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The following is issued on behalf of the Chief Executive's Award for Teaching Excellence Steering Committee:
The Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, today (July 8), commended the winners of the Chief Executive's Award for Teaching Excellence (CEATE) (2010/2011) for giving top priority to the needs and interests of students.
At the award presentation ceremony, Mr Tsang said that the teachers tailor-made their schemes to cater to students with different learning abilities, and that they untiringly reflected on their teaching skills to realise the full potential of every student.
This year's CEATE covers the Mathematics Education Key Learning Area, Moral and Civic Education (MCE) and Special Education (Special Schools). A total of 44 school teachers obtained awards from the Chief Executive, while 60 teachers received the Certificate of Merit from the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen.
Mr Tsang said the awardees in the Mathematics Key Learning Area emphasised both theory and practice. By conducting different activities and designing a school-based curriculum in accordance with students' needs, these teachers provide much help to students to acquire knowledge and foster independent thinking and analytical ability.
Mr Tsang noted that the MCE awardees made use of real-life scenarios to help students understand abstract and serious topics. Through such rewarding experiences, students were able to learn from self-reflection and establish a positive attitude toward life.
"The Special Education award recipients came up with a suitable curriculum with reference to the special learning needs of students. They also provided students with rich learning experiences to realise their potential and acquire skills to lead an independent life," he said.
Also speaking at the ceremony, the Chairman of the CEATE Steering Committee, Mr Duffy Wong, said, "To extend the scope of CEATE and to honour more excellent teaching practices, new assessment themes have been added since this year."
Mr Wong also said that over 500 outstanding teachers have been awarded since the launch of CEATE. Composed of all the CEATE awarded teachers, the CEATE Teachers Association has been actively building up different sharing and exchange platforms and arranging various types of professional development activities, study visits to the Mainland and lesson observations. This year the Association has also published its first issue of its e-Newsletter, and has continued its efforts in improving learning and teaching strategies in order to enhance the professional standard as well as the professional image and social status of teachers.
Other officiating guests were the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen; the Permanent Secretary for Education, Mrs Cherry Tse; the Chairman of the Education Commission, Dr Moses Cheng; the Chairman of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee, Mr Pang Yiu-kai; the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications and Chairman of the CEATE High-level Advisory Panel (2010/2011), Mr Cheung Pak-hong; the Chairman of the Curriculum Development Council, Professor Edmond Ko; and the Chairman of the CEATE Assessment Working Group (2010/2011), Professor John Lee.
This year's CEATE received 146 nominations. After assessment, 11 nominations (comprising 44 teachers) were selected for the Award for Teaching Excellence while 16 nominations (comprising 60 teachers) were presented with the Certificate of Merit.
Assessment of nominations focused on teachers' performance in the four domains of professional competence, student development, professionalism and commitment to the community and school development.
The results of CEATE (2010/2011) are available on the CEATE website (www.ate.gov.hk). "CEATE - Reflection of Excellent Teachers", a special TVB programme comprising a 30-minute episode on exemplary teaching practices, will be broadcast on TVB Jade at 3.30pm on July 24 (Sunday).
Sharing activities on the excellent teaching practices will be rolled out in the coming school year. Details will be announced on the CEATE website.
Nominations for CEATE (2011/2012) will be accepted from July 11 to October 7. It will cover the Arts Education Key Learning Area, Information Technology in Education and Pre-primary Education. For details, please also check the CEATE website.
Ends/Friday, July 8, 2011
Issued at HKT 15:31
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