Experiential Learning

Background

This website is one outcome of a project funded by a Teacher Development Grant entitled, “Enhancing the effectiveness of experiential learning: Professional development and support for teachers” (2016 – 17) [HERC reference number: EA1608007]. This project aims to:

• Investigate experienced teachers’ approaches in facilitating experiential learning and compile a selection of best practices across different faculties;
• Solicit students’ and on-site supervisors’ views on experiential learning and use them as inputs to provide concrete feedback to teachers for their professional development;
• Develop practical strategies and guidelines related to the facilitation of experiential learning by synthesizing views and consolidating examples obtained from on-site supervisors, teachers and students across different faculties;
• Create resources and platform for sharing and knowledge building related to experiential learning in the HKU community.

The Research Team

Ms Jessie Mei-ling Chow is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong where she has been instrumental in the establishment of experiential learning projects across undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education programmes. Before she joined the faculty, she served as the Assistant Director of Experiential Learning at the Faculty of Social Sciences launching the Service Leadership Internship which was a 3-year programme (2012 – 2015) funded under the Fung Service Leadership Initiative. The Initiative was a collaborative partnership of the Victor and William Fung Foundation, Hong Kong Institute of Service Leadership & Management Limited (HKI-SLAM), and the eight UGC-funded universities in Hong Kong to develop their own research-supported curriculum in nurturing service leaders. Jessie is a trained teacher and educational psychologist with extensive experience in organising and teaching service learning projects.

Dr. Tracy Xiaoping ZOU is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL). She has been working on problem-based learning and cooperative learning for more than five years in higher education. During her work at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, she developed innovative cooperative learning strategies in collaboration with engineering faculty members for common core courses and capstone courses. These approaches are published in conferences and journals, and also impressed teachers from several universities in South Korea, who sent their students to take part in components of the courses. Currently, she is coordinating a UGC funded Community of Practice Project in the Centre at HKU, through which she established collaborative relationships with various departments and units in cultivating a community of practice and developing teaching and learning resources in assessment and internationalisation.

Ms Janet Yu is a qualitative researcher in the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL). Prior to joining HKU, she was an award winning professional market researcher with 8 years of experience in leading numerous local and regional research projects of brand strategy development, product enhancement and customer value propositions, with clientele pertaining industry leaders such as Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong Business Aviation Centre, Asia Miles, Miramar Group, MTR Corporation, HK Science Park and Bossini Group. She is also experienced in conducting in-depth interviews with professional, senior executives and premium airline passengers., and has recently graduated from the Master Programme of Counselling, HKU.