This study examines 'Faux Comprehension' and 'Pseudo-Understanding' among middle leaders and teachers in curriculum development, where apparent agreement masks deeper misalignments. Through a comparative case study and theoretical lens of action-driven sensemaking, the study analyzes four Hong Kong schools using questionnaires, interviews, and observations. Findings reveal: Faux Comprehension, where teachers superficially comply with leaders' directives, and Pseudo-Understanding, where misaligned goals are concealed by overconfidence. Both reflect overbearing leadership and cognitive biases. The study enriches sensemaking literature by incorporating compliance and cognitive bias perspectives, while recommending clearer guidelines and communication strategies to align educational practices with reform goals and enhance engagement. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). 

Hong Kong’s self-financed taught postgraduate (TPg) programmes have experienced significant growth, primarily driven by mainland Chinese students. The marketisation orientation of these programmes may gradually change these students’ self-identification of seeing themselves as ‘customers’ or ‘students’. This study aims to explore how mainland Chinese students perceive their identities based on their learning experiences in these self-financed TPg programmes. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study collected 303 responses, and 17 of them joined the follow-up semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that mainland Chinese students are generally satisfied with the self-financed TPg programmes in Hong Kong for their cost-effectiveness compared to similar degrees from Western universities and for receiving internationally competitive higher degrees. In their studies, most mainland students view themselves primarily as students pursuing qualifications for career development, but some have transitioned to seeing themselves as customers due to unsatisfactory experiences and influences from teachers and peers. The study aims to contribute to understanding mainland Chinese students’ learning experiences when studying abroad and provide practical insights for self-financed TPg programme providers in Hong Kong to enhance the programme quality. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s).

Contributions: This study examined the effectiveness of making activities in fostering the competency development of school-age children engaged in a making program. The findings suggest that community-based makerspaces can provide autonomous and informal learning experiences, facilitating their competence development. When integrated with formal learning in schools, these experiences can facilitate a well-rounded education that nurtures 21st century skills in the younger generation. Background: The making program, hosted by community youth centers in Hong Kong, comprised a series of five workshops. These workshops provided guidance throughout the creative processes, encouraging participants to invent artefacts under the theme of “smart design for living.” Research Questions: What generic skills and other attributes can school-age children develop through making activities? What factors influence their development of generic skills and other attributes? What disparities emerged between their community-based and school-based making experiences? Methodology: The study utilized a mixed-method approach, encompassing of a pre- and post-test questionnaire survey involving school-age children who took part in the making workshops ([Formula Omitted] 232), as well as semi-structured interviews with a subset of the participants ([Formula Omitted] 25). Findings: Survey results revealed significant enhancements in participants’ information technology skills, communication skills and divergent thinking, along with a favorable acceptance of the making tools. Pertinent topics related to competency development, including age-related effects, computer accessibility, and mobile device ownership, were examined and discussed within the context of the study. Copyright ©2024 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE).

This chapter argues for a school curriculum in Hong Kong that prioritizes student well-being over academic success. It explores the challenges that have hindered curriculum reform in Hong Kong, including the exam-oriented culture, high-stakes assessment, and competitive educational environment. Despite the commitment to whole-person development, young students often feel overwhelmed and lack internal motivation to learn. To address these issues, the chapter proposes an approach based on self-determination theory (SDT) that prioritizes the basic psychological needs satisfaction of students for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. By encouraging students to take ownership of learning and internalize their motivation, a more person-oriented curriculum can be developed that promotes student well-being and supports social justice values. The chapter concludes by providing examples of SDT-based curricula and showcasing the planning and outcomes associated with their implementation. By embracing an SDT philosophy, Hong Kong can adopt change and offer students a more engaging, fulfilling, and holistic educational experience. Copyright © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

This study aims to develop and validate a comprehensive scale for assessing students’ sustainability competence in education for sustainable development (ESD). Existing ESD assessment tools have faced criticism for lacking rigorous design and validation. Following a three-phase procedure proposed by Boateng et al., the study utilized qualitative and quantitative methods to develop and validate the scale. The scale was administered to 708 students participating in an extracurricular eTournament on Sustainable Development Goals organized by a Hong Kong university. The validation process involved expert panels, cognitive interviews, factor analyses, and assessments of internal consistency. Using Wiek et al.'s five-competence framework, 16 ESD learning outcomes were generated, forming the basis for the scale items. The survey included a mini-scenario introduction to enable students’ evaluation of sustainability practices, even with limited experience. Data analysis revealed a four-factor structure that could be both distinguished and integrated under a single upper-level factor. The scale is developed with the aim to better measuring tertiary students’ sustainability competence via a holistic and integrated approach, which completes the constructive alignment of current ESD, particularly in extracurricular settings. Copyright ©2024 Taylor & Francis.

