Students at the seminar

The seminar aims to reinforce core values including integrity, honesty and social responsibility.

Local secondary school principals exchange ideas on the importance of moral education

Today (6 June) the University of Macau (UM) held two seminars on moral education, namely Seminar on Ethics and Integrity of University Students with Post-secondary Students, and Seminar on Students’ Character and Social Responsibility with Secondary School Principals, hoping to promote the importance of moral education and reinforce such core values as honesty, integrity and social responsibility.

The University of Macau (UM) places equal emphasis on expertise and character development, and has launched relevant courses and a series of activities in order to nurture caring and socially responsible students. The two seminars are part of UM’s “Whole Person Development in Character and Expertise” Activity Series. UM Rector Wei Zhao, Vice Rector (Academic Affairs) Simon Ho, Faculty of Education Dean Fan Xitao, Commission Against Corruption’s Education and Dissemination Division Head Wong Chi Hou, UM Alumni Association General Assembly President Ao Peng Kong, and local secondary school principals and students attended the seminars.

UM Rector Wei Zhao noted that UM places equal emphasis on expertise and character development. He said that since early this year, UM has launched a series of student development activities, such as formulate and release ethics guidelines for students, Financial Guidelines Briefing for Student Organizations, Dialogue between Student Leaders and University’s Top Management: Justice, Integrity and Responsibility, an advanced course in student affairs, and a workshop on student affairs planning, in an attempt to nurture students with both expertise and integrity.

In his speech entitled “Ethics and Integrity: The Role of University and Its Students”, UM’s Vice Rector (Academic Affairs) Simon Ho stressed that in order to help students develop honesty and integrity, UM has adopted a new “4-in-1” education model, launched general education courses, and implemented a pilot residential college programme. Simon Ho said that UM adds moral elements into academic courses, and hopes to create an inspiring, multi-cultural environment to nurture caring and socially responsible students with the ability to reflect on their shortcomings, by making full use of various internal and external factors, such as management of student organizations, activities on and off campus, the influence and guidance of moral leaders and teachers, and campus environment and culture.

Wong Chi Hou and Ao Peng Kong gave speeches entitled “Honesty and Integrity, Our Common Pursuit” and “From Caterpillar to Butterfly: The Pain and Wonder of Spiritual Growth”, in which they cited real-life examples and quoted lines from classic Chinese works such as The Book of Changes and the Analects of Confucius to explain in simple language the profound role integrity plays in one’s life.

In his speech entitled “Future Development Considerations”, Faculty of Education Dean Fan Xitao noted that the traditional teacher training model is not mature on the professional, psychological, cultural and social levels. He highlighted some weaknesses of the traditional training model, including insufficient time to cover all the intended content of a given course, insufficient time for teaching practice, and lack of professional maturity.

The seminars attracted many local secondary school principals and students, who shared views on moral education-related issues.
 

06/06/2012