We are delighted to announce that Associate Professor Stephen Lim from our very own Department has been appointed as Immediate Past Chair of NUS Teaching Academy (NUSTA) with effect from 1 July 2020.
During his two-year term as Chair from 2018 to 2020, Assoc Prof Lim reconceptualised the role and function of the Academy, and strongly advocated for a teaching mentoring culture at the university. Notably, he invented the NUSTA Teaching Mentoring Cluster Concept. During its piloting phase, through dialogue with Deans, a diversity of teaching mentoring needs were identified across five large Faculties/Schools. There was, also, unanimous interest in understanding more closely what teaching effectiveness, as defined by NUS, might encompass for individual disciplines. The preliminary outcomes, alongside dialogue with PVO, motivated the new focus on providing teaching mentoring support for Faculties and Schools in (i) addressing discipline-specific teaching needs and, ultimately, (ii) advocating a contextualised teaching excellence culture, via the Teaching Mentoring Cluster Concept. Academy Fellows came together by their disciplines to form eight Teaching Mentoring Clusters. Each Cluster (a) is facilitated by one to two Cluster Lead/s and (b) designs, in each AY, one or more Faculty-/School-/Department-/College-specific initiative/s, possibly in collaboration with Faculties/Schools/Departments/Colleges/PVO by riding on pre-existing teaching-related infrastructure in Faculties/Schools/Departments/Colleges. Internally, Assoc Prof Lim invented the NUSTA Flipped Meeting Room® Concept: Academy Fellows now receive news and provide their inputs via emails, i.e., outside of their “class”—monthly meeting—time, and come to the meetings prepared (e.g., having read education-related articles) to engage in peer mentoring.
Moving forward, Assoc Prof Lim will focus on steering endeavours involving external stakeholders and collaborators, whilst providing continuity and playing an active mentoring role to NUSTA. We join the PVO in warmly congratulating Assoc Prof Lim on his outstanding achievements as NUSTA’s Chair over the past two years, and wish him every continued success in engaging the NUS community and positively transforming the educational landscape of our university.
