About Us
Background
Dr. Cecilia Chan from the University of Hong Kong has been researching and practicing student development and assessment of holistic competencies for over 15 years. Research conducted by Dr. Chan has provided us with evidence-based suggestions on how to integrate generic competencies development into the curriculum by designing effective learning activities and assessment, the collection of good practices conducive to the cultivating of holistic competencies, and ideas for the development of an evidence-based pedagogical driven online system for the teachers and students to evaluate their performance or demonstration of relevant generic skills in different in-class, out-of-class and extracurricular activities.
In 2015, a special funding for Teaching & Learning from UGC on generic skills within the context of engineering discipline was awarded, this was the first cross-institutional collaboration between HKU, HKUST, CUHK, and Baptist University of Hong Kong on the topic.
And in 2017, the second funding for Teaching and Learning from UGC was awarded to strengthen and nurture students’ holistic competencies development. In this collaborative project with 6 universities (HKU, HKUST, CUHK, BaptistU HK, EDUHK and Lingnan University), we hope to transfer the knowledge gained from research into practice; increase teachers, students and public awareness in understanding the importance of holistic competencies; introduce effective and student centred activities for enhancing students’ holistic competencies.
Our Mission & Aims
Our ultimate mission is to promote a cultural and educational shift towards balancing academic knowledge and holistic competencies in the higher education. We aim at:
- Ensuring that these competencies are integrated into the higher education curriculum including across in-class, out-of-class and extracurricular platforms.
- Providing support and advice to academics on integrating holistic competencies development and assessment into in-class teaching, and on providing direct evidence of students’ development of holistic competencies.
- Designing professional development workshops for teachers on holistic competencies development and assessment in both in-class and out-of-class context.
- Designing workshops for students to facilitate their holistic competencies development.
- Sharing good practices in and resources on holistic competencies development and assessment.
- Developing a structured approach to holistic competencies development for residential halls and colleges as a form of extracurricular learning.