Long COVID, where symptoms persist after recovering from COVID-19, can affect cognitive functions like language. However, little is known about its impact on children’s language skills, especially across different school levels. This study investigated the impact of long COVID on language proficiency among 1244 children (Asian; 53.5% boys) from kindergartens (N = 408, Mage = 4.42 ± 1.26 years), primary schools (N = 547, Mage = 9.69 ± 1.96 years), and secondary schools (N = 289, Mage = 14.97 ± 1.85 years) in Hong Kong. Language proficiency was assessed using the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q), which measured speaking, listening, reading, and writing in both Chinese and English. Participants were categorized into three groups: long COVID, recovered from COVID-19, and no history of COVID-19. One-way and two-way ANOVAs were used to analyze the differences in language proficiency across these groups and school levels. Children with long COVID symptoms exhibited significantly lower overall language proficiency, particularly in speaking and listening, compared to those in the recovered and no-COVID groups. The effect was more pronounced among primary and secondary students, with secondary school students showing the most substantial deficits. No significant differences were found between the recovered and no-COVID groups. The results suggest that long COVID might have detrimental effects on children’s linguistic proficiency. The language development of older students who suffered from long COVID could benefit from receiving targeted educational and therapeutic interventions. Copyright © 2025 by the authors.

This qualitative study investigates how two dance teachers (one in Toronto and the other in Hong Kong) shifted issues of pedagogy and autonomy in virtual dance classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reveals that participants quickly adapt to new environments and utilize available technologies in both teaching and learning. The study shares insights and practical strategies for dance educators to adapt and apply in regular dance classes even after the pandemic. In addition to teachers' perspectives on virtual teaching, selected student works highlight how the shift of autonomy fosters creativity and boosts confidence. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

This study reports on a collaborative research project initiated in 2022 by the authors based in Hong Kong and the Philippines. The overarching goal is to review and assess the impact that the prolonged use of technology for teaching has had on K-12 teachers. Through a narrative inquiry, the study seeks to encapsulate teachers' online teaching experiences: its efficacy, challenges, impacts on teaching, and other relevant issues. These narratives are compared against the backdrop of access to technology in Hong Kong and in the Philippines, as there are immense differences in IT infrastructure. It was found that technological advancement and preparedness did not guarantee smooth delivery of online teaching. In contrast, teachers' own personal circumstances, workload, stress, and mental wellbeing tend to have a much greater impact on themselves and their work. Copyright ©2024 IGI Global.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous schools halted face-to-face teaching and instead resorted to online classes. The impact of online learning on students’ academic worries, social relationships, and psychological well-being has received growing attention. Based on a sample of 1095 students aged 14–16 in 12 secondary schools in Hong Kong, structural equation modeling was used to investigate the association between online learning problems, academic worries and performance, social interaction, and psychosocial well-being during the pandemic. The path relationships among variables were compared by gender groups and socio-economic status (SES). Online learning problems were found to be negatively associated with psychosocial well-being through academic worries and social interaction as mediators. The effect of mediation among female students was larger than that of males, whereas the impact of academic worries on both psychosocial well-being and social interaction was stronger and significant only in the low SES group. As the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the learning and well-being of students, attention should be given to gender and SES difference among students. Copyright ©2024 Springer Netherlands.

It is well established that COVID-19 pandemic is associated with arousal of feelings of hopelessness and negativity in adolescents regarding future career development outcomes. However, the current literature has yet to clarify the roles teacher social support play in facilitating students' positive career development during the pandemic. This study investigated the effects of career-related teacher support (CRTS) on ameliorating students' feelings of hopelessness and increasing their career self-efficacy among 402 senior secondary students (Grades 10-12) in Hong Kong, China. Results from mediated moderation analyses showed that academic ability was only weakly related to career self-efficacy. Hopelessness was not a significant moderator concerning the link between academic ability and career self-efficacy when CRTS functioned as the mediator. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in strict social distancing and lockdown measures to contain the spread of the disease. These measures significantly impacted experiential pedagogies, including service-learning. Many teachers pivoted to e-service-learning. While past literature suggests that e-service-learning is as, or even more effective than, traditional service-learning, there are few large-scale comparative studies that support this claim. Purpose: Our study fills the research gap via a large-scale study into student e-service-learning experiences and outcomes during COVID-19. Methodology/Approach: The study examines learning outcomes of students taking e-service-learning subjects during the early stage of the pandemic, i.e., the 2020/21 academic year, in a Hong Kong university, and compares their learning experiences and gains with a similar group of students who studied the same subjects from 2014/15 to 2018/19. Findings/Conclusions: Results indicate that while e-service-learning is effective in enhancing students’ cognitive and civic learning, it is less effective than traditional service-learning in facilitating civic learning outcomes. Implications: Investigating students’ learning experiences suggests that the quality of reflection and interaction with the community, which are critical learning experience components, may have been impacted by online communication. These factors may have played a key role in influencing the effectiveness of e-service-learning compared to traditional service-learning. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications.

