Professor Cheng is honoured to receive the award. She believes that General Education is about preparing students with the expansive intellectual grounding to participate effectively and ethically in the world. “Passion,” “Participation,” and “Partnership” are the keywords of her teaching philosophy. As an anthropologist, her primary tool of knowledge production is ethnographic fieldwork. By immersing oneself in the lives of others, she learns to grapple with the surprises, uncertainties, and conflicts that arise from differences in beliefs, values, and needs. “We come to be more reflective about who we are, and what we could become in this shared world,” said Professor Cheng. She wants to extend this awareness to her teaching – “It is the deeply felt feeling of excitement for knowledge, the capacity to reflect, and the readiness to act that I hope to inspire in students.”

Dr. Kou Kei Chun joined the Department of Philosophy in 2006. The Award recognizes his passion and his adoption of surprise elements and narratives as techniques for effective teaching. “Teaching, in my view, is not just a profession, but also a way of life,” said Dr. Kou. “As long as a teacher possesses the academic attributes and stamina to attract students’ attention, lecture will be absorbing. These are the factors which motivate me to spend long hours preparing for lectures, knowing its ensuing benefits on students.” He describes his preparation for a lecture as “scripting of a play,” and the delivery of a lecture as “the enactment of the script.” He always organizes his lectures with interesting examples, stories and discussions to facilitate inspirational learning and active thinking. Dr. Kou believes that students will gain a deeper insight on the theories and be motivated to learn about them.

Established in 2006, the SCGE Exemplary Teaching Award in General Education is presented by Senate Committee on General Education to a maximum of four teachers each year to recognize their exemplary contribution to General Education.