Life education, originating in the West, has been an increasingly important source of moral and values education in the Greater China region. Life education, to some extent, is linked with different kinds of values education that encompasses moral and citizenship education, environmental education as well as religious and spiritual education. In the 21st century, life education could also be complementary to positive education that is related to the development of positive (life) values and the pursuit of well-being. Life education also echoes with health education under the impact of COVID-19 along with life and planning education including life-long learning perspectives. This chapter explores the theoretical and practical connections between life education, positive education and other values education and proposes an integrated and holistic approach to curriculum development for the context of Hong Kong. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy, Margarita Pavlova and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

Learning Study has been employed in pre-service teacher training in Hong Kong since 2007. This presentation by pre-service teachers introduces their use of Variation Theory in and learning from three Learning Study projects in Hong Kong.Project 1 focuses on the teaching map reading skills for understanding Hong Kong landscapes in General Studies of primary four. Two lessons were designed and taught collaboratively by a group of six preservice teachers in 2016. In order to reach the object of learning, i.e., the ability of reading a map, four critical features were confirmed according to the pre-test: the names of the three map symbols (CF1), the functions of the map symbols (CF2), the names of the eight directions in Chinese (CF3) and understanding the questions about directions (CF4). Throughout the two lessons, Variation Theory was the main method to highlight the critical features for students. The pedagogical design of Lesson 2 was revised after the postlesson reflection based on the post- test and observation of Lesson 1. It was confirmed by the pre- test and post- test results that, improvement of students’ability in map reading was bigger in Lesson 2 than Lesson 1.Project 2 focuses on teaching the use of adjectives to primary two students. After a pre-test was conducted, the critical features identified were 1) function of nouns, 2) function of adjectives, 3) the positioning of adjectives and 4) the practical application of adjectives. A total of two lessons were deliberately designed and co-taught by a team of pre-service teachers. It was found that Lesson 2 achieved better improvement in the post-test than in the pre-test, compared to Lesson 1. The key factors producing such differences included blackboard management, activity formats and reiteration of concepts. The results suggest the need to consolidate variation theory and its relevant facilitating factors in order to achieve the most suitable pedagogical design wherein students learn the object of learning

Adopting a phenomenographic approach, Learning Study utilises diagnostic approaches to identify students’ ways of understanding before teaching to tailor-make teaching to cater for students’ needs and after teaching to evaluate the effectiveness of pedagogical designs in research lessons. Yet in the existing publications, there was little discussion on the methodology of designing and analysing pre- and post-tests in Learning Study to ensure the test validity and reliability. This paper reports a study that attempted to fill the knowledge gap by analysing the pre- and post-tests adopted in 16 Learning Study projects in Hong Kong (4 from each of the four key learning areas, i.e., Chinese, English, mathematics and science, 2 from primary schools and 2 from secondary schools respectively in each area). It reviewed the frameworks of test validity and reliability by Heffner (2014) and designed a comprehensive checklist of test validity and reliability for analysing the 16 sets of pre- and post-tests in terms of purposes, contents, structures, types of questions and ways of test analysis. It was found that the application of Variation Theory helped identify the critical features and their structure, which enhanced construct and content validity of the tests. The use of pilot tests and team meetings promote Inter-Rater Reliability. Observations of teaching and pre- and post-lesson interviews were often employed to triangulate with test data to increase the credibility of evaluation. The paper concludes with recommendations for developing valid and reliable pre- and post-tests for diagnostic purposes in schools. Copyright © 2017 World Association of Lesson Studies.

Learning Study has been implemented for teacher professional development in Hong Kong since 2000. Guided by variation theory, Learning Study has three unique features. First, it focuses on student learning of the object of learning in planning, teaching and reviewing lessons. Second, variation is used as a pedagogical tool for lesson design in the hope of enabling students to discern the critical features. Thirdly, teachers collaborate together throughout the process of planning, teaching and reviewing lessons (Lo, et al., 2005). However, sustaining Learning Study may be inhibited by many challenges, including teachers’ pressures from the examination-oriented system, heavy workloads, pressures from parents and lack of support and trust among staff (Zhang, 2015). How to sustain Learning Study in schools is yet to be explored. This presentation reports a study investigating the Learning Study practices in two Hong Kong schools (a primary school and a secondary school), which have adopted Learning Study for teacher professional development for over 10 years. The study utilized qualitative research methods including interviews with school leaders and teachers (2 leaders and 4 teachers from each school) and observation of Learning Study activities to identify the forces facilitating and inhibiting Learning Study in the schools.
Content analysis (Northcutt & McCoy, 2004) of the data from interviews and observations was conducted and the data were coded with the theoretical framework in Markee (1997), which categorizes the contextual factors facilitating and inhibiting the sustainability of Learning Study into four aspects: features of Learning Study, macro-context (e.g., socio-economic development, education reform, teacher education), school leadership practices (e.g., understanding and developing staff in the school; designing organization and cultivating a learning culture; managing internal and external resources) and teacher characteristics (e.g., personality, motivation