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Faculty Teaching Medal 2021

Faculty Teaching Medal 2021

Dr Kendrick Shih
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine

What is your main teaching philosophy?
I believe in the student-centred teaching philosophy of progressivism. While it is important to deliver educational content in a digestible and applicable way in order to set a standard for medical competency for our future doctors, the most important skill that teachers at HKUMed pass on is the ability to forage for new information and to apply it with evidence-based decision making. Just as important too is passing on the joy of the learning process. Most of our best memories from medical school are those learning from teachers who truly inspire us.

What is the most rewarding part of teaching?
I’ve been teaching at HKUMed long enough that some of my first students have already become specialists and my colleagues in academic medicine. I have thus had the opportunity to be taught by them in return. It makes me very proud knowing that I was a part of their academic growth.

How do you promote teacher-student rapport?
For me, communication is the most important method for establishing rapport with my students. As clinician-teachers we have to uphold the professional standards of doctors, but at the same time we need to understand that our students are our partners in medical education. It is fantastic to receive feedback from our students, because it means they care deeply about their education.

What have been your greatest challenges in teaching and how did you overcome them?
When I first started teaching, I was too intent on giving as much information as possible to our students. Instead of inspiring them, I ended up overwhelming them. I now take a ‘less is more’ approach, where we first focus more on acquiring and applying core knowledge, and then work from there. Knowing how much to teach at each stage of our students’ development has been my biggest challenge.