Committed to nurturing talents, adequate training, no fear of teaching challenges under the epidemic (Ming Pao)

In recent years, the rise of the STEM craze and the increasing emphasis on science education in society have attracted many young people who are interested in science to join the education industry. Lau Kwan-kin is one of them. He is now a Biology teacher at the CNEC Lau Wing Sang Secondary School and is determined to use his studies to nurture the next generation's love for science.

 

Catalogue

1. Building a solid foundation for teaching with more confidence
2. Making good use of e-learning to overcome the constraints of the epidemic

Lau Kwan-kin describes that by mastering different teaching methods during his school years, he became more confident in producing teaching materials and teaching after he became a teacher.

 

Lau Kwan-kin is a graduate of the first cohort of the Bachelor of Science Education (Honours) programme of The Hong Kong University of Education and was appointed as a Biology teacher in May this year. He has loved animals since he was a child. He recalls that when he was considering his future in Form 4 and Form 5, he felt that he was good at communicating and explaining things, and decided to join the science education profession. To this end, he compared the teacher training programmes offered by different institutions, including Bachelor of Science Education programmes and one-year Diploma of Education top-up programmes after completing a Bachelor of Science degree, each with its own positioning and characteristics. "At that time, I had a clear goal of becoming a teacher, and as I heard that the one-year Diploma in Education programme was highly competitive, with many students failing to enrol, I decided to enrol in the Bachelor of Science Education (Honours) programme of the HKIEd, the completion of which would qualify me to become a teacher".

 

1. Building a solid foundation for teaching with more confidence
Lau Kwan-kin believes that the training provided by the programme is invaluable to becoming a teacher: "The Science Education Programme at HKU is a five-year programme that prepares students to become science teachers. The professors of the programme are both scientists and educators, and they set an example of the best pedagogical practices for us to learn from and draw on, which is extremely helpful when teaching or producing teaching materials.

 

He continued, "If you take the four-year Bachelor of Science plus one-year Diploma in Education programme offered by other universities, the four-year Bachelor of Science programme trains students to become scientists, and then the one-year programme quickly trains students to become science teachers. However, the Bachelor of Science in Science Education programme at HKU allows students to learn science theory and science pedagogy in phases over a five-year period, gradually training us to become scientists and science teachers, and laying a solid foundation for teaching." He continued.

 

Lau hopes that through teaching, students can experience the fun of learning science.

 

2. Making good use of e-learning to overcome the constraints of the epidemic

The programme's internships were an eye-opener for Lau Kwan-kin, who spent a total of six months on internships, two of which were allowed by the principal to stay on for one more month, so he had more than the four months of internships that other students had, and he was able to experience the realities of teaching in an epidemic situation. He recalled, "Some students' parents lost their jobs during the epidemic and the students lost their financial support. During the online class, we found out that the students were not attending classes at all, but were working in fast food shops to make money to help their families. As a teacher, how to use limited resources to help students, these experiences have never been mentioned in books and theories, and finally I decided to use my spare time to help him catch up with his progress, and treat the student with sincerity, and the student knows it.
Lau Kwan Kin's spirit of selfless dedication to education, he believes, is partly learnt from the teachers of HKIEd. He pointed out that HKIEd's Science Education programme adopts small class teaching, with about 14 to 18 students in a class at present. "The teaching team is almost one to one with the students, so the teacher-student relationship is very good, and we also feel the professors' love for the students, and there are more resources for the students.

Currently, Lau Kwan Kin is teaching Biology at S3 and S4 levels. In the first few months of the school year, teaching has given him a great sense of satisfaction, especially in seeing the progress of students' performance and building up a harmonious teacher-student relationship with them. However, Lau Kwan-kin recognises that teaching in an epidemic situation is a great challenge. Field trips in Biology are very important," he said, "and because of the many constraints in taking students on field trips to study biodiversity and the environment due to the Epidemic outbreak, we have not been able to make arrangements for them so far. We can only allocate class time, make good use of other online resources, and watch documentaries to teach students, which is much more profound than cold books," he said. The school where Lau Kwan-kin teaches has an eco-garden, just like HKIEd, which can be used for teaching to make up for the lack of field trips. He hopes that after the epidemic, he can take his students on field trips to practise the skills of organising field trips that he has learnt during his studies, so that they can experience the fun of field trips.

Besides, Mr Lau also said that he and many Biology teachers of the same year had found that students had difficulties in learning Biology in English. Therefore, he has to pay attention to the use of English vocabulary when designing questions, so as to be concise and accurate, and to avoid the language becoming an obstacle to the learning of Biology. With all the effort he puts into his teaching, Lau hopes that his students will share his passion for science.

 

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Lau Kwan-kin's Small Files

• Bachelor of Science Education with Honours, The Hong Kong University of Education
• Currently working as a Biology Teacher at the CNEC Lau Wing Sang Secondary School.