EN210905-HKU-CAES-Annual-Report_2021-22-V03-0222

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CAES strongly believes that good professional development is of vital importance to bring about the best possible student learning outcomes. At CAES, professional development (PD) occurs in teacher learning communities, and aims to bridge the gap between research and practice and create opportunities for problem-solving among staff. Teachers are often members of several communities including teaching teams, core teams, project teams, mentorship and ad hoc partnerships with colleagues. These communities could be as small as two colleagues working together or large teams comprising most CAES teaching staff members. The communities create a culture of participation across CAES that brings teachers together to share, reflect and learn from one another in our work. This has been particularly crucial in the past year as we have all faced unprecedented challenges with teaching and learning activities taking place online. The PD seminars listed below reflect the abovementioned aims with all presenters and facilitators from CAES. PD Sessions Offered in 2020-2021 23 September Peer Observation This session explored different ways of conducting online peer observation and discussed key issues related to this. 30 September Online Task Sharing Session – Writing Tasks In this session, colleagues shared writing task ideas using various functions in Moodle (e.g., forums, journals, wikis, questionnaires), OneDrive, and the polling function on Zoom. 7 October Moodle Workshop 1 This session explored various Moodle features and their potential for language enhancement. 14 October Workshop with Coordinators on Core Team Development This session brought coordinators together to discuss how professional development can be achieved through core teams. 21 October Online Task Sharing Session – Speaking Tasks This session shared ideas for synchronous and asynchronous speaking activities. 28 October Students as Partners Framework This session discussed what student partnership means to us in CAES as a Centre. 4 November Speaking Studio In this session, the Speaking Studio shared recent developments working in partnership with HKU students as paid Peer Consultants. 11 November Moodle Workshop 2 This session explored the peer assessment “Workshop” function on Moodle and how it compares to other online peer assessment tools. 18 November IT Training In this session, the IT team demonstrated some effective ways to use several applications, including Outlook, PDF-Xchange, MS Forms and OneDrive. 25 November The Grant Project as a Vehicle for Professional Development: The case of the Student-Tutor Writing Consultation Programme (SWCP) This session discussed how a major grant project, the establishment of the Writing Centre, was a valuable vehicle for professional development. 20 January Looking Back and Planning for the Future In this session, colleagues reviewed tools used last semester for online teaching and discussed teaching plans for this semester. 27 January Having Constructive Post-Observation Discussions This session explored different ways to facilitate reflection and achieve constructive post- observation discussions. 3 February Online Task Sharing Session – Asynchronous Tasks In this session, colleagues shared the layout and tasks they used for asynchronous learning on one individual class Moodle site last semester. 10 February Workshop on Inclusive Language This session explored ways to make our teaching more inclusive through our use of language. 24 February E-moderation and Student Engagement Online: What can we do to enhance the teaching process? External Speaker: Paweł Szudarski This session explored the characteristics of successful online instructors, building online communities, facilitating student engagement and enhancing the learning experience online. 17 March Assessment and Feedback This session explored three topics related to assessment and feedback, (i) disentangling feedback and assessment, (ii) reflective feedback conversations and (iii) developing students’ self-evaluative and self-assessment abilities. 26 March Research Talks In this session, two graduating CAES PhD students discussed the findings from their research and the implications for us as teachers at CAES. 31 March Learning Transferability In this session, the leader of the CAES Project of Learning Transferability shared outcomes of the project. 7 April Small Private Online Courses - SPOCs This session introduced teachers to the developments in the SPOCs project which promotes independent and blended learning. 14 April Leadership In this session, the Associate Director shared useful concepts she encountered while completing the University of Oxford’s Women’s Leadership Programme. 21 April Nurturing Global Leaders In this session, the coordinator of the NGL programme shared knowledge learnt through an Experiential Learning Certificate course she had recently taken. Professional Development 25 24