This study aims to conceptualise a drama-integrated curriculum devised from process drama as an approach to play-based pedagogy and curriculum to realise the policy initiative of learning through play. By investigating teachers’ perspectives and practices in relation to the curriculum of a local kindergarten, examples of effective drama-integration strategies and the associated children's learning are identified and organised into four themes – namely, drama teaching and learning through, before, in and after play. The teachers understood that although their curriculum is not based on free play, its not-so-free features may reconcile the play–learning binarism, daring them to navigate the maze of complex relationships between play, drama, teaching and learning in implementing a playful curriculum. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

The study aimed to explore the effectiveness and both teachers' and students' acceptance of using three types of e-learning activities, namely online teaching videos, Internet resources, and digital games, to learn classical Chinese (CC) in the out-of-class context. Thirteen Chinese language teachers and 551 students from five secondary schools in Hong Kong participated in the study on a voluntary basis. The findings of pre- and post-test comparisons indicated that students used CC reading strategies more frequently, improved their self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation in CC reading, and participated in more self-learning activities after using the e-learning activities. User acceptance of e-learning activities was examined based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Findings of regression analysis and structural equation modeling generally support the hypothesized TAM, suggesting that students' perception of the e-learning activities would affect their intentional use, and, in turn, their actual use of the e-learning activities. Students' perceived playfulness and teacher encouragement of the e-learning activities were the most critical reasons for them to accept and participate in the activities. Implications of the findings are discussed to provide insights into the applicability of using e-learning as a new learning approach in a traditional school subject.本研究旨在探討在課外使用三類電子學習活動（包括網上教學短片、互聯網資源及網上遊戲平台）對促進學生學習文言文的成效以及教師和學生對於這些課外電子學習活動的接受程度。研究共有來自5所香港中學的13名教師及551名學生自願參與。比較學生填寫的前、後測問卷結果，學生採用了這些電子學習活動之後，增加了使用文言文的閱讀策略，提高了閱讀文言文的自我效能感和內在動機，以及較以往更經常參與了文言文的自學活動。本研究同時以科技接受模型為理論基礎探討使用者對這些文言文課外電子活動的接受程度，多元迴歸分析及結構方程模型的統計結果支持本研究的假設模型，證明學生對這些電子活動的觀感會影響他們的使用意願，再進而影響他們的實際使用量，在眾多因素之中，學生對電子活動的趣味觀感和教師鼓勵是影響他們接受和參與這些活動最關鍵的因素，本研究的結果對於在學習文言文這傳統學科採用電子學習這種新的學習模式的可行性有重要的啟示。 Copyright © 2021 世界華語文教育學會.

Teacher feedback can be useful in helping English as Foreign Language (EFL) students revise their draft writing. Investigating how EFL students respond to various types of teacher feedback in draft revision has been regarded as an important field of study. However, such investigation is time-consuming and labour-intensive, which limits its practical application in EFL writing classes. To address this issue, this study was designed to explore an initiative to use a systematic method in tracking and analysing student revisions in response to teacher feedback. Firstly, an automated tracking method was proposed and applied to examine the technical feasibility of analysing the effects of teacher feedback on student revisions for 75 EFL undergraduate students from two Hong Kong universities. Secondly, the study explicitly sought to explore teachers’ perspectives on the automated tracking method by interviews. The quantitative results suggest that the automated tracking method can analyse teacher feedback and student revision with high accuracy compared to the manual analysis, while the qualitative results shed light on the benefits and limitations of the method. Overall, our findings provide a basis for further research on harnessing the potential of technology to support teachers in developing their professional feedback practice for EFL writing. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Our previous work, FIBER (Flipped Issue-Based Enquiry Ride), is a pedagogical framework to integrate FC (Flipped Classroom) into the process of issue-based enquiry learning for social humanities education. This paper presents our recent work, G-FIBER (Gamified-FIBER), in which we have re-worked on FIBER with the infusion of gamified learning. In the evaluative study (with 72 high-school students in Hong Kong), we showed the pedagogical effectiveness of G-FIBER was significantly higher than FIBER's, with a medium-to-large effect size. This re-work contributes to the field with evidence for grounding more future studies on the crossover between FC and gamified learning for advancing students' learning in school education. Copyright © 2021 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved.

