The Hong Kong Early Child Development Scale (HKECDS) is a tool for assessing holistic early child development in preschoolers aged from three to six years. The original version of the scale, HKECDS, was updated in 2019 (HKECDS-2) to reflect the contemporary context and local curricular expectations. Children (n = 144) from three kindergartens in Hong Kong completed the HKECDS-2 in individual sessions. Rasch model analysis and expert discussions resulted in a short version of the scale (HKECDS-3) with 50 items in nine domains. The domains are Personal and self-care (4 items), Language development (7 items), Pre-academic learning (10 items), Cognitive development (6 items), Gross motor (4 items), Fine motor (2 items), Health and safety (5 items), Moral development (6 items), and Society and environment (6 items). There were significant correlations between findings from the updated version of the tool, HKECDS-3 and the HKECDS-2 (long form), and older children had significantly higher scores than younger children. Copyright © 2022 by THE PACIFIC EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION.

In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes, students learn content knowledge and a second/foreign language (L2) simultaneously. It follows that both content and language are assessed, although research on how to do so remains scarce. This study explores the interplay between cognitive and linguistic demands of CLIL assessments. Having analysed over 4900 questions in Science/Biology textbooks, workbooks and examination papers in Hong Kong, we observed that junior secondary assessments were dominated by low-level cognitive (i.e. recall of knowledge) and linguistic (i.e. no production or word-level production) demands, whereas senior secondary assessments required higher-order thinking skills (i.e. application and analysis of knowledge) expressed in sentences or even texts. Also, based on the analysis of 70 junior secondary students' performance in school examination papers, we noticed a potential hindrance of linguistic demands to students' performance in CLIL assessments. These findings together underscore the integral role of language in CLIL assessments and raise questions about the adequacy of existing pedagogical practices in preparing students to tackle both cognitive and linguistic demands in CLIL assessments, particularly when they proceed to higher grade levels where the demands in both dimensions leap. These have significant implications for CLIL assessment design, pedagogy and teacher education. Copyright ©Routledge.

The purpose of this study is to examine students’ creative thinking skills in STEAM-based activities by using the Makey Makey invention kit in designing the human-centred design instruments (HCDIs). Human-centred design is a process of designing for people (IDEO, 2011). This research aims to investigate the application of students’ creative thinking skills in developing solution to problem in human perspectives in everyday life through designing the human-centred designed instruments with the combination of creative exchange of knowledge and personal experiences between the designers (students) and users in different age group.Data were collected from 264 adolescent females (n = 264) in the age between 11 and 13, who had participated in the STEAM-based activities in a Hong Kong local secondary school. The STEAM project was provided through the school curriculum to examine the students’ level of creative thinking across disciplines in designing the human-centred design instruments (HCDIs) with Makey Makey to match the actual needs of different age groups, including children (aged 3-6), adults and elderly (aged over 65). The research objectives are concerned with the students’ involvement and attitude in participating the STEAM-based activities as well as their application of their creative thinking skills in the real-world context. The students’ experiences of thinking creatively were investigated through the five stages of creative thinking under the framework of “Creative Learning Spiral” by Mitch Resnick (2007) in STEAM-based activities in Hong Kong context.Pre- and post-treatment attitudinal questionnaires, two class observations and four interviews with both teachers and students were conducted to examine the change of students’ attitude towards creative thinking. Data findings revealed that 1) a slight increase in the students’ level of attitude change towards creative thinking through designing the human-centred design instruments (HCDIs) with the invention kit

This research aimed to develop a short form of the Self-assessment Practices Scale (SaPS). Guided by a process model of self-assessment, the SaPS scale was designed to assess the actions students engage in during the self-assessment process. The data used for developing the original 20-item SaPS (SaPS-20), i.e., 1,416 Hong Kong students ranging from Primary 4 to Secondary 3, were reanalyzed, and a 12-item short form (SaPS-SF) was developed. Factor analysis and Rasch analysis were applied in complementary ways to examine the psychometric properties of the SaPS-SF. The results showed that factor structure of the original scale held in the SaPS-SF, and all items fitted the Rasch model requirements sufficiently and measured the constructs as theorized. The findings presented in this study facilitate the measurement of self-assessment practice in a parsimonious and effective way. Copyright © 2020 Yan.

