'Teaching is about learning. For the ultimate goal of education is not teaching, but learning.'

From the time I started teaching in NUS in 1984 as Senior Tutor in the Department of Mathematics, I have always felt that university professors owe a serious responsibility to their students to provide them a well-grounded university education. However, unlike primary and secondary school teachers, there is no prerequisite for university lecturers to undergo formal teacher training. So, in academic year 1993/1994, three years after I started as Lecturer at NUS Department of Mathematics, motivated by a desire to improve on my teaching, I enrolled myself in the inaugural Post-Graduate Diploma of Teaching in Higher Education (PG DipTHE) programme conducted by the National Institute of Education (NIE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). I am glad to have attended that programme because I have learnt some useful fundamental principles of teaching excellence. For example, I learnt first-hand that active learning strategies promote deep learning which in turn enhances students' learning experience as well as improves knowledge retention.

As partial fulfilment of the requirements for the PG DipTHE, I had hands-on experience of an active learning strategy through an action research project. I had used a collaborative learning strategy to teach Operations Research (OR) to third-year Mathematics undergraduates. Weekly assignments of tutorial problems were assigned to groups beforehand. Each group was then to discuss and work out the solutions before the next tutorial class. During the tutorial class, a different member of each group would be tasked to present the group's solution. By doing so, it provided the students the opportunity to learn not only the theory and techniques of OR, but also to realise that amongst them there is much to learn as well, like learning from each other and the value of team-work. Though students complained that it took more of their time to discuss and work out the solutions before the tutorial class, they also found that they were in a way forced to internalise the details better which eventually helped them in their performance in quizzes and examinations.

Since then, as far as possible, I would try to incorporate some active learning strategies in courses I taught. The PG DipTHE programme has influenced my teaching style and approach. More importantly, it has transformed my view of teaching from one that was focused on knowledge content transmission to one that is student-centred and learning-focused.

My teaching philosophy is based on the belief that 'Teaching is about learning.' This means that to improve teaching I must focus on the learning needs of the students, taking into consideration the different learning styles, abilities and levels of students. I must recognise that learning cannot be defined by a fixed procedure because, depending on the individual, learning may occur in a rather unstructured and ad-hoc way. However, I am sure that effective and meaningful learning can be built into structures and processes. As students make connections between concepts learnt from lectures and link these concepts to examples of practice in industry, they will begin to learn to appreciate the theories and consolidate their understanding of the course content. Thus, ultimately the students' knowledge of the subject is a web of useful concepts with a whole lot of practical connections between them and also their applicability to solving problems in the real world.

My teaching goal is to link course performance with the development of general modelling skills, problem solving skills, presentation skills and understanding of specific OR techniques. For instance, I want students to recognise and model typical operations management problems that are amenable to OR solutions and then to convincingly present or explain their solutions. In the subject matter, I want students to understand the derivation of optimisation techniques used in solving operations management problems.

The primary goal in teaching any subject is to have a solid curriculum and to provide the students with the framework of knowledge. I strongly believe that in OR the understanding of concepts and the ability to solve problems should be emphasized over memorisation. How should the transmission of knowledge take place? The best way to do so, in my opinion, is to encourage intrinsic motivation and to promote deep learning through an active learning approach such as case-based or problem-based learning, collaborative learning, and experiential learning. Ultimately, the goal of education, especially for university education, is learning, not teaching. I believe that students should be stimulated to think on their own. Thus it is necessary to create opportunities for students to pick up skills to learn how to learn independently. The success I had with the collaborative learning strategy I learnt in my PG DipTHE course convinced me that it is a good strategy to achieve this.

My aim is to help students learn not only course content but also process skills, such as critical thinking, analysing and problem solving. An important lesson I learnt during my years in industry is this: Not matter how good an idea you may have, unless your customers, managers, colleagues and subordinates are convinced by its merits and how it will benefit them and the organisation, it is unlikely that the idea will be implemented successfully. Thus, after all the analyzing and solution creation, presentation skills, both written and oral, are very important, just as is team-work. To help students develop in this area, I would incorporate small-group assignments or mini-projects to promote collaborative learning where weaker students could be helped by stronger members of the team, as I observed during my action research project before.

For course delivery, I believe the lecture method is very efficient for dissemination of basic course content which can then be reinforced by regular tutorials. For deeper treatment of more advanced topics and to encourage higher levels of analytical and thinking skills, small-group discussions or class seminars could be appropriate. As mentioned earlier, group assignments or mini-projects would be used to promote collaborative learning to help develop students' communication skills and let them appreciate the value of teamwork. Where possible, industrial visits or case studies to expose students to industrial practices as well as to help them connect concepts taught in class with practicality in the real world. To assess student learning, regular in-class quizzes would be conducted and these would be designed to enhance students' critical thinking skills. These quizzes would be designed not to test memorisation (a cheat-sheet of A4 size would be allowed) but rather to test problem-solving, as each quiz cannot be completed in time if not approached appropriately.

Finally, I must recognise and accept that the philosophy of 'Teaching is about learning' should apply also to my own learning about teaching. That means, in order for me to continue to improve myself in teaching, I must continue to learn new pedagogical concepts, methods and strategies as well as educational technologies. I must also continue to discover and learn from and about my students through action research.

Strategies

1. Focus on learning needs of students, taking into consideration the different learning styles, abilities and levels of students. 

2. Build structures and processes that will facilitate effective and meaningful learning. The understanding of concepts and the ability to solve problems should be emphasised over memorization of facts and formulas.
3. Help students make connections between concepts taught in the classroom and practical examples in industry thereby help them to learn to appreciate the applicability of theories to solve real world problems.
4. Create opportunities for students to develop the skill to learn how to learn independently and think on their own because the ultimate goal of university education is learning

Objectives

1. To link course performance with the development of general modelling skills, problem solving skills, presentation skills and understanding of specific business analytics tools and techniques. 
2. To help students learn not only course content but also process skills, such as critical thinking, analysing, problem solving and effective presentation.

Methodologies

1. Adopt active learning approaches, such as case-based or problem-based learning, collaborative or co-operative learning, and experiential learning, to help students develop intrinsic motivation and encourage deep learning.
2. For deeper treatment of more advanced topics and to encourage higher levels of analytical and thinking skills, small-group discussions or class seminars could be appropriate.
3. Group assignments or mini-projects would be used to promote collaborative learning to develop students' communication skills and let them appreciate the value of teamwork.
4. Where possible, industrial visits or case studies to expose students to industrial practices as well as to help them connect concepts taught in class with practicality in the real world.
5. To assess student learning, quizzes and examination will be designed to enhance students' critical and analytical thinking skills and not to test memorisation (e.g., allowing a cheat-sheet).