The aim of this research study is to investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of innovative use of an open-source digital technology, Arduino, which is an information and communications technology (ICT) tool for practical work in physics in the senior secondary curriculum. The study also seeks to ascertain factors affecting the effective use of the technology in students’ learning of physics with a view to informing possible extensive use of the Arduino technology in senior secondary science education and its application to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. The importance of harnessing ICT in education is well recognized in the education arena. Educators have viewed ICT as an enabling tool for higher levels of analysis to take place in science teaching and learning. However, the use of technology does not guarantee meaningful and effective learning. What is crucial is the transformative, appropriate use of ICT to enhance students’ learning. In this regard, proper integration of ICT into the curriculum, or even across disciplines in the context of STEM education, for meaningful study is an area of concern. While ICT integration has been advocated for many years in the senior secondary physics curriculum in Hong Kong, there remains a gap in its holistic integration into the curriculum. This study demonstrates successful development of seven Arduino-based experiments and an entire set of courseware that covers a wide range of experiments in the topic of “mechanics” in the senior secondary physics curriculum. Design-based research (DBR) methodology is adopted in the development, which is characterized by rounds of systematic iteration, feedback gathering, and modification. The final outputs are encouraging for performing the series of experiments in “mechanics”. The study bridges the gap between theoretical framework and practical application in an authentic setting, and it informs of the suitability of DBR in developing ICT tools for

The global trend of decentralisation in education empowers schools and teachers to have more autonomy in making instructional decisions. Influenced by the implementation of the new curriculum reform (NCR) and the three-level curriculum management policy in China, teachers supposedly have more authority in curriculum decision-making. Although many studies on curriculum leadership (CL) have been conducted, there is still a scant amount of studies focusing on understanding of teachers’ engagement in CL. This is especially the case in the Chinese setting. This research thus aims to explore principals’ and Teaching Research Group (TRG) leaders’ perceptions of TRG leaders’ engagement in CL and compare their perceptions to explore similarities and differences. TRG leaders are the backbone teachers chosen from the corpus of front-line teachers, therefore, it is critical to investigate their engagement in CL.A qualitative research approach was deployed using interviews, observations, documents and field notes. Interviews were adopted as the main source of data to investigate how 10 principals and 20 TRG leaders understand TRG leaders’ engagement in CL in secondary schools in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, China. Content analysis was employed to analyse the data in Nvivo 10.The findings are grouped into five major categories, namely, general understanding of CL; enacting CL at the organisational level; at the classroom level; at the social relationship level; and at the personal level. The study identified that the term CL is rather new to some principals and to most of the TRG leaders. In particular, findings show that TRG leaders’ autonomy in taking initiatives for curriculum matters is limited at all levels although they have been assumed to be taking the role of TRG leader. Importantly, this research developed a conceptual model of TRG leaders’ engagement in CL in the Chinese context which consisted of four dimensions: (1) framing/planning goals at the organisational level

The number of mainland Chinese students was 791 (64% of total international students in Hong Kong) in 1996/97 whereas such number went up to 12,037 (73%) in 2016/17—more than fifteenfold increase within 20 years. In particular, mainland China undergraduates (MCU) exhibited a phenomenal growth from 5 in 1996/97 to 6,852 in 2016/17. Nonetheless, few studies have focused on this group of students concerning their acculturative stress and/or mental health in Hong Kong, even though there were several cases of suicide committed by MCU in Hong Kong in the past decade. Completing tertiary education in one’s home country is generally not an easy task, and pursuing a university degree in a culturally different and unfamiliar place will surely add to one’s difficulties. A literature search of scales assessing acculturative stress showed that none of the existent scales were applicable to MCU in Hong Kong, either because of language issues, different target population, or cross-cultural problems. Hence, the purpose of this study was to develop and validate a suitable scale to measure the acculturative stress of MCU in Hong Kong.A 172-item pool was created from literature, in-depth and focus group interviews, and then validated in a sample of 274 MCU in Hong Kong using one-parameter Rasch model analysis to produce a 117-item Acculturative Stress Scale for Mainland Chinese Undergraduate Students (ASSMCUS) in 21 dimensions, which are English Barrier: Limited English Proficiency; English Barrier: Limited Colloquial English; Cantonese Barrier: Limited Cantonese Proficiency; Cantonese Barrier: Limited Colloquial Cantonese; Study Stress: Heavy Course Load; Study Stress: Student-Centred Learning Approach; Cultural Difference: Mutual Cultural Misunderstanding; Cultural Difference: Identifying with Hong Kong’s Culture and Values; Social Interaction: Loneliness; Social Interaction: Hard to Make Friends with Hong Kong People; Social Interaction: Limited Social Connectedness; Discrimination:

