This study reports on a collaborative research project initiated in 2022 by the authors based in Hong Kong and the Philippines. The overarching goal is to review and assess the impact that the prolonged use of technology for teaching has had on K-12 teachers. Through a narrative inquiry, the study seeks to encapsulate teachers' online teaching experiences: its efficacy, challenges, impacts on teaching, and other relevant issues. These narratives are compared against the backdrop of access to technology in Hong Kong and in the Philippines, as there are immense differences in IT infrastructure. It was found that technological advancement and preparedness did not guarantee smooth delivery of online teaching. In contrast, teachers' own personal circumstances, workload, stress, and mental wellbeing tend to have a much greater impact on themselves and their work. Copyright ©2024 IGI Global.

Since the 1990s, Hong Kong has been promoting globally-endorsed, Western-derived early childhood ideologies and approaches, such as the Project Approach (*Chen et al., 2017). This orientation appears to be influenced by policies and practices linked to global neoliberalism and neocolonialism. To shed light on the state of knowledge concerning the implementability of the imported "foreign" practices by Hong Kong kindergarten teachers (teaching children ages 3-6), I conducted a research synthesis analyzing the 10 empirical articles that met the inclusion criteria. The analysis was guided by the two existing theoretical frameworks: (1) "Tian Shi" (timing/temporal), "Di Li" (context/spatial), "Ren He" (human capital) (Chen and Li, 2023) and (2) the "foreground-middle ground-background" (Chen, 2022) as well as the newly proposed "globalization-localization interaction dynamics model." A content analysis revealed three salient findings. First, due to the lack of "Tian Shi," "Di Li," "Ren He," Hong Kong kindergarten teachers' implementation of the imported early childhood approaches with fidelity has been largely unsuccessful. Second, the evidence corroborates the "foreground-middle ground-background" theory, suggesting that a hybrid approach (combining both the local and global practices) represents the "best" implementable one. Third, the manner in which the teachers implemented the imported practices seemingly reflects a "glocalization-dominant" pattern. This pattern constitutes one of the four quadrants within my proposed "globalization-localization interaction dynamics model." The four quadrants represent the specific degree of interactive dominance: (1) "grobalization-dominant" (high in globalization and low in localization); (2) "glocalization-dominant" (high in both localization and globalization); (3) "non-committal" (low in both globalization and localization); and (4) "localization-dominant" (low in globalization and high in localization). Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications

During the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous schools halted face-to-face teaching and instead resorted to online classes. The impact of online learning on students’ academic worries, social relationships, and psychological well-being has received growing attention. Based on a sample of 1095 students aged 14–16 in 12 secondary schools in Hong Kong, structural equation modeling was used to investigate the association between online learning problems, academic worries and performance, social interaction, and psychosocial well-being during the pandemic. The path relationships among variables were compared by gender groups and socio-economic status (SES). Online learning problems were found to be negatively associated with psychosocial well-being through academic worries and social interaction as mediators. The effect of mediation among female students was larger than that of males, whereas the impact of academic worries on both psychosocial well-being and social interaction was stronger and significant only in the low SES group. As the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the learning and well-being of students, attention should be given to gender and SES difference among students. Copyright ©2024 Springer Netherlands.

Continuing education (CE) plays a crucial role in workforce development and economic growth across Asia, yet the landscape of CE research in the region has not been comprehensively mapped. A comprehensive bibliometric analysis of continuing education (CE) research in Asia from 1972 to 2023 was carried out, utilizing data from the Scopus database to map the evolving landscape of CE research in the region. Findings revealed a significant surge in research output since the late 1990s, with East Asian countries, particularly China, Hong Kong (China), and Taiwan (ROC), emerging as leaders in the field. The analysis uncovers several key patterns: institutional collaborations tend to cluster regionally, there's a noticeable generational gap in researcher’s networks, and the healthcare sector dominates CE research topics. Recent trends indicate a shift towards digital learning approaches and learner-centered methodologies. The study also highlights the need for increased cross-border collaborations and expansion of CE research beyond the healthcare sector. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of CE research trends in Asia and provides insights for future directions in the field. Copyright ©2024 Scientific Methodical Center.

The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the adoption of distance learning as a new alternative educational approach globally, a shift that has persisted even to the post-pandemic period. Despite identifying online educational advantages in previous studies, the abrupt societal changes brought about by the pandemic have exposed disproportionate difficulties. This study aims to understand how attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children and their parents are influenced by this educational pattern, and to outline a framework to improve their home-based learning environment from a design perspective. Following the Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle (KELC), the research commenced with the analysis of ADHD children and online-schooling in Hong Kong. After problems are identified initially, the observational study of 32 school students with or without ADHD in a home-learning environment is conducted to interpret these problems. This process has identified the key issues of domestic distraction and the need for resource support. The study also provides a multi-functional table design as an initial direction for developing supportive frameworks. Then, another study is conducted with a total of 30 school students with or without ADHD and their stakeholders to assess the effectiveness of the design concept. Therefore, the study's findings provide a valuable insight for proposing the framework to improve the home learning experience via the working area for ADHD children. These research findings not only contribute to academic discourse for validating ADHD children challenges in distance education, but also facilitate ADHD parents, educators and designers to enhance the home learning environment by offering a structured design framework. Copyright ©2024 Scientia Socialis Ltd.

