Moral education is not a new concept in universities; however, university students’ firsthand learning experience and valuation of moral education have not been fully explored. As part of a teaching and learning study conducted in two undergraduate classes in a Hong Kong university, this study explores the university students’ perceptions of learning moral education. Data were mainly collected through student interviews and their reflective journals. Most students supported the learning of moral education. They asserted that moral education has a lifelong nature; thus, they should learn it in universities. The study reveals that moral education can facilitate the university students’ personal and social betterments, showing the intrinsic and instrumental values of moral education. This small-scale case supplements the literature on the understanding of the development of moral education in higher education. This study also reflects the necessity to rethink the moral aim and the moral education curriculum of higher education. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Although the development of Asia adolescents’ citizenship values has been widely discussed, limited attention has been paid for the role of religion in shaping those values. The possibility has been suggested that Asian religious contexts may be understood differently from those in the West and research findings in those contexts are not necessarily applicable to Asia. This study, therefore, sought to understand further the association between the religious engagement of Asian adolescents’ and democratic values. The results indicated that attitudes to equality were moderately influenced by an understanding of democracy while religious engagement showed small, negative or non-significant associations with equality. Students’ understanding of democracy did not mediate the effect of students’ religious engagement. These results provide further support for the view that in Asian contexts religious engagement may not necessarily provide a conductive environment for supporting traditional democratic values. Copyright © 2020 British Association for International and Comparative Education.

It is commonly believed that ethnic minority (EM) parents tend to have low expectation towards their children’s education due to adverse social and economic status, but other studies suggest EM parents would have high expectation because they want their children to gain upward social mobility. In this study, we compared Pakistani parents’ expectation towards early childhood education (ECE) with Hong Kong parents and examined the role of acculturation in Pakistani parents’ expectation towards ECE. Participants were 73 first-generation Pakistani parents living in Hong Kong and 214 Hong Kong parents. They filled in questionnaires that measured expectation towards ECE. Pakistani parents also answered a questionnaire that captured the degree of acculturation. Results of moderation analysis revealed significant interactions between culture and child gender in all the dimensions of parental expectation towards ECE. Specifically, Pakistani parents reported higher expectation towards ECE than Hong Kong parents. Moreover, Pakistani parents generally reported significantly higher expectation for boys than for girls, while Hong Kong parents’ expectation towards girls was significantly higher than boys with a few exceptions. Moreover, regression analyses showed that integration and marginalization were positively related to several dimensions of parental expectation. These findings provide pioneer understanding about expectation towards ECE among Pakistani parents in Hong Kong and shed light on the promotion of gender-equality ECE. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper examines the global implications of policy borrowing, employing case examples of Chinese school systems, which enjoy the success of grafting new identities to improve education. The paper comments on contemporary scholars’ use of identity grafting theory (Lee in Managing Chineseness: identity and ethnic management in Singapore, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017) to generate insights on how schools, teachers and students engaged educational change in mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Scholars presented empirical findings by using identity grafting constructs to explain education stakeholders’ diverse responses to change: (1) born-again—rejecting change by reviving traditional practices; (2) repression—repressing traditional identities instead of embracing change; (3) integration—combining traditional identities and progressive change to achieve a balance; and (4) situationalism—developing new identities that transcend boundaries between traditional identities and progressive change. The scholars contributed research that advances the theorization of identity grafting. First, rising born-again Chinese sentiments seek to reject the imposition of a singular Chinese identity imposed by state governments. Born-again Chineseness no longer singularly focuses on defending traditional identities against Western influences. Second, a better understanding is achieved on identity repression—change resistance results from a displaced focus on repressing traditional identities. Third, the prevalence of identity integration strategies can be explained by intensive policy borrowing in the region. Policy borrowers need to ensure externally imposed identities are represented to overcome challenges generated by identity grafting strategies that impede progressive change. This popularity of integrationist strategies accounts for the challenges in achieving identity situationalism—policy borrowing needs culturally divisive identity markers that provide clear indicators to

The education reform in Hong Kong advocated the Project Approach as an effective pedagogy to support childrens' learning through exploration and play. This paper outlines a case study of a Hong Kong kindergarten which implemented the project approach using a picture book and digital picture book as a stimulus to begin the project topic and develop the inquiry process. The qualitative data sources included analysis of documentation such as teacher lesson plans, teacher questionnaire on reflection, documentation of children's works and activity photos of the project. The findings revealed that picture book was a good stimulus to arouse children's interest. The children were observed to be highly engaged in the investigation and the benefits from the picture book in project were not limited to literacy learning but also integrated learnings such as in the domains of music and movement, drama, and science. Additionally, the project provided opportunities to use the 21st skills of collaborating, communicating, creativity and critical thinking. The case also acts as an example of implementing the project approach in a non-Western context and recommendations are made for Hong Kong early child educators who participate the education reform. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

This article reports the results of a study that assesses the effectiveness of a Philosophy in Schools (PIS) programme in developing students' thinking skills and English competence in Hong Kong. In the study, training and support were provided for three Integrated Humanities (IH) teachers to enable them to teach PIS to their Secondary 3 English as a Second Language (ESL) students. The students were found to be capable of reasoning and arguing in a competent way about philosophical problems arising from various stimuli prepared by their teachers according to the IH curriculum. PIS was also found to play a major role in promoting the students' critical and creative thinking and to enhance the development of their English language proficiency to a significant extent. The findings of this study suggest that integrating philosophy into the IH curriculum can promote critical thinking, creative thinking and English language proficiency in ESL students. Copyright © 2020 University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education.

The aim of this paper is to examine blended learning as an integral component of a learning culture. By drawing on two concepts- habitus and field - we consider the cultural learning experiences of postgraduate students within the context of a Hong Kong University. It is an examination that allows for an appreciation of both an individual as well as a collective experience of blended learning and in so doing it demonstrates how power is (always) an issue within learning cultures. The paper goes on to argue that if blended learning is to achieve its goal in terms of enhancing learning there is a need to have a better understanding of learning itself where questions are asked concerning the learner, the locations where learning occurs and processes of learning. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

This article describes a learning unit for seniors within a university in Hong Kong, as an example of offering lifelong learning opportunities for senior adults. This article reports and discusses findings from a small-scale research study conducted at the unit, which aimed to explore the effectiveness of the current mode of integrating elder learning into higher education, specifically how this related to the promotion of intergenerational learning between elders and university students. This article reports on the findings of a quantitative survey conducted with elders, university students and instructors, in order to compare their views on the impact of a mixed intergenerational classroom and to identify the benefits of elder learning. The most positive impact of the mixed-class arrangement was upon the elder learners, who reported very positive learning experiences and a number of positive benefits to learning. All three groups positively reported that the class arrangement did improve intergenerational learning. Whilst all three groups responded very positively to the mixed-class arrangement and presence of elders, there were less positive responses reported from both undergraduates and their instructors as to the impact of elders in the same class upon helping undergraduates learn better. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Purpose: This article aims to (1) systematically examine the development of career guidance practices in Hong Kong over the past 40 years, (2) discuss developmental attention to the career-related self-concept of diverse learners, and (3) propose a multidimensional model of self-concept by integrating the career-related domains with recent advances in self-concept research pertaining to students' in-school and post-school outcomes.Design/Approach/Methods: This article charts the developmental trend of career guidance and counseling (CGC) over more than 40 years in Hong Kong. The article also examines key findings relating to self-concept research made in the fields of education and career counseling in the past 50 years.Findings: For 50 years, Hong Kong has progressively recognized the importance of CGC. The government's continued determination to refine its policies and practices in this domain was succinctly highlighted in the Chief Executive's 2018 policy address. However, many challenges pertaining the professional competence of career guidance teachers and the ability of school administrators to manage the paradigm shift from informal to formal career guidance and counseling practices (CGCPs) remain. Meanwhile, the effects of these CGCPs on students' gains of career-related abilities and interests directly and indirectly remain under-researched.Originality/Value: This article integrates research into the developmental trend of career guidance practices in secondary schools and the study of academic self-concept. The article builds upon previous self-concept research by proposing an extended self-concept model that includes the career-related domain, setting a theoretical model for further research to explore. Finally, the article demonstrates the importance of tailoring career guidance activities in secondary education to reflect the diverse career-related self-concepts held by today's students with diverse abilities. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

This paper gives some preliminary analysis on the relationships between perceptions of national identity and national education by using quantitative data. A pilot-tested questionnaire has been sent to all civic education team teachers in Hong Kong secondary schools in 2018. Through quantitative analysis, it is found that some possible types of national education are adopted by teachers. The qualitative interviews with some teachers also reveal a diversified range of teaching methods on national education. All these findings can, hopefully, contribute to the existing literature. This study shall be useful for anyone interested in understanding how teachers perceive their national identity and national education in this post-materialistic and globalized world. Copyright © 2019 CiCea.