The aim of this qualitative study is to understand how children aged between three to four years of age acquire the identity of a “pre-school” student within a Chinese context. By drawing on Foucault’s work in relation to various related discourses, as well as Actor Network Theory (ANT), this ethnographic study also tries to appreciate the role and place of objects in terms of children becoming “preschoolers”.The fieldwork that underpins this study took place at three Hong Kong preschools. These schools were selected because of their differences, as well as their similarities, in terms of approaches in delivering the curriculum. Qualitative methods, including observations and interviews, were used to capture children’s interactions with one another, with adults, and, importantly, with objects. A journal was kept throughout the study period and this, together with photographs of classroom life, enabled me to critically reflect on the study, so as to make sense of the lived experiences of the preschool students.This study stems from the poststructuralism and posthumanism premise that there are no universal or absolute truths in relation to acquiring a preschool identity. As a consequence, there is no attempt to produce “findings” in a scientific sense. However, the study does add to our knowledge and understanding of the process by which children acquire a preschool identity, and explores the profound role that objects play within these processes.By drawing on two theoretical frameworks, I was able to make two significant moves. First, Foucault’s work enabled me to appreciate how children are disciplined and regulated into what constitutes the “normal” or “ideal” preschooler. Foucault also allowed me to recognize how children themselves can undertake three practices: “refusal”, “curiosity”, and “innovation”, so as to experience alternative modes of being.Second, ANT allowed me to appreciate that objects have agency and are therefore actors. As “lively matter”, objects

Having academic honesty is a valuable character for tertiary level learners in their learning journey. The purpose of the current study was to study tertiary students’ behaviors of academic honesty regarding school assignments. Data from 8 public universities in Hong Kong were collected through a questionnaire. This questionnaire contained ten scales for evaluating the five components of “the theory of Planned Behavior: 1) attitude toward behavior, 2) subjective norm, 3) perceived behavioral control, 4) intention and 5) behavior”. Rasch analysis had been used for examining psychometric properties of the modified study instrument and generate students’ measures. These students’ measures were then subjected to a path analysis for investigating relationships among 5 components. Results of the path analysis revealed good model-data fits on the two constructs: avoiding academic misconducts and upholding academic truth. Regardless of the predictive power of subjective norms is debatable, attitudes toward behavior and perceived behavioral controls are significantly related to the intentions and behaviors of tertiary students in maintaining academic honesty. The significance of this current study suggests that the implications of results contribute to further research. These contributions to researchers and practitioners include the advancement of current research and teaching techniques, all of which are presented in this thesis. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of extracurricular music participation on preschool children’s social skills in Hong Kong. This study was quantitative dominant, whilst qualitative data was collected to triangulate with the quantitative data. Phase one was the intervention and quantitative data collection whilst individual interviews and class observations were conducted in phase two. Interventions were three different extracurricular activities including: 1) group music training; 2) piano lesson; and 3) drawing class. The duration of the interventions was 24 weeks and the instrument used to collect data was the Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scale (SSIS-RS). Participants were 180 preschool children aged from four to five (n1=72, n2=72, n3=36).Interviewees were teachers and parents from the different intervention groups. Results of ANOVAs revealed that extracurricular activities have positive effects on participants’ social skills. Tukey post hoc tests revealed that the effects of group music training on participants’ social skills was significantly higher than the piano lesson and the drawing class in all seven subscales; effects of piano lesson on participants’ social skills were significantly higher than the drawing class in four subscales. Qualitative data indicated that parents’ understanding of social skills was similar with each other. Parents’ expectations of extracurricular activities were varied between groups, but were similar within each studied group. Teachers’ perception of social skills and their perception of their role and responsibilities were diverse between groups. Teachers’ perception of effects of extracurricular lessons on young children’s social skills was diverse too. Qualitative data showed that parent’ expectations on the extra-curricular activities, teachers’ beliefs and instructional strategy might influence the results.This study indicated that music education can play a role in young children’s development