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.

Aim/Purpose: This article aims at the critical present: to serve a constructive purpose in the current COVID-19 crisis by presenting practice driven pedagogical strategies for online learning and teaching. It acknowledges the multitude of challenges faced by educators through the delivery of online instructional strategies for schools.Background: The development of information technology enables online learning and blended learning to be increasingly popular in extending students’ learning opportunities. Technology-enabled learning approaches make students’ learning more flexible and personalized. In Hong Kong, one of the first few cities where the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak was first reported, school classes have been suspended since the end of Lunar New Year on February 3, 2020.Methodology: This research used a qualitative method of multiple case analysis to explore how three educators from primary, secondary, and tertiary institutes employed various strategies to offer learning and teaching as usual. Naturalistic inquiry was used to observe, describe, and interpret the “lived experiences” of the three educators and the perceptions of stakeholders.Contribution: Since early February 2020, school classes have been suspended amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, one of the first cities where the coronavirus outbreak was first reported. This timely article overviews effective practices with the use of online learning technologies to support academia from around the world to achieve teaching and learning in an online environment.Findings: Results indicate that meaningful cognitive activities rely on teachers’ leading role to build a blended approach that combines the advantages of asynchronous and synchronous methods in order to facilitate social interaction among students. Furthermore, our research has revealed that educators are likely to perceive three non-teaching challenges on a rapid blended transition of the learning – digital divide, data privacy, and professional

Purpose This research studies the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operation management of Hong Kong academic libraries for understanding the difficulties and challenges for librarians to adapt to the special arrangements during the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with librarians in major universities and higher education institutions of Hong Kong. Participants were interviewed either in the face-to-face format or text-based format. Findings Participants provided a broad scope about the actual library management and operation changes during the COVID-19. According to the respondents, the most challenging problem for librarians during COVID-19 was to strike a balance between concerns of library staff and users. While they described how these arrangements and changes affected the service quality of academic libraries from different perspectives, the pandemic situation also brought some opportunities, such as pushing the digitalization of all collections and using online resources for future development. A hybrid model for library service would be more common in the future with more demands toward online resources and digital collection, in which academic libraries should be prepared after the pandemic. Originality/value This paper provided broad insights into library management and the future development of academic libraries for the post-COVID-19 period. There are scant studies of this topic, especially in an Asian metropolis context with dense population, small campus and limited library physical spaces. © 2023 Emerald Publishing Limited.

Background The existing literature has predominantly focused on instructor social presence in videos in an asynchronous learning environment and little is known about student social presence on webcam in online learning in the context of COVID‐19. Objectives This paper therefore contrasts students' and teachers' perspectives on student social presence on webcam in synchronous online teaching through co‐orientation analysis. Methods Data were collected through an online questionnaire with 14 statements that measured participants' perceptions of webcam use in three constructs in social presence (i.e., emotional expression, open communication, and cohesion). 154 students and 36 teachers from two higher education institutions in Hong Kong responded to the questionnaire, and their responses were analysed using the co‐orientation model. Results and conclusion Results reveal the perceptual gaps between teachers and students on the use of webcam to promote student social presence by showing how teachers were comparatively more positive about its impacts for learning and consistently overestimated students' preference for it. Through analysing individual constructs/items, this paper argues that using webcams in synchronous online learning could enhance student social presence only to a limited extent in that it may help improve emotional expression and open communication but not cohesion. Implications The paper advises against the adoption of a clear‐cut policy that webcams should be either recommended or not recommended for online learning. Instead, teachers should take into account students' perspective to find out the types of activities that are apt for using webcams in online learning, and reflective tasks and oral assessments were amongst the ones considered appropriate by students in the study. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.