Teaching

Professor Chang's Teaching Portfolio


Teaching Philosophy

Professor Chang's childhood ambition was to be a teacher. To him the gratification from observing that wonderment of discovery and enlightenment when someone has learnt something new, is the fundamental motivation for becoming a teacher. However, teaching does not always result in learning. It is his belief that his role is to be a "guide by the side" in facilitating learning through using relevant pedagogies, supported with technology if required. The deep understanding of subject matter knowledge, pedagogical strategies and the suitable use of technology will help students think, consequently resulting in learning.


His contribution to geography education is primarily through curriculum and teaching. In particular, he is known for the work on correcting students' misconceptions in climate change learning. This expertise and its impact was a result of a confluence of four streams of work in strong content knowledge, powerful pedagogies, efficacious use of technology as well as a consideration for issues of sustainability.

Teaching expertise

Professor Chang has taught in courses across many programmes at different levels from diploma, degree, post-graduate diploma, teacher in-service, masters to doctoral courses.

While he teaches geography content courses like "Elements of Physical Geography", "Climate and Climate Change", "Geographic Thought" and "Environmental Studies and Global Issues", Professor Chang also teaches courses that are curriculum content in nature, such as courses like "Developments in Academic Geography and the School Geography Curriculum" and "Re-Presenting Conceptual Understanding for Climate Change Education", which require purposeful and thoughtful pairing of the pedagogies required to teach the curriculum content.

Check out his NIE Education Launchpad that is aimed at public education on the topic of climate change.

Research informed Teaching

The focus of Professor Chang's work on correcting students' misconceptions sits at the intersection of content knowledge and powerful pedagogies. Effective strategies to correct students' misconceptions require strong fundamental knowledge on the topic. Teachers will have to first diagnose what misconceptions student have before they can be corrected. A key teaching assessment tool developed from the work on correcting students' misconceptions in climate change is the Climate Change Diagnostic Test (CCDT). The CCDT was introduced in a fully online teacher in-service course in Singapore and the CCDT has since been translated into other languages.

This work on climate change education has benefitted many pre-service and in-service teachers and students across Europe, Asia, America, and Oceania. He has held academic positions around the world such as Visiting Fellow at the University College London, Institute of Education and as an Adjunct Professor at the East China Normal University. He has also been invited to give guest lectures in graduate classes around the world.

Professor Chang also developed teaching and learning materials that are hosted on an international platform. He has developed courses on the iTunes U platform and he has also co-developed a module for the Global Climate Change course in the American Association of Geographer's Centre for Global Geography Education.

Teaching Innovation and Leadership

Professor Chang has taught in courses across many programmes at different levels from diploma, degree, post-graduate diploma, teacher in-service, masters to doctoral courses.

While he teaches geography content courses like "Elements of Physical Geography", "Climate and Climate Change", "Geographic Thought" and "Environmental Studies and Global Issues", Professor Chang also teaches courses that are curriculum content in nature, such as courses like "Developments in Academic Geography and the School Geography Curriculum" and "Re-Presenting Conceptual Understanding for Climate Change Education", which require purposeful and thoughtful pairing of the pedagogies required to teach the curriculum content. 

Here is an example of the first fully online inservice course at NIE that Prof Chang developed:

Testimonials

Professor Chang has consistently received excellent scores in student feedback on his teaching. He is also a recipient of the Excellence Teaching Commendation award at NIE, a testament to his teaching quality.

Here are some affirming quotes from students:

Prof Chang's teaching style goes beyond what I have ever experienced or expected from any teacher before. He teaches straight from cutting-edge pedagogy, demonstrating its effectiveness... each lesson, I leave the classroom feeling confident to explain what I have taught.

Prof Chang is highly knowledgeable and he breaks down the content to make us understand in depth. He also employs different pedagogical approaches and also different methods, technology and traditional teaching methods which is inspiring for us as student teachers.


He is very passionate yet very competent in teaching the subject. He even brings in pedagogical concepts and explains how he is conducting the lesson for us. Very useful for my own future teaching.


Provokes thought on subject matter, and constantly getting us students to strive for better explanations and accounts of physical phenomena that links with theoretical concepts learnt in class.

He is a content master and he never fails to intrigue the class with his questioning techniques.


Whatever you are doing, keep on doing it! I think you are a wonderful teacher! And I hope that I have the chance to learn from you again;)