Aiming to exchange knowledge with the local secondary school teachers and keep them abreast of CityU’s latest updates, the University organised Teachers’ Development Day on 19 and 24 March 2021. The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) hosted two sharing sessions in the meaningful events.

Over 50 teachers from five local secondary schools participated in the sessions hosted by CLASS. To kick start, Dean of CLASS Professor Richard M WALKER gave an overview of what humanities and social sciences are and how the College adopts interdisciplinary approaches in teaching and research initiatives, after extending a warm welcome to the teachers. 

Time was then passed to Dr Dannii YEUNG, Associate Professor at the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, to share how social scientists and psychologists conduct research. She first conducted two real-time experiments with the teachers, allowing them to understand human behaviour through visual attention in an interactive way. After explaining the concept of visual attention, Dr Yeung introduced the use of the eye-tracker in psychology research studies. Apart from detailing some of her research findings, she also presented some practical applications of the research equipment.  

The sessions were successful in facilitating teachers’ professional development by offering fresh perspectives in social sciences and psychology, and showcasing CLASS’ teaching and research excellence. The teachers had actively raised questions regarding the possible uses of the eye-tracking technique in classroom settings, and gave a lot of positive feedback in the post-event survey.

Prior to the parallel sessions hosted by CLASS and other CityU’s colleges and schools, there were programmes which highlighted CityU’s effort in nurturing young talents and examined the global challenges ahead. The University and CLASS hope the teachers took home some valuable insights through the half-day event.