Synchronous online teaching through video-conferencing software (VCS) has become a common mode of instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. This mode brings unique challenges for teachers that require specific professional digital competences. One such challenge is conducting formative assessment. Through the use of in-depth interviews with nine Hong Kong university teachers who had taught synchronously online for one semester, this exploratory study explored the challenges of conducting formative assessment during synchronous online lessons and the strategies teachers deploy to conduct formative assessment. The findings indicate that the key difficulties include gathering information on students’ needs, checking students’ understanding, giving individual feedback, and building relationships with students. To address these challenges, the teachers suggested four pedagogical strategies: (1) Combine synchronous with asynchronous approaches; (2) Utilise breakout rooms; (3) Utilise poll functions of the VCS and combine it with other online platforms; and (4) Provide time before or after lessons for informal conversations. The findings suggest that teachers need to develop specific pedagogical strategies to conduct formative assessment. This provides an initial conceptualisation of one important dimension of Professional Digital Competence, teaching using digital technologies, and one aspect of that dimension, how teachers use digital tools and strategies to conduct formative assessment. Copyright © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Collaborative lesson planning (CLP) is a key component of teachers’ professional development that responds to students’ ever-increasing learning needs. This study aimed to develop and validate an instrument to evaluate teachers’ CLP practices. Guided by the SECI (socialisation, externalisation, combination, and internalisation) knowledge-creation model of Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), items assessing CLP practices were developed. To validate the CLP scale, we analysed data from 540 primary and secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. Exploratory factor analysis on a random half of the sample suggests a four-factor solution that supports the SECI model. A confirmatory factor analysis and multidimensional Rasch analysis on the remaining half of the sample confirmed the four-factor structure. Both analyses support the dimensionality of the four-factor model, rating scale effectiveness, and item fit statistics. The final version of the CLPS has 21 items that assess teachers’ CLP practices under the four SECI processes. This instrument has practical value in assessing, monitoring, and promoting collaborative teaching practices in school. The study's limitations and implications are discussed. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Under the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide, students were forced to switch from face-to-face to online learning. This study reports the experience of Hong Kong students in higher education concerning the challenges they faced, the strategies they used and the support they needed in their online learning during the period. An online questionnaire was used to invite students to answer open-ended questions about these three aspects. 145 students from two higher education institutions completed the questionnaire and their comments were coded using thematic analysis. The study has discovered that socio-economic factors may have presented difficulties to students' online learning concerning their study environment and access to equipment. Students were emotionally distressed by online learning, particularly by the quality of feedback and clarity of course arrangement, so support for these aspects should be given. Self-regulated learning strategies were found to have been deployed by students to facilitate their learning, in which the use of time management apps and lecture videos highlights the increasing importance of technology to self study. These socio-economic, technological and emotional factors will be further discussed and corresponding suggestions will be made to help teachers and university policy makers examine the conditions that can help improve and promote online learning for higher education students under COVID-19. Copyright ©2021 Springer.

Field station research locations offer scientists isolation and immersion for more precise statistical analysis of climate change and environmental damage. As more art/science initiatives develop in academia, art students are gaining access to difficult scientific research sites and using the experience to fuel creative strategies. The methodology for offering a course that taps these into possibilities for the teaching of creativity remains little explored. Through a case study at the School of Creative Media in Hong Kong, this article examines how student expeditions that work adjacent to environmental scientists in extreme environments can be used for the teaching of creativity and artistic process as well as informing a larger public on climate issues. The structure of the program with detailed descriptions of sequenced proficiencies is presented. Both pedagogical philosophy and logistic issues will be discussed through the set-up and organizational structure of the course, the variety of teaching materials, assignments, dissemination and finally the exhibition and impact of the students' work. Using scientific resources with the goal of artistic interpretation, the pedagogy is designed to respond to the emerging potential of digital technologies in creative media. The results, both for the students and the public, demonstrate multimodal approaches that offer broader possibilities for learning and outreach that are both scalable and transferable. Copyright ©2021 SAGE Publications.

This study investigates the influences of process-based instruction (PBI) on students' self-regulated learning (SRL) strategy use in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing. Participants were 1521 fourth to sixth graders in Hong Kong primary schools. The students, in response to a questionnaire, reported that their English teachers used PBI at a high frequency in the classroom, while the students employed SRL strategies at a medium frequency. No significant differences in SRL strategy use were found across the three grade levels. Results of structural equation modelling (SEM) indicate that instruction at the before-writing stage had the strongest influence on the students' use of SRL strategies; instruction at the after-writing stage significantly impacted their use of self-initiating, self-monitoring and revising strategies; teaching writing at the while-writing stage had very little influence on the students' SRL strategy use. Implications for future research are discussed and suggestions for EFL teachers to improve their students' SRL strategy use in writing through PBI are included. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Science Ltd.

