This paper aims to evaluate the fieldwork placement of a higher diploma programme in early childhood education at the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE). In response to both academic and statutory requirements associated with education ordinances, students must take sufficient supervised fieldwork placement hours throughout the programme to learn to be a Qualified Kindergarten Teacher (QKT). In current institutional evaluative practices, the corresponding department evaluates fieldwork placement quality based on concerns about student and supervisor performance using questionnaires at the end of the semester. However, the evaluation might lose sight of unanticipated outcomes and its intrinsic value when it is too focused on the predetermined evaluation’s objectives. Guided by a responsive evaluation approach, this paper suggests a new form of evaluation concerning stakeholder perspectives on intrinsic value in the programme. Accordingly, it uses the practical tool RUFDATA to frame the evaluation practices under its key categories, namely, reason, use, focus, data, audience, timing and agency. By drawing empirical data from students who have just completed the programs’ fieldwork placement in spring 2017, this qualitative evaluation investigates how fieldwork supervision develops students’ professional identity to prepare them for entry into the childcare workforce in the last fieldwork placement in the programme. Copyright © 2018 Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice.

The development and implementation of regular Spring, Summer, and Winter Gifted Enrichment Programs, Gifted Students Exchange Programs, and the Gifted Peer Mentoring Scheme provided by the Program for the Gifted and Talented (PGT) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for gifted and talented students are briefly described. PGT also conducts research to advance the knowledge of gifted education and talent development and furthers the development of its gifted education provisions based on evidence-based information from research. Specifically, PGT does research on the assessment of giftedness and the special needs of local gifted and talented learners and conducts evaluation on gifted enrichment programs, course design and instruction, and students' performance. The uniqueness of PGT, future directions in the development of university-based gifted programs, and program evaluation research in gifted education in Hong Kong are discussed. Copyright ©Sage Publications Ltd.

“新農村學習型學校社區建設工程”是一項由政府、大學與非政府組織、學校與社區、城市與農村共同參與的大型夥伴協作項目。該項目的實施採用了一種演化漸進的取向，參與各方對目標的詮釋各有側重。從變革實施的“忠實觀”和“調適觀”兩種觀點來看，該項目取得了一定的成效。今後同類項目的實施可考慮在學校領導、社會參與及評價方法等方面做出改進。 "The Construction of New Village Learning School and Community" is a large-scale project which involves the partnership between local government, a local university and a non-government organization from Hong Kong, the school and the community, the city and the village. The implementation of this project is featured by an evolutionary orientation allowing local adaptation. Participants of various parties have different emphases about the goals of this project. From the two perspectives of change implementation, i.e., fidelity and adaptation, this project brings a lot of changes to local schools and communities. In future, the school leadership, social participation and evaluation strategies could be improved to facilitate the implementation of similar projects. Copyright © 2010 西北師範大學.

Summary While the increasing awareness of risk in late modernity has resulted in the proliferation and complication of parental roles and choices, few attempts have been made to explore how parent education can empower parents to reconstruct parenthood and transform parental lives. Based on the results of a mixed-methods study conducted in Hong Kong, this article discusses the possible outcomes and experiences of a parent education program that aimed to facilitate parents' holistic growth in dealing with the prevailing culture of intensive parenting. The program was composed of 30'h of seminars and workshops. The participants included 387 Hong Kong Chinese parents recruited from seven primary schools and 27 nursery schools. A pretest'posttest assessment survey and postintervention focus groups were adopted for the evaluation methods. Findings The quantitative results showed that the participants experienced an enhancement in confidence, understanding, and trust in parenting. The qualitative findings indicated that the program helped the participants reflect upon the meaning of parenthood, underline the gains and accomplishments of parenting, and adjust parental expectations. They could also foster parent'child relationships in accordance with their children's developmental needs, uniqueness, and emotions. As a result, these parents were more ready to face the challenges of the anxious parenting culture. Applications The findings support the reconceptualization of parent education as a reflexive practice. Such practice can unleash parents' capacity to construct knowledge from their lived experiences and reconstitute their reflexive and emotional selves to negotiate life choices among the diversity of options in childrearing.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468017316656090]

As social work is an international profession, it is necessary to establish the validity of assessment of the field practicum of students for the purpose of professional accreditation. This study calibrates an indigenous assessment tool, the Social Work Practicum Assessment (SWPA), developed in Hong Kong with a competency-based evaluation (CBE) tool popularized in North America, using data collected from 171 social work final-year undergraduates. The results demonstrate convergence between the SWPA and CBE when rated by field instructors and were greater when the student-assessed CBE was higher. Alternatively, the student-assessed CBE displayed greater convergence with the instructor-rated CBE when the indigenous assessment was higher. The positive results imply the generalizability of the assessments across places.
[Copyright of International Social Work is the property of Sage Publications Ltd.]

Many tangible computational construction platforms are designed with new technologies and children's learning theories to assist children in learning computational concepts. This thesis explores how children learn computational concepts through these platforms, by focusing on three categories of tangible computational platforms: tangible programming systems, computational toolkits for crafts making, and computational interfaces for story creation. Our rationale for choosing these three categories is motivated by the hands-on learning theories argued by three influential educators: Montessori, Froebel and Vygotsky. Given this motivation, we design three dimensions of case studies: abstract thinking through functional blocks construction, creativity through crafts making and expression through stories creation, for analysis of children's learning of computational concepts vertically through three main categories of computational construction kits respectively. Each dimension of empirical studies obtains qualitative and quantitative results, and the results indicate that children have positive learning experience on each category of computational construction kits in different aspects. For the study in building functionality, we use a tangible programming system to study how children understand the abstract concepts by building functional blocks to simulate functions of smart clothing and flows of story, as well as computational concepts such as looping and branching. To study creativity through crafts making, three kinds of computational craft platforms are adopted as case studies. These are the Lilypad Arduino with TeeBoard platform, i*CATch apparel platform and i*CATch robotic platform. The focus is on crafts making in robotic and apparel domains, integrating traditional materials such as paper and cloth with the electronic devices. Through these three different design approaches of the computational craft platforms, we gain a deeper understanding of how children use

Questionnaires, interview, and classroom observations were employed by the author to find out the "washback effect" of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination in English. The effect is shown most obviously in the change in teaching materials, not so much in the teaching methods.