The potential impact of creative thinking and its contribution to successful arts practice has been argued over the last decade. Meanwhile, creative thinking has also been identified as making valuable contributions to arts and management. Cetinkaya (2014) and Kuo, Chen, and Hwang (2014) indicated that the application of creative thinking to management education is highly recommended, which needs to be developed through the learning process and still is a teaching challenge to date. This study implemented the project-based learning (PBL) approach as a treatment for tertiary arts education students over one academic year to examine its effect on their creative thinking disposition. Given this context, this study aimed to determine the improvement of creative thinking skills of art students through PBL in the arts management discipline. Consequently, the research question addressing the three dimensions is proposed and analyzed as to how they interact: creative thinking, project-based learning, and arts management education. Two theoretical frameworks were applied in this study: 1) the Creative Thinking Skills Development Framework from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER, 2020) and 2) the Essential Project Design Elements of PBLWorks (2015). The subjects were 52 art students from the Cultural and Creative Arts department at the Education University of Hong Kong. A qualitative approach was employed, while the data on students’ creative thinking skills were obtained from observations, interviews, and reflective journals. The results indicated that the integration of creative thinking and project-based learning could significantly uplift students’ learning outcomes in arts management education as they are in a complementary relationship. It provided opportunities for students in art management learning engagement and several areas of thinking skills development in relation to the current curricula objectives. Copyright © 2023 Association of Arts Administration

Facing the immense pressure to catch up with the international trend, our city, Hong Kong’s education authority has pronounced creativity, play and ICT as the key aims in the kindergarten curriculum (Curriculum Development Council, 2017). However, it is not easy to promote changes in schools which usually ends with ostensible technology integration (Law et al., 2011). Identifying the quality of lessons and barriers to teachers’ profession on this topic is the initial step to developing strategies for improvement. This paper aims to explore the potential for combining these three aspects and ground uses for teaching Creativity with ICT-Play, as well as reforming a better Early Childhood Education (ECE) curriculum of the concept. This article defines creativity and ICT-Play in ECE and studies an integration model applicable to local kindergarten curricula with feasible pedagogies, followed by an evaluation of the current practices and problems in this issue based on interview data with the support from the i-CREATE model and Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice. The study shows how are the quality of teaching creativity with ICT-Play and the impacts of different capitals mentioned in Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice on teachers affect their implementation of ICT-Play pedagogies in local kindergartens. Copyright © 2023 EARLI.

Music education is often regarded as an elite discipline in Chinese society, and pre-service teachers in early childhood education may lack musical knowledge and confidence in teaching music due to interdisciplinary teacher training. This study aims to explore the essential components of a quality responsive teacher education course in music for pre-service teachers in Hong Kong and evaluate the impact of six-hour training workshops on their self-perceived musical competence and music teaching confidence. The study employs a quasi-experimental research design and consists of six-hour training workshops in music to enhance pre-service teachers' musicianship and competence in conducting music appreciation, performance, and creative activities. This study answers two research questions based on the quantitative and qualitative data: (1) How will the training workshops impact pre-service teachers' self-perceived musical competence and music teaching confidence? (2) How will the musical competence enhance their music teaching confidence? The study employs a quasi-experimental research design and finds that the workshops significantly improve pre-service teachers' confidence in leading music activities and their perceived importance of children's music education. The study underscores the need for music training in early childhood teacher education and may offer insights into designing responsive music professional development courses for early childhood teachers globally. Copyright © 2023 ACE.

Music education is often considered an elite discipline in Chinese society, resulting in a lack of low confidence in teaching music among pre-service teachers in early childhood education. Additionally, teacher education programs in music often provide separate training in musicianship and pedagogical skills, leading to a gap between teachers’ beliefs and their teaching practices. This study aims to explore the components of a quality responsive teacher education course in music for pre-service teachers in Hong Kong. The study includes six-hour training workshops in music using a play-based approach to enhance pre-service teachers’ musicianship and competence in conducting music appreciation, performance, and creative activities. The study answers two research questions based on qualitative data: (1) How will the training workshops impact pre-service teachers’ self-perceived musical competence and music teaching confidence? (2) What are pre-service teachers’ perceptions of responsive teacher training courses in music? The study highlights the need for music training in early childhood teacher education and provides insights into designing a responsive music professional development course for early childhood teachers in the Chinese context. Copyright © 2023 AQIA.

This empirical study aims to enhance group cohesion, a critical factor for collaborative learning success and immersion in inquiry-based coding activities in a metaverse platform – Learningverse. The study involved two classes of Grade 5 students engaging in a two-hour coding activity, which required them to assemble robotics using VEXcode GO and a Code Base in groups. An inquiry-based learning consisting of ‘engage, explore, create, explain, evaluate’ was adopted in the instructional design. Class A (23 students) as the control group conducted the activity in a traditional classroom setting; while, Class B (28 students) conducted the activity across the metaverse platform and physical classroom settings in an immersive, seamless learning environment. Data collection involved log data in the metaverse, questionnaire on immersion, pre-and post-domain and interviews. The findings show that students in the experimental group showed a higher degree of group cohesion and immersion than those in the control group; and students in the experimental group outperformed those in the control group in conceptual understanding. The study sheds light on the potential of the metaverse in enhancing group cohesion and immersion which, in turn, helps improve group learning performance in an immersive seamless learning environment. Copyright © 2024 The Education University of Hong Kong.

To create a socially just teaching method in higher education (HE), we used Fraser’s social justice framework to create a new pedagogical method called student voice for social justice (SVSJ). SVSJ emphasizes student voice and empowerment by developing a co-constructed learning space where students can influence the procedure and content of the class. Applying a participatory action research (PAR) methodology, we explore the skill development of students engaged in SVSJ. Students highlighted five primary learning outcomes (self-learning, critical thinking, knowledge generation, cognitive development, and expression of voice) in the interviews as well as challenges in implementing the model. By employing SVSJ, students’ recognition and representation of their identity groups are enhanced, and the knowledge held by them is redistributed to peers and the lecturer through active participation. In addition, they are equipped with skills that can empower them in their education and future life. Copyright © 2024 The Education University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved.

Developing intercultural competence plays an essential part in language learning. This resonates with Halliday’s (1978) apt observation that culture provides meaning to language-in-use. Intercultural competence is a complex concept, including dimensions such as attitudes, knowledge, skills, and awareness (Byram, 2009). Cultivating students’ intercultural competence has become one of the objectives of language teaching, and a range of courses has been designed and conducted for preparing students to take an active part in the global world. As more college students are willing to work in multinational corporations or study abroad, language teachers play an important role in providing students with more opportunities to enhance their intercultural knowledge and skills.Based on Byram’s (1997) intercultural competence model and guided by the intercultural language teaching approach proposed by Liddicoat (2003; 2013), the researcher developed a course that seeks to cultivate students’ intercultural competence in four dimensions, attitudes, knowledge, skills, and awareness. One class of second-year English major students took part in the 12-week course with another class as the control group. During the course, students experienced a process which involved noticing, comparing, and reflecting through various intercultural activities. This study employed a range of methods including questionnaire, interview, and reflective journals, and it was found that students’ intercultural competence was improved, and the course showed significantly positive influence on the cultivation of students’ attitudes, facilitation of cultural knowledge acquisition, and the development of intercultural skills and awareness. Further analysis led to identification and detailed discussion of a range of aspects of the four dimensions of intercultural competence such as willingness to explore otherness and enriched knowledge of value systems and various intercultural skills.The study has shown an example