This article adds to computer-assisted language learning by extending a study on an essay critiquing system (ECS) feedback to secondary school language learners' writing. The study compared two groups of participants' performance, namely the treatment group which received both the system feedback and teacher feedback (i.e., blended learning mode), and the control group which received teacher feedback only. The study was conducted in a secondary school in Hong Kong in the form of an extra-curricular activity after school. Fifty-three students from the ages of 16 to 17 with different argumentative writing experience participated in a series of five writing workshops once a month voluntarily. The participants were assigned to a treatment and a control group based on the stratification approach. Their scores were compared and an interview with the treatment group was conducted. Analysing the total and content and organisation scores of the two groups, it was found that both groups demonstrated statistical significant gains. Nevertheless, the treatment group's gain appears to be more meaningful than the control group's in view of its group composition. The blended learning mode contributes to the encouraging results as revealed through the treatment group's scores, high rating and positive comments on both system and teacher feedback in the survey and interviews. The analysis also implies the need to improve the system feedback on paragraph coherence, workshop design and grading criteria.
[Copyright of Computer Assisted Language Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2011.630672]

Capitalizing on the comments made by teachers on videos of exemplary science teaching, a video-based survey instrument on the topic of 'Density' was developed and used to investigate the conceptions of good science teaching held by 110 teachers and 4,024 year 7 students in Hong Kong. Six dimensions of good science teaching are identified from the 55-item questionnaire, namely, 'focussing on science learning', 'facilitating students' understanding', 'encouraging students' involvement', 'creating conducive environment', 'encouraging active experimentation' and 'preparing students for exam (PSE)'. Significant gaps between teachers' and students' conceptions on certain dimensions have been revealed. The inconsistency on the dimension 'PSE' is particularly evident and possible reasons for the phenomenon are suggested. This study raises the important questions of how the gap can be addressed, and who is to change in order to close the gaps. Answers to these questions have huge implications for teacher education and teacher professional development.
[Copyright of International Journal of Science Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2011.629375]

Since 2008, outcome-based learning (OBL), a student-centred strategy aiming to enhance the quality of teaching and learning, has been launched as a major initiative among higher education institutions in Hong Kong. When adopting OBL at course level, other than designing the OBL framework, it is also very important to evaluate the effectiveness of the OBL implementation. However, studies focusing on the evaluation of OBL have been rare. In this paper, the authors will report on the evaluation of the implementation of OBL in 17 pilot courses in the English Department in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Five evaluation instruments were developed, and questionnaire surveys and interviews based on these instruments were carried out to find out both students' and teachers' perceptions of OBL adopted in the pilot courses. The findings suggest that both the students and the teachers hold a generally positive attitude towards OBL, but a number of issues have been raised concerning the successful implementation of OBL at course level.
[Copyright of Research in Higher Education Journal is the property of Academic and Business Research Institute. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://www.aabri.com/rhej.html]

A major challenge for language teacher educators working in the area of teacher language awareness (TLA) is to develop pedagogical approaches that will go beyond merely enhancing L2 teachers' knowledge about language by enabling them to make the bridge between the declarative and procedural dimensions of TLA. This paper sets out to investigate the effectiveness of using online discussion forums to develop the language awareness of a group of student-teachers of L2 English in Hong Kong. Through content analysis of the 18 discussion threads initiated by these novice teachers, the research team found that despite the different reasons they had for posting their discussion topics, most of them had used extensively the e-learning platform to request help regarding the two dimensions of TLA, and that their reflections showed a strong tendency to move from the declarative to the procedural dimension of TLA. The study, though exploratory, has enhanced our understanding of learning to teach by opening up a small window for people to understand how TLA affected the teacher behaviour of this group of student-teachers during their teaching practice. The study also shows the research potential of using online discussion forums to understand teachers' language awareness development.
[Copyright of Language Awareness is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2012.680467]

One major impact of globalisation on education is denoted by the growing trend to use English, the global language, as a medium of instruction (MOI) in emerging polities that are trying to enhance their English-speaking capacities. This article emphasises developing an understanding of MOI from a language policy and planning as well as an educational perspective. It explores the policy and practice of MOI in 10 polities in Asia including Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Maldives, Nepal, Timor-Leste and Vietnam, using a broad-based framework that aims to explicate the context, motivation, goals, actors, implementation process and outcomes of MOI. The article points out the dominance of English as MOI which is used in eight of the polity studies included in the analysis. It concludes that while the Asian region as a whole reflects the globalisation of English as medium of instruction policies, individual polities may have specific motivations and goals and that they may develop specific strategies to protect their own interests and identities. More crucially, at the macro-policy level, there seems to be a simplistic understanding of MOI as a cheap solution to complex language problems for achieving overly ambitious politico-economic goals and that this leads to less than ideal MOI implementation illustrated by teachers' and students' struggles as policy actors at the micro level.
[Copyright of Current Issues In Language Planning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2013.792130]

This study examined how students in a Hong Kong high school used Diigo, an online annotation tool, to support their argumentative reading activities. Two year 10 classes, a high-performance class (HPC) and an ordinary-performance class (OPC), highlighted passages of text and wrote and attached sticky notes to them to clarify argumentation structures and to represent and share argumentation processes. Analysis of annotations revealed that highlighting was the most frequently used online annotation feature. The HPC made significantly more sticky notes and used them more to annotate terms, claims and judgments than the OPC. The study suggests that Diigo is a promising tool for supporting reading-to-argue. The findings may be of value to teachers and researchers in designing online annotation tools that more effectively foster the process of reading-to-argue.
[Copyright of Australasian Journal of Educational Technology is the property of ASCILITE. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet.html]

In order to pilot a shift towards greater use of collaborative learning in the university's higher education programs, the University of Hong Kong has invested in the development of a prototype technology-enhanced collaborative learning space. The space was created by retrofitting a vacant studio, turning it into an innovative classroom space in which collaborative learning is promoted and facilitated both through the provision of technology and by the physical layout of the room. The space has been used to pioneer collaborative learning both by holding professional development workshops for faculty in the room and also by helping academic staff to run experimental courses in the learning space. The opportunity to offer professional development and support for academic staff in this environment is particularly valuable as it ensures they do not simply deliver traditional didactic lectures in a space designed to promote interactive student learning and engagement. By using the space as a 'student' they are able to consider how they may use collaborative learning environments with their students. This article describes use of the room for professional development of academic staff and also provides two examples of the use and evaluation of the room by faculty who used the room to teach experimental classes in an undergraduate environmental studies course, and a graduate-level education course. In all instances it was found that the innovative classroom space stimulated new practices, both on the part of the teachers and students, and was key an an increased collaborative student-centred natures of all courses taught in the room.
[Copyright of Higher Education Research & Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2013.777033]