Outstanding Performance in Teaching – Individual Award

Dr MA Wai Wing Ada
Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Physical Education

 

Dr Ada Ma is an energetic and enthusiastic educator. Her teaching philosophy is well grounded in practice, and follows the RICCCH framework of valuable lifelong-learning attributes: Research ability, Information technology, Critical reflection, Collaboration, Creativity and Higher-order thinking. To foster the development of these attributes, Dr Ma is creative in her use of pedagogical strategies to enhance student learning, including collaborative learning, social inquiry learning, experiential learning, authentic learning and peer learning.

She also makes innovative and effective use of information technology to promote student-centred learning. Her use of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) facilitates students’ participation in a multitude of online learning activities, ranging from discussion, peer critique, reflective journal writing to technology enhanced peer assessment.

Dr Ma is a pioneer in formulating a qualitative analytical scheme to evaluate the CSCL process and learners’ acquisition of lifelong-learning skills. She has proactively promoted scholarship in the field of CSCL teaching, as evidenced by her publications in book chapters and refereed journals, making a significant contribution to knowledge of the use of CSCL.

Dr Ma is held in high esteem by her students as a creative and experienced educator who implements interesting and thought-provoking teaching strategies. She has demonstrated a high level of teaching competence and effectiveness.

Herself a role model for lifelong learners, Dr Ma is commended for her successful professional transformation: once a home economist, she is now a health educator. She has transferred her valuable experience of the CSCL initiatives in the field of home economics to health education, and has been the Programme Leader of the Bachelor of Health Education Programme since 2011.

Dr Ma is an active teacher researcher. She participated in more than ten Teaching Development Grant projects between 2001 and 2012. She is the leader of the e-Health Promotion@HKIEd project, which is supported by the University Grants Committee’s Start-up Fund for the Establishment of Communities of Practice in the 2012-2015 triennium. She is also a co-investigator for three health related internal research projects in 2011-2013.

Dr Ma’s scholarship in the field of teaching is equally impressive. She has published widely in refereed journals, book chapters, refereed conference proceedings and teaching resources.

Dr Ma’s outstanding teaching was recognised by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (currently named the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences), which awarded her a Certificate of Merit in 2010-2011. She was also nominated for the 2012 UGC Teaching Award.