This chapter considers the place of minorities in the formal Hong Kong curriculum by examining the extent and nature of representations of ethnic and religious minorities in Hong Kong “Liberal Studies” textbooks. Liberal Studies is the single required course in secondary Hong Kong education which focuses on social studies and world issues, and therefore is the primary place where one would expect to see any discussion of diversity and related issues in society in the formal, mandated curriculum. This chapter conceives of textbooks as an important part of the curriculum, which guides and steers educators and students, though it is not the only site of educative content. This is a qualitative and discursive study of how minorities are discussed in Hong Kong education, which reveals that minorities are often absent from discussion of society taking place in schools. The chapter goes on to argue that this imbalanced representation of “who” is Hong Kong harms not only minorities but also majority culture and society in Hong Kong, as it fails to provide balanced and accurate information necessary to equip students to become active participants in a democratic society. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Yun-Kyung Cha, Seung-Hwan Ham, and Moosung Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

The term critical thinking has received much attention over the past few decades in both Western and Eastern countries and regions. From 1990s onwards, the Hong Kong educational authority undertook a series of educational reforms in order to encourage a new generation in critical thinking. In the New Senior Secondary curriculum – which commenced in 2009 - Liberal Studies is one of the core subjects in which the aim is to promote critical thinking among senior high school students. Despite this intention, there is no clear definition of what critical thinking is. The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher and student conceptions of critical thinking in Liberal Studies; and the relationship between these two conceptions. Fourteen teachers teaching Form 5 (Year 11) Liberal Studies in four secondary schools in Hong Kong, along with their 480 Secondary 5 students, completed a questionnaire consisting of 40 definers of critical thinking, and one teacher and eight students from each school participated in interviews. The results indicated that both teachers and students emphasised the skills dimension of critical thinking; and explicit and implicit relationships between teacher and student conceptions of critical thinking were found. The results have important implications for teacher education, as well as the successful implementation of Liberal Studies as a subject in the Senior Secondary Curriculum. All rights reserved.

本文旨在探討香港新高中通識教育科的校本課程由誰來決定。本研究在2010年的暑假進行，透過半結構性的訪談以探索不同中學發展通識課程所採取的策略。研究者發現校長在通識科的課程決策上佔主導地位，通識科主任才是正真的課程領導，而科任教師多扮演追隨者的角色。 This paper aims to explore the position of different stakeholders in the development of the New Senior Secondary curriculum of Liberal Studies. This research was conducted in the summer of 2010 to investigate the curriculum development strategies used by different schools. It is found that subject panel heads are the authentic curriculum leaders even though school principal is the core person who makes the final curriculum decisions in school. Teachers prefer to act as the followers and often play passive roles. Copyright © 2011 華東師範大學.

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education is vital for incubating future scientists, engineers, and inventors. Teaching and learning in STEM education require teachers and students to employ design thinking and multi-disciplinary knowledge to formulate new solutions for emerging problems. School teachers are facing multiple challenges in implementing STEM education. With the application of the Self-efficacy and stages of concern theories, this quantitative study (with 235 teacher respondents) aims to unearth Hong Kong teachers’ responses regarding STEM education. The results show that 5.53% of the respondents regard themselves as “well prepared” for STEM education. On the other hand, the respondents have intense “information”, “management”, and “consequence” concerns about implementing STEM education in schools. The findings reflect that there is an urgent need to provide teachers with articulated professional development, pedagogic support, and curricular resources for empowering them to implement STEM education in practice.
[Copyright of The Asia - Pacific Education Researcher is the property of Springer Science & Business Media. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40299-018-0414-1]

