Dr Simon Wong, Assistant Professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM), who joined PolyU in September 1994, is honoured for his excellent performance and achievement in teaching. Dr Wong's excellent performance in teaching has been well recognized in the past years. He has been nominated consecutively by the students since 2002/03 for the "Teaching Excellence Award" competition organized by the School. He first won this departmental award in 2003/04 and received the award again in 2006/07 after the 2-year buffer period.
Dr Wong's career vision is "To influence and develop people based on his three underlying core values: Integrity, Innovation and Influence through interactive and interesting teaching methodologies, inquisitive research and inspiring sharing." He has developed 3 I's: Interesting, Inspiring, and Informative as his teaching philosophy. He teaches the subject content with in-depth coverage of materials, i.e. information. In the delivery of the materials, he would use various interesting teaching methods such as games, role plays, group discussions and debates in order to arouse students' interest to learn. The interesting teaching methods aim to inspire students to think independently and get insights through their learning.
Dr Wong has been very active to search, develop and tailor-make interactive games, exercises and simulations for students to "experience" and "experiment" the way of handling cases and solving problems. He has been using this experiential training method in teaching for seven years and has received very positive and encouraging comments from students saying that his teaching has boosted their interest in the subjects and aroused their motivation to learning.
His effort in collecting mid-semester feedback from students and providing constructive feedback to them via emails and assignment feedback forms well demonstrates his genuine interest in facilitating students' professional and personal growth. The students' unsolicited feedback was extremely favourable to Dr Wong on the quality of their learning. A number of students reported that Dr Wong's teaching was demanding but interesting and had helped them develop better understanding of themselves, identify their real interest in career development, and improve their practices in the workplace.
Dr Wong keeps on upgrading himself through attending different training and actively participating in different research projects and consultancy work on the improvement of teaching and learning. He is always making use of the new knowledge and insights he has generated to underpin his teaching. Having taken up the Chairmanship/Vice-Chairmanship of the School/Departmental Learning and Teaching Committee since 2001 and, being a member of the Learning and Teaching Committee at the Faculty and University levels and in different working groups, Dr Wong has introduced a variety of new measures to enhance the overall quality of teaching and learning in SHTM and has made contribution in improving the learning and teaching environment of the University.
