While language teachers play a crucial role in fostering critical thinking in students as a means of strengthening their capabilities in problem-solving, informed decision-making, and effective communication, integrating critical thinking (CT) into classrooms can be challenging. This challenge is particularly prominent for teachers of English as a foreign-language (EFL), where orientation to exams and traditional teaching methods tend to prevail. Guidance and support from language teacher educators during the pre-service stage is therefore crucial, in order to equip language teachers not only with the solid knowledge and skills required to integrate CT into their pedagogy, but also with the resilience and sensitivity to determine when CT should be introduced to their students. This qualitative case study examines the attempts made by two language teacher educators in a pre-service EFL teacher education program in Hong Kong, focusing on their beliefs and practice in preparing language teachers to be critical thinkers who would be capable of effectively teaching CT in their future language classrooms. Data was collected from classroom observation and semi-structured interviews with the two participants over one academic semester. Qualitative and inductive analysis of the data revealed that both teacher educators held a strong belief in the crucial role of CT in language learning, teaching, and teacher education. Through the CT instructional strategies of triggering, exposing, guiding, and extending, they incorporated CT into their teacher education courses, with the goal of fostering a pedagogy oriented toward CT in their student teachers. The study concludes by providing insights for stakeholders interested in adopting CT-integrated language teacher education in EFL contexts. Copyright © 2024 College of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Chengchi University.

Despite extensive research on student teachers' engagement with university coursework, teaching practicums, and research projects in teacher education curriculums, empirical studies on the coherence among these components are lacking. Coherence refers to the degree to which curriculum supports, reinforces , and reflects shared goals. This research explores curriculum coherence and its influences on teacher learning in a Hong Kong pre-service language teacher education program. The study attempts to answer: How do student teachers perceive the connections between the university courses, teaching practicum, and research projects in the program? © 2023 Informa UK Limited.

Informed by the perspective of complexity theory, this study seeks to explore two English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teacher educators' expertise in Hong Kong. Drawing on data from interviews, field observation, and informal communication over one academic year, the study revealed that the teacher educators' expertise entailed different components: 1) a dialogic teaching approach informed by research-based and contextualized knowledge; 2) emotional intelligence for maintaining personal emotional wellbeing and channeling emotions for effective teaching; 3) a reflective and agentive mindset for continuous learning; as well as 4) willingness and capacity to promote and distribute expertise in multiple communities. The participants' expertise functioned and transformed through their continuing engagement in different forms of teacher education practice, influenced by their personal beliefs and situated contexts. The study concludes with practical implications for language teacher educators on how to develop their expertise as a complex, adaptive, and evolving system in daily practice. Copyright ©2021 Wiley.

Against the backdrop of the worldwide prevalence and importance of internationalisation in higher education, the mixed-methods study examined the relationships between tertiary-level learners' on-campus intercultural activity participation (e.g. intercultural talks and workshops), seven aspects of whole-person development (civic responsibility, cultural engagement, intellectual capacity, peer relationship, community care, leadership, and self-appreciation), and academic performance. A questionnaire was distributed to 518 participants studying at two universities in Hong Kong. No positive relationship was found between participation and academic achievement. However, participation was positively correlated with all aspects of whole-person development. Community care and cultural engagement had the strongest correlations with participation. Following an explanatory sequential design, 18 of these participants were invited for a follow-up interview to expound on the findings based on their experiences, observations and understanding of their peers. The article ends with a discussion of the findings and implications for intercultural learning and teaching in higher education. Copyright ©2021 Routledge.

