E-portfolios have been adopted by higher education institutions as assessment for learning tools to develop students' reflective thinking and their ownership of learning. This paper examines how e-portfolios are integrated in an undergraduate course at a Hong Kong university to develop students' reflective thinking. Based on the qualitative data collected and analysed from both the teacher and students in the course, this paper first discusses the different levels of reflective thinking that the students developed as they were working on their e-portfolios. It then identifies the factors that facilitate and hinder students' development of reflective thinking, how the facilitating factors are enabled and what the hindering factors need to be addressed. These key findings highlight the pivotal role of the teacher as a learning facilitator and guide, the scaffolding role of the toolkit to support both teachers and students, and the necessity of the technical capacity building and support in the implementation of e-portfolios in higher education. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature.

This study aims to explore whether university co-curricular courses with embedded service-learning have an effect on students' interpersonal capability development, and how course quality relates to student outcomes. It used a mixed-methods approach comprising surveys and interviews. The survey data show that students' self-perceived relationship management skills improved in all cocurricular courses. Students' perception of their own awareness of others' experiences and feelings, however, was found to have worsened. Course quality was found to be a predictor of both aspects of interpersonal development, suggesting that closer alignment of courses with the recommended quality standards will make them more effective in promoting students' interpersonal capabilities. The qualitative data echo the quantitative findings and reveal that course characteristics, such as meaningful experience, diversity, student voice, and group work, are significant for developing students' interpersonal capabilities.本文旨在探討大學課程中設有服務學習的聯課課程能否促進學生的人際溝通能力，以及課程質素如何影響學習成果。本研究採用混合研究方法，即問卷調查和訪談。調研結果顯示學生自感在人際關係管理能力有所提升，但在察覺他人經驗和感受的能力下降。研究並顯示課程質素能夠預測以上兩項能力的發展，即課程愈能緊扣其質素標準要求，則效能愈高。質性研究也有相同的結果，展示課程的特徵如：有意義的經驗、多元化的體驗、學生的聲音、團隊工作，都是發展有關能力的要素。 Copyright © 2018 HKFYG.

The role of emotions in student engagement has been examined in many studies. However, little is known about how emotional intelligence (EI) is related to engagement and other key learning outcomes in higher education. To fill this gap, this study examined how EI is associated with student engagement and how EI and engagement jointly predict key learning outcomes in higher education, including the students’ GPA, generic outcomes, and satisfaction with the university experience. The study adopted a prospective longitudinal design involving 560 first-year students from 10 faculties of a university in Hong Kong. The data were collected at two-time points, namely before the start and after the end of the students’ first year in the university. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the measurement and hypothesized models. Results indicated that EI positively predicted all dimensions of student engagement and promoted key learning outcomes (including GPA, generic learning outcomes, and students’ satisfaction with the university) via the different dimensions of student engagement. The model also explained 16%, 44%, and 38% of the students’ GPA, generic learning outcomes, and satisfaction with their university experience, respectively. This study provides empirical evidence on the positive effect of EI on the students’ optimal functioning in the higher education context. Implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2020 Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisboa and Springer Nature B.V.

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.

