Professor Daniel Weissglass at Duke Kunshan University (DKU) has adopted two new strategies to help students succeed: research-led teaching and oral exams. He finds these strategies especially helpful in DKU’s 7-week term structure, allowing students to explore module contents in greater depth.
As DKU’s sixth recipient of the 2024 Student-Nominated Teaching Award, Junyi stands out as an educational innovation practitioner. This post highlights her excellence in designing 7-week courses, creating engaging and inclusive learning experiences, and guiding students to thrive in college.
A DKU student wrote a teaching story recognizing her professor, Dr. Eric Chen, for his endeavors to help students master and fortify their disciplinary and broadly transferable skills in his courses, exerting a far-reaching influence on their competence in the future workplace.
A DKU student and CTL student partner, Sebastián Portilla (Class of 2025), took Professor Caio Yurgel’s 7-week ”The Art of Interpretation” course and wrote about his professor. This teaching story recognizes Prof. Yurgel’s cathartic and humanist instruction, evoking memorable personal experiences that translate into genuine education.
Dr. Lewis is the student-nominated winner of the 2023 DKU Teaching Award. This post highlights his own reflections on student comments and his advice for all teaching professionals.
Dr. Ben Van Overmeire, a professor at DKU, has implemented an ungrading approach and feedback practices in his courses. It inspired a CTL student partner who interviewed him to write the teaching story.
Professor Flanagan creates an inclusive and caring community where students could blossom and explore actively. Zhixian Zhang, a DKU student who took the professor’s class, has written the post recalling Professor Flanagan’s teaching.
While Prof. Beckford is still exploring with CUREs in his chemistry courses at DKU, incorporating research in a course does not have to be limited to STEM classes and it may be beneficial to start students early. It could be done on a smaller scale, and the benefits of this type of pedagogy are very tangible and sought after. Uncertainty is an essential part of research. Let us get comfortable with it and dive into the unknown together!
Renee Richer, Ph.D., the winner of Duke Kunshan 2021-22 Teaching Award nominated by students, has shared her teaching approaches, such as how she reaches out to students and establishes a learning community in online classes; engages students with extreme examples and relatable assignments; and guides students with personal experiences and trains students to be young scientists.
Dr. Hyun Jeong Ha, Duke Kunshan professor designed a role-play debate activity to teach students sociological thinking skills in her Contemporary Social Problems class. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at DKU interviewed her and her students to share what CTL has learned here.
