Outstanding Performance in Teaching – Individual Award

Ms SHEK Mei Po Mabel
Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Special Education and Counselling

Ms Shek has a genuine passion for education. Her clear vision is well articulated in a mission to enlighten people in the pursuit of professional and personal development. For years, she has devoted herself to the nurturing of “RAIL” learners – learners who are Reflective, Active, Independent and willing to learn Lifelong.

As a teacher educator in school counseling, Ms Shek takes on the role of a facilitator to support learners in ascending the ladder from “knowledge to wisdom”. Learners reflect on the knowledge acquired and apply it actively to their daily lives. By doing so, they internalise and consolidate that knowledge.

Ms Shek believes that knowledge is co-constructed by teachers and learners. Through experiential learning, she skillfully applies diverse strategies to actively engage learners in various interactive activities such as games and problem-based scenarios, etc. She tactfully assists learners in conceptualizing what has been learned and transferring knowledge into practice. Ms Shek cultivates a positive and supportive peer-learning culture in classroom so that critical thinking and peer interaction are reinforced. To realise “assessment for learning”, she uses a Learning Partner Scheme to promote students’ independent learning and develop competent life-long learners. She also emphasises peer review to provide adequate feedback to enhance students’ learning.

Ms Shek pays enthusiastic attention to her students’ professional and personal development in the classroom and beyond. She builds positive and facilitating relationships with students and is willing to share with them her personal learning and teaching experience and teaching philosophy. She is committed to nurturing her students to become caring and professional teachers. MS Shek’s teaching excellence was demonstrated by the conferment of the Faculty of Education Studies Excellence in Teaching Award 2010/11.

MS Shek is a champion of using information technology and developing outcome-based learning (OBL) to enhance learning and teaching. She is a leader of OBL course development and fully engaged in the implementation of the OBL project to all BEd programmes for the new 335 curriculum. She has made commendable efforts in promoting teaching and learning as evidenced by cultivating a mutual support culture, the generous sharing of good practices at the departmental, faculty and Institute levels, and in promoting departmental collaboration and exchange with international scholars.