HKU CAES Annual Report 2022-2023

The CAES Educational Training Initiative , a new provision of the Centre in our 2022-2025 Strategic Plans, designed and offered its first programme, Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) . A website has been developed for promoting the programme and recruiting participants. We reached out to different stakeholders to promote the programme: HKU's Mainland Affairs Office and Associate Vice-President (GBA Development), Hong Kong secondary schools and post-secondary institutions, our MAAL students and alumni, Mainland university teachers and beyond. The programme generated significant interest among a broad audience, with all places being filled within one and a half months. The programme was successfully launched from 29 May to 2 June 2023 on the HKU campus. As a pilot, it was offered to a class of 33 participants. With diverse teaching experiences, the participants included teachers from universities, post-secondary institutions and schools as well as some of our own MAAL and PhD students from Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China. This 35-hour Teacher Professional Development Programme provided participants with a good foundation and solid understanding of current principles and practices of teaching and learning in the field of EAP. It offered participants a unique opportunity to meet professional EAP teachers, develop professional networks and advance their pedagogical knowledge and teaching skills. The programme received highly positive evaluation from the participants. The participants especially valued the fact that the programme was taught by experienced CAES teachers in the field of EAP teaching, scholarship and research. They liked the design, structure and organisation of the programme and that we adopted research-informed pedagogy and practice with activity-approach and examples demonstrating teaching ideas, techniques and materials. They also treasured the opportunities to observe EAP classes at HKU, evaluate and develop EAP teaching materials, and discuss with and receive feedback from peers and CAES teachers. The programme has involved colleagues of different staff ranks, providing them a valuable scholarship and professional development opportunity. The programme promotes scholarship-informed teaching, shares our expertise in academic literacy with a wider community outside HKU and further promotes CAES as a leading centre in English language education in the region and beyond in supporting HKU’s vision in delivering impact through internationalisation. Following the success of the programme, we will continue to offer it on campus in the 2023-2024 academic year. A plan to develop the programme online is now underway with a view to reaching a wider professional audience and offering the opportunity to more interested participants. CAES Educational Training Initiative Teacher Professional Development Programme in Teaching English for Academic Purposes Our mentoring programme, developed and led by Dr. Stephen Corbett, has been successful in ensuring that each individual in CAES has the opportunity to discuss professional development matters with a mentor. While the mentoring programme is voluntary, it has proved to be a valuable instrument to enhance professional well-being and our current plan is to enhance and improve our CAES mentoring programme during the 2023-2024 academic year. Further training for existing mentors as well as providing opportunities for new mentors to be trained will be considered next year. This would ensure further development of an effective culture of mentoring within CAES for the foreseeable future. In addition, Dr. Lisa Cheung has been appointed as the Mentoring Coordinator to have the overarching responsibility for mentoring within CAES and to ensure a more systematic approach. Mentoring Programme in CAES ANNUAL REPORT 2022-2023 11 12 Centre for Applied English Studies