Pedagogical Good Practices

The photo is a good illustration of my pedagogical approach. It is a screen shot of a program called “Story of China”, which was aired on BBC and PBS in Feb. 2016 (http://www.acfun.tv/v/ac2530233). I was explaining my research in Chinese traditional villages and field experience in Anhui Province in China, where I visited basically every summer for four years.


By participating in this program, I validated my belief that learning experience should extend beyond the boundary of a classroom. Being in the field will have a much more direct impact, when it comes to uncovering our history.

This kind of field trips, which combine both on-site examination and literature research, is at the core of historical anthropology. This is nothing like the field trip experience one would have in high schools. Historical anthropology is different in the sense that it is an accumulative effort by a number of historians over the past two decades to reconstruct the history of China “from the bottom-up”. And, the investigation goes way beyond the geographic significance. It is an innovative approach to compare Chinese history in a greater context, one of the most popular research methods among historians of China like myself.

Each GE course has tailor-made content in order to accommodate the needs of different target audience, and accomplish specific learning objectives. However, at least one field trip, if not two, is incorporated into the course structure. Course participants would have a chance to visit some of the landmarks in a local community, such as ancestral hall, temple, church, park, cemetery…etc. (Photo A & B).

Photo A: Old Tai Po Market Railway Station, 14-02-2017

Photo B: Tang ancestral hall, Ping Shan, 14-04-2018

Before the fieldtrip, under my guidance students studied materials such as land deed, religious document (Picture C). They also had the opportunity to read the stone tablet (Picture D).

Photo C: Sample of land deed

Photo D: Literature on a stone tablet , Man Mo Temple, Tai Po, 19-02-2017

Photo E: A "theater map"

The paradigm of learning focuses on a hands-on field observation supported by relevant study materials. It is a natural but important extension from the classroom setting. In order to reinforce their learning from the fieldtrip, students have to participate 3 exercises:

  1. There is an experience sharing session in the lecture, in which participants are prompted to give feedback and suggestion about the field trip;
  2. In tutorial students are required to choose a community they are interested in, then they present the identify and significance of major feature of that community;
  3. Their assignment is to compare the community that they presented in the tutorial and the one that they visited in the field trip. The goal is to guide students to appreciate traditional culture of local communities through active discussion and assignments.

In order to hold the students accountable and encourage participation in the tutorials, I have designed and relied on a method called “theatre map”(Photo E).


Students will write down their seats in the lecture theatre at the beginning of their tutorial. It is more than just a seating plan, or attendance record. It helps me to connect with each student on a personal level. Simply by recognizing their names individually with a class size like a GE course helps create a impression that they are not faceless. And, the “theatre map” also facilitates tracking of active participation.

Also, at the very beginning of a semester, I am transparent and explain to all the students that participation in the tutorials is very important as they are going to learn mostly through interactive discussion, which will also be part of their final grade.

The attendance to get involved in this teaching model has been very encouraging.

Photo F: Kahoot game of GDSS 1057 Critical Approaches to Hong Kong History

E-learning also plays a significant role in my teaching. I have used Kahoot, a games based learning platform for educational institutions to design a pop-up quiz as a game (Photo F). Each of the five students who gets the highest score will be rewarded a snake. After the game, I will review the questions in the game. The result has been rewarding. Past classes showed a high engagement rate.