Reimagining the Role of Technology in Uncovering History
Professor TSUI Lik-hang, who has been awarded one of this year’s CityU Teaching Excellence Awards, is an advocate of faculty and students remaining open to change, such as with the role that technology can play even in a field like history
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When it comes to talking about history, a smile spreads across Professor TSUI Lik-hang’s face. When the conversation shifts to teaching, his eyes visibly light up. It’s impossible to miss how excited he is to bring history to life for his students, and it is his passion and enthusiasm that have earned him one of this year’s Teaching Excellence Awards (TEA) conferred by CityU.
“I wouldn’t say I’m outstanding,” Tsui begins humbly. “We get trained as researchers and not as teachers, so I’ve had to feel my way into this role.”
Tsui, Assistant Professor at the Department of Chinese and History (CAH) of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, fell into his teaching career about 10 years ago when he was at the University of Oxford. At the time, he was delivering small-group tutorials while he worked on his doctorate degree. His excellence has been internationally recognised and accredited as an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in the UK.
While he jokes that the words “history” and “teacher” usually conjure images of professors spitting out dates and facts while standing in front of yawning students, Tsui’s approach is quite different.
“Interaction is so crucial,” he says, “especially for history professors. We can go on and on talking and it’s quite easy to do that, but that’s not great for students—in particular, if they are rather shy and need help with boosting their confidence. That’s why I adopt a dialogic approach—not assuming, not even offering answers sometimes. This helps students to understand that there aren’t always set answers, and that there are no set answers in humanities. It’s the interpretation that matters.”
