Dr Calvin Wong Wai-keung, Associate Professor & Associate Head in the Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC), is honoured for his excellent performance and achievements in Teaching.
Dr Wong joined the University as Lecturer in September 1997 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010. Dr Wong believes that a good teacher’s responsibility is to do everything in their capacity to find the most effective and efficient methods to maximize students’ learning. Dr Wong nurtures, facilities and coaches his students’ learning, rather than merely transmitting knowledge.
Dr Wong has contributed greatly to enhancing teaching and learning through adopting innovative teaching approaches and strategies. His dedication to teaching is reflected in his high scores on Student Feedback Questionnaire and the highly positive and appreciative comments from his students. Dr Wong mainly teaches medium to large-sized classes. Understanding that the key challenge of teaching such classes is how to make the class interactive to motivate students to learn, discover and achieve the intended learning outcomes, Dr Wong has successfully developed and implemented innovative approaches to strengthen the interactive learning environment. In addition to the use of real-life cases, video and hands-on practice, Dr Wong’s teaching innovations include the “Technology-based Simulated Fashion Shop” and the “Interactive Team-based Simulation Project”. Through role-playing in a simulated environment, students not only acquire in-depth subject knowledge but also boost and develop their creativity and critical thinking skills, developing strength, confidence and ability to apply their learning to their lives.
Dr Wong has also improved the learning culture in his whole department through initiating the "Research Student Seminar Day" held each semester. This event provides a platform for research students, undergraduate students and academics to share research ideas and related research matters. Undergraduate students are provided valuable opportunities to understand research more deeply in a warm and informal environment preparing them to successfully pursue research studies.
In addition to enriching students’ and colleagues’ learning experiences, Dr Wong devotes himself to research activities and has served as the Chairman of the Departmental Research Committee since 2013. Believing that teaching and research should be integrated, and good research underpins good teaching, Dr Wong has published many high impact research articles in top tier journals. Essential Science Indicators rank one of his publications in the top 1% of the most cited articles in his field. His research deliverables have also been further fine-tuned and successfully licensed to the industry for commercial use.
From the multitude of positive feedback Dr Wong receives, the following best summarizes Dr Wong’s achievement:“Dr Wong is one of the best and most sincere teaching staff that I‘ve ever met in ITC. With passion and innovation, he can motivate students to think more about the subject. He is so professional and can deliver his knowledge to students efficiently.”
