Learning Study has been implemented for teacher professional development in Hong Kong since 2000. Guided by variation theory, Learning Study has three unique features. First, it focuses on student learning of the object of learning in planning, teaching and reviewing lessons. Second, variation is used as a pedagogical tool for lesson design in the hope of enabling students to discern the critical features. Thirdly, teachers collaborate together throughout the process of planning, teaching and reviewing lessons (Lo, et al., 2005). However, sustaining Learning Study may be inhibited by many challenges, including teachers’ pressures from the examination-oriented system, heavy workloads, pressures from parents and lack of support and trust among staff (Zhang, 2015). How to sustain Learning Study in schools is yet to be explored. This presentation reports a study investigating the Learning Study practices in two Hong Kong schools (a primary school and a secondary school), which have adopted Learning Study for teacher professional development for over 10 years. The study utilized qualitative research methods including interviews with school leaders and teachers (2 leaders and 4 teachers from each school) and observation of Learning Study activities to identify the forces facilitating and inhibiting Learning Study in the schools.
Content analysis (Northcutt & McCoy, 2004) of the data from interviews and observations was conducted and the data were coded with the theoretical framework in Markee (1997), which categorizes the contextual factors facilitating and inhibiting the sustainability of Learning Study into four aspects: features of Learning Study, macro-context (e.g., socio-economic development, education reform, teacher education), school leadership practices (e.g., understanding and developing staff in the school; designing organization and cultivating a learning culture; managing internal and external resources) and teacher characteristics (e.g., personality, motivation

This paper aims to discuss an exploratory study that a student teacher carried out on applying the “flipped classroom” approach in his information and communication technology (ICT) class. The study examined student perceptions of the new teaching approach and investigated whether it can help promote higher-order thinking. This study involved 28 students in a public secondary school in Hong Kong. They were attending an ICT class on 3D modelling. A mixed methods approach was adopted. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through surveys, online quizzes and focus group interview. The students’ assignments were also examined and analysed. The findings show that students are inclined to accept the new teaching model. We can conclude that it is possible to improve students’ higher-order thinking capability using the flipped classroom approach to teaching.
[Copyright © 2017 The Author(s).]

The paper reports a quasi-experimental study comparing the "traditional flipped classroom" pedagogical design with the "productive failure" (Kapur, 2016) pedagogical design in the flipped classroom for a 2-week curricular unit on polynomials in a Hong Kong Secondary school. Different from the flipped classroom where students are provided video clips with new concepts and associated procedures to review at home before solving problems in class, the "productive failure" pedagogical design in the flipped classroom worked the other way around. Supported by mobile technologies, students explored, discussed and solved problems related to the new concepts first in class even though they might come across failures, followed by consolidating the concepts and associated procedures using video clips at home. The pedagogical design is referred to as "productive failure-based flipped classroom" in this study. The study was carried out in two Grade 7 classes: one with "traditional flipped classroom" and one with the "productive failure-based flipped classroom". Findings show that both classes had significant improvement in procedural knowledge. However, regarding conceptual knowledge, students in the "productive failure" condition performed better than those in traditional flipped classroom. This suggests that the "productive failure-based flipped classroom" pedagogical design may be better able to improve students' problem solving skills.
[Copyright © 2017 International Forum of Educational Technology and Society.]

This paper discusses the pedagogical strategies of blended learning to teach Hong Kong school teachers mixed methods research. The authors examine the implications of blending traditional teaching and more updated learning strategies with e-Learning, small group work, peer interaction, and role plays, to increase student comprehension and execution of mixed methods research. The authors utilise a case study to illustrate the blended approach in teaching mixed methods research.

This chapter examines eduplay, an educational form of play with Chinese characteristics, as a means of promoting social competence and play-based counselling in early childhood. Although the policies of the Hong Kong government increasingly require a play-based curriculum, many teachers and parents believe that play will detract from academics. However, the term "eduplay" was first introduced in Rao's article (2009), a form of play-based education with "Chinese characteristics" which captures the beliefs of teachers and parents about what should happen and occurs in Chinese early childhood settings (Rao & Li, 2009). Eduplay is a method of learning by playing, an approach that may be more acceptable to teachers and parents in Hong Kong. Results from an experimental study of preschools are presented, showing that eduplay was successful in reducing two problem behaviours, namely clinging and demanding attention. These results have implications for incorporating meaningful play into a play-based curriculum.
[Copyright © 2016 Taylor and Francis.]

