"Are we connecting yet? Exploring globally-connected learning..."

Title: “Are we connecting yet? Exploring globally-connected learning the mala hotpot way”

Abstract

Student success is a key driver of the work of educational institutions, but exactly how success is defined may differ across cultural and institutional contexts. In Singapore universities, as with many institutions elsewhere, student success is tied to a set of desired graduate attributes that include both local and global skills such as effective communication, analytical, problem solving, and thinking skills, and importantly, regional and global awareness. To achieve these outcomes, the NUS curriculum has made available a wide range of opportunities for a large and diverse student population, to enable our students to contribute not just to their chosen professional community, but more broadly, also to be able to negotiate the uncertainties in today’s world. Underlying all this is an institutional recognition that there is a pressing need to effect empathetic understanding and connections – to self, with other people, places, and practices.

This talk focuses our collective attention on what connected learning means and how to enable it. Enabling connected learning is not just an institutional response to the challenges and risks facing today’s students; it is, learning that is “is lifelong and integrated into the real world of work, civic engagement, and social participation” and “an approach to educational reform that recognizes learning as an ongoing process, connected to a diverse and evolving ecosystem of learning resources, institutions, communities, and outcomes” (Ito et al. 2013, citing Paulo Freire, 1970). Are we facilitating this ongoing learning process, that enables connections to “a diverse and evolving ecosystem”, both locally and globally? What will it take for us to enable locally and globally-connected learning as a primary learning outcome for our students?

Biography:

Dr Chng Huang Hoon is an Associate Professor (Department of English, Linguistics and Theatre Studies) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She has degrees in Linguistics (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) and Philosophy (B.A. Honours, NUS). She has held several academic leadership positions in NUS, including Deputy Director (American Studies Centre, 1998-2000); Assistant Dean (External Relations, FASS, 2004-2008); Director of the Centre for the Development of Teaching and Learning (2008-2012); and Associate Provost (Undergraduate Education, 2012-2020). She currently serves as the Director of the Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre at NUS (2019-present).

She is currently on the Board of Directors of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL), serving on the Presidential team (2019-2022), and has established a related education network in Asia called SoTL-Asia.

Her most recent papers include “One Singapore Institution’s Evolution from Service to Partnership: A Case Study” (2021, with KC Lee) in Student Support Services, University Development and Administration (H. Huijser et al., eds.); “Undergraduate research in the university curriculum: An institutional perspective”, (with 2021, Wu Siew Mei), in Patrick Blessinger and Nancy Hensel (eds.), International Perspectives on Undergraduate Research: Policy and Practice; and “Leading change from different shores: The challenges of contextualizing the scholarship of teaching and learning” (with Katarina Mårtensson and Brenda Leibowitz, Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 2020). She has served on numerous academic journal boards over the years, including the International Journal for Academic Development (IJAD); Asian Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (AJSoTL); and International Journal of Students as Partners (IJSaP). 

She is currently on the editorial board of Teaching and Learning Inquiry (TLI) and also currently serves as a SoTL consultant for Ashesi University in Ghana (2021-2022).

Find out more about the Heriot Watt Learning & Teaching Week 2022: https://lta.hw.ac.uk/heriot-watt-learning-and-teaching-week-2022/