As an advocate for life-long learning, Associate Professor Gan states that this is the key fundamental to his teaching philosophy. He wants his students to recognize this and hence develop the motivation to engage in both independent and continuous learning. Hiong Yap embraces mistakes and encourages the class to discuss and learn from them. His lessons are designed to be industry- relevant and he does that by exposing students to real-world problems and up-to-date industry practices. He is dedicated and has shown much enthusiasm in his teaching as reflected through his teaching feedback. Hiong Yap is always on the look out to new technology to improve his teaching delivery and is constantly enhancing his modules to make learning effective for his students. His passion and excitement in developing engaging curriculum can be evidently seen from the module content that he has created.
(Abstract from citation by ENG Evaluation Committee Member)
Dr Joy Pang Yan Ling
Assistant Professor Joy Pang believes that every student has different learning goals and standards set for themselves. She applies a variety of teaching techniques to develop students’ analytical and critical thinking skills through their studies, which will help them achieve many greater things in life. Joy remains strongly committed to her students both inside and outside the classroom to support their continual learning and development. She continues to search for and explore new pedagogies to engage students in order to make learning more meaningful and effective.
(Abstract from citation by CEFT Evaluation Committee Member)
Dr Kyrin Liong
Dr Kyrin takes her teaching with utmost professionalism and focuses a lot on a strong student-teacher relationship. She strives to create trust so as to positively influence her students. Through active research on teaching methodologies, Kyrin encourages and motivates her students to learn actively and independently. Her classes are filled with application-based activities so that students can connect between theories to real-life applications. She believes that if her students adopt a growth mindset, with hard work and clear strategy, they are capable of mastering even the most complex theories/subjects. Kyrin’s enthusiasm and dynamism to ensure her classes are always engaging and interactive are resonated through her student’s’ feedback. Her dedication to innovate teaching is clearly demonstrated through her modules.
(Abstract from citation by ENG Evaluation Committee Member)
Mr Lim Boon Tien
Boon Tien has three loves – love for the subject, love for the students, and love for teaching. He shares his love of language, history and literature in the modules that he teaches, and draws from industry experience to help students make sense of the subject matter. His love for the students is reflected in their comments about his enthusiasm in teaching, his kindness towards them, and his awareness of their individuality. Boon Tien sees himself as an old-school teacher in an age of disruption. With a constant love for teaching, he embraces the wisdom of the past to meet today’s challenges. His methods may be traditional, but they are student-centered. As one student put it, the activities he plans “build students’ people skills to foster meaningful relationships”. Together, these three loves remind Boon Tien of the value of what he does as an educator.
(Abstract from citation by CCS Evaluation Committee Member)
Mr Lim Hua Beng
Mr. Lim Hua Beng is trained as an Occupational Therapist and practisced at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He went on to become an educator, dedicated to grooming and mentoring Singapore’s future generations of occupational therapists at Nanyang Polytechnic and now the Singapore Institute of Technology. He has educated more than 50% of the occupational therapy population in Singapore and continues to contribute to shaping talents in the profession.
Hua Beng received the Inspiring Occupational Therapist Award from the Singapore Association of Occupational Therapists in 2015 and the Educator Achievement Award from Nanyang Polytechnic in 2017. He is involved in various workgroups and committees with the Allied Health Professions Council, National Council of Social Service and the Ministry of Health. His work with the Singapore Association of Occupational Therapists has spanned from President, Honorary Secretary, Council Member and currently as a delegate for Singapore to World Federation of Occupational Therapists. His articles on the developments of occupational therapy as a profession and elderly life engagements have been published in various journals and bulletins.
(Abstract from citation by HSS Evaluation Committee Member)
Dr Lim Kaiyang
Assistant Professor Lim Kaiyang ’s classroom is always fun, engaging yet stimulating, as described by his students. Kaiyang believes that all students are equal in their academic capability to learn and he strives to create an inspiring and safe learning environment to help them reach the best of their potential. He is very attentive to students’ learning needs, which is clear reflected his passion and enthusiasm across to the students. Kaiyang has designed an alternative formative assessment, EDscape, as a continuous assessment to develop students’ intangible skill sets, such as communication, collaboration, problem solving and resourcefulness.
