Anthony Choong
Anthony Choong is the head history teacher and curriculum development for Herzen Centre for History.
For the past 7 years, Anthony has taught history to more than 60 students of diverse academic backgrounds and walks of life. He excels in helping his students visualise the content by stepping into the way people thought during different historical periods, putting them in the best frame of mind to understand history in a more natural way, negating the need to memorise content. His keen awareness of the struggles students go through in school coupled with his deep expertise in the subject matter have led him to formulate a study method that not only brings his students the highest marks but focuses on directing his students away from more labour intensive methods, preferring to demonstrate how to get As for history by effectively using the little time and energy they have instead. He does this by using his tried and tested methods that train crucial skills of interpretation, analysis and writing to the point of mastery. His innovative and efficient methods have helped students from SJI, ACJC, SCGS, Queenstown Secondary School, St Patrick's School, St Margaret's School, Catholic Junior College and Gan Eng Seng Secondary.
As a teacher, Anthony is understanding and empathetic towards his students. Rooted firmly in the belief that no two students are the same, he believes each and every student must be treated in a manner customised to them in order to optimise learning and accelerate the process of studying history as much as possible.
He thus carefully takes time to get to know each and every student on a personal level so that he can have the best possible understanding of what their mentality is and where their struggles lie so he can use his principles of teaching history to craft a study plan that is specialised for their needs and areas of improvement.
On the research front, Anthony has distinguished himself in various historical research projects for multiple history topics and time periods, including but not limited to World War I, World War II, the French Revolution, The Long 19th Century, and the Opium War and the subsequent development of China into a nation state. He has collaborated with professors from NUS and studied under teachers from ACJC to gain expertise in crafting a research essay with the most tactical and clear writing techniques. Moreover, he was the only student in his course to be honoured a distinction in his H3 research thesis in his final Pre-U year. He was also invited to take up an advisory position to a student of Victoria Junior College to assist in a history research program.
Anthony never ceases to be fascinated by the vastness of content matter and multiplicity of perspectives that studying history on a deeper level can afford. His immediate goals are to finish his History course at NUS then go on to do his Masters Degree of Education.
Anthony continues to read academic works extensively and debate thoughtfully with many mentors and friends. He also writes extensively about the history of inequality, elitism and social advocacy in various historical contexts. He enjoys nothing more than a thought-provoking conversation about the subject he's passionate about and relishes discussion, as nothing is so important in history as a constant flow of discourse.
Steve Chang
Steve Chang the history teacher for lower secondary students.
Steve's passion for history stems from his fascination of how the past have, or have not, shaped our identities, communities and culture. He begun his interest in history primarily with military and political history, but has since branched out to enjoy imperial and postcolonial history.
As the teacher for lower secondary students, Steve's teaching style focuses on giving students the opportunity to write. What he has realised is that students who begin their foray into history in school often believe that history is a exercise of memorisation when it is in fact, an exercise in writing. Thus, his lessons focuses on training students to translate the knowledge they receive from textbooks into clear, concise essays. He seeks to also provide students with a solid foundation for critical thinking, to give his students the edge in discerning, collecting and identifying necessary information to answer Source-Based Questions with pinpoint accuracy.
He understands that every student is unique, and curates his lessons to meet the needs of every student, giving them much needed critical feedback to help them improve their writing and thinking skills. He seeks to be approachable to his students, as the key to improvement requires an atmosphere of respect and understanding. As such, he aims to create a conducive, productive space during his lessons to allow his students to maximise their time and effort in their work.
His motivation to teach lower secondary students in Herzen stems from his belief, that these are the most crucial years in developing critical knowledge that becomes fundamental towards their conception and passion for history. He works to collect those that may have fallen behind, or through the cracks, and provide them the fundamental knowledge to not only excel, but grow their own passions in history. Staring from lower secondary gives him the basis to start this process as soon as possible, and give his students a jump start.
When not teaching or preparing for lessons, he has taken upon himself to continue serving the history community through the NUS History Society. Outside of university, he has also been a youth volunteer at OnePeople.sg, serving as the Secretary General for OnePeople.sg Model United Nations 2024. His service to OnePeople.sg comes from the same knowledge of history's importance in shaping identities, communities and culture, which shapes his passion to nurture Singapore's racial and religious harmony. This had spurred him to join the International Conference on Cohesive Societies in 2025, expanding his horizons to the efforts taken to expand multiculturalism. In the past, other than OnePeople.sg Model United Nations 2024, he has taken part in numerous MUNs since 2018, such as a Chairperson for Prepmun 2023 and OPMUN 2023, as well as YMAX 24 as the Director for Conference Management.
Herzen Centre For History
Dedicated only to teaching history, Herzen Centre’s method is founded on using nothing but the most effective and specialised study techniques to help our students ace the history paper with the most MARKS, using the least EFFORT in the shortest TIME. We achieve this by tackling the three aspects history students find most challenging:
Content Memorisation
Critical Evaluation
Writing
We prize efficiency over anything else and have a firm belief in the power of studying smarter and not harder. We thus conduct lessons in small class sizes of no more than 5 students per class. This encourages free flow of ideas while letting tutors curate the lesson to you and your individual learning style, crafting a personalised history study plan for maximum exam success.
Book Your Free First Lesson Now!
Whatsapp: +65 8040 4326
Email: herzencentre@gmail.com