This study explored the effects of the classroom learning environment of a Liberal Studies course on the critical thinking skills and disposition of 3,869 Grade 12 students in Hong Kong. Through combining both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, a two-level model of the classroom learning environment for critical thinking with seven dimensions (i.e., Student Negotiation, Challenging Task, Multiple Perspectives, Shared Control, Skeptical Voice, Uncertainty and Personal Relevance) at the first level and three broader aspects (i.e., Pedagogy, Relationship and Content) at the second was generated. The correlation and structural equation modelling analyses indicated that the classroom learning environment had a stronger relationship with critical thinking disposition than skills. Structural equation modelling analysis also indicated a mediation effect of critical thinking disposition between the classroom learning environment and critical thinking skills. It is suggested that different approaches be combined so as to achieve a balanced development of students’ critical thinking skills and disposition.
[Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V.]

Purpose: This paper aims to provide data on the self-perceived state of sustainability consciousness of first-year Hong Kong students. Design/methodology/approach: Within a mixed-method research design framework, the authors conducted 787 questionnaires and collected 989 reflective narratives of first-year students of a university in Hong Kong, who were enrolled in the General Education course. Findings: Attributed to students’ immersion in compulsory sustainability education modules within liberal studies programs in secondary through higher education (HE), the quantitative results revealed an increase in the self-perceived knowledge and behavioral aspects of sustainability consciousness of Hong Kong students and their low engagement in sustainability-related civic, campus or action groups. However, qualitative results revealed three aspects of the students’ sustainability consciousness: intentionality to make a difference; engagement with complex questions about identity, society and nature; and eschatological perspectives, which included imaginative, future-oriented and action-oriented approaches to critical reflection, supported by the rhetoric of hope, promises and commitment for better future. Originality/value: The study provides insights into the challenge of implementation of the United Nations-based sustainable development model in the Hong Kong educational system through the formal liberal studies curriculum. It advances the field by constructing a momentum for conceptual changes in sustainability education research toward design of the non-linear and culturally sensitive frameworks for sustainability implementation in HE. This allows to utilize universities’ unique capacities for fostering students’ sustainability consciousness in a continuous and systemic way.
[Copyright © 2017 Tamara Savelyeva and William Douglas.]

Based on the recognized status of the Hong Kong school system indicated in international studies, facilitating students with quality Integrated Learning (IL) is the crucial pedagogy for a new subject entitled Liberal Studies (LS) which has been implemented in secondary education in Hong Kong since 2009. This study uses case studies and semi-structured interviews of novice and experienced teachers to investigate the concerns and work of teachers in Small-Class Teaching (SCT) for IL in LS and explores how teacher leadership may help in terms of classroom context, learning community, improved practice, and outcome achievement. The findings reveal the common and diversified ideas and practices regarding SCT for IL in LS, which may provide valuable insights into teacher leadership for teachers and policy makers across the world.
[Copyright © 2016 SCHOLINK INC.]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the complex, intricate relationships between the central (intended) curriculum, teachers’ perceived curriculums, and the enacted/assessed curriculum in classroom contexts. To do this, the authors have used Hong Kong’s new core senior-secondary liberal studies (LS) curriculum as a case study, with a special focus on its key pedagogical component – inquiry teaching/learning. Design/methodology/approach: This study’s objects are two teachers (from two local schools), each with a LS teacher’s education. Documentary analysis, lesson observation, and focus interviews were used to triangulate data for interpretation and analysis. Findings: The findings illuminate: how LS teachers’ perceptions of inquiry teaching/learning relate to and align with the advocacy embodied in the intended curriculum, the relationships between teachers’ perceptions and practices of inquiry learning and teaching, and how this aspect of the intended curriculum reform can be made more relevant to the classroom context. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the under-researched area of curriculum gaps and (mis)alignments in Hong Kong’s LS curriculum reform.
[Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited.]

To respond to the growing concerns about the need for university students to learn generic skills to complement their disciplinary expertise, many universities have included General Education (GE) in their curriculum. A new general education framework entitled “General University Requirements” (GUR) has been implemented at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) since the 2012/13 academic year. A five-year longitudinal project using multiple evaluation strategies was conducted to evaluate the GUR, including objective outcome evaluation (online survey), Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus (CLA+), subjective outcome evaluation (Student Feedback Questionnaire), and qualitative evaluation (focus groups, longitudinal case studies and document analyses). With reference to the second year of program implementation, results from different evaluation strategies consistently demonstrated that the GUR subjects were effective in promoting the five desired graduate attributes as defined by PolyU (i.e., problem solving, critical thinking ability, effective communication, ethical leadership and lifelong learning) in students. Both students and teachers perceived the subject contents, teaching and learning methods, and teaching staff in GUR subjects favorably though several challenges were also noted.
[Copyright © 2016 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.]

This chapter examines the role and nature of values in civic education curricula in the Asian global cities of Singapore and Hong Kong. Using a qualitative, comparative case study approach, we situate civic education in broader contexts and analyze the ways values are represented in Singapore’s Social Studies curriculum and the Liberal Studies curriculum in Hong Kong. Through our analysis of syllabus documents and broader societal discourses, we found several common core values across the two settings that simultaneously represented nationalist and global neoliberal discourses of citizenship. Rather than emphasizing political or civic concerns, curricular and societal discourses worked together to underscore self-management and the creation of orderly national societies attractive to global capital and necessary for economic growth in a competitive global economy. However, we found distinctions in each syllabus regarding approaches in values instruction. Documents in Singapore emphasized teaching values through transmissive methods, whereas, in Hong Kong, the Liberal Studies curriculum advocated a more deliberative pedagogy. The chapter poses broader questions regarding narrow, utilitarian forms of citizenship and possibilities for reimagining more critical forms of citizenship education in a globalized world.
[Copyright © 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.]

全球倫理尋求世界各宗教、文化間的共通點，提出核心的人類行為相處的原則。在1993年，世界宗教議會通過了全球倫理宣言。其後，面對金融海嘯後的經濟環境，聯合國和全球倫理基金會亦於2009年草擬了《全球經濟倫理宣言》，提出經濟活動的基本倫理準則和應持守的價值。自2008/09年起，香港教育學院宗教教育與心靈教育中心便與香港其他單位合力，引進當中的核心相處之道，融入香港課程。而聯合團隊先後兩次獲優質教育基金支持，推行計劃。在過程中，面對香港學校多元宗教辦學實況，團隊思考以「融合共享　個殊詮釋」作為促進全球倫理概念與香港實況相適應之途。是次將由團隊成員分享當中的經驗，以及即將推出的初中、高小六年品德與生命教育教材的設計點滴。

In major curriculum reforms, there are inevitably gaps between design and implementation issues, taking the introduction of liberal studies (LS) into the senior secondary curriculum in Hong Kong as a classic example. The current paper illustrates how the implementation of LS as a compulsory core subject has impacted noticeably on Hong Kong senior secondary education. The LS curriculum setup is somewhat different from traditional subjects due to both the interdisciplinary nature of its design and the conceptions of learning, teaching, and assessment. The current study therefore attempts to portray the delicate balance that exists between the desirability ans feasibility of LS curriculum reform through interviewing members of the working group on the review of the academic structure for senior secondary education and interface with higher education. The study reports that, while LS policy makers considered both desirability and feasibility angles of the LS curriculum in their initial planning, the implementation of the LS public examination and teacher training to support the radical curriculum innovation fell short of expectations. Findings in the study clearly indicate that much more should be taken into account in respect of the dominance of an examination culture as well as teachers’ professional development when making major curriculum design changes.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.]