(Abstract from citation by CEFT Evaluation Committee Member)
Dr Mustafa Shabbir Kurbanhusen
Key essence of Associate Professor Mustafa’s teaching philosophy is to link students’ learning of a certain topic with real-world challenges. With timely feedback, he makes it a win-win combination for students to appreciate what was taught in class, and what should then be applied to the industry. Mustafa made it clear to his students right at the start of his first lecture why they are learning a particular subject, in the context of the pre-requisite knowledge required of the module and how it affects upcoming modules, as well as in their future careers. Mustafa annually collaborates with companies from a variety of industry sectors where his students are hosted for six weeks to work on lean-based productivity enhancement problem statements. He also encourages his students to regularly visit the companies on-site to get the necessary information for analysis. Mustafa has also worked on tech- enhanced projects to improve his teaching,; such as exploiting innovation in assessment using industry-peer reviewed methods similar to a workplace setting.
(Abstract from citation by ENG Evaluation Committee Member)
Dr Ryan Fraser Kirwan
Motivated by his own unsatisfying experiences as a student, Assistant Professor Ryan is determined to create great learning experiences for students in his own classes. His pedagogy places strong focus on "the disinterested student" which has shown to successfully transform the learning outcomes of seemingly less-motivated students. This approach has naturally benefitted the rest of his class as well, which is evident in the qualitative feedback received from a broad range of students.
It should be highlighted that Ryan's teaching practices are also well-founded in the teaching and learning literature. Moreover, he takes further steps to design experiments to test some of these practices in real teaching contexts. In all, Ryan takes great care in striving for excellence in his teaching and is a teacher who is willing to constantly tinker, assess and improve his methods.
(Abstract from citation by ICT Evaluation Committee Member)
Dr Venkatarayalu Neelakantam
When Associate Professor Venkat designs and delivers his modules, his end goal is to ensure that a successive learning environment is created. To be able to achieve this, he wants to ignite his students’ curiosity so as to stimulate their joy in learning. This is important to him so that his students will eventually cultivate creativity in their learning. To strive for this excellence, Venkat is always guided by the two principles of not leaving any one behind (in terms of competency and ability) and no talent (of any sort) should be left unnoticed. Venkat also explores the use of industry-labs to bring realism to classroom teachings. He is also someone who uses technology to aid in this teaching, such as creating bite-sized videos and recording teaching/tutorials through various platforms such as Echo360 and Camtasia.
(Abstract from citation by ENG Evaluation Committee Member)
Dr Wee Seng Kwee
Associate Professor Wee Seng Kwee is a Senior Principal Physiotherapist who has been working in Tan Tock Seng Hospital Rehabilitation Centre, Singapore, for the past 25 years. He graduated from King’s College London with BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy in 1994 and obtained his PhD in Neurorehabilitation from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom in 2015. Currently, he holds the joint appointment as Associate Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology, teaching in the undergraduate physiotherapy, occupational therapy and nursing programmes. In addition, he has been appointed a Visiting Fellow to the University of Southampton.
He is a Certified Brain Injury Specialist and a Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapist who manages patients with acquired brain injury, balance and vestibular dysfunction. He has been sharing his expertise in neurorehabilitation, vestibular rehabilitation and robot-assisted therapy via workshops conducted in Asia -Pacific and Europe since 1999.
Prof Wee has been active in international volunteer work for numerous years since graduation as a physiotherapist. These works include teaching physiotherapy skills and knowledge to Laotian therapists and doctors; training community lay volunteers post Aceh earthquake relief work; working with children with disabilities in orphanages in India and Romania; and working in a lepers’ colony in India.
(Abstract from citation by HSS Evaluation Committee Member)
Ms Yeap Lay Huay
Lay Huay is passionate about education. She believes the purpose of education is to inspire students to embrace a lifelong learning attitude and contribute positively to the society through their work. Lay Huay has profound knowledge and rich industry experience, and she actively engages her students to apply what they have learnt in class to real-world scenarios.
Furthermore, Lay Huay genuinely cares about her students’ well-being. She interacts with them in or outside classes and expresses concern to students who face challenges with studies and other aspects of life. She is always excited to implement new ideas to enrich students’ in-depth knowledge and enhance their professional development and personal growth.
(Abstract from citation by DSB Evaluation Committee Member)
