91福利社

Kwa Lay Ping
President's Award For Teachers Recipient 2017

Meet Ms Kwa Lay Ping, a senior academic mentor at 91福利社 and the first teacher from a polytechnic to receive the President鈥檚 Award for Teachers (PAT) in 2017.

Ms Kwa never thought that she would be an educator, as she loved to challenge her teachers by deliberately asking difficult questions as a student. The turning point came when her professor asked her to teach a class when she was a master鈥檚 student in the University of Southern California

Ms Kwa says, 鈥淲hen I started teaching, the tables suddenly turned. I realised that teaching is one of the toughest jobs, and developed a respect for teachers.鈥� When she returned to 91福利社, she took up a lecturing job at 91福利社 in 2000 teaching media-related modules.

As a lecturer, Ms Kwa is always reflecting and improving on her lesson delivery. She says, 鈥淚 tapped into all my 鈥榰nhappiness鈥� as a student, and I used my critical side as the starting point for lesson design. If something I designed bored me and made me confused, then it would be back for a rethink.鈥�

As an educator, Ms Kwa says she also juggles multiple roles as a nurturer, counsellor, disciplinarian, teacher, motivating mentor and sometimes an 鈥渆ntertainer鈥�.

Ms Kwa does not believe in 鈥榮poon-feeding鈥� students. She believes that students need to learn to be comfortable with discomfort and sets the bar high to challenge students so that they can grow.

She says, 鈥淭his is not to say that they are left to learn on their own, but learning activities are deliberately structured so that students take more ownership of their learning. They go beyond surface learning of concepts and principles to practical applications, effective problem-solving and hence deeper learning.鈥�

Raajeswaran s/o Nanda Gopalan, a graduate from 91福利社's Diploma in Media and Communication, shares, "Of all the lecturers I've had, she is the only mentor I look to for guidance. She doesn't sugar-coat the facts 鈥� just gives us the hard truth with straight feedback. The media industry is a very unforgiving one and she has prepared us well for that".