BBA First Year Tutorial Instruction Award Winner (2004)

John Lai - Teaching Statement

mgjlai@cityu.edu.hk

"Great Didactics is a general art of teaching everyone everything. And teach reliably so that the result must come. And teach gently so that neither the teacher nor pupils feel any difficulties or dislike; on the contrary, both find very pleasant. And teach thoroughly, not superficially, but bring everyone to a real education, noble manners and devout piety.” (Jan Amos Comenius, 1592-1670)

I’ve been teaching both tutorials and lectures for the academic year of 2003 – 2004 (Semester A and B). I’ve tutored for MGT 3206, Organizational Behavior (3 sections) and CB 2300, Management (6 sections). In addition, my lectures assignments consist 3 sections of Training and Development (MGT 4207) and 2 sections of Personal Development (MGT 4236).

Three years has passed since I’ve joined Cityu and I’ve really enjoyed every part of the university teaching. The fuel that really propels me comes from the students themselves as I’ve always believed that they are the future talents for the society, and part of my role would be to help them discover their hidden potential through the interactions I have with them in the class. Hence, every seminar, tutorial, lecture that I’ve conducted or will conduct in the future is based on the principle that teaching will encompassed a good and balance combination of declarative, interactive, and experiential learning modes to maximize the connection between theories and practice in the real world.

In conducting effective tutorial sessions, the biggest challenge is to summarize chapters of materials presented in the lecture session into intriguing, exciting, meaningful materials that could help them relate the theories to the practical aspect of the business world – all these in under an hour time. Real life stories from my previous managerial and executive positions provide an excellent platform to engage students, make them more active and help students develop as autonomous learners by asking them to think about the actions they will take in the given scenarios. Careful consideration is given is selecting some appropriate stories that will accompany the materials and highlights relevant theories. Materials and exercises distributed by the course lecturer will also be interwoven into the tutorial sessions. Feedback from students has been most encouraging (Please refer attachment B for comments from teaching evaluations; Avg. of 1.86 in 6 tutorial sessions from Semester B, FB2300 for first year students). I’ve also attached endorsement letters from colleagues and program leader in attachment A.

While tutors have prepared well for the session, sustaining or igniting their interest (especially during morning tutorials) poised another challenge to good tutoring. It’s true that students will display signs of restlessness during the class but it’s a very good opportunity to lead by example as a senior partner (professors) of an organization to the junior partners (students) with my PEs – Passion, Energy, Energized, and Enthusiasm.

Participation in the CB First Year BBA Teaching Forum and periodicals luncheons has also provide great insights about teaching strategies and inspirations from other colleagues. It has certainly built an excellent platform for faculties to share and reflect key issues and challenges that will enhance the learning and teaching of students which I have gained and also contributed.

I believed that the above can be fruitfully applied to my philosophy of teaching. I always look forward in meeting new students and will always be passionate about my teaching.

John LAI
Department of Management
"Passionate About Teaching"