Feedback processes are crucial in doctoral supervision but require adaptation to meet the changing nature of the doctorate, and increasing impetus to publish during the candidature. This study builds on concepts of authentic feedback and feedback literacy to chart possibilities for the development of feedback socialization in doctoral education. Semi-structured interviews with twenty doctoral supervisors in a faculty of education in Hong Kong aimed to investigate their understandings of feedback, its enactment within the doctoral process, and broader feedback inputs beyond the supervisor. Data were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis and trustworthiness was enhanced through a member checking focus group with a sub-set of four of the interviewees. The analysis is informed by sociocultural theory with emphasis on co-construction of insights between supervisors and doctoral students. The findings highlight supervisors’ understandings of feedback as comments, interaction and follow-up; and authentic feedback generated from presenting at conferences or submitting to journals. A contribution of the paper lies in bringing to bear conceptual insights from feedback research in undergraduate education to inform feedback in doctoral supervision. We deploy the concept of authentic feedback, practices that resemble those of the relevant workplace, to demonstrate how journal peer review facilitates the socialization of doctoral students into academic publishing norms. Key supervisor roles lie in guiding the enactment of responses to peer review, and supporting the development of resilience. Proposed features of supervisors’ feedback literacy include sociocultural-based dialogue and co-construction, emphasis on the enactment of feedback and working with authentic feedback of different forms. Copyright ©2024 Taylor & Francis.

In this study, we explore the identity development of PhD graduates transitioning into non‐researcher roles. Through the conceptual lens of identity‐trajectory theory and based on interviews with 26 PhD graduates from three leading research universities in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, we analyse their identity‐trajectory development after their transition to non‐research employment. The findings show that PhD graduates develop their identity trajectories based on their existing sense of researcher‐self through a variety of practices that involve intellectual, networking and institutional dimensions. Individual agency plays a key role in overcoming structural constraints in the workplace, yet its level varies according to one's willingness to pursue a non‐research career. The findings highlight the fluidity in identity development and the role of the researcher‐self as a positive legacy of doctoral training, including for PhD graduates taking non‐researcher roles. Copyright ©2024 Wiley.

Despite the rapid growth of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education, little research has been conducted to pinpoint the challenges faced by students. This quantitative study explored the challenges posed by the secondary–tertiary transition to first-year students with different English proficiency levels in EMI higher education institutions. In addition, we also investigated students’ perception of the usefulness of supplementary and mainstream education in preparing them for those challenges. 91 participants studying at two tertiary institutions in Hong Kong completed a 52-item questionnaire. The questionnaire included items in relation to three major aspects of challenges: ‘academic studies and skills’, ‘socialization’, and ‘college/university life adaptation’. It was found that students with low proficiency regarded all three aspects as significantly more challenging than the high proficiency ones in their first-year studies. However, despite the different proficiency levels, students similarly perceived mainstream education to be significantly more useful than supplementary education in preparing them for those transitional challenges. The findings together suggest that more English support is needed for low-proficiency students at the tertiary level and argue that mainstream education plays an essential role in assisting students in this secondary–tertiary transition. Implications are discussed in terms of the benefits of having a general English course as perquisite for low English proficiency students before they enroll in English for Academic Purposes courses, and the development of a variety of tasks with more emphasis on communication and collaboration at the secondary level to support them in this transition. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

This study examines the impact of a seamless learning environment combined with a multicultural educational environment on the cognitive development of preschool children in Hong Kong (n = 200). Using a quasi-experimental design, this study compared the cognitive development of children in an experimental group exposed to continuous learning and multicultural elements with those in a control group using traditional teaching methods. The main methodology included the use of ANOVA (analysis of variance) to study the differences in cognitive development between these groups at three stages of testing. Initially, both groups showed similar results, with averages of about 49 points, providing a comparable starting point. However, over time, the experimental group exposed to seamless learning and a multicultural environment showed significant growth. Six months later, the average score in this group increased to 61.52 and reached 74.42 after one year, indicating a significant improvement in cognitive abilities. The intermediate and subsequent testing results showed remarkable cognitive improvements in the experimental group compared to the control group, indicating the effectiveness of a seamless multicultural learning environment in enhancing cognitive development. This research contributes to educational psychology by providing empirical evidence on the benefits of innovative and culturally diverse learning environments in preschool education. Copyright © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Along with the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the educational systems in the world faced challenges due to the school lockdown and the change from face-to-face to online learning mode to adapt to the emergency health issue. The present chapter reviews the digital divide issues during the pandemic of COVID-19 over three years (2020-2022) in Hong Kong. Regarding the three levels of the digital divide (access, usage, and outcome), this chapter collected and analyzed secondary sources of literature to understand the extent to which digital resources were unevenly distributed among students from different backgrounds in Hong Kong and how various social sectors provided timely support to address these needs. The result showed the good practice of Hong Kong, in terms of the efforts made by multiple parties to provide prompt support to fill the gap of the digital access divide. Nevertheless, the gap in digital capability across individual students may have enduring impacts on their academic study and personal growth, which have not been sufficiently addressed. Copyright © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.