This exploratory study describes how 2 classes of secondary 6 commerce students in Hong Kong have used a web-based collaborative tool, Knowledge Community (KC) to build a project called “Writing up a Business Plan” collaboratively. Using a number of 2-level scaffolds, students participated in the forum discussion to build business plan. The entire process unfolds how students, facilitated by scaffolds and teachers, brainstorm business idea and mission, decide on the type of product, plan production line and eventually formulate a business plan. The sample consisted of 41 students and 2 facilitators. Students’ participation in KC was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The strategies, suggestions and the feasibility of adopting KC for projects in schools will also be shared, along with the implications and key learning points of this project. Copyright © 2004 全球華人計算機教育應用學會.

There has been an increasing attention to integration of project-based learning into Asian school curricula. And the notion of learning community is a heated topic for learning to learn in knowledge-based societies. Yet the cognitive research on using web-based learning community for project-based learning is still under-developed in Asian contexts Based on literature review, some directions in collaborative learning strategies are suggested in web-based learning community or ecology. Through a scrutiny of basic functional tools of a web-based collaborative learning platform called Knowledge Community (KC), the paper endeavors to highlight the significance of four senses of scaffolding supports (in Vygotskian terminology) for knowledge co-construction and pedagogical facilitation in groups of primary and secondary (Grade 1-12) students in Hong Kong and Singapore. Copyright © 2004 全球華人計算機教育應用學會.

This paper reports data from a study about the challenges of educational reform through play carried out by three in-service preschool teachers in Hong Kong. Intending to abide with the new paradigm shift to quality teaching and learning originated from the West, these teachers tried to adopt the Vygotskian social constructivist theory and the Deweyan learning theory through the application of scaffolding technique to foster a democratic child-centred classroom through play. Case study methodology is employed in the study. The findings highlighted the differences and similarities between the types of scaffolding techniques employed and the situation on which to apply respectively by the West and those adopted in the East in the case of Hong Kong. The paper concludes with a discussion that education is a complex and complicated endeavour involving a plethora of judgments, ideologies and belief system which will affect diverse people and the "meaning" of their experiences, lives and Institutions. Implications are drawn through some reflections gained in this study. Future research work on the comparative studies on the belief system of the teachers and its relationship with the application of pedagogic approaches for a 'democratic' early childhood classroom between the East and the West is recommended.
[Copyright © Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong.].

Teacher-student interaction in classrooms is perceived to be crucial for learning. Previous research has compared the interaction in classrooms where a second language is used as the medium of instruction (MoI) with those where the mother tongue is used. This has been done mainly via qualitative impressions. The current study adopted a mixed method design to examine objectively and comprehensively the classroom interaction in a sample of Hong Kong secondary schools that used Chinