Assoc Prof
Caroline LeeProfile page
Vice Dean
Dean's Office (NUS Graduate School)
TEACHING INTERESTS
Written in 2005_for P&T
My philosophy of University Education (both undergraduate and post-graduate) reflects John Drydens thinking: It is not so important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college (or University). He can learn them from books. The value of education is not learning the many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks. Like Paul E Gray and Robert M Hutchins, I view that the aim of education should be to assist the students to become independent of formal education and to educate themselves throughout their lives. I believe that a good educator should not, as Ian, one of my former students aptly puts it, be the primary motivator behind the student, cos the student will become dependent on the educator to motivate him/her. Rather, a good educator should be a catalyst for a student to discover and express his/her own motivation, and to bring out his/her best qualities and performance. To achieve this, the educator has several obligations:
1) Respect and see the potential in every student since as Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it: The secret in education lies in respecting the student. Once the educator sees the gem in the student and respect that the student is potentially capable of achieving great things, the educator will not be tempted to merely impart knowledge but to travel alongside (not in-front of) the student in his/her journey of education, lighting the students path so the student knows where to go and where the obstacles/pitfalls lie.
2) Facilitate self-learning and discovery in the student. I believe that an educators role is not so much to teach but to guide the student in his/her learning process. This philosophy is in line with several wise sayings including the Chinese Proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime and Sir Winston Churchill wise words: Im always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught. From my experience, I can feel the greater sense of satisfaction in the students when they discovered for themselves that they are capable of teaching themselves and others a very difficult topic than if the difficult topic was explained to them. To facilitate their self-discovery and understanding, I find that the Socratic style of asking probing/guided questions rather than providing answers or even explaining difficult concepts to be very effective since it facilitates the process whereby the student understand the difficult concept in their own individual terms.
3) Stimulate the curiosity of the student. The premise of this is that the educator must believe that human beings are naturally curious and the educators role is merely to stimulate this natural curiosity. I find that the natural curiosity in our students have greatly been stifled in our traditional education system which praise only students who give the correct answers or ask a good questions and penalize students for disrupting the class by asking silly questions. Hence I find it effective to encourage the students to ask ANY questions and emphasize that there is no such a thing as a silly question as I believe in the Chinese Proverb: He who asks may be a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
4) Encourage critical thinking in the student. It is also important to encourage critical thinking in the student so that the student does not merely imbibe the textbooks or publications as gospel truths but that they have a healthy sense of skepticism and critical thinking and yet open to possibilities. This will encourage the student to develop critical thinking skills that will be important in their journey towards becoming a successful individual.
5) Instill a spirit of resilience and perseverance in the student. I observe that our students are generally afraid of failure and hence prefer to tread on familiar and well-tested roads. I feel this will not create creative and innovative / inventive individuals who will make significant contributions to society. It was once reported in the financial times that failure is a factor in the learning equation and that If necessity is the acknowledged mother of invention, it may be time to recognize failure as the father. The educator has an important role to encourage the student to try new things and be unafraid of failure but instead to learn from failures and to develop a spirit of resilience and perseverance. This is aptly put forth in several wise saying including the following:
Success is getting up just one more time than you fall
Never walk away from failure. On the contrary, study it carefully and imaginatively for its hidden assets. Michael Korda.
Every great achievement was once considered impossible
Success is hanging on after others have let go
You always pass failure on the way to success. Mickey Rooney.
In summary, I view education as the total development of the individual and the role of the educator as one who facilitates life-long creative learning in the student and guides the students to discover for themselves their innate potential and to capitalize on this potential. My teaching practices greatly reflect my underlying teaching / educational philosophy which largely reflect John Drydens thinking: It is not so important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them from books. The value of education is not learning the many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks. I aim to be a catalyst to bring out the best in the students not by merely feeding the students with facts but to tickle their minds and teach them how to fish for themselves. To achieve this, I employ several strategies.
My philosophy of University Education (both undergraduate and post-graduate) reflects John Drydens thinking: It is not so important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college (or University). He can learn them from books. The value of education is not learning the many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks. Like Paul E Gray and Robert M Hutchins, I view that the aim of education should be to assist the students to become independent of formal education and to educate themselves throughout their lives. I believe that a good educator should not, as Ian, one of my former students aptly puts it, be the primary motivator behind the student, cos the student will become dependent on the educator to motivate him/her. Rather, a good educator should be a catalyst for a student to discover and express his/her own motivation, and to bring out his/her best qualities and performance. To achieve this, the educator has several obligations:
1) Respect and see the potential in every student since as Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it: The secret in education lies in respecting the student. Once the educator sees the gem in the student and respect that the student is potentially capable of achieving great things, the educator will not be tempted to merely impart knowledge but to travel alongside (not in-front of) the student in his/her journey of education, lighting the students path so the student knows where to go and where the obstacles/pitfalls lie.
2) Facilitate self-learning and discovery in the student. I believe that an educators role is not so much to teach but to guide the student in his/her learning process. This philosophy is in line with several wise sayings including the Chinese Proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime and Sir Winston Churchill wise words: Im always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught. From my experience, I can feel the greater sense of satisfaction in the students when they discovered for themselves that they are capable of teaching themselves and others a very difficult topic than if the difficult topic was explained to them. To facilitate their self-discovery and understanding, I find that the Socratic style of asking probing/guided questions rather than providing answers or even explaining difficult concepts to be very effective since it facilitates the process whereby the student understand the difficult concept in their own individual terms.
3) Stimulate the curiosity of the student. The premise of this is that the educator must believe that human beings are naturally curious and the educators role is merely to stimulate this natural curiosity. I find that the natural curiosity in our students have greatly been stifled in our traditional education system which praise only students who give the correct answers or ask a good questions and penalize students for disrupting the class by asking silly questions. Hence I find it effective to encourage the students to ask ANY questions and emphasize that there is no such a thing as a silly question as I believe in the Chinese Proverb: He who asks may be a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
4) Encourage critical thinking in the student. It is also important to encourage critical thinking in the student so that the student does not merely imbibe the textbooks or publications as gospel truths but that they have a healthy sense of skepticism and critical thinking and yet open to possibilities. This will encourage the student to develop critical thinking skills that will be important in their journey towards becoming a successful individual.
5) Instill a spirit of resilience and perseverance in the student. I observe that our students are generally afraid of failure and hence prefer to tread on familiar and well-tested roads. I feel this will not create creative and innovative / inventive individuals who will make significant contributions to society. It was once reported in the financial times that failure is a factor in the learning equation and that If necessity is the acknowledged mother of invention, it may be time to recognize failure as the father. The educator has an important role to encourage the student to try new things and be unafraid of failure but instead to learn from failures and to develop a spirit of resilience and perseverance. This is aptly put forth in several wise saying including the following:
Success is getting up just one more time than you fall
Never walk away from failure. On the contrary, study it carefully and imaginatively for its hidden assets. Michael Korda.
Every great achievement was once considered impossible
Success is hanging on after others have let go
You always pass failure on the way to success. Mickey Rooney.
In summary, I view education as the total development of the individual and the role of the educator as one who facilitates life-long creative learning in the student and guides the students to discover for themselves their innate potential and to capitalize on this potential. My teaching practices greatly reflect my underlying teaching / educational philosophy which largely reflect John Drydens thinking: It is not so important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them from books. The value of education is not learning the many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks. I aim to be a catalyst to bring out the best in the students not by merely feeding the students with facts but to tickle their minds and teach them how to fish for themselves. To achieve this, I employ several strategies.