This study aims to report on the psychometric properties of SCALE, a newly developed assessment instrument, that is based on the central curriculum for students with intellectual disabilities, using Rasch Analysis. Results indicated that the SCALE could classify students into at least 13 levels of abilities, and that the range of item difficulty was capable of stratifying students’ abilities into 8 to 11 attainment levels. The Rasch statistics demonstrated that the assessment results using SCALE had a high degree of validity and reliability. Its uni-dimensionality as an instrument to measure the attainment levels of the four Key Learning Areas in the central curriculum was also supported. Results from the Rasch Analysis showed that the SCALE measure is a well-validated instrument in identifying the differential levels of attainment. Based on the SCALE data, teachers can design learning materials and activities to match the performance levels of individual students. In addition, the use of the SCALE attainment descriptors to differentiate students’ attainment levels would enable teachers in schools to document progress of their students within an academic year. Subsequently, this enables them to reflect on their teaching effectiveness and make adjustments for the following year. 本研究旨在報告「融通學習成效量表」(SCALE)的心理測量數據特性。「融通學習成效量表」(SCALE)是為連接特殊學校與主流學校課程而研發出來的一項嶄新的評估工具。研究採用等級量尺模式分析法 (Rasch Analysis)‧結果顯示SCALE能把學生的學習能力表現至少可分13個不同程度;且其項目難度也能將學生能力分為8至11個學習能力表現水平級別。從統計數據顯示出SCALE擁有極高信效度。單一構念向度方面的數據亦顯示出SCALE能辨別出有特殊教育需要的學生於四個主要學習領域的學習能力表現之差異。故此,老師能使用SCALE的評估結果,去設計適合個別學生能力的教材及活動。此外,SCALE中的學生學習能力表現指標,亦能讓老師根據SCALE評估結果所提供的實證來衡量學生於每一學年間的學習進度,從而反思自己的教學效能,並在下一個學年為學生的教學作相應的調整。
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The current paper examined the effects of A Balanced Reading Approach for Children Always Designed to Achieve Best Results for All (ABRA), a web-based literacy programme developed by the the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) at Concordia University, on primary school children in Hong Kong. The participants were 249 Primary 1 students from two low social economic status schools in Hong Kong and the two schools were well-matched on many demographic characteristics. All participating students were pre-tested in the fall and post-tested in the following spring. After adjusting for pretest differences, the treatment school scored significantly higher than the controls on three of the six outcome measures at post-tests: phoneme-grapheme correspondence (ES = +0.22, p < 0.05), phoneme segmentation (ES = +0.46, p < 0.00), and nonsense word fluency (ES = +0.22, p < 0.06). Both treatment and control students scored similarly on word reading, listening comprehension, and initial sound fluency. The outcomes of the study provides some promising evidence of the effects of ABRA on Chinese primary students in Hong Kong, especially on the enhancement of phonological skills, thus leading to early success in the formative years of learning English as a Second Language (ESL). Practical implications are discussed.
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The purposes of this study were to examine the Hong Kong 5th and 6th graders' performance on the number sense three-tier test, the differences between 5th and 6th graders, and possible misconceptions. The number sense three-tier test included a content-tier which assesses content knowledge of number sense; a reason-tier, which assesses a reason selected for the first-tier response; and the confidence-tier, which assesses how confident the students are in their answers to the first two-tiers. A total of 125 fifth graders and 942 sixth graders from Hong Kong joined the test. A quantitative method was used to analyze the data and the data was collected through the on-line test. Data showed that the correct percentage (confidence index) on the first two-tiers (content-tier and reason-tier) for fifth and sixth graders are 56.6% (4.49) and 54.0% (4.27), respectively. The fifth and sixth graders all performed the best on “Being able to recognize the number size” and the worst on “Being able to judge the reasonableness of a computational result”. Results showed that part of students performed poor on number sense but with extreme high confidence indicating that they have significant misconceptions and some students may lack number sense. The finding of this study also confirmed that a number sense three-tier test can be used to mitigate the weakness of a two-tier test. Educational implications of the findings will be discussed.

Background: Since 2005, professionals in nine special schools collectively had developed an assessment tool called SCALES for all students regardless they are in special or mainstream schools in Hong Kong. Based on the concept of “one common curriculum for all”, SCALES is classified into the four Key Learning Area (KLA) strands of learning as in the mainstream curriculum framework, namely, Chinese, Science, Personal, Social and Humanities Education (PSHE) and Mathematics. This means that for the first time all of the students are being measured by exactly the same criteria irrespective of the ability or disability. Aims: In this study, we aim to apply Rasch measurement approach to analyzing a this innovative evaluation tool for children with special needs due to intellectual disabilities. Since Rasch measurement can convert ordinal measures into interval measures, the latter of which is fundamental for objective measurement in human sciences (Bond and Fox 2007). Methods: By using Winsteps, statistics such as infit and outfit mean square, person separation index, reliability, and dimensionality of the measurement scales are supported empirically. Results: The uni-dimensionality of the four major subject areas is supported with good psychometric properties such as high reliability and person separations that help differentiation of subjects. Selective applications of some items of these scales could be used by practitioners for quick screening and better intervention for care of children with special leaning needs. Conclusion: The scales are supported with both subject experts’ observation and quantitative evidence from sophisticated psychometric tests. Successful establishment of the instrument by subject experts is evident and quality-assured administration of the Rasch-based items in the future is recommended as the SCALES has proved to be a valid and reliable assessment measure for diverse learners.

This paper examines to what extent and how the data and results of PISA have been used for various education stakeholders and to what extent PISA affect educational policy and practices in Hong Kong. From the point of view of the government, PISA has played an important role in supporting and legitimising government educational reform since 2000. It has supported curricula frameworks and to some extent development and reform from the philosophical and educational viewpoints. However, the mass media and general public seldom went beyond ranking to look at other variables that might inform policy with the exception of some researchers and curriculum developers. Nonetheless, considerable effort has been expended by key researchers in Hong Kong in disseminating information about PISA prior to and after the administration of each assessment and in sharing the Hong Kong results, through such means as press conferences, seminars, international conferences, research and professional development. Experience from the case of Hong Kong suggested that, by keeping international assessment low stake but making good use of it to inform different stakeholders and initiating teacher professional development could be a cost-effective tool to drive educational reform. However, there is a tendency of overuse or abuse of international assessments by making international assessment high stakes, which might create unnecessary pressure for participating schools, teachers and students.