Dr Cynthia HOU, IHERD Fellow, has been making advancement in the realm of educational innovation and research, and is actively involved in education research, concentrating on the integration of advanced technologies for developing educational materials and pioneering the use of innovative pedagogies in higher education.
Dr HOU’s adoption of innovative pedagogies in classroom settings and her scholarly contributions published in the Q1 journal, Education Sciences, in particular, was recognized with Dean's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching Innovation from the Faculty of Construction and Environment.
The two teaching projects led by Dr HOU, namely "Flipped micro-module development to facilitate sustainable engineering practicum in the context of building sciences and engineering" and "A Virtual Classroom for Enhancing Indoor Thermal Comfort Education" were both supported by university-level grants. The two projects have yielded substantial research outputs that include one journal article and three conference papers, which are evidences of her successful application of the innovative teaching methods devised through the projects.
Beyond her research, Dr HOU excelled in student mentorship. In 2023, she has supervised two groups of students from MSc in Facility Management (FM), and recommended to participated in the IFMA student project competition. The result was encouraging, as the two groups each won a silver award.
In the upcoming year, Dr HOU will persist in applying and refining the innovative pedagogies she developed, while intensifying her research efforts to enhance PolyU's teaching practices.
