One of our faculty members, Dr. Eddie Tong, recently won the Annual Teaching Excellence Award (ATEA) for the third time, and has been enrolled into the ATEA Honour Roll, which recognizes sustained high performance in teaching. Congratulations, Eddie!

Here are his views of teaching and why he’s motivated to teach well.

“In my opinion, there are two aspects to teaching: 1) to impart knowledge and 2) to inspire.

To impart knowledge is to deliver to students what the teacher knows, but to inspire is to capture and excite their hearts and minds. Both are equally important.

A teacher who just imparts and does not inspire makes the class dull and diminishes whatever interest students have for the subject. A teacher who only inspires but does not impart is not teaching anything of substance.

A teacher should also has three qualities that are often taken for granted: high level of expertise, passion for the subject, and a genuine concern for students. The first fulfills the students’ need for knowledge, the second spurs intellectual aspirations, and the third wins them over.”