This issue of CDTL Brief is the first of a two-part installment that features the teaching practices of the NUS Outstanding Educator Award winners and nominees.
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| Balancing Content-based Education and Process-based Education |
| Associate Professor Bernard C.Y. Tan |
| Department of Information Systems |
| My teaching philosophy is to make students competent on the subject matter using a good balance of content-based education and process-based education. I will use the materials from a senior undergraduate module, CS4251 “Strategic Planning for Information Systems” which I have taught for several years to illustrate this philosophy. Continue reading |
| Inviting Students into Our Relationship with Our Subject |
| Associate Professor K. Raguraman |
| Departments of Geography and Civil Engineering |
| In their first lecture, students are meeting two strangers—the lecturer and the subject. I feel that teaching is not just about a lecturer facilitating the learning of a subject. It is perhaps more significantly about the lecturer’s relationship with the subject. Many of us are motivated to become teachers because we feel a deep kinship with a subject and we find it meaningful and fulfilling to bring our students into that relationship. Continue reading |
| My Teaching Philosophy |
| Associate Professor Alice Christudason |
| Department of Real Estate and Building Associate Director, CDTL |
| “Some of the most remarkable of these laws, viewed by themselves, apart from their history, and judged only by the benefits which now result from them, appear to me to be absolutely worthless. Others are more than worthless, they are absurd and injurious.” Continue reading |
| Teaching a Very Large Class: What to do? How? |
| Associate Professor Ang Kok Keng |
| Department of Civil Engineering |
| Teaching a large class is often an unwelcome assignment due to many vexing problems associated with the sheer size of the class. These problems include dealing with how to encourage attendance in large classes, how to prevent academic dishonesty, how to get feedback from students about the course and how to make a big class interactive. Continue reading |
| The Art of Teaching a Science GEM |
| Associate Professor Edward Teo |
| Department of Physics |
| Designing and teaching a General Education Module (GEM) presents a unique set of challenges. Unlike a normal module, a GEM typically consists of students from different faculties, with diverse backgrounds, abilities and expectations. Some students would choose a GEM out of interest, while others may feel compelled to take it just to fulfil the University’s requirements. Continue reading |