To study what ways a gardening programme being implemented within the context of a Hong Kong pre-school support experiential learning. Dewey is one of the most significant figures in experiential learning. Kolb extended and modified some aspects of Dewey's work, with influence by Piaget and Lewin. Fenwick pinpointed some strengths and limitations of experiential learning. Experiential learning is the conceptual framework of this study (Dewey, 1938; Kolb, 1984; Fenwick, 2001). I was obliged to reconsider my own ideology both in relation to gardening and experiential learning and to recognise how ideology predisposed me to 'see' in some ways and not others. This study is a qualitative single case study using interpretivist paradigm. Multiple data collection methods were used, including unstructured, participant and non-participant observations, semi-structured individual and group interviews, research journal and documentation. The participants were duly informed of the purpose, procedures, and instruments that would be used, including any potential risks. Signed consent was secured. The findings indicated that the children learned through experiential learning. The teachers lacked the necessary subject knowledge - particularly science - for supporting children's learning. The study also highlighted how Chinese cultural beliefs and practices create significant tensions when implementing experiential learning, especially in terms of adult-child relationship. The implications to my teaching included (1) an integral component of my teaching; (2) students can try theories in order to develop practices; (3) enabling students to connect theories to practice; and (4) offering opportunities that students can reflect on their own learning, with engagement. Copyright © 2019 EECERA.

Objectives: This study had two aims. The first was to delineate the boundary between effective and inspiring teaching practices with cluster analysis again with a widely-researched instrument, International Comparative Analysis of Learning and Teaching (ICALT) (van de Grift, 2007; 2014) after initial success with Comparative Analysis of Effective and Inspiring Teaching (CETIT), a newly-developed classroom observation instrument that combined features of both effective and inspiring teaching (First Author et al., 2019) (Figure 1). Then, models hypothesizing some theoretical relationships of inspiring teaching behaviors were tested with structural equation modelling (SEM).Theoretical framework: Behavioral characteristics of inspiring teaching were initially characterized with a small sample by Sammons and colleagues (2014; 2016), but were found somewhat overlapped with those characteristics often associated with effective teaching.Methods: The hierarchical cluster analysis were conducted with SPSS 25 with five CETIT factors and seven ICALT factors. For SEM performed in LISREL 8.8, only the CETIT factors were used to explore the second aim. An inter-rater reliability over 0.7 (Gwet, 2014) was established using two different training videos before viewing the lesson samples.Data sources: The lesson sample was based on 260 videotaped lessons from both primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, selected from a pool of 500+ lessons in an earlier study by First Author and colleagues (2015). Table 1 summarizes the descriptive and correlation results.Results and conclusions: The hierarchical cluster analysis results showed two clusters identified (Figure 2). Average linkage to estimate the distance among factors was employed to overcome the shortcoming of single and complete linkage (Yim & Ramdeen, 2015). Together with the Agglomeration Coefficients, the results suggested location should stay at stage 10 with an elbow effect (Figure 3), where the factors

近年，非華語學生學習中文的問題備受社會人士關注。非華語學生與本地以中文為母語的學生起步點不同。非華語學生學習漢字，要先了解學習部首與部件、筆順與筆畫等概念，這對學習者造成不少困難。而非華語學生的生活行為、飲食習慣等與華人社會的文化有頗大分別，語文教學的內容無法脫離文化，如果語文科的內容讓他們無法理解，甚至與他們固有文化產生文化衝突，更會削弱他們學習中文的動機 。 非華語生要學好中文，需要有學習環境的配合。不過，非華語學生的家長大多不懂中文，未必能指導學生，當學生遇上學習的困難亦未必得到即時的協助。在課堂上運用情境教學法可提供實際的生活情境，在施教時突出中華文化要點，例如：新年的習俗、中秋節的意義等等。而情境教學的設計也可以涵蓋品德情意的部分，例如：禮貌、尊重別人等。透過情境式教學，既可訓練他們的語文能力，同時有助他們增進對中華文化的認識，了解本地的文化，並融入社區生活。 本文嘗試提出一個運用情境式教學法的中國語文學習方案及研究計劃。研究對象是其中兩班就讀同一所學校的中一非華語學生及該校兩班的中文科教師。研究以一個中國語文科單元為本，著眼於情境式教學的學習過程，從而檢視此方式的學習成效。學習成效是指非華語學生學習語文能力及對中華文化、品德情意的認識有所提升。研究的重點包括「定質的研究」及「定量的研究」。在「定質的研究」方面，每班抽取高、中、低程度的學生(共六位)及任教的兩位老師訪談，收集老師及學生對「情境教學法」策略成效的意見及回饋。在「定量的研究」方面，會派發問卷給學生及老師填寫，並在施教前後施行前測和後測。 研究預期結果：情境教學法提升非華語學生的學習動機和語文能力，並豐富非華語學童學習中文的體驗，對於學習動機較弱的學生成效更為顯注。 Copyright © 2019 國際漢語教學研討會.