This case study examines how blended learning professional development for teaching staff is driven and implemented in the Faculty of Education and Human Development (FEHD) at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). Professional development at EdUHK was first implemented by equipping teaching staff with the technical knowhow to incorporate blended learning into their teaching practices. This Institute-based attempt resulted in a growing number of teaching staff using blended learning. The technology-driven professional development approach was rethought to encourage more teaching staff to adopt blended learning in their courses. Based on strategies identified from the literature, a faculty-driven approach for professional development was developed in the FEHD. This approach included pedagogically focused capacity building strategies that aimed to enhance learning engagement and outcomes and scale up blended learning practices in the faculty. Concerted efforts have also been made at both the institutional and faculty levels to create an environment conducive to supporting blended learning. Based on the challenges identified, future directions are discussed in this paper.
[Copyright © 2016 UNESCO.]

The rapid advancement of technologies and their ubiquitous use in our daily lives have dramatically changed the way knowledge is created and disseminated. As a technology-enhanced pedagogical approach, blended learning – the deliberate combination of online learning with face-to-face classroom-based learning – provides higher education institutions (HEIs) with the opportunities to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. While many of these opportunities have been well-documented in the literature, implementing and scaling up blended learning courses pose enormous challenges for HEIs in the Asia-Pacific region. To address these challenges, UNESCO Bangkok in partnership with The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) launched a two-year project to build the capacity of HEIs for blended learning. One of the outcomes of the project was this book by a team of blended learning experts and leaders in the region. Blended Learning for Quality Higher Education presents a framework and self-assessment tool developed from a holistic view of building institutional capacity to drive, sustain, and scale up blended learning. It incorporates case studies from experienced HEIs in the region to demonstrate how the framework and its dimensions could be operationalised, and how the gaps identified in the self-assessment exercise could be addressed.
[Copyright © 2016 UNESCO.]

The General Education Consolidation Course (GECC) is a capstone course in the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) which requires students approaching the end of their undergraduate studies both to reflect critically on their experience – within general education, in their disciplinary, professional and co-curricular studies, and in their lives beyond the classroom – and to develop an integrated view of how and where they position themselves in relation to their future goals, plans, and aspirations. The course is designed to help students to synthesize their learning experiences, by reflecting critically on the value and significance of what they have learned in their university years, making connections to their lives, and imagining their own futures. As a new course in its early stage of development, a high degree of flexibility and autonomy is allowed and indeed required of the GECC tutors to experiment with different learning and teaching strategies with the students to facilitate achievement of the course objectives. The structure of the GECC involves a number of experimental and innovative elements, including a strong student-centered orientation, guided group and independent learning, and the development of a comprehensive e-portfolio as the main assessment component. The authors of this paper have participated in the pilot run of this GECC in early 2015, before its full scale implementation in the fall of the same year. In this paper, we will reflect on our experiences in preparing and conducting the course, with particular focus on the uses of narrative learning and teaching strategies with the students. Our reflection and evaluation will be based on and substantiated by concrete examples of our students’ works and performance. We will also explore the potentials of adopting the reciprocal learning framework in the further development of this and other similar courses with strong student-centered orientation in higher education.

Reciprocal learning values the cooperative learning abilities of students. Learning takes place in different occasions when students help each other and receive immediate feedback from others. In doing so, it also helps the teacher to get a good sense of where students are with the lesson. Learning strategies it employs include student forming structured-learning teams, assigning roles, and using team building activities, etc. The core principle of such learning thus comes from peer teaching and coaching theories. This paper reports an attempt of using reciprocal learning in the higher education in Hong Kong. The discussion starts first from a review of the rationale of reciprocal learning, its effect and application in teacher education. Second, its effect and use in higher education in form of a case study in Hong Kong. Then, implications are made for teacher education in general. The course under investigation takes into consideration of reciprocal learning principles throughout the teaching and learning design. The learning concepts are incorporated into the construction of the classroom activities and assessment modes. Classroom activities using reciprocal ideas include personal storytelling and giving feedback. Students are encouraged to reflect on their past, share their experiences, and tell their life stories in class. Audiences respond by writing individual feedback to the storytellers. This allows for peer learning to take place among the students. When they are telling and listening the stories, they are at the same time learning from each other, performing both roles of learning and coaching at the same time. As one of the assignments, students are asked to write weekly journals throughout the course. An on-line learning platform is created for students to write the journal entries once a week and read their classmates’ journal entries and give feedback to each other.

Jacques Rancière has given us a strong ethical framework for the use of drama in education, but his model is incomplete. In Hong Kong, an examination-driven system often conflicts with teachers' idealistic ambitions. We suggest a way of expanding Rancière's model with reference to Étienne Wenger. We use this framework to examine a group of student teachers on practicum. Student teachers can use drama in the interstices by a process understandable on Wenger's terms, and successful on Rancière's terms. We use Wenger's terms 'alignment', 'engagement' and 'imagination' to characterise these student teachers' search for meaning in teaching.
[Copyright © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.]