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得獎人  張雷教授  教育心理學系 「通識教育幫助學生建立不一樣的學習思維， 更能應付今日知識的急速發展。」 張雷教授為南加州大學教育心理學理學碩士和博士，研究範圍廣泛，包括教育與心理測驗及測量、應用統計學、進化論及進化心理學，以及社會發展心理學。張教授在研究方面表現優秀，贏得中大2007至08年度青年學者研究成就獎。

張教授自2006年任教UGD230S「進化、人性與行為」。該課程旨在幫助學生建立進化研究的知識基礎，引導學生應用這些知識以處理各種議題，例如人類發展、行為、情緒、個性和社會問題。張教授期望學生能實踐所學，反省自我，改善人際和家庭關係，提高學術研究及生活其他層面的水平。

UGD230S的課程內容涵蓋不同領域的知識，包括心理學、生物學、遺傳學及人類學。此外，在課堂上也會論及政治時局、社會文化和經濟問題。張教授認為進化論中物競天擇的理論，能貫穿這些不同的議題，確保課程內容連貫。這個課程內容豐富、啟發思考，符合通識教育的目標，能擴闊學生對於人類行為的識見和視野，提供反思人性問題的理論框架。

要向不同學科的同學講授這個學生人數眾多，涵蓋面廣的通識課程，可謂一項挑戰。然而，張教授成功以積極的教學方式，促使學生主動學習。他在課堂上採用互動的學習活動，鼓勵討論，同時明確要求學生須於課前閱讀參考文章和預習。張教授的指定閱讀材料技內容奧博，包括專門設計的講義、網上期刊及參考資料。

評估是教與學中不可或缺的部分：課堂上的持續評估和寫作練習有助學生鞏固知識，並提升口語及寫作的表達能力。這些寫作練習經過特別構思，用以刺激學生思考，張教授評改時，給予的回應和建議非常有用。整體而言，學生的作業水平甚高。即使學生普遍認為課程內容艱深、功課較多，但對於張教授和這個課程均給予高度評價。他們認為張教授對學科充滿熱忱，又能引導學生主動學習。他不但教學風格甚有創意，為人也有幽默感，這些都有助學生更容易掌握進化論的複雜概念。

傳統社會側重訓練專才，忽略對通才的培育。但張教授深信通識教育對社會非常重要，因為通識教育能擴闊學生的知識，培育學生對知識和學習抱持開放態度，更能應付今日知識的急速發展。他將知識比作食材，良師喻為佳廚。好的廚師將各種不同的優質材料，以正確的方法泡製成營養味道兼備的菜色，學生不但能吸收思想的養份，學習過程本身也是賞心樂事。

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Awardee

 Prof. Chang Lei
 Department of Educational Psychology

"General education helps students to develop a different mindset about learning
that better fits today's rapid development of knowledge."

Prof. Chang Lei obtained his MS and PhD in Educational Psychology from The University of Southern California. His research interests are broad, and include educational and psychological testing and measurement, applied statistics, evolution and evolutionary psychology, and social developmental psychology. His outstanding research performance won him the CUHK Young Researchers Award in 2007-08.

Prof. Chang has been teaching the General Education course UGD230S 'Evolution, Human Nature, and Behaviour' since 2006. The aim of this course is to help students build a foundation of knowledge in evolution studies and to enable them to apply the evolutionary perspective to the study of a wide range of issues concerning human development, behaviour, emotions, personalities, and various social issues frequently encountered and observed in daily life. It is Prof. Chang's hope that the students will be able to use some of this knowledge to reflect on their own lives and thereby better manage or improve their social and family relationships, academic studies, and other aspects of their lives.

The course is designed to cover a wide range of knowledge in various disciplines, including psychology, biology, genetics, and anthropology. Current political, socio-cultural, and economic issues are also examined in class. Prof. Chang explained that these different issues and topics are connected by the thread of evolution through natural selection, which assures the coherence of the syllabus. The course content is rich, stimulating, and well aligned with the GE objectives. It provides students with broad intellectual perspectives on human behaviour and a solid academic framework to reflect on various issues about human nature.

Given the broad coverage of the subject and the large class size, teaching UGD230S to GE students of different intellectual backgrounds is a challenging task. Yet Prof. Chang successfully employs a very proactive approach to teaching in order to engage students in active learning. Lectures are supplemented by in-class discussions and interactive learning activities.

Students are explicitly asked to read and get prepared before attending class. The reading materials that Prof. Chang provides them with are rigorous. They include tailor-made lecture notes, online journals, and references.

Assessments are designed to be an integral part of teaching and learning: continuous class assessments and writing assignments help the students to consolidate their knowledge and enhance their ability to express themselves both orally and in writing. The writing assignments are specially designed to stimulate the student's thinking. Prof. Chang gives the students useful feedback on their work, the quality of which is quite high. Although students generally find the course to be difficult and the workload heavy, Prof. Chang and the course itself have been highly praised in student evaluations. Students have commended Prof. Chang for his enthusiasm for the subject and for his efforts to nurture students to become active learners. His passion for the subject matter is inspiring. His creative teaching style and good sense of humour have also made it easy for his students to understand the complex concepts of evolution.

Prof. Chang believes that general education is especially important to societies that have traditionally put a heavy emphasis on the training of specialists rather than generalists, because it helps students to broaden their knowledge base and to develop an open mind about knowledge and learning that better fits today's rapid development of knowledge. He compares knowledge to food ingredients and good teachers to good cooks who prepare nutritious and tasty meals by putting different good ingredients together in the right way and in an appealing manner.