我自2012年起任職中大通識教育部講師，有幸於在中大通識教育的三大範疇中任教，包括：通識基礎課程（UGFH1000「與人文對話」)、四範圍大學通識（UGED1112「邏輯與論辯」；UGED1800「思考方法」）和書院通識教育(GENA1113「新亞書院通識學生為本研討」，2014/15學年開始與梁卓恆博士合教)。雖然三者從課程結構到具體內容都不盡相同，但我任教時總希望培養學生批判思考的能力與態度，幫助學生超越自身學科的視域限制，以下是我的一些經驗，談不上什麼心得，各位或可作參考:

課程設計：中大學生學術水平其實甚高，但往往不熱衷表達意見，是以教師應安排多樣化的課堂活動促進同學交流。在UGFH1000「與人文對話」一科中，導修課設有討論環節，我會指定小組之間必須回應彼此的討論成果，而在最後數次導修更設有辯論與台下發言環節，以不同形式刺激學生交流。而於新亞書院通識GENA1113「學生為本研討課」中，每一論題我皆安排兩篇對立想法的文章作閱讀資料，要求他們歸納和分析雙方的立場，再申述自己的想法，務求令學生有機會接觸不同的理論，接受思想上的衝擊。

教師態度：通識教育並不限於知識的傳授，更包括價值教育。身為知識份子，求學態度以開放、持平、批判三者最為根本。教師應言傳身教，展示知識份子的應有之義。比方說，教師凡事要以理為先，不應盲從某套理論，時刻警醒自己須向學生清楚解釋所有想法的理據。再者，教師應致力把學生的意見詮釋為最合理的見解，並鼓勵他們反對自己的論點。只有在這種開放和平等的對話環境下，學生才能放開懷抱討論，主動思考自己與他人論點的優劣。

透過不同層次的對話，我希望培育學生作為知識份子的一些重要能力：

清晰準確的表達能力：毫無疑問，這是順利溝通的先決條件。在UGED1112「邏輯與論辯」一課中， 我會展示如何以抽象的邏輯概念釐清日常語言的意思，例如以必要條件和充分條件這一對邏輯概念準確分析日常用語中的條件關係。

持平的批判能力：通識教育強調批判思考，但真正的批判思考絕不止於指出對方論據的不足，更應持平發掘和強化對手的論點。具體而言，我會要求學生批評某理論時，首先要把對手的意見詮釋為最合理的見解，再同時設想對方可以如何反駁，然後自己又如何進一步回應此反駁，唯有如此才算是公允有力的批評，而不是刺稻草人。透過這種反覆的思想對話，學生的批判能力必可提升。

扣連理論與實際生活的能力：近年有批評指人文學科內容「離地」，不著邊際，其實不然。我在「邏輯與論辯」一課時常分析學生熟悉的政治人物或名人言論中的邏輯推論，讓學生體驗邏輯原則如何應用於日常生活。就「與人文對話」一課而言，當中教授的經典對現實生活的影響其實俯拾皆是。以《論語》為例，我就曾經引用近年中國與韓國一些以孝道為基礎的法律條文，與學生討論儒家「道德政治」在現代社會實行時的利弊。

於我而言，通識教育的重要目標之一就是通過與不同觀點的對話，批判各自的立場，從而認識彼此優劣，達致真正的相互理解。而只有瞭解，才有可能超越。個人如是、學科如是、文化亦如是。

最後我要借此機會向很多人致謝。首先是評委的勉勵，然後我要感謝中大通識教育部一眾教學與行政同事的協助；與及哲學系師長多年來的教導。再者我希望向所有修過我課的香港中文大學與香港專上學院學生致謝，是你們成就了作為老師的我。最後，我必須感激父母一直以來無私的支持。

I am honoured to receive the Exemplary Teaching Award in General Education. This award is particularly meaningful to me, as it recognizes my efforts in teaching and reminds me the wonderful experience of meeting students from different backgrounds over the past few years.

Most of our undergraduate students show their interests in history, but some also have negative views. For example, students believe they have to memorize a lot of materials about the past, which appear to be useless and boring and hence, wasting their time. As a history teacher, I try to make history alive for my students, especially for those who are not history majors. I try to arouse their interests and curiosity. I believe that it is important to develop courses in which students could learn to apply historical contents and methodology to they own disciplines.