This qualitative case study examined a group of undergraduate students' motivations towards extracurricular research in a Hong Kong university. Drawing upon data from semi-structured interviews, this study analysed the students' motivation change from the cognitive, social, and affective perspective. The findings revealed that the students were externally and internally motivated to join informal research activities and that their motivation change was intertwined with their cognitive learning, social interactions, and emotional experiences in the research process. The paper concluded with practical implications on supporting and sustaining undergraduates' motivations in extracurricular research activities to benefit their academic studies and future work. Copyright ©2021 Routledge.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is foundational to students’ success in the university. However, past studies on EI in the higher education context have mostly focused on how EI is related to academic achievement neglecting student engagement and other learning-related outcomes (e.g., generic outcomes). In this study, we examined whether and how individual differences in EI influence students’ learning, engagement, and achievement during their first year at university. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used to garner both quantitative and qualitative insights. We recruited and followed up with 560 first-year students in Hong Kong. The quantitative findings revealed a strong EI gradient with more emotionally intelligent students having higher levels of learning, engagement, and achievement. Qualitative findings corroborated the quantitative results and further showed that emotionally intelligent students are goal-directed, assertive, and self-regulated. Taken together, this study sheds light on the importance of EI for the optimal functioning of first year university students. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

This qualitative case study investigates two early-stage doctoral students' developing conceptions of research in their situated context. Drawing on data collected from in-depth interviews and informal conversations with the participants over two years, the study showed that the participants' research conceptions were in a symbiotic relationship with their research activities. Also, their developing research conceptions were influenced by their past academic experience and future goals, interaction with significant others in their community, and disciplinary and institutional practices, which acted to change or sustain their perceptions and engagement as an emerging academic. The findings indicate that reflection can be useful for doctoral students to manage their own conceptions of research and for supervisors to adjust practice to enhance doctoral education. Implications for universities regarding how institutional practice and discourse may dominate and foster doctoral students’ research conceptions are provided. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This qualitative multi-case study explores a group of university-based language teacher educators' boundary crossing experiences in Hong Kong. Informed by a conceptual framework on boundary crossing and drawing on data from in-depth interviews and field observations, the findings reveal the opportunities and challenges embedded in teacher educators' boundary crossing between university and schools, between the teacher education and academic community, and between local and external contexts. The study contributes new knowledge to our understanding of teacher educators' boundary crossing through two different forms, i.e., horizontal and hierarchical, as they navigate sociocultural differences between various communities. The paper concludes with practical implications on how to promote teacher educators' continuing development in university settings. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The significance of reflective practice (RP) has been widely recognized in both general education and language education. The past years have witnessed an exponential growth of studies in examining how technology can be utilized to promote teachers' RP and video-based RP has been extensively reported as a powerful tool for teacher learning in many educational contexts. While existing literature has documented the potential benefits that student teachers may reap from video-based RP, there is a lack of attention to the complex interplay between the process of their RP and the contextual factors in their situated learning environment. This article reports on a study which aims to promote video-based RP among student teachers in a pre-service language teacher education course in Hong Kong. Drawing on data from post-course interviews with and the videoed reflection of six student teachers, the study uncovered the complex and dynamic process of the student teachers' video-based RP. This article offers practical implications for language teachers, teacher educators and school leaders on how to promote RP in second language teacher education. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

Informed by research literature about intercultural competence development, this paper aims to explore non-local students’ skills and strategies in communication when they study at a university in Hong Kong. The previous research indicated that they usually experience many problems to adapt into host culture and country because they are lacking in language proficiency and social-cultural knowledge. Students’ prior learning experience, attitude, psychological or behavioural factors can affect their communication skills. In addition, different languages, dialects, accents, characters or cultural difference between their home and host cultures can also cause communication barriers to the students. This study shows that most of the non-local students, mainly the Chinese, still encounter language difficulties in communication in a Chinese society. Such difficulties are reported in studies on Gangpiaos (literally meaning Mainland Chinese drifters in Hong Kong) as well; the word “drifter” implies adaptation difficulties for Mainland Chinese immigrates. Nonetheless, existing empirical studies have been seldom tapped into non-local university students’ intercultural communication capability and how they cope with their communication difficulties in a Chinese society. The present study seeks to fill this research gap in the literature. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 non-local students who were studying in undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programmes, this paper adopted thematic analysis to examine the students’ language obstacles and identify the pattern of their communication practices in the process of intercultural adaptation in Hong Kong. Coping strategies in communication and implications for policies, which assist in young Gangpiaos in developing their intercultural communication knowledge and skills, are drawn based on the findings. Copyright © 2018 HKERA International Conference.