Dr. Tulio Maximo is an Assistant Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design. Tulio aims to improve society collaboratively by including individuals and institutions in knowledge development. His research interests include intergenerational and inclusive design, mobility devices, sitting ergonomics, design-led social entrepreneurship, healthcare services, and inclusive education. Tulio teaches ergonomics, capstone projects, and cooperative projects and has created the elective subject Design Meets Disabilities. He has received numerous awards for his design and teaching, including the UGC Teaching Award 2022 as an Early Career Faculty Member and the Red Dot Product Design Award 2022 for the design of the Omni Study System for children living in subdivided flats. Tulio’s teaching philosophy is inspired by value creation education and universal design for learning, and he advocates empathy as a core teaching and learning strategy. In this case study of teaching good practices, Tulio share how he uses empathy as a core teaching strategy.
Empathy is the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation. It helps students to gain insight into the experiences of a diverse population. As a teacher, I believe empathy is key to forging the creative leaders of tomorrow and instilling the goal of a more equal and diverse society. Here, I explain how I use empathy as a core teaching strategy to apply theoretical content to solve real-world problems, encourage my students to practice those theories and stand in my students’ shoes to improve my teaching.
