Newsletter No. 184

4 No. 184 19th May 2001 CUHK Newsletter Pr o f. John C.S. Lui, Facu l ty o f Engineering While visiting the Massachusettes Institute of Technology (MIT) one summer, I read an article by Prof. Robert J. Birgeneau, dean of the School of Science at MIT. It said, 'Do not do research as a means to an end, do it because you really love it. There are easier ways to make a l i v i ng that are less competitive and less d i f f i c u l t. If y ou choose a career i n academia, choose it almost like you choose a religion. Be prepared to work extremely hard.' This article has shaped my view on academia, research, and teaching. The Chinese University of Hong Kong has a long and r i ch t r a d i t i on i n e d u c a t i o n, a nd t h is institution excels both in teaching and in research. To be a good professor in this established university, I believe one has to be a good researcher who is keen to seek out new knowledge and, at the same time, be passionate enough to lead and guide students to discover the wonder and beauty of the subject. I n my view, the most impo r t ant element for effective teaching is the teacher's attitude. 'Enthusiasm' is often the key. If a teacher is not enthusiastic about the subject, it w i ll be difficult to motivate the students to discover the relevance and beauty of the subject. In my view, professors are here to guide, to help, to motivate, to goad, to stimulate, and sometimes, even to irritate. On the other hand, the students are here to explore, to discover, to inquire, to experiment, to challenge, to ask questions, to work hard, and, most importantly, to grow. I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to teach in a university and in a department that is filled w i t h so many good teachers and ou t s t and i ng researchers. For example, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering recently recruited two new assistant professors, Prof. T.T. Wong and Prof. Evan Young, both of whom are outstanding teachers and promising researchers in their fields. This shows the commitment of the University and the department to continue to excel, both in teaching and in research. Recently there have been many reports concerning the decline in the quality of university students as well as the tremendous shortage of IT people in Hong Kong. But I believe students in CUHK are of high calibre and that they can take on the IT challenges. Case in point: recently my group of students and I developed a reliable multimedia streaming system (RMSS+). The purpose of the RMSS+ is to provide streaming and reliable services for viewing different multimedia contents. This implies that different types of multimedia objects w i th vastly different bandwidth requirements can be scheduled under the RMSS+ system. Therefore, one can use the RMSS+ server to create many new and exciting applications like a digital library system, a lecture-on- demand system, a movie-on-demand system, and music- jukeboxes, etc. The RMSS+ server is currently in service in our department. Not only does it provide a real-time TV multicasting service to students and staff, but it also provides an on-demand service so that students can review different lectures, seminars, or enjoy some movie excerpts or classical music. Note that some start-up companies in the US have spent tens of millions of dollars to develop a similar system (but with fewer features and less reliability), and yet the RMSS+ is a pure 'home- g r own' and more cost-effective system. Mo re importantly, it is built and designed by people in Hong Kong and students in this university. This shows that given the right environment, the students and people in Hong Kong can indeed rise to the challenge. Pr o f. Francis Ka - l eung Chan, Facu l ty o f Me d i c i ne The traditional medical curriculum has been notorious for being overloaded w i th an e n o r m o u s a m o u n t o f knowledge. Most students in Hong Kong are accustomed to passive learning according to a structured syllabus. However, many students who follow this traditional way of learning find it