Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study aims to examine the relationship between the personal, communal, environmental, and transcendental domains of spiritual well-being of university students in Hong Kong and their academic performance measured by Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). The study is guided by two research questions. Research Question One: What are the relationships between university students’ spiritual well-being and their academic performance as measured by CGPA?Research Question Two: If there are any relationships between university students’ spiritual well-being and their academic performance, how are the background demographic variables, including major discipline, family socio-economic status and religious beliefs related to spiritual well-being and academic performance?The quantitative part of the study consists of a survey that collects data from a random sample of 1,130 Year 2 and Year 3 students from three universities in Hong Kong. The questionnaire used is adapted from the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) developed by John Fisher. The quantitative findings indicate a moderate positive relationship between the spiritual well-being of the respondents and their academic performance; the results also demonstrate that students’ academic performance corresponds with their levels of spiritual well-being. The qualitative part of the study is comprised of 11 focus group discussions. The findings of this support the quantitative findings and contribute to the exploration of the background variables that mediate the abovementioned positive relationship. The study also involves data triangulation.The findings suggest that the resulting positive relationship can be explained by three demographic features, namely, family social-economic status, major disciplines, and religious beliefs. Thus, these demographic features are used to delineate and analyze the positive relationship and the various patterns of the relationship

自 2000 年課程改革以來，教育局提倡幫助學生達至全人發展的目標和發展終身學習的能力，以「全方位學習」的概念，鼓勵把學習空間從課室拓展到其他環境，推展一系列的「體驗式學習」，「其他學習經歷」便是以此理念推行的一個高中課程組成部份，約佔總課時百分之十至十五。體驗式學習並不是新猷，是世界各地教育的主要教學模式之一。有別於正規課堂學習，體驗式學習着重利用多樣化的環境和社區資源，配合時、地、人各方面所組成的學習情境，達至一個「體驗式學習循環」，需包括具體體驗(Concrete experience)、觀察及反省(Observation & reflection)、總結體驗(Forming abstract concepts)及實踐應用(Testing in new situations)。由於體驗式學習需要不同的資源投入，校本情況不一。為使每一位學生尤其是基層學生得到公平的學習機會，「大教育平台」積極為中學提供體驗式學習活動並有意檢討體驗式學習在香港推行的成效。香港政策研究所教育政策研究中心得到大教育平台資助，於 2017 年 7 月至 2018年 9 月期間，邀請全港五間中學作一年的追蹤研究，研究分別以問卷調查及學生訪談形式進行。問卷調查利用教育局的情意及社交表現評估套件(第二版)，加上企業精神、STEM 技能、人文價值的 APASO+問卷，及活動檢討問卷，分別於 2016/17 學年末及2017/18 學年初收集，共收到 414 個有效回應，了解學生在情意及社交表現的變化。學生訪談以小組及個人形式進行，深入探討學生對「體驗式學習」的感受及意見。Since the curriculum reform in 2000, the Education Bureau has been advocating to help student achieve whole-person development and lifelong learning. The concept of Life-wide learning encourages the extension of learning from the classroom to social environment through a series of experiential learning, Other Learning Experience (OLE) in the senior secondary curriculum, which accounts for 10-15% of total class hours, is one of the examples. Experiential learning is not a recent term, but one of the major teaching models in the world. Apart from formal learning in the classroom, experiential learning emphasizes using diversified environment and community resources to reach an experiential learning circle, including concrete experience, observation and reflection, concluding abstract concept and practical application. As experiential learning requires different resources input and school-based situations are varied, Big Education Platform, which actively provides experiential learning for secondary schools in Hong Kong, has the aim to review the effectiveness of these activities, on the participating students. Hong Kong Policy Research Institute was funded by Big Education Platform to conduct an impact study in five secondary schools, including a questionnaires survey and student focus group discussion

Drawing on two surveys conducted before and after the 2014 Umbrella Movement, this paper discusses the dynamics of how Hong Kong (HK) university students constructed their own ideals of citizenship. The former survey reveals that HK university students’ ideas about citizenship were mainly associated with their visceral sense of HK belonging. They aspired to social movements as a site for learning and exercising citizenship. However, the findings of the later survey show that students’ sense of HK pride, identity, attachment, and interest in voting were in decline. Such changes were partially due to their feeling of political exclusion and disappointment, and partially due to their unpreparedness to make informed decisions or judgement in the contested political sphere. I argue that students’ experiences mirrored unresolved problems in HK politics and citizenship education, and have implications for the civic role of HK higher education alongside the global wave of youth activism. Copyirght © 2019 British Association for International and Comparative Education.

Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with ethnically Chinese adolescents enrolled into a school-based mentoring programme at a private secondary school in Hong Kong. Interview data were analysed thematically and two themes developed: 'experiencing mentoring' and 'experiencing the mentor'. The mentees, although initially sceptical about mentoring, were surprised by its helpfulness. Through the development of an informal and collaborative relationship in which students experienced their mentor as a trustworthy, mature and objective adult, students found an important source of emotional support and practical help which benefited their academic work. Students' experience was influenced by their mentors' role in the school, length of service and gender match. School-based mentoring programmes in a Hong Kong context have the potential to offer emotional and academic support to students. Cultural factors may have an impact on the experience of mentoring which schools should take into account when setting up such programmes.
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The success of East Asian school education in general, and in mathematics education in particular, has been an ongoing subject of research over the last few decades in the “West”, suggesting that no conclusive factor(s) underlying performance appears to have been identified yet. The phenomenon of the “paradox of the Chinese learner” remains, while OECD data indicates an absence of correlation between affective factors and performance. This paper reports on a research study that has been designed to explore the possible involvement — and significance — in student learning of the conative domain, since most if not all prior studies had focused only on the cognitive and affective domains. To this end, a validated questionnaire was administered to 1,505 students from primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. The “What I Find Important (in My Mathematics Learning)” questionnaire collects data regarding student valuing in three ways: a 5-point Likert scale (64 items), semantic differential items (10 items), and an open-ended, scenario-stimulated response section (4 items). Principal component analysis and content analysis of collected questionnaire data suggest that Hong Kong students highly valued 11 attributes, namely word-problem skills, activities, practice, exploration, ICT, connections, process, feedback, explanation, control, and certainty. These values are interpreted from a sociocultural lens, with some of these associated with Confucian Heritage Culture values, but at the same time having interacted with cognitive and affective factors potentially to optimize student performance. Copyright © 2018 HKERA International Conference.

This study focuses on the perceptions of learning EAP of first-year undergraduates with high ESL proficiency admitted to an English-medium university in Hong Kong. Two in-depth individual interviews were conducted with nine participants and their written assignments were analysed. The data reveal several challenges facing the high achievers in learning EAP. One evident aspect is how to properly cite academic sources. The participants struggled with selecting suitable texts from sources, paraphrasing them, and using them to support their arguments. They also perceived a need to abandon the recited formulaic expressions which may have helped them score highly in the secondary school examination. This study reveals gaps between the English learnt in secondary school and EAP and offers insight into what first-year students need when they transition from secondary school to university studies. It argues that EAP should be made an essential component of first-year undergraduate programmes. Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.

This study investigates the relationship between students’ attitudes towards formative assessment and summative assessment and aims to enrich the understanding of formative and summative assessment from the students’ perspective. A total of 3,019 Hong Kong primary school students responded to a newly developed instrument. Overall, students reported positive instrumental yet negative affective attitudes towards formative and summative assessment. Girls had less negative affective attitudes towards formative assessment, but more positive instrumental attitudes towards formative and summative assessment than boys. Grade 4 students consistently scored higher than Grade 5 and Grade 6 students in assessment attitudes. The gender and grade differences were statistically significant, but had small effect size. Moreover, it was found that students’ affective and instrumental attitudes to formative assessment positively predicted students’ affective and instrumental attitudes to summative assessment. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This longitudinal study examined the association between Chinese children's coping strategies and depressive symptoms within the context of the transition from preschool to primary school in Hong Kong. Research Findings: Principal component analyses of children's strategies for coping with stress during the transition to school revealed three factors: negative coping, positive coping, and distraction. Children's strategies were moderately stable over time, but the relationship between coping and depressive symptoms differed for boys and girls. Girls' positive coping strategies at Time 1 predicted fewer depressive symptoms at Time 2, whereas girls' use of distraction positively predicted later depressive symptoms. Boys' depressive symptoms at Time 1 predicted negative coping strategies at Time 2. The present findings show that distraction may not always be an effective way to help young children reduce depressive symptoms, and that coping strategies may have a greater impact on reducing later depression risk for girls than for boys. Practice or Policy: Implications for future studies and practices are discussed at the end of this paper. This study provides information for educators and government and non-government organizations in developing programs to help children with effective coping strategies during their first year at school. Copyright © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

本行動研究是探索「合作學習」對提升「小學加強輔導教學計劃」(簡稱「加輔」)學生數學學習能力的成效。研究對象是13位小學六年級「加輔」學生。研究為期約七個月時間。透過學科測驗、觀察及訪問，評估「合作學習」對學生的學習成績及興趣的影響。研究結果發現「合作學習」提升了「加輔」學生學習數學的興趣及學業成績。其中，最大的受益人是那些成績一般的學生，因為他們在合作學習中的小組活動，需反覆研習及解釋一些計算方式給同組組員認識，所以他們的記憶得以牢固。而一些成績很低的學生，卻未有改善。此外，本研究更發現學生的合作技巧與他們的數學科成績有直接的關係。
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