This article reports on the results of a qualitative interpretive pilot study investigating the role of comic strips on tertiary ESP learners’ motivation and discipline-specific language learning. The participants were 10 third-year students enrolled in two discipline-specific English courses at a university in Hong Kong. The results show that integrating multimodality through comic strips helped to transform the traditional delivery of instruction and also motivated and facilitated learners’ understanding of discipline-specific concepts and vocabulary. Participants also indicated that technology contributed to more student agency and fostered language creativity as they expended more effort in their learning. The findings suggest the need for ESP teachers to explore technology and integrate creativity and multimodality in the delivery of discipline-specific course content. Copyright © 2021 Asian ESP Journal.

In Hong Kong, the Education Bureau (EDB) regularly assesses the quality of services provided by publicly subsidized kindergartens to children aged 3 to 6. Quality Review (QR) reports are written by government officials and published on the EDB's website. This study analyzes the feedback pertaining to Arts and Creativity to better understand the role this learning area plays in Hong Kong kindergartens. Lexical and content analyses were applied on 164 QR reports published between 2017 and 2020. Findings showed that: (1) the role of Arts and Creativity in the QR reports is relatively minor, which suggests that this learning area is somewhat secondary in Hong Kong kindergartens; (2) presence of the various art forms differs significantly, with Music and Visual Arts being more frequent than Drama and especially Dance; and (3) classroom activities seem to be teacher-centered, product-oriented, and reproductive. Findings suggest that the Arts and Creativity pedagogies enacted in Hong Kong kindergartens are not fully consistent with the official kindergarten Curriculum Guide, which draws on a Western conceptualization of creativity in the arts. We argue that this curriculum/practice gap reveals the need for local stakeholders to embrace a "glocalization" paradigm. Limitations, future research, and implications are discussed. Copyright © 2022 Jerry Yeung et al.

Teaching students how to code in K-12 classrooms is considered as one of the major keys to promoting engineering education in the future, which can potentially enhance the competency and computational skills of students to adhere better learning outcomes in higher education. The success of promoting coding education or integrating it into school curriculum depends on the perceptions of teachers and headmasters in schools, and how well they believe on coding education and prepare for the innovative teaching and learning. In this exploratory research study, it reports the results of a large-scale quantitative questionnaire surveying 42 primary and secondary schools (n = 42) in Hong Kong, where computer programming has not been regulated as a compulsory course in K-12 curriculum. The questionnaire aims to investigate the school belief on coding education and their practical challenges while integrating it into their regular school curriculum. Our results show that there is a trend in the local schools promoting coding education with positive perceptions on teaching and learning. However, teaching challenges are also mentioned in the survey waiting for solutions, such as lack of teachers training and unified curriculum. Therefore, the empirical experiences of these schools have set forth the future research direction in design and implementation of coding education in K-12 classrooms not only in Hong Kong but also in the globe. Copyright © 2015 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved.

This study examined reading motivation in Hong Kong secondary school students, taking account of school-related factors of medium of instruction, teacher support and peer support and demographic factors of gender, grade and socio-economic status. Specifically, the research questions were: (1) How are the school factors of medium of instruction, teacher support and peer support related to reading motivation in Chinese (first language; L1) and reading motivation in English (second language; L2)? (2) How are the demographic factors of socio-economic status, gender and grade related to reading motivation in Chinese and English? and (3) Are there differential patterns of prediction of school factors and demographic factors for Chinese and English reading motivation? The SRQ-Reading Motivation Questionnaire, designed to measure reading motivation as conceptualized by Self-Determination Theory (SDT), was adopted. Nine hundred and forty-one secondary school students participated in this study, from the grade levels of secondary one, four and six in seven secondary schools in Hong Kong. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that their reading motivation was comprised of two factors, Autonomous Chinese Reading Motivation (ACRM), Autonomous English Reading Motivation (AERM), Controlled Chinese Reading Motivation (CCRM) and Controlled English Reading Motivation (CERM). To address the three research questions, structural equation modeling was used to investigate the relationships among the variables examined in the present study. The findings showed that Teacher Support significantly predicted all reading motivation outcomes. A higher level of teacher support was associated with higher levels of autonomous and controlled reading motivation in the two languages. Peer Support was also a significant predictor of all reading motivation outcomes. Surprisingly, peer support had a negative relationship with controlled reading motivation in Chinese and in English but a positive relationship

