Student-driven approaches have generated positive results in student development. This study reports a Students as Learning Experience Designers (Student-LED) Project as one example of employing student-driven approaches to develop learning abilities, leadership skills and reflective habits, in the context of the new senior secondary curriculum reform in Hong Kong. In such reform, schools are encouraged to offer other learning experiences (OLE) to facilitate students’ all-round development. This Student-LED project can be seen as pioneering in its cultural context and for the target participants. Students in Hong Kong were traditionally described as lacking independence, which seemed to contradict the premise of student-driven approaches. The present study as a pilot shows that Hong Kong secondary school students could potentially benefit from a student-driven approach. Sense of autonomy and positional leadership opportunities were found to be important factors to student learning. The concerns of students and teachers during the process were also identified through reflective statements. This study provided some insights into the use of student-driven approaches with Hong Kong learners. Copyright © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The purpose of this study is to examine students’ creative thinking skills in STEAM-based activities by using the Makey Makey invention kit in designing the human-centred design instruments (HCDIs). Human-centred design is a process of designing for people (IDEO, 2011). This research aims to investigate the application of students’ creative thinking skills in developing solution to problem in human perspectives in everyday life through designing the human-centred designed instruments with the combination of creative exchange of knowledge and personal experiences between the designers (students) and users in different age group.Data were collected from 264 adolescent females (n = 264) in the age between 11 and 13, who had participated in the STEAM-based activities in a Hong Kong local secondary school. The STEAM project was provided through the school curriculum to examine the students’ level of creative thinking across disciplines in designing the human-centred design instruments (HCDIs) with Makey Makey to match the actual needs of different age groups, including children (aged 3-6), adults and elderly (aged over 65). The research objectives are concerned with the students’ involvement and attitude in participating the STEAM-based activities as well as their application of their creative thinking skills in the real-world context. The students’ experiences of thinking creatively were investigated through the five stages of creative thinking under the framework of “Creative Learning Spiral” by Mitch Resnick (2007) in STEAM-based activities in Hong Kong context.Pre- and post-treatment attitudinal questionnaires, two class observations and four interviews with both teachers and students were conducted to examine the change of students’ attitude towards creative thinking. Data findings revealed that 1) a slight increase in the students’ level of attitude change towards creative thinking through designing the human-centred design instruments (HCDIs) with the invention kit

This article reports the results of a study that assesses the effectiveness of a Philosophy in Schools (PIS) programme in developing students' thinking skills and English competence in Hong Kong. In the study, training and support were provided for three Integrated Humanities (IH) teachers to enable them to teach PIS to their Secondary 3 English as a Second Language (ESL) students. The students were found to be capable of reasoning and arguing in a competent way about philosophical problems arising from various stimuli prepared by their teachers according to the IH curriculum. PIS was also found to play a major role in promoting the students' critical and creative thinking and to enhance the development of their English language proficiency to a significant extent. The findings of this study suggest that integrating philosophy into the IH curriculum can promote critical thinking, creative thinking and English language proficiency in ESL students. Copyright © 2020 University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education.

The aim of this paper is to examine blended learning as an integral component of a learning culture. By drawing on two concepts- habitus and field - we consider the cultural learning experiences of postgraduate students within the context of a Hong Kong University. It is an examination that allows for an appreciation of both an individual as well as a collective experience of blended learning and in so doing it demonstrates how power is (always) an issue within learning cultures. The paper goes on to argue that if blended learning is to achieve its goal in terms of enhancing learning there is a need to have a better understanding of learning itself where questions are asked concerning the learner, the locations where learning occurs and processes of learning. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

This paper examined the effect of using an online collaborative learning platform on students’ learning outcomes in higher education. An online collaborative learning platform called GMoodle was implemented at The Education University of Hong Kong. To investigate the benefits and drawbacks of online collaborative learning, students were invited to complete the pre‐test and post‐test questionnaires to evaluate their learning outcomes. The quantitative and qualitative studies of 75 undergraduate students were conducted based on the pre‐test and post‐test questionnaires and focus group interviews, and the results showed that students’ learning outcomes especially self‐management skills and collaborative skills were enhanced through the online collaborative activities. In the pilot study, training was provided for in‐service and pre‐service teachers. Most of them reflected that GMoodle is a useful platform for educators to understand students’ learning progress, promote active collaboration and facilitate team teaching across different disciplines. Not only the students but also the teachers benefited from this online learning platform for collaborative learning, fair assessment, and team teaching. Copyright © 2019 The author.

