The innovative use of technologies in language learning and teaching significantly impacts language education. This paper aims to investigate technology-enhanced language learning (TeLL) and teaching (TeLT) in higher education through surveying 223 students and 93 teachers across four Hong Kong universities, and interviewing around 50 students and 20 teachers. The current study investigated the e-resources/tools frequently adopted in language learning and teaching, how participants perceived the affordances of TeLL and TeLT, and challenges they had faced in technology-enhanced language learning and teaching. The results reveal that students and teachers perceived several affordances of TeLL and TeLT, such as provision of authentic materials, enhancement of interactivity, and enhancement of learner autonomy. A list of commonly adopted e-resources/tools for language learning and teaching were identified. The students and teachers also indicated what support they would hope to receive from a Community of Practice (CoP) on technology-enhanced language learning and teaching. Copyright © 2022 IGI Global.

In the era of information explosion, it is surprising to find that most of our students have not learned to self-regulate their own studies well. It might be explained by the common use of spoon-feeding teaching method since the beginning of public schooling in Asian countries. The individual differences in intelligence or diligence of students may not have been taken into careful consideration in mass class teaching. Students seem to be expected to overcome their personal limitations in order to benefit from the school curriculum. In recent studies, it is found that students’ failure to learn may be caused by insufficient ability to manage their own learning due to the lack of learning motivation, effective learning habits and skills. Self-regulated learning is widely perceived as a crucial element of successful, independent and life-long learning. Therefore, equipping students with self-regulated learning skills and empowering them to become self-regulated learners have become the major concerns of educators.The professional development programme entitled “Integrating Self-directed Learning in Classroom Pedagogy” has been offered to in-service teachers by the Education University of Hong Kong since 2017. It is a five-week block-release programme for practicing teachers. During those five weeks, the participants are encouraged to put theory into practice. They are divided into several learning circles according to their subject disciplines. Each learning circle is asked to develop effective ways of integrating self-regulated elements in their lesson design and implement the research lesson in their own schools.This paper reports an interdisciplinary lesson study of the professional development programme mentioned. Five teachers teaching the subjects of Business, Accounting and Financial Studies (BAFS), Liberal Studies, History and General Studies in primary and secondary schools were grouped together as a learning circle to plan a lesson on empowering their students

This study explores how master's students perceive their learning experiences and build their identities as postgraduate learners. It also investigates how these students' perceptions affect their aspirations regarding academic careers. By applying the Community of Practice (CoP) framework, this study focuses on three dimensions of master's students' experience; community, practice and identity. Seventy master's students from one research-intensive university in Hong Kong were interviewed regarding motivations for doing a master's degree and reflections on learning. The interview results showed that master's students build their communities partly around shared academic interests. However, the boundaries of these communities are loose and flexible, due to the nature of master's programmes with their short periods of study and large numbers of part-time students. The study also showed how master's students develop their knowledge and skills through doing research and how they evaluate the prospect of becoming an academic.
[Copyright of Studies in Higher Education is the property of Routledge.]

This article reports findings of an 18-month research project, funded by the Higher Education Academy in the United Kingdom (UK), to develop understanding of pedagogical differences in employing emerging technologies with transnational doctoral students. The focus of the research is a Professional Doctorate course delivered by a UK-based university and taught in Hong Kong (HK) by UK academic staff over four weekends each year, with supervisory support throughout the academic year by tutors based in the UK. The research investigated the use of different technologies to enhance the learning experience of the students through three cycles of action research. While literature is extensive in using technologies in learning and teaching in the West, and in teaching international students, there is a lack of research focusing on employing emerging technologies with transnational students in Asia. A multilayered approach to data collection through observation of software analytics, questionnaire and focus groups has resulted in the introduction of new technologies, through which a community of practice, encompassing students in HK and the UK, has emerged. This article reports a new evidence-informed framework which contributes new knowledge and moves current discourse forward.
[Copyright of Technology Pedagogy and Education is the property of Routledge.]