difficult to cope with the medical curriculum. They are often overwhelmed by the breadth of knowledge they need to acquire in a short period of time. Whilst they expect a well-defined syllabus wi th structured teaching, it is often not possible because of the rapid advances in medical knowledge. What is learnt today may soon become outdated or even proven wrong after several years. Overloading our students w i th too much factual information often causes them to lose interest in learning. Rather, we need to help them develop skills in critical thinking and self-learning. This is indeed a difficult task for teachers since undergraduate or postgraduate training provides no guidelines on how this should be carried out, or what being a good teacher involves. As a graduate from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, I have the advantage of being closer to our students. They appreciate teachers who are willing to listen to their opinions and concerns. It does not mean that students should be spoon-fed, or that we should hold their hands to guide them throughout the course. It only means that we should not forget the hardship of being a medical student. Sometimes we might even believe that hardship is a necessary evil. We may t h i nk that the facilities available to students nowadays put them in a much better position than we ever were in, and that there is no reason why our students are not able to overcome the difficulty. As a consequence, we might impose unrealistic demands on our students, assuming that they should be able to understand and remember everything we teach. Often, our students lose direction and fail to see the whole spectrum of medicine, because we put too much emphasis on our research interests. While it might be difficult for us to overcome the 'delusion' that our research work is the most important, I often remind myself that our aim is to train an 'all-rounder' rather than a specialist. Teaching students can be a challenge or a nuisance, depending on the attitude taken towards medical education. While there are workshops to improve our teaching skills, it is our enthusiasm rather than our skills that makes a life-long influence on our future doctors. 理學院朱明中教授 朱明中敎授説：「很高興能夠得獎，但心情沒有特 別興奮。我衷心覺得物理系很多敎師也很出色，我得 獎只 是僥幸。可能是因為我較年青，與學生 較談得來吧。」 朱敎授自加州理工學院取得博士 位，一九九五年回港加入中文大學。他最 欣賞校方重視敎學；他所屬的物理系， 就經常參考學生在課檢所表達的意 見，以改善課程內容和敎學方法。 有六年敎學經驗的朱教授表 示，現時的學生不及以往的成 熟。不過，「有學習熱誠， 且又敏感；只要他們覺 得 敎 師 盡 責 ， 備 課認 真，對敎學有誠意，就 會表現得很好和十分自 律。我極少遇到學生在上課時不守紀律或擾亂秩序。」 朱敎授認為，正因學生未夠成熟，所以很受敎師 的影響，「我們的做人處事方法，敎學態度，以及價值 取向，都默默地在影響著學生。換句話説，敎師不應 只管傳授知識，更加要著重身敎。我曾聽學生説，某 些課『好頹』，上課好沒意思。這顯示如果敎師不盡 心，學生一定會比敎師更懶散。相反，敎師用功，學 生亦會跟著努力和用心。」 朱敎授又認為敎師不能再有高高在上的心態，必 須不斷與學生溝通，讓他們感到老師是認真和關心他 們的。他自己沒有特別的溝通方法，只是上課前必定 提早到達，準備敎材，下課後會留在課室解答學生的 疑難，待他們離開後才走。課餘朱敎授又會花很多時 間和學生傾談，只要是學生來找他，都會來者不拒。 由於他有敎授通識，很多他系學生都會來找他，攀談 的也不一定是功課，間中更包括處世問題。 朱敎授表示，敎學最大的困難，是學生程度參 差，每次敎授新班時，都需要花很多時間摸索，以決 定採用哪類敎材來配合他們的程度，有時會因此而耽 誤了敎學進度。儘管這樣，他堅持不用填鴨式的敎學 法，而是致力訓練學生的自學能力，「我不要求學生記 得所有我敎的，但希望他們能有追求知識的意欲和能 力。」 令朱敎授印象深刻的，是他曾要求一位成績很好 的學生，在畢業前的暑假看完一本程度頗深的書。事 後，這位學生吿訴他，讀書二十年，還是第一次從頭 到尾看完一本書，覺得很辛苦。朱敎授慨嘆香港學生 唸書愛靠天書和筆記，從不看原著；大部分的學生雖 有上進心，但欠缺危機意識。他只好採用強逼的方 法，嘗試令他們改變，然而這種方法只有在小班才可 實行，大班則無能為力了。 社會科學院梁偉賢博士 新聞與傳播學院梁偉賢博士覺得，得獎對他是一種鼓舞，但更重要而令他感到 欣慰的，是校方藉著設立這個模範敎學獎，來表達對敎學素質的重視。他坦言： 「校方過去似乎太過著重研究成果和著作數量，並以之為敎師的實任及升遷的主 要考慮。如今好敎師得到鼓勵，必會更盡心敎學，最終令更多學生得益。」 梁博士十分喜歡敎書，「我享受與年青人一起分享知識和學習方法；看著 他們逐步認識世界，認識自己，並能掌握分析問題和解決困難的能力，給予 我莫大的滿足感，這是無法從其他工作取得的。」他很樂意多放時間在學生 身上，雖然他的研究生大部分都是全職工作的，要見面談課業總得在晚上 九時半以後，他也毫不介意與他們談到零晨時分。 他又説：「讀書不是一個完全愉快的經驗，試想學生每星期要看一百數十頁資料，消化 後再創作一些新的東西並撰而成文，可以是很痛苦的過程。敎師的責任，就是令學生知道，歷經這些痛苦後，自會 發現尋求知識的真正樂趣。我敎書時除闡釋概念和理論，更會側重激發學生對學科的興趣，使他們願意花時間處理 艱深的學理與技巧，不畏箇中困難，我常以『全力以赴，永不言敗』這兩句話來鼓勵他們。」 梁博士認為優良敎學必須具備三項基本條件：一、準備充足；二、敎學內容要與時並進，反映社會現狀；三、 在傳遞知識的過程中，必須使用各種方法，去激發學生對學科的興趣。 他上課時會列舉許多事例，如陳健康及程介南事件，內地、美國及香港媒體如何處理中美軍機相撞等，然後要 求學生設身處地分析，並提出他們的處理方法。他更於去年開設自由討論廣場，由學生提出他們感興趣的大眾傳播 題目，然後自由討論。 梁博士指出，所有的心思，都是要讓學生覺得學習是有趣、刺激，而又有切身關係的，這樣他們才會樂意花時 間學習。此外，通過討論和小組報吿，學生既可以學習與其他人合作，又有機會主動了解和分析社會現狀。 回顧敎書生涯，梁博士覺得近十年來，大學敎育資助委員會撥款時，十分看重敎師的研究成果和論文數量，而 敎師在校內又要兼顧很多行政工作，壓力愈來愈大，工作也愈來愈多；加上他自己專研與市民息息相關的課題，經 常要接受傳媒訪問，所以，他可以靜下來思考學問和進行長期研究的時間愈來愈少，這都令他感到不無困擾。