Huy Chung

Ph.D. Student
Department of Education

Email: hqchung@uci.edu

Biography

An avid fan of the University of California school system, Huy Chung started his undergraduate career at UC Berkeley majoring in Comparative Literature with an emphasis in French and English literatures, especially focusing on Victorian Era literature, autobiographies, and fantasy. As an undergraduate, Huy's extracurricular projects focused mainly on tutoring and serving under-served immigrant students in Oakland, California. It was from these experiences that Huy found his interest in education piqued. He went on to earn his Master's in Education and Multiple-subjects Teacher Credential from UCLA's Teacher Education Program (TEP).

Huy taught middle school English and history (ancient and medieval) for three years in downtown Los Angeles. A supporter of the humanities, he also had the pleasure of teaching art, drama, and world mythology as electives.

During his work with his students Huy saw a need for student engagement and learning, and found that teaching an interdisciplinary curriculum could be a possible solution. His middle school teaching assignments gave him a unique opportunity to teach the same set of students in both English and history to try out his theory. In addition, he received training in Understanding by Design, differentiation, Learning Teams, and other data driven initiatives in the classroom. These experiences have led him to study interdisciplinary work, teacher professional development, semiotics, discourse analysis, comparative education, and volitional processes at UC Irvine under the Learning, Cognition, and Development (LCD) specialization for his Ph.D. in Education.

Huy hopes to study all aspects of teacher development that will translate to an increase in student engagement and achievement. After earning his doctorate, he would like to become a professor of education focusing on planning, curriculum, instruction, and assessment; teacher learning; qualitative methods; and the psychology of teaching.

Huy is an avid reader of fantasy novels and an amateur artist and enjoys experiencing new cultures. He also enjoys spending time with his family who live in Orange County.

Advisor: Elizabeth van Es, Ph.D.

First Year Project: A Professional Vision Trajectory of Pre-service English Language Arts Teachers

Second Year Project (in progress): The Effects of Professional Development on U.S. History Teachers' Curriculum Planning for Diverse Student Populations

Presentations

Chung, H. (March 2011). The many faces of teaching: Comparing and contrasting English language arts pre-service teachers’ conceptions of teaching. Poster presentation at the California Council on Teacher Education Spring Conference, San Jose, CA.

Chung, H., Munshi, R., & van Es, E.A. (March 2011). Learning to learn from teaching: A model for learning from analysis and reflection of one’s own practice. Workshop session presented at the UCLA Curtis Center Mathematics and Teaching Conference, Westwood, CA