The Symposium on Developing Pedagogical Innovations was held in T2-102 and on Tencent Meeting on 6 October. It is a part of a research project conducted by the English Language and Literature Studies (ELLS) Programme and funded by the Education Department of Guangdong Province’s 2018 University Innovation and Enhancement Project.

All live and virtual participants took a group photo to mark the occasion

The Dean of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences (DHSS), Prof. Adrian Bailey, offered opening remarks to begin the event. He pointed out, “It is important for higher education providers to keep up-to-date with the current trend of teaching with technology, so as to provide education that contributes to the development of China’s digital economy and society.”

Prof. Adrian Bailey gives opening remarks

The symposium consisted of two parts. The first part was an invited speech delivered by the Deputy Head of the School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), Prof. Dave Towey. He shared his experiences from across his main disciplines of computer science and education, to explore unexpected interrelationships among different disciplines. He also offered prediction about how educational experience may evolve and the development of multidisciplinarity in higher education. The Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Macau, Prof. Chuang Wang, served as a discussant and gave his comments on the issue of multidisciplinarity.

Prof. Dave Towey speaks of "Thinking - and Learning and Teaching - Differently"

Prof. Chuang Wang gives his comments

The participants continue the discussion during the tea break

The second part consisted of presentations related to teaching and learning through technology- integrated activities. One instructor from the English Language Centre and three instructors from the ELLS Programme reported on the findings of the action research, and the Director of Centre for Teaching and Learning, Dr. Yi-Lung Kuo, closed with some final thoughts.

Ms Cindy Chen of the ELLS Programme serves as the MC of the event

Mr. Jonas Kelsch examined the impact of blended learning approaches on students' engagement in writing lessons and learning outcomes in a first-year general English course. He discussed how lessons learned from the research are informing teachers’ current blended learning implementations, particularly in writing instruction.

Mr. Jonas Kelsch presents "Rethinking Blended Learning Implementation: Lessons Learned for Tertiary Second Language Writing Instruction"

Dr. Juyoung Lee's research is to examine the effectiveness of using Microsoft Teams (MT) in a collaborative writing project through measuring students’ learning experiences and attitudes towards using this collaborative learning platform. She pointed out that students generally favored working collaboratively in an online environment, suggesting that MT is a useful tool for collaborative writing and influenced student learning. However, more than one-third of students reported that they are not willing to use it in the future since they were unfamiliar with MT prior to the study and perceived that this learning tool is not easy to use.

Dr. Juyoung Lee presents "The Effect of Using Microsoft Teams as a Collaborative Learning Platform to Facilitate EFL Students’ Writing in an EMI College"

Dr. Jackie Yeoh investigated the effectiveness of using videos to promote active learning in teaching listening skills to second- and third-year ELLS students. She found that the use of videos with embedded questions at various segments generally improved students’ overall listening skills and promoted active learning to some extent. However, some students reported that they were unfamiliar with the format and genre of the videos which might affect the effectiveness of the learning tool.

Dr. Jackie Yeoh presents “Using Videos to Promote Active Learning in Teaching Listening Skills"

Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is the knowledge and skills that teachers need for teaching with technology. Dr. Edith Yan explored how student-perceived faculty TPACK varies with technology integration in the course and learner variables using data from the five courses of the action research project. She concluded that student-perceived faculty TPACK in practice is situated in the social context of the class.

Dr. Edith Yan presents “Towards an Understanding of University Students’ Perceptions of Faculty Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK): An Analysis of Five Action Research Projects"

Finally, Dr. Yi-Lung Kuo addressed that pedagogical action research could be the way out for developing various tools in blended learning and enhancing faculty TPACK in teaching and learning. The symposium ended with warm exchanges and wide discussions among the audience.

Dr. Yi-Lung Kuo gives his comments

Warm exchanges among the audience

Reporter and photographer: Maggie Mai (ELLS, Y4)

Editor: Edith Yan