Collaboration between students is particularly important in tertiary education because most courses include group activities in which they need to work together to reach a common goal. Unlike individual learning, collaborative learning involves interaction and cooperation. However, it is difficult to assess individual contributions in a group. Teachers usually collect the final product and give the same mark to all members in the group, so this may cause unfair marking and lead to conflicts in case of uneven workload. To encourage student collaboration and provide a reliable assessment system for teachers, we proposed an online evidence-based assessment system called GMoodle (https://gmoodle.eduhk.hk) with the Teaching Development Grant (TDG-T0210) in the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). GMoodle provides the basic functions of Moodle plus customized features including chatroom, Wiki and real-time progress report. It is a centralized platform for students to discuss, share resources and work out the solution together. Detailed reports, such as the number of posts/replies, weekly trend of contribution, ranking in group and class, can be retrieved by both students and teachers. The objectives of this system are to promote active and collaborative learning environment through peer motivation and facilitate an evidence-based assessment for setting assessment criteria and identifying free-riders. GMoodle was launched from September 2018 to April 2019 with 337 users involving 10 courses in IT, Mathematics, English language and law in EdUHK. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from pre/post-test survey, system log and focus group interviews. The effectiveness of GMoodle on group collaboration and assessment was evaluated by statistical analysis by SPSS using ANOVA and t-test. The results showed that the improvement of problemsolving skills and collaborative skills were statistically significance. Furthermore, decision tree was used to discover interesting

Purpose - The objective of this study is to investigate the factors of two sub-processes – knowledge donating and knowledge collecting – of knowledge sharing in Hong Kong higher education context. This study examines the individual factors, organizational factors and technology factor of knowledge sharing. Individual factors include enjoyment in helping others and knowledge self-efficacy while organizational factors refer to the top management support, organizational rewards and organizational culture. The use of technology system is proposed to be the technology factor.Design/methodology/approach - Based on the literature review, this study develops a structural model representing the impact of six latent variables on knowledge donating and knowledge collecting processes Data from a questionnaire survey of 166 respondents from academics from Hong Kong higher education sector was used to analyze the model. PLS-SEM was adopted in this study.Findings - The result of the data analysis suggests enjoyment in helping others has a positive impact on both knowledge donating and knowledge collecting. For organizational factors, a trust and collaborative culture enhance both the sub-processes. The technology factor only contributes to the knowledge donating process. Several practical implications are provided to high education leaders, for instance, by establishing a trust and collaborative environment, academics are more eager to donate and collect knowledge.Originality/value - This paper provides insights for researchers to further understand how individual, organizational and technology factors affect two sub-processes of knowledge sharing. On the practical side, this study validated several critical factors to successful knowledge donation and knowledge collection. Copyright © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited.

Learning management systems (LMSs) have been launched in universities and other schools. However, because the use of such technology in schools is relatively new in the blended context, it is essential to understand whether students will accept and continue to use it. In this study, longitudinal latent growth modelling was used to examine the relationship between changes to LMS use and belief, and satisfaction with LMS among 1179 students, mostly between 12 and 13 years old, from 25 Hong Kong schools. Both LMS use and belief had positive linear growth over time. We observed individual differences in the students' initial level of belief and the rate at which their belief changed. In addition, individual differences in the students' initial level of LMS use were observed. However, there were no individual differences in their rate of change for LMS use. The initial level of belief and increased LMS use were directly associated with system and learning satisfaction with LMS. Changes to LMS use mediated the relationship between changes to beliefs and system and learning satisfaction with LMS.
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This article is a response to Allan Luke's [(2018). Critical literacy, schooling, and social justice: The selected works of Allan Luke. New York, NY: Routledge] provocation to "join an international, intercultural and peer-conversation" about the imaginings and possibilities of "an education for critical literacies" (p. xii). Using Edward Said's [(1983). The world, the text, and the critic. Cambridge: Harvard University Press] "traveling theory" to reflect on my own engagement with critical literacy over time, place and space, I stitch together an account of how I mobilized critical literacy within the challenging national contexts of Hong Kong and Singapore after first encountering critical literacy in Australia with Allan Luke. Finally, drawing on emerging theories of postcritique (e.g. Anker, E. S., and Felski, R. (Eds.) (2017). Anker, E. S., and Felski, R. (Eds.) Critique & postcritique. Durham: Duke University Press; Felski, R. (2015). The limits of critique. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Moi, T. (2017). Revolution of the ordinary: Literacy studies after Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press), I explore how top-down, "methods" frameworks in critical literacy might be re-oriented towards more radical and inquiry-based approaches, resisting the imposition of artificial limits to critical literacy pedagogy.
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The past 40 years have witnessed significant developments in ELT research, reflecting the changes in learners' language needs and the extensive development of various language learning/teaching methods in different times and places. The aim of this study is to provide a systematic and comprehensive account of changing ELT methods (oral-structural approach, communicative language teaching and task-based language teaching) in Hong Kong's secondary education between 1975 and the present. By adopting Richards and Rodgers's (2014) framework (approach, design and procedure), it examined how ELT theories have been transformed into local curricula (1975, 1983, 1999 and 2002/07) and commercial textbooks (Longman, Oxford University Press) via detailed content analysis. The findings suggest that research into ELT methods in Hong Kong over the past decades has generally directed the designs of the language curricula. Changes in the textbooks, however, have been relatively limited, although considerable attempts have been made to align textbook design with ELT trends. By considering various constraints in the theory-to-practice process, this study offers suggestions for future research and language teaching, particularly regarding the recent debate over the choice between the 'weak' and 'strong' versions of task-based language teaching in EFL contexts, and the post-methods perspective in language teaching.
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