17 November 2021 (Wednesday)
The teacher sharing session "Be a Globally Minded Teacher!" took place on 17 November 2021 by guest speaker Ms Fong Lai Ling, who is the acting assistant principal (academic affairs) of Delia Memorial School (Glee Path), as a closing remark for the Globally Minded Teacher Learning programme.
The event welcomed 38 participants both at EdUHK and on Zoom, including pre-service teachers and academic and research staff members of EdUHK.
Ms Fong first shared how the school-based curriculum can help to respond to the ever-changing natures of students in different generations. On the one hand, it can support the students in developing a wide variety of abilities to respond to the new social challenges; on the other, the improved curriculum can help teachers formulate the interdisciplinary teaching plan.
Especially in the role of a Chinese as a second language teacher, Ms Fong witnessed the increasing Chinese Language ability of ethnic minority students due to the advancing primary school curriculum over her 20-year experiences in Delia Memorial School (Glee Path). She stressed, "when the existing curriculum is no longer fit the needs of the students, we should not hesitate to transform it based on our students' needs and abilities."
Further, Ms Fong provided some tips for the pre-service teachers to plan the lessons on a unit basis, supplemented with the unit goals in question form, which can give students a time frame to examine their learning outcomes.
Another guest, Mr Ma, shared his experience tackling students' diversity on learning the Chinese Language in a class of ethnic minority students. Mr Ma stressed that motivation is the key for students to learn; therefore, designing class activities that can boost students' confidence is essential. He then provided some e-learning tools that can improve teaching and learning effectiveness.
The sharing sparked conversations on the importance of an inclusive curriculum at school and the pro-diversity teacher education and beyond. We believe that education equity is not providing all students with the same teaching programme, but looking at each student as a unique individual, and providing each of them the best way to develop their paths.