Life education has recently attracted quite a lot of attention and some education researchers hope to enhance the students’ awareness and the value of their life, students’ self-protection ability, respecting life through education. There is an urgent need to assess and nurture the life education of primary school students in Hong Kong and Jiangsu. This study employs the case study method to assess and compare the life education of two Hong Kong primary schools with and without life education as a subject with two Jiangsu primary schools with and without life education as a subject. The principals, teachers and students were interviewed for the life education situation in their schools. Life education curriculums were classified by Transcendent, Community, Nature and Self. The practice and implementation of life education were evaluated by Intellectual, Emotional, Volitional and Practical. Results revealed that life education has been carried out in Hong Kong primary schools whether or not they set life education as an individual subject. However, compared with the life education in Hong Kong, the development of life education in Jiangsu is lagging far behind. Because life education in Mainland China is considered as a part of moral education which is highly political aspect, it is hard to claim that life education has no political. Although almost all principals and teachers in Jiangsu schools stated verbally that life education was very important to students, there is no impetus for them to take the initiative to push the development of life education. After all, life education, unlike other subjects, is a thankless and time consuming task. Compared with Jiangsu, life education in Hong Kong has made great progress which is being driven by some educators and some religious groups. However, there is also some limitation of life education in Hong Kong because there are not much resources and leadership from the Hong Kong government. Moreover, there are also some factors

The aim of this research study is to investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of innovative use of an open-source digital technology, Arduino, which is an information and communications technology (ICT) tool for practical work in physics in the senior secondary curriculum. The study also seeks to ascertain factors affecting the effective use of the technology in students’ learning of physics with a view to informing possible extensive use of the Arduino technology in senior secondary science education and its application to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. The importance of harnessing ICT in education is well recognized in the education arena. Educators have viewed ICT as an enabling tool for higher levels of analysis to take place in science teaching and learning. However, the use of technology does not guarantee meaningful and effective learning. What is crucial is the transformative, appropriate use of ICT to enhance students’ learning. In this regard, proper integration of ICT into the curriculum, or even across disciplines in the context of STEM education, for meaningful study is an area of concern. While ICT integration has been advocated for many years in the senior secondary physics curriculum in Hong Kong, there remains a gap in its holistic integration into the curriculum. This study demonstrates successful development of seven Arduino-based experiments and an entire set of courseware that covers a wide range of experiments in the topic of “mechanics” in the senior secondary physics curriculum. Design-based research (DBR) methodology is adopted in the development, which is characterized by rounds of systematic iteration, feedback gathering, and modification. The final outputs are encouraging for performing the series of experiments in “mechanics”. The study bridges the gap between theoretical framework and practical application in an authentic setting, and it informs of the suitability of DBR in developing ICT tools for