The integration of values education into English language teaching is not common. Yet educators, school heads, and teachers regard values education as vital to help build students’ characters. This study aims to investigate how values can be promoted by using the approach of moral dilemma discussions in English language teaching. Specifically, within Thomas Lickona’s (1991) framework of values that posits the mutual interaction of students’ moral knowing, moral feeling and moral action, this study used action research as the research design, while applying the approach of moral dilemma discussions to examine whether students’ moral reasoning could be developed, moral feeling could be aroused, and whether obvious behavioural changes in moral action could be observed.A mixed-method of collecting both qualitative and quantitative data was used to evaluate the teaching process and teaching outcomes. Qualitative data included teacher researcher’s observation in class and after-lesson reflections, students’ discussions and responses during lessons, group interviews of students and teacher observers’ feedback. Quantitative data consisted of comparison between the pre-test and post-test scores of DIT2 and APASO-II, while the yearly moral performance record and result of the questionnaire set by the teacher researcher were used as supporting evidence.The findings showed an increase in the moral reasoning scores of the experimental group. Students were impressed with the moral dilemma discussion approach integrated with explicit values, and students’ moral development was shown in their assignments during the teaching process and teaching outcomes. Students’ sharing in the interviews also showed that they recognized the importance of values education for all students. However, an increase in moral action throughout the action research period was not obvious. More investigation into the link between moral reasoning and moral action should be done. All rights reserved.

The aim of the study is to explore preschool teachers’ folk pedagogy as reflected in music education in Hong Kong by examining how Hong Kong teachers act, think and interact with their students when teaching music, and their response when stimulated by Japanese preschool culture. To illuminate the concept of folk pedagogy, the study investigates the tacit norms, views and values of selected Hong Kong and Japanese music teachers. This research is a multi-case study with an ethnographic design for cultural observation. A meta-aspect of this study is to provide a venue for teachers’ professional development, which consists of sharing videos from other countries, discussing their values and allowing these discussions to enlarge their sense of teachers. Through individual and group discussions and the teachers’ beliefs construction one year later, the teachers’ beliefs, teaching pedagogies and implicit behaviours are identified and analysed. The implications of the study will strengthen music teachers’ evaluations of Hong Kong’s folk pedagogy. All rights reserved.

Exploring middle leaders’ attitudes toward religious faith is an important subject for educational researchers. This is the first study to explore the relationships between religious faith, leadership styles, and duties of middle leaders in Catholic Hong Kong primary schools. Although local Catholic school leaders may consider that servant leadership is more compatible with their faith, instructional and servant leadership styles are not mutually exclusive. Leadership practices, roles, and duties are intertwined. Leaders, with or without religious faith, may have a similar impact on their leadership practices, as well as the academic versus non-academic aspects of student outcomes. Therefore, this study examined the tentative variations through the lens of religious faith, the role of leadership, and leadership practices (i.e., servant leadership and instructional leadership). The researcher adopted a case study approach using qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews of two principals, fourteen middle leaders, and four groups of regular teachers (half novice teachers and half experienced teachers) with or without religious faith in two Catholic primary schools. The results indicated that the words of God had a considerable effect on the middle leaders in Catholic primary schools. They could feel the power of faith, hope, and love in their souls and be thus eager to take the lead to serve others. This study contributes to the literature in clarifying the effect of religion on educational leadership styles and practices. Religious faith acts as a chain to connect the inner serving heart and the outer instructional leadership practices. A synergy of the two leadership styles showed empirically more profound effects and practically more admirable than either leadership styles theoretically implied. However, further investigation on such a synergy is warranted for a sustainable school development for all Catholic or religious schools in Hong Kong. All rights