This study explores two novice nontraditional teacher educators' identity (re)construction in different universities in Hong Kong. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews, field observation, and informal communication, the findings demonstrate how the two novice teacher educators, without formal school teaching experience, underwent different identity change trajectories (i.e., from identity conflicts to identity deficits and vice versa), influenced by their personal beliefs and aspirations as well as contextual demands in higher education. The findings provide insights into the under-researched area of nontraditional teacher educators' professional development and offer useful implications on how to prepare and develop effective and committed teacher educators in Hong Kong and similar educational contexts where teacher education is mainly housed in higher education institutions. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Since the 19th century, Chinese societies, as latecomers to modernization, have prioritized Western learning. Modelled on European and North American experiences, modern universities were created to serve this purpose. Having little linkage to their indigenous cultural traditions, they operate in Confucian socio-cultural contexts, with constant and longstanding struggles with their cultural identity. In recent decades, these societies have progressed remarkably well in higher education. Their experience could be seen as a cultural experiment that is placed highly on their sustainable development agendas. The products of their modern education systems especially at the elite level have demonstrated a grasp of both traditional and Western knowledge, with their very best universities well positioned to combine Chinese and Western ideas of a university in everyday operation. Such a bi-cultural condition contrasts sharply to the still largely mono-cultural (Western only) university operating environment in the West. The integration opens further space for their universities to explore an alternative to the Western academic model that has long dominated world higher education. Based on fieldwork at premier universities in Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taipei, this article calls for a reconceptualized view of modern university development in Chinese societies. It argues that the experiment enables their top universities to bring back their cultural traditions to integrate with Western values and contribute to inter-civilizational dialogue.
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This paper reveals the complex diversity that underpins ostensibly similar transnational education programmes (TNE), through a comparison of UK TNE in Malaysia and Hong Kong. It draws on data from two different yet cognate studies on the role of UK universities in delivering higher education in Asia. Some fine-grained and informative differences between the ways in which 'value' in TNE is constructed in different host contexts is revealed. The paper brings to light the 'voices' of TNE students and graduates, which are very seldom heard. The arguments adapt and extend the concepts of education as a positional good, and as cultural capital. For various instrumental, intrinsic and personal reasons the authors discuss in detail, UK TNE is more highly valued in Malaysia than in Hong Kong. The paper makes a wider contribution to knowledge on the changing landscape of international higher education and the impact on social and personal (dis)advantage.
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Despite considerable research in the higher education literature exploring the substantial values of eLearning and collaborative learning as distinct practices, few empirical studies have yet addressed the need for an integrated approach toward implementing eLearning and collaborative learning practices in a professional education development context. This paper documents a successful three-year project case entitled, Corpcommsynergy, which integrates eLearning and collaborative approaches in an e-platform implemented in undergraduate and postgraduate corporate communication courses at a Hong Kong university. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative content analysis methods to investigate how learners perceive this integrated approach and identified significant factors influencing their learning experience. Results suggested high feasibility and effectiveness of designing and implementing Corpcommsynergy and identified two significant factors: (1) design and facilitation of online courses; and (2) perception and participation of students affecting the effectiveness of collaborative eLearning.
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Higher education internationalisation (HEI) emphasises the benefits of international research partnerships, knowledge production through education hub development, and global marketisation/exportation of education. The connections between internationalisation and student life are less documented in East Asian universities, particularly regarding social exclusion issues. This study takes an intersectional approach to explore and analyse students' social exclusion experiences at one international Hong Kong university using an anonymous online survey (n = 100). Thematic analysis revealed social exclusion in multiple student life areas across three major axes: Area of origin, particularly Mainland Chinese students; Sexuality, specifically lesbian, gay and bisexual-identified students, and the intersectionality of nationality, language and ethnicity. The study findings are situated within the sociocultural and political context of Hong Kong HEI since the mid-1990s. Internationalisation presents opportunities for Hong Kong universities to make needed commitments to addressing social exclusion issues, as they continue to affect campus ecologies and the increasingly diverse student population.
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In contrast to a burgeoning research literature on the role of emotions in learning and instruction in Western culture, research on how emotions impact student and teacher development in Asian countries is lacking. The present paper reviews seven publications included in the 2019 Special Issue of The Asia--Pacific Education Researcher examining the role of emotions in Asian learners and in Asian educators. Three studies conducted with Asian students across education levels (primary, secondary, post-secondary) and countries (China, Singapore) explored students' emotions ranging from global constructs (engagement, satisfaction) to discrete experiences (hope, gratitude) in relation to personality, self-regulation, persistence, and contextual variables (perfectionism, self-compassion, resilience, relatedness). Four studies additionally investigated the emotional experiences of pre-service and practicing Asian teachers (China, Hong Kong, Philippines) in relation to varied motivational variables (self-efficacy, self-theories, passion, psychological capital), social-environmental factors (cooperative interactions, practicum evaluations), as well as psychological and physical health (coping styles, burnout, sleep quality). Study findings and protocols are discussed with respect to specific directions for future research on academic emotions in an Asian educational context.
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