Departments of Building and Real Estate's Teaching Seminar 2007/2008: Connecting Teaching with the Real World

The Departments of Building and Real Estate's teaching seminar thi s semester featured a presentation by one of NUS's multiple Teaching Excellence Award winners, Associate Professor Wong Nyuk Hien, entitled 'Connecting Teaching with the Real World.'

Associate Professor Wong commenced his presentation by highlighting initial difficulties he faced as a new teacher when he returned from his PhD studies in 1998. While comfortable with the content he had to teach, he was surprised by the negative student feedback he received. He realised there were refinements he had to make to his teaching style so that students could benefit from their learning experience. This led to a process of soul searching, with Associate Professor Wong recognising that he had to make learning more 'real' for his students. To this end, he devised several strategies for a particularly difficult final-year module he taught, BU4102 "Integrated Construction Technology", which presumed prior knowledge from students and required them to assimilate various fields of knowledge.

Associate Professor Wong shares his teaching experiences at the seminar

Associate Professor Wong's presentation was peppered with various illustrations and strategies whose primary aim was to elicit students' interest and fully engage them in the learning process. Many of these involved using simple and readily-available resources such as newspaper articles, the Internet and simple activities which involved student participation during class. Although time and effort was required in putting such teaching materials together, the rewards of enhanced student learning made it worthwhile.

An interesting question-and-answer session followed the presentation and participants provided feedback that they would "definitely try out some of the strategies discussed."