alongside current NUS undergraduates within the same classroom. This unique learning arrangement poses novel challenges and warrants dedicated research—while much has been researched and written about pedagogical issues affecting non-traditional learners (i.e. adult learners embarking on tertiary education for the first time), both the NUS L3 and NUS CET500 programmes are unique, one-of-its-kind programmes aimed at professionals with tertiary qualifications who see the need to re-skill/up-skill themselves in order to meet the challenges of a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world.
This Learning Community thus seeks to bring together staff who are already currently involved in the teaching and administration of CET modules and modules where PET and CET students converge within the same classroom, and staff who may in the future be involved in the teaching and administration of such modules to discuss, explore and study pedagogical issues related to teaching in this unique classroom setting.
Members:
- Naniek YULIATI/LKYSPP
- James CRABTREE/ LKYSPP
- Aileen LAM Wanli/CELC
- LEE, MICHAEL Adrian/Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL)