External quality assurance (EQA) has expanded from the traditional academic sector to the vocational and professional education and training (VPET) sector in Hong Kong since the launch of the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework (HKQF) in 2008. Since then, awareness of VPET by the whole community and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has been rising. Beginning with the Chief Executive’s Policy Address 2011-2012, VPET (rebranded from vocational education and training (VET) in 2016) has continuously been a standard item on the Government’s policy agenda. While the Government has made efforts to promote VPET with the establishment of two task forces which made a series of recommendations to further improve the image of VPET, VPET is still considered by the major stakeholders, including learners and teachers, as an inferior choice for pursuing further study. Although EQA has been playing a crucial role in ensuring the quality of VPET providers and programmes, it is interesting to the researcher that none of the recommendations made by the two task forces are related to the EQA mechanism for VPET being implemented by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) through accreditation. Even though the accreditation system has gone through a review during 2015 to 2018, the engagement of stakeholders seemed to be limited in the sense that two major stakeholder groups, namely learners and teachers, were not identified for collection of their views by the HKCAAVQ. With the continuous development of the VPET sector reflected in the rising number of corporate academies established by different industries, such as the railway and aviation industries, seeking HKQF recognition through accreditation conducted by the HKCAAVQ, EQA for VPET in Hong Kong, covering accreditation principles, standards and approaches, deserves a systematic study of whether the major stakeholders in the community consider it effective. This study

The rapid propagation of the International Baccalaureate (IB) in the East and Southeast Asian region, together with the continuing globalisation of education, has generated implementational opportunities and challenges for teachers within the IB network of schools. Based on semi-structured interviews with teachers and school leaders across 15 IB Diploma Programme (DP) schools within the three milieus of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, the study explored how DP's expansion fuelled ambiguities and inconsistencies in programme policy, which impacted on professional cultures and assessments. The analysis highlights the overreliance on the voluntary contribution of teachers and external examiners in supporting professional development and assessments as well as the connection of assessments to anxiety and dissonance in teachers. Copyright ©2023 Routledge.

This longitudinal multiple-case study applies Activity Theory to analyse the integration of ePortfolio into an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) Sciences classroom in Hong Kong SAR, China. Activity Theory was used as an analytical framework to examine eight IB MYP 2 students' (aged 12-13) experiences of Google Sites over two academic years of face-to-face, online, and blended learning modes of teaching and learning. Two classes of 21 students were understood as one Activity System with the inclusion of ePortfolios (Tool) that affected multiple Elements. These include participating students (Subjects), classroom norms (Rules), peers and parents (Community), feedback tasks (Division of Labour), uploading and presenting digital artefacts (Object), and personal skills-based motivation (Outcomes). Qualitative data analysis of ePortfolio artefacts and semi-structured interviews at three stages of intervention revealed two secondary contradiction themes that might have impeded ePortfolio update consistency: 1) Tool-related (unawareness of Tool affordances and misplacement of resources) and 2) Community-related (unfamiliarity with Community members' roles and conflicting feedback expectations). Recommendations (Tool-related affordances and recommendations and monthly timeline with Community roles) for ePortfolio implementation in MYP classrooms are outlined. Copyright ©2023 Elsevier Science Ltd.

The study explores the unaddressed washback on the English-speaking test of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE-English Language Paper 4). The HKDSE is a university entrance exam in Hong Kong which includes a group discussion speaking test known as English Language Paper 4. To identify ongoing washback effects, including sociocultural perspectives, the study analyses ongoing student washback of test-specific and non-specific preparation and how the mediating factors affect these preparations. One-hundred and ninety-nine secondary 4th to 6th grade students provided the questionnaire data in two rounds. Results from exploratory factor analysis indicate six major types of test preparation, which are categorised as two test specific, three non-specific, and one integrated type of preparation. Mediating factors comprise five categories of learner characteristics and stakeholders in and out of school. The cluster analyses identified four students' groups intertwined with the involvement of washback and the mediating factors. A strong relationship between extrinsic factors and explicit learning and intrinsic factors and implicit learning was found. The study concludes that students' washback is affected by mediating factors aside from the test; learning method choice by students (e.g. learning from entertainment content) has a strong relationship with specific mediating factors (e.g. interest in English). Copyright © 2023 Springer Nature.

Despite research studies on TESOL materials and textbooks addressing a wide range of pedagogical issues as well as evaluation strategies, reference books for examination preparation have received little attention from TESOL researchers. This study reports an attempt to develop a checklist for evaluating the reference books for the examination for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE, the college entrance requirement for secondary school students in Hong Kong), with a particular focus on books for the English writing examination. The researchers acquired a total of 39 reference books on DSE English writing and examined them against the reports and documents of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority as well as the Education Bureau. After identifying the most concerning issues in the reference books, the researchers developed a checklist for evaluating future reference books using the framework suggested by McGrath (2002), taking into account the Education Bureau's guidelines for local school textbook evaluation. The authors conclude by briefly discussing implications and how their findings could be shared with HKDSE candidates through engaging the Hong Kong government. Copyright © 2023 Wiley-Blackwell.

This study examines the range of cognitive processes assessed in the English language reading literacy test as part of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), the secondary school exit test in Hong Kong. Prior studies have suggested that higher order cognitive processes are often undermined in high-stakes tests and classrooms, due to what is called the “washback effect.” This prompts the following hypothesis: despite its top-performing education system, Hong Kong has failed to provide a versatile collection of test items that involve complex reasoning. To investigate the cognitive demands of the test, as well as their relationship with student performance, this study maps the test items with reference to the cognitive levels assessed using in-depth document analysis. ANOVA is used to statistically determine differences in accuracy rates to supplement the analysis throughout. Results indicate that the test has placed an overwhelming emphasis on lower order cognitive processes over the past decade (2012–2019) and that items assessing higher order cognitive skills are, as expected, met with statistically significantly poorer performance in the test. Implications for future revision of the test and curriculum policy are discussed. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

Hong Kong has been regarded as one of the strong examination-driven systems worldwide. Under the current education system, local secondary school students have to sit for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) at the end of Grade 12. Although the continuing assessment reform since 2000 tried to reduce the number of high-stakes examinations for secondary school students (from two to one at the end of the six-year secondary education), it remained a high-stakes public examination because the examination results usually have a significant influence on learners’ future pathways, including further education and employment. In respect of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020, many international public examinations have been tried to be called off, but the Hong Kong government did persist in moving ahead with HKDSE. This aroused criticisms about whether the government has taken students’ well-being as a top priority because the annual survey on DSE students’ stress recorded the highest levels in 2020, 2021 and 2022. In this paper, the positioning and myth of HKDSE and its tie to Confucian philosophy will be examined. Students’ well-being is also discussed regarding rescheduling the examination and the impacts on the mental health of all DSE students, notwithstanding the challenges that can bring to any successful outcomes. It is hoped to urge mental health education and promotion could be carried out systematically to improve its effectiveness. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

This paper describes Hong Kong’s borrowing, primarily from the UK, of the assessment for learning policy, in the context of prolonged use of formal summative public examinations. The narrative review and analysis are guided by a social positivist critique of the assessment for learning policy in the Hong Kong context. This paper concludes that Hong Kong’s attempts to implement assessment for learning are ambitious but somewhat futile because of persistent use of public examinations for important decision-making. Change in Hong Kong may only happen through a gradual implementation of assessment for learning practices that takes into account cultural, societal, and historic norms. Critical issues are identified and recommendations are proposed for further implementation of assessment for learning in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd.

In alignment with the New Academic Structure, the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) was launched in 2012 to replace the former Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) as certification for completion of secondary education, and the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE) as the main credentials for university admission in Hong Kong. Standards-referenced reporting is adopted for the HKDSE with the objective of reporting candidates' results against a set of prescribed levels of achievement based on typical performances at those levels. Clearly defined standards facilitate learning and teaching as well as enable users of the qualification, including tertiary institutions and employers, to set appropriate entrance/job requirements. The standards are set and maintained by expert judgement supported by psychometric data to ensure fairness and consistency of standards across subjects and across cohorts. Systemic and implementation issues and their resolutions are discussed in the context of the education reform in Hong Kong. Copyright ©Routledge.

This article introduces the use of public exam questions in fishbowl debate to engage highly exam-oriented secondary students with communicative language teaching (CLT). The practice aims to address the issue that many teachers of English as a second language (ESL)/English as a foreign language (EFL) in Asian contexts either teach to the test or implement CLT without catering for the students' pragmatic needs to pass external assessment. A series of activities was implemented in a secondary school in Hong Kong to promote positive washback from the public exam. The author's experience and reflections informed by ongoing dialogue with the stakeholders in the school and data collected from student focus group interviews suggest that the fishbowl debate encouraged students to use English for authentic and meaningful purposes, while appreciating its relevance to the writing exam. An important pedagogical implication is for teachers to balance CLT and exam preparation and help students to reach both their mastery and performance goals. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).