This research study contributes to understanding teachers’ perceptions and views of using controversial issues and political neutrality in teaching, through an analysis of data gathered through questionnaire responses in a wider project and 41 semi-structured interviews. There are diversified views about the relationship between controversial issues and education. Some teachers feel that it is impossible to avoid controversial issues and that using them is educationally necessary. Three approaches were identified regarding their teaching of controversial issues: ‘open’, ‘critical’, and ‘committed’. The authors argue that teachers’ actions are influenced by factors which are discussed as ‘contextual’, ‘political’, and ‘pedagogical’. Teachers operate in specific places and times, have their own views about the nature of the good society, and prioritize their professional responsibilities. These findings contribute to our understandings of the teachers’ viewpoints and how those views are shaped. Such understandings will contribute to the development of reflective education policy and practice. Copyright © 2021 Teacher Development.

This chapter reports on two datasets. The first is a short questionnaire administered to International College Hong Kong Secondary Media Studies students in Year 10 and 11, regarding their public General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations, where students’ attitudes to Free Learning were probed. The second dataset comprised grade achievement comparisons between the 2019 Free Learning GCSE cohort and a previous cohort who had been prepared for the public examination via a standard teaching mode. While the sample was small, students responded positively to Free Learning as a teaching methodology and as preparation for a high-stakes examination. Regarding grade comparisons, grades achieved by the Free Learning cohort were very comparable with grades obtained by previous non- Free Learning cohorts. It would appear that even when it leads to public examinations, with the requirement to complete a set syllabus, Free Learning is a viable methodology. Copyright © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ross Parker, David Coniam and Peter Falvey; individual chapters, the contributors.

This chapter presents findings from an exploratory case study, conducted in 2018 and 2019, that focused on the investigation of Free Learning at International College Hong Kong Secondary. Free Learning is one of the school-based curricular practices that can be considered an act of resistance against educational discourses centred around the learnification of education, which often implies an increase in learning freedom for students and a decrease in significance and value of the teacher role. The study explored the roles of teacher and student in Free Learning: to what extent Free Learning has an effect on both and how the student-teacher relationship is reconsidered. Data were collected and analysed through semi-structured interviews, observations and questionnaires, an analytical framework based on the school’s Approaches to Learning and the International Baccalaureate Standards and Practices. Additionally, Biesta’s (2009) work on the purposes of education and Foucault’s (1982) concept of “technologies of the self” were used as a theoretical lens. Findings show that the Free Learning approach allows for a student-teacher relationship that is reciprocal and that is neither focused on outcomes nor performance. These findings are discussed and framed, and suggestions are made for adoption and further research of Free Learning in different educational settings. Copyright © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ross Parker, David Coniam and Peter Falvey; individual chapters, the contributors.

This chapter describes how Free Learning was adopted at the Education University of Hong Kong in a course which is part of the bachelor of education – Minor in Teaching and Learning in International Schools, a pre-service teacher education programme. The decision to adopt Free Learning at university level since January 2019 was the result of positive findings of a case study at International College Hong Kong in 2018 and the promises Free Learning seemed to hold for wider application (see Chapter 13 this volume). The rationale, description and evaluation of the adoption process of Free Learning in this chapter is given with the purpose of getting tertiary educators to consider their thinking about the why and how of innovative practices and to connect their courses to a complex and crisis-ridden world. The chapter emphasises the importance of developing students as responsible and thoughtful individuals and also how Free Learning – with this in mind – could be considered in different contexts. Copyright © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ross Parker, David Coniam and Peter Falvey; individual chapters, the contributors.

In learning environments research, limited attention has been paid to the effects of the family environment on student thinking. This study constructed a five-dimension survey of the family environment, based on previous studies of the classroom learning environment, and used it to compare the effects of the family environment and the classroom learning environment associated with an interdisciplinary course (i.e., Liberal Studies) on the critical thinking disposition of 2189 secondary students in Hong Kong. Stepwise regression revealed that: the overall effects of the classroom learning environment of Liberal Studies on critical thinking disposition were greater than those of the family environment; the content-oriented dimensions of both environments were stronger predictors of critical thinking disposition than the relationship-oriented dimensions of both environments; and the effect of the dimension of challenging task on critical thinking disposition was stronger than that of other pedagogy-oriented dimensions. Also the means of all dimensions of the family environment were significantly lower than those of the corresponding dimensions of the classroom learning environment. It is suggested that more effort should be made to enhance both classroom learning environment and family environment to generate convergent forces to efficiently cultivate students’ critical thinking. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.