Although there are studies showing that higher education would benefit university students, empirical research that comprehensively assesses student general education learning outcomes and related demographic correlates based on longitudinal data is minimal, especially in the Chinese context. To address the research gaps, the present study was conducted to investigate learning outcomes amongst university students in one university in Hong Kong based on a four-year longitudinal design (N = 460). Four dimensions of student general education learning outcomes were measured, including effective reasoning and problem solving, leadership, moral character, and integration of learning. Results suggested a U-shaped pattern of student learning outcomes for most dimensions, with no improvement or even a decrement in the second year and a steady growth thereafter. While family background did not affect student development, gender showed a significant moderating effect on students’ development in two dimensions (i.e., effective reasoning and problem solving, and integration of learning). These findings suggest that students benefit from general education-embedded university study in multiple dimensions, especially after the first year of transition period. Practical implications of the findings and future research directions were also discussed.
[Copyright of Applied Research in Quality of Life is the property of Springer Netherlands. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11482-018-9645-9]

This article explores how the past mobilities of academics affect their current research output (and its multidisciplinarity). Five types of mobility are used simultaneously in the analysis. Field mobility and transnational educational mobility are associated with academics' educational path, whereas transnational job mobility, intra-sectoral job mobility and inter-sectoral job mobility refer to their career path. The analysis is based on a representative sample of academics based in Hong Kong and Macau. Results show that intra-sectoral job mobility (up to a threshold) and transnational job mobility positively affect research output and its multidisciplinarity, whereas inter-sectoral job mobility, field mobility and transnational educational mobility exert slight or no effect. Nested analyses of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM academics as well as experienced and junior academics offer further insight into the roles of these mobilities. Impacts of mobile experience were stronger among junior than senior academics, and in STEM fields than non-STEM fields. The article discusses these findings along with the significance of considering mobilities rather than mobility when analysing academic trajectories and the determinants of academic research production.
[Copyright of Higher Education Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12161 ]

This paper presents the design and implementation of a technological literacy course in professional development training for a diverse group of in-service primary teachers in Hong Kong. A set of micro-controlling hardware was chosen such that not only the controlling and coding barriers are acceptable to the teachers but that their pupils can also adopt the easy-to-use hardware and software to create STEM projects in primary schools. The hands-on training seeks to broaden their technological experiences in various interfacing and sensing activities. The coding challenge is reduced by introducing visual programming, thereby allowing the learners to focus on real- world problems in the STEM disciplines. Details of the course are provided and the assessment projects by Engineering Design Process are illustrated in this paper. The quantitative evaluation of teachers in their micro-controlling experience is provided. Copyright © 2018 by IEEE.

香港高校自2012年起推行四年新學制以及新的課程架構，其特點為：(1)課程理念與目標已經超出傳統學術與智性發展範疇，開始融入與共通能力、態度有關的元素。(2)課程架構以必修課與分佈選修結合為主要特徵。分佈選修的範疇圍繞人文與藝術、社會與文化、科學與技術三大知識領域展開，必修科目的內容存在明顯差異，有的大學圍繞智性探究，有的大學還在智性探究範疇之外增加語言溝通、共通技能、統整融合的元素。(3)課程內容超越知識探究，關注當代社會重要議題以及未來生活需具備的能力與素質。(4)課程發展採取成果為本方法。(5)建立完善的質素保證機制，對通識課程進行定期檢討，從不同管道搜集持份者意見，對通識課程、教學做出持續改進。A new academic system and new curriculum has been implemented in Hong Kong higher education since 2012. This paper reviews the factors that affect the change of general education in Hong Kong and outlines the characteristics of general education(GE)in Hong Kong since2012. Five characteristics can be identified: 1)The purposes and objectives of GE curriculum has gone beyond the domain of academic study and intellectual inquiry and infused generic skills and attitudes into the new curriculum; 2)Most higher education institutions have adopted a structure of core curriculum and distributive requirement; 3)The themes of curriculum address important issues in the current era; 4)Outcome-based approach has been adopted in the curriculum development across the institutions; 5)Quality assurance scheme has been established to monitor the implementation and quality of overall teaching and learning with general education included as one component. Copyright © 2018 武漢理工大學；中國交通教育研究會高教研究分會；高教研究分會.