In the global world, globalization influences education worldwide; therefore, the dynamics between local and global, termed “glocalization,” is crucial to curriculum guidelines that officially represent an ideal education. The latest Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) curriculum was announced during the 2012–2017 period in China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Following Bereday’s four-step comparison method, this article systematically compares four guidelines and, referring to their socio-historical backgrounds, examines how global trends, Chinese culture, and local context interactively influence their ECEC guidelines. Within the Chinese context, this study coins a new concept of “glo-re-calization “ based on glocalization and regionalization by which we examine how global trends, regional culture, and local forces co-contribute to the sameness and differences in four curriculum guidelines. Based on the four guidelines analysis, we propose the Glorecal Power Model with four patterns. A “logloblization” is a model that overwhelmingly weighs a local force, seen as a regional force, as in the case of China pursuing loglobalization towards regionalization. A “GloRecalization” model weighs global and regional forces much more than the local ones, as in the case of Hong Kong, which is rushing towards globalization and regionalization. A “gloreCalization” model considers mainly local force, as in the case of Macau, which calls for localization. A “Glorecalization” model takes place where global trends are the most significant feature among the three powers as in the case of Taiwan walking on global trends. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

In the past, visual arts education in Hong Kong was not considered an important area of early childhood education. While the Hong Kong kindergarten curriculum has recently been updated to encourage creativity, there remains a lack of adequate visual arts education for young children. This deficiency stems from the fact that the visual arts receive minimal attention within Hong Kong teacher education programs. Little research has been conducted on how visual arts education is actually delivered in local kindergarten classrooms in Hong Kong and what kinds of artistic knowledge and skills kindergarten teachers need. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate kindergarten teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in early visual arts education (EVAE) and to identify the challenges they faced in teaching visual arts to children. The study surveyed 342 in-service kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong and conducted individual interviews with 12 participants. The findings revealed that Hong Kong kindergarten teachers generally performed well in terms of their pedagogical content knowledge, but they lacked content knowledge in various forms of early visual arts (EVA) and faced challenges in teaching visual arts effectively. This study has the potential to change how early childhood visual arts teaching is conceptualized and taught in Hong Kong and other Asian regions. Copyright ©2025 Springer.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, attending after-school activities now becomes a luxury to students, which used to establish interests, friendships and social networks in an informal setting. Students lost contact with peers and teachers and were forced to attend blended courses at home, which may constitute threats to their non-academic issues, especially social needs and mental health of the most vulnerable students. This article overviews a new interpretation of extracurricular activities (ECAs) to teach artificial intelligence (AI) via a social networking site (SNS) among junior secondary school students in Hong Kong. A three-stage action research with the use of semi-structured interviews, motivational surveys and lesson observation was conducted. Based on how students perceived such pedagogical changes, the teachers employed various strategies to transform the “after-school” activities online. The investigation presented the planning processes on how to transform the informal learning activities to an online mode via SNSs that can reach the roles of ECAs in schooling. Our study indicated that meaningful activities rely on teachers’ leading role to build a collaborative social media environment in order to facilitate social engagement among students. Copyright © 2021 Redfame Publishing Inc.

This study explored the effect of a social emotional learning programme- the ECE-Peace Ambassador Project (ECE-PAP) − on children's (i) emotional intelligence, (ii) prosocial behaviour, (iii) aggressive behaviour with peers, (iv) and peer exclusion. Employing a quasi-experimental design, ECE-PAP was implemented in 16 schools in Hong Kong. In each school, teachers in one K3 class (4- to 5-year-olds) implemented the programme and a second K3 class served as a control (N=302). Multiple reporters (children, parents, and teachers) provided assessments of children's emotional competence, social behaviour, aggressive behaviour, and responses to peer aggression the week before the programme, the week after, and three months later. Preliminary analyses showed that at pretest, children in the experimental condition showed lower emotional intelligence and less competent responses to peer aggression than controls. However, these differences disappeared by posttest and remained non-significant at follow-up. Children in the experimental condition showed increases from pre- to posttest in emotional intelligence, emotion labelling, and taking action to stop bullying, and decreases in avoidance and aggressive responses. Implementing the programme over a greater number of weeks was associated with more positive child outcomes. These results suggest that ECE-PAP may be an effective, cost-effective way to address aggressive behaviour in kindergarten classrooms by promoting children's emotional intelligence and social skills. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.