The goals of my General Education courses are to help students gain some basic and fundamental ideas in histories; and to help them critically analyze and interpret the eras/ideas in Chinese history, focusing on important individuals, personalities, ideas and social events in history that have shaped the present societies. In each of the classes, I have deployed a variety of teaching methods to make my lessons lively and interesting. I would show excerpts of some movies to help students visualize an historical event. Outside the classroom, I have also organized some field trips and interviews so that students could learn history from the fields. Students would be guided to read historical materials for pleasure by researching their own family’s genealogy, caring about the minority groups, telling stories of their past, or travelling and visiting historic sites and museums.

General Education courses provide me the opportunity to reflect and re-organize my courses to introduce history to non-majors, and to re-visit the way to communicate the past events in history to the general public. By teaching these courses, I always re-discover the joy of learning alongside with my students. I hope that they will have broadened their horizons, and have had richer and more interesting lives as a result of their enhanced interests and enjoyment in studying history through my General Education courses.

I am truly honoured to receive the Exemplary Teaching Award in General Education. The General Education course titled Earth as Seen from Space was passed to me in 2011. I modified the course structure and content to make it more interactive with the students. Thus, not only is this award meaningful to me, but also recognizes the collective effort of colleagues in my department.

One of the goals of General Education is to help students jump out of their comfort zone and to learn subjects they are unfamiliar with, in which they somehow show a certain degree of interests. It is this little seed of curiosity that can be cultivated and blossomed into sustained motivation to learn. My strategy is to simply make the class interesting and to engage students in class through course design, in-class activity and innovative way of presentation.

Earth journey in the space is about the science of remote sensing. The subject seems unfamiliar to most people, not only students. I implant a lot of real life examples in course contents to demonstrate science is essentially everyday experiences. Starting from daily and personal encounters of a digital alarm clock waking one up in the morning; Google Map that guides one to identify the shortest path to a Michelin star restaurant; whether rain will come in the next couple of hours; tightknit plots in movies like Gravity; to global events of locating the debris of missing MH370 in the ocean and tracking the flow of volcanic ashes disturbing the air traffic.  All these are prevalent to satellites which seem too far away but are in fact keeping an eye on us high up in the space. Using examples connecting to their daily experiences, students’ attention can be drawn and interests in the subject aroused. Most importantly, they would become aware of and start to be able to appreciate the presence of the influence of science and technology in their life, the society and even the world.

“Concepts lead the way; applications as showcases” is how the course is designed. Theoretical concepts of remote sensing are introduced in the first half of the course, and real-life applications focusing on how remote sensing is implemented in our society follow. In fact, the technology connects people’s life in many aspects. Students are encouraged to study the subject from different perspectives such as issues of practicability, technical and environmental considerations, etc. Through these examples and discussions, students are trained to think more critically.

‘Seeing’ from space is not enough, decoding messages from space is equally important. These messages are presented through images. The course emphasizes on developing skills to extract information from images, which is indeed a practice-make-perfect exercise. Other than traditional tutorial classes in which students can learn to cooperate and communicate with each other, an in-class game known as “Image of the Week” is designed to engage students throughout the learning process. The game is carried out in every lecture during the break and is facilitated by the student response system built in the classrooms. Students use their mobile phones, laptops or tablets to immediately respond to the preset questions in class. Designed as a game, students are not respectively graded and they are encouraged to use the skills they learnt in the course to tackle the questions. After the game, the correct answers are explained and the students will learn the analytical skills involved. The cumulative experiences and sharpened skills make them more confident in the ensuing ‘game’.

Quality teaching and learning experience in class would be affected by how content materials are presented and delivered to the students. The key ingredients are technology plus a bit of humor. Technology allows lecture contents to be delivered in a more creative and innovative way using well-designed graphics and animations which capture students’ attention in class. I present course contents in the form of a mind map which is effective in organizing thoughts and communicating ideas. While the contents can be discussed in depth, the linkages among different topics, as well as the whole picture, will not be lost. A bit of humor does ice-breaking and helps make the class more interesting.

The earth is mysterious; satellites reveal the unknowns to human-beings by capturing images from the space. Knowledge is limitless; teachers unveil the key to acquire knowledge by motivating students to learn with fun. On one hand, the journey from the space lets students know more about the earth. On the other hand, I hope students can endure the momentum to learn and use their knowledge to contribute to our homeland.