The integration of values education into English language teaching is not common. Yet educators, school heads, and teachers regard values education as vital to help build students’ characters. This study aims to investigate how values can be promoted by using the approach of moral dilemma discussions in English language teaching. Specifically, within Thomas Lickona’s (1991) framework of values that posits the mutual interaction of students’ moral knowing, moral feeling and moral action, this study used action research as the research design, while applying the approach of moral dilemma discussions to examine whether students’ moral reasoning could be developed, moral feeling could be aroused, and whether obvious behavioural changes in moral action could be observed.A mixed-method of collecting both qualitative and quantitative data was used to evaluate the teaching process and teaching outcomes. Qualitative data included teacher researcher’s observation in class and after-lesson reflections, students’ discussions and responses during lessons, group interviews of students and teacher observers’ feedback. Quantitative data consisted of comparison between the pre-test and post-test scores of DIT2 and APASO-II, while the yearly moral performance record and result of the questionnaire set by the teacher researcher were used as supporting evidence.The findings showed an increase in the moral reasoning scores of the experimental group. Students were impressed with the moral dilemma discussion approach integrated with explicit values, and students’ moral development was shown in their assignments during the teaching process and teaching outcomes. Students’ sharing in the interviews also showed that they recognized the importance of values education for all students. However, an increase in moral action throughout the action research period was not obvious. More investigation into the link between moral reasoning and moral action should be done. All rights reserved.

The aim of the study is to explore preschool teachers’ folk pedagogy as reflected in music education in Hong Kong by examining how Hong Kong teachers act, think and interact with their students when teaching music, and their response when stimulated by Japanese preschool culture. To illuminate the concept of folk pedagogy, the study investigates the tacit norms, views and values of selected Hong Kong and Japanese music teachers. This research is a multi-case study with an ethnographic design for cultural observation. A meta-aspect of this study is to provide a venue for teachers’ professional development, which consists of sharing videos from other countries, discussing their values and allowing these discussions to enlarge their sense of teachers. Through individual and group discussions and the teachers’ beliefs construction one year later, the teachers’ beliefs, teaching pedagogies and implicit behaviours are identified and analysed. The implications of the study will strengthen music teachers’ evaluations of Hong Kong’s folk pedagogy. All rights reserved.

While Hong Kong students excel at international tests in mathematics, they do not display corresponding attitudes toward mathematics learning. This study examined 10 Hong Kong Secondary 6 students' perceptions of learning mathematics (experiential curriculum) and their perceived factors that limited the development of students' positive attitudes toward mathematics learning in the New Senior Secondary mathematics curriculum by content analysis of their responses in the interviews. Although the participants in this study expected to learn mathematics by "conceptual learning" and the authentic applications of mathematics, they experienced rote-and-drilling-dominated learning approaches in mathematics education, which had succeeded in developing their numerical senses and problem-solving skills but failed to develop their sense of creativity and positive attitudes toward mathematics. The practical mentality and the examination-oriented culture in Hong Kong were the perceived factors that caused such situations.香港學生於不同的國際數學評測中都表現優越，但他們對學習數學並未展現出相應的態度。本研究探討10名香港中六學生對學習數學的看法。研究員對學生的訪問回應進行了內容分析，從中了解阻礙學生發展出對學習高中數學課程的良好態度的因素。學生雖然期望能透過概念學習和應用數學於日常環境來學習數學，但他們總是經歷死記硬背及不斷操練的方式來學習。此方式或許能有效發展學生的數感和解難能力，但未能幫助他們建立創意和良好的數學態度。務實心態和應試文化是學生最重視的因素。 Copyright © 2022 香港中文大學香港教育研究所.

In this study, we investigated the direct and indirect associations of different cognitive–linguistic skills and Chinese reading comprehension in Hong Kong kindergarteners. We assessed 179 children's nonverbal IQ, cognitive–linguistic skills, word reading, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. Results showed significant correlations between all variables and reading comprehension. Further path analysis results indicated that rapid automatized naming, orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness contributed to reading comprehension via word reading. Nonverbal IQ and vocabulary knowledge were associated with reading comprehension through listening comprehension. Beyond that, nonverbal IQ and morphological awareness still contributed directly to reading comprehension. Overall, our findings elucidated the importance of nonverbal IQ and cognitive–linguistic skills within the framework of the simple view of reading in Chinese and highlighted the unique roles of nonverbal IQ and meaning-related skills in Chinese reading comprehension, which contributed to understanding the simple view of reading in Chinese. Copyright © 2022 Language Learning Research Club, University of Michigan.