本文透過個案,探討一種教師協作模式-課堂學習研究 (Learning Study) 的實踐共同體 (Community of practice)-如何協助老師解決智障學生學習數學所遇到的困難,從而提升課堂教學的成效。研究發現,課堂學習研究模式,使教師能透過前測及訪談,更具體掌握學習難點及教學焦點,而透過備課、觀課與修訂的教學循環能使教法更殝完善。實踐共同體的安排可使來自不同學校的教師進行跨校協作,有助特殊學校的教師提升教學技巧,並一同創造教學知識。本文建議此種模式可以推廣作為特殊教育老師一種持續專業發展的模式。This paper investigates the extent of a teacher collaborative model, Learning Study, in realizing the Community of Practice in special schools through a case study which helps teachers solve the learning problems of the mentally disabled students in the subject of Mathematics so as to enhance learning and teaching effectiveness. The findings indicate that the Learning Study approach enables teachers identify the learning difficulties and the teaching focal points from the pre-test and pre-lesson student interviews. During the co-planning, lesson observation and revising process of the teaching cycles, the pedagogies are further improved. The cross-school collaboration of the Community of Practice is able to help teachers in special schools enhance their pedagogical skills and create new instructional knowledge. This paper suggests that the collaborative model of Learning Study could be promoted as an approach for the continuing professional development of teachers in special schools.
[Copyright of 香港特殊教育期刊 is the property of 香港特殊教育學會有限公司. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
https://sites.google.com/a/seshk.org.hk/seshk-org-hk/c_publication]

In this paper, we shall explore academic writing in the framework of academic literacy development among Hong Kong university ESL learners of language and education programs. We shall also discuss discipline-specific academic writing in terms of the continuum comprising academic writing in science, social science and humanities and the implications for developing academic writing skills of Hong Kong ESL learners. In particular, we shall discuss in detail a number of issues regarding academic writing in the disciplines of language and education.
[The International Journal of the Humanities Copyright © Common Ground, Zhichang Xu, Lixun Wang, Pui Man Jennie Wong, Matthew DeCoursey, All Rights Reserved. The journal web site is located at http://ijh.cgpublisher.com/]

This ethnographic study-cum-action research documents the cultivation of a community of practice for sustainable professional development among a group of 18 teachers of English as second language in Hong Kong through a series of planned efforts over 10 months. By juxtaposing the theory-driven planned efforts and the spontaneous actions and interactions of the teachers, we aim to chart the way or ways teachers learn and develop as a professional and as a community of practice. Extrapolated from field notes, reflective journals, position papers, and evaluative comments, the authors learn that sensitivity, self-awareness, honesty, and facilitation helped iron out tensions and dissonances arising out of different personalities and different teaching approaches. Unexpected group synergy arising from interactions of experienced and novice teachers, and of teachers from different backgrounds helped bring out the expertise from each teacher. Yet, their communal responsibility faded when they returned to their respective schools. Selected experiences demonstrate that sustainable teacher professional development requires strong individual commitment and support from schools, parents, and the wider educational community.
[Copyright of Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2014.928120]

The two-year longitudinal case study reported in this paper documents a Putonghuaspeaking mainland Chinese undergraduate student's language learning experiences and strategy use in an English-medium university in Hong Kong. Using a sociocultural approach, this paper focuses on three biographical episodes, which recount how the student attempted to create alternative ways of learning and seek new learning opportunities within the learning context, how she came to realise the limitations of her efforts and withdrew from her early active pursuits, and how she followed other mainland Chinese students in memorising words and attached her own meanings to her memorisation efforts. The paper highlights the social, cultural and political aspects of her strategy use and argues that learners' biographical experiences are an important avenue for us to understand learners' strategy use as a complicated phenomenon revealing the interplay between learners' agency and context.
[Copyright of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.2167/illt011.0]