Putting students at the centre of learning with Dr Zhen Shi
Meet Dr Zhen Shi, a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne who is passionate about bringing industry, innovation and research into teaching.
In 2023 Zhen received the University’s esteemed Edward Brown Award for Teaching Excellence for her longstanding dedication to education and bringing industry innovations into the classroom.
Across the Department of Finance Zhen’s introduced industry initiatives, like the London Stock Exchange Group Workspace, a leading-edge database for students to access. Over 1000 University of Melbourne students have used this database and had the unique opportunity to develop their data analytical skills, which are essential for professional practice when they graduate.
Within the classroom Zhen’s developed a blended learning and flipped classroom model, with the support of a Teaching and Learning Development Grant from the Faculty of Business and Economics. The model has helped students practice their business presentation skills and to develop their critical thinking, teamwork and analytic skills within the semester timeframe.
Zhen also encourages student learning outside of the classroom, supporting students to take internship opportunities like through WorkHub where students can take on campus based internships with organisations like the London Stock Exchange Group and UniSuper.
‘The University is lucky to have so many great educators and programs to support teaching excellence to give students fantastic opportunities to learn. It’s so important that we, as educators, participate in these initiatives and keep up with technology and industry. Research in the area of teaching is also so important for continuing to improve teaching skills and there are great grants within the University to support this.’
A piece of advice Zhen offers all educators is to become friends with technology and keep growing skills in this space, especially with technology that is used within industry, research and professional practice.
Years before the pandemic Zhen attended CSHE workshops about using technology to engage students in the classroom and she started to use technology often in the classroom. This made the transition to remote teaching during the pandemic easier as she was already familiar and confident with using technology and knowing how to best use it to involve students.
'Technology is always changing so fast and there are so many opportunities to use it in education. I’m always joining CSHE workshops and constantly learning. This effort really helps me become more innovative and keep up to date with curriculum developments and I can really see the benefit to students when I take these opportunities and delve deeper into my own learning and skills.'
Zhen finds teaching to be extremely rewarding, and it brings her a lot of joy to support students, to see them progress and to witness them discover their own potential. She is passionate about creating an open, informal and inclusive learning environment to make sure that all students from different backgrounds are equitably supported and have every opportunity to shine.
Something that has challenged her within teaching is her accent, and she’s worked hard on this with a speech therapist, and personally, to make a lot of progress in her pronunciation and presentation skills that she needs for teaching. Before every lecture she reviews her notes and slides and practices key words and phrases and is thoughtful and driven in the extra work she puts on herself to develop these language skills.
'My accent is still a hurdle, but I’ve created a mindset of trying and being okay with making mistakes, and this is something I bring into the classroom and encourage students to adopt. Nobody is perfect and mistakes are part of the learning journey and end up empowering us along the way.'