In its latest IT in Education Strategy, the government of Hong Kong is committed to develop an online resource bank of curriculum-based digital resources for supporting learning and teaching in school education. The study reported herein aimed to conceptualize the framework for developing such online resource bank in Hong Kong. For collecting solid information from a wide spectrum of relevant stakeholders, 12 sessions of focus group discussions were conducted with school leaders, teachers of major subjects, students, parents, government officials, and educational publishers in the school education sector in Hong Kong. The results found that teachers in Hong Kong were experienced in using digital resources, in particular PowerPoint, video and animation, for supporting subject teaching and learning. The results also asserted the need of an online resource bank in Hong Kong for teachers to accurately access curriculum-based learning and teaching resources. Based on the expectations identified in this study, three options are recommended for the development of the target online resource bank. The first option suggests the compilation of digital entities, such as electronic texts, presentation slides, images, videos and animations, for curriculum delivery. The second option suggests the organization of the digital resources into teaching schemes for delivering subject curricula, especially for those subjects with limited textbooks available in the market. The third options suggests the compilation of learning materials, such as guiding worksheets, with digital resources for students, especially those with average and high learning motivation, to conduct theme-based or project-based self-regulated learning.

Preschool teachers are an important element of high-quality, developmentally and multiculturally appropriate early childhood programmes. 7.5% of the total 160,000 children enrolled in Hong Kong kindergartens are ethnic-minority students and they are neglected in the Hong Kong education system until 2008. This study investigated the perceptions of teaching competency in multicultural classrooms held by 347 teachers at 22 kindergartens in Hong Kong. The study aims at (a) using Confirmatory Factor Analysis to validate the factor structure of the multicultural meaching competency scale (MTCS) among preschool teachers, (b) assessing the model difference of MTCS between teachers with and without multicultural training, and (c) informing the practice of multicultural teaching in early childhood education. The results indicated that a tripartite model in which the MTCS assessed skills, knowledge, and relationships obtained a statistical fit to a Hong Kong preschool sample, as in earlier research on a primary school sample in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.]

Smartphones could be the fastest spreading technology in human history. These mobile devices change the way we communicate and enable mobile and ubiquitous learning at a different level. This study evaluated the use of mobile instant messaging tools to support teaching and learning in higher education. A total of 61 undergraduate students enrolled at a teacher-training institute in Hong Kong who have smartphones with WhatsApp were assigned into experimental and control groups. Besides the traditional classroom learning for both groups, the experimental group was also supported with bite-sized multimedia materials and teacher-student interaction via WhatsApp outside school hours. The participants of the control group used WhatsApp only for academic communication. Pre-test scores were used as the covariate. The marginal means on the post-test scores showed that the participants in the experimental group performed better than those in the control group. The intervention of WhatsApp improved the learning achievement of the participants. The strength of the intervention between the two groups was medium to large. A questionnaire designed by the author was administered at the end of the study. The participants showed positive perception and acceptance of the use of WhatsApp for teaching and learning. The participants slightly rejected the view that receiving instructional materials and questions outside school hours could interfere with their private lives. The typical usability issues on mobile learning were found to be valid. The experience learnt in this research was discussed.
[Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc.]

近年，香港學生自殺個案不斷，情況引起社會大眾關注。然而，無論我們如何努力地發展生命教育，此危機也是無可避免。為了響應學校需要，香港教育學院宗教教育與心靈教育中心重新規劃相關活動，聯合預防自殺的慈善機構「生命熱線」，引入戲劇活動，共同推行預防學生情緒困擾與自殺先導計劃。本文旨在整理當中的計劃經驗，探討教師教育在相關課題上的挑戰，並分析引入戲劇活動計劃的經驗以及並重要性，讓中港兩地的教育工作者借鏡，共同預防悲劇發生。

The PE practitioners will share their experiences of promoting and developing TGfU in Hong Kong since 1994. Apart from imitating and promoting the model in schools through running workshops, publishing articles, presenting papers in conference and compiling resources books with Chinese version, TGfU has also been incorporated as an important component in the pre- and in-service teacher education programmes for PE teachers. This symposium offers a wide-ranging review of the ten-year developments in the TGfU in Hong Kong. It is hoped to recapitulate possible learnt lessons and generate directions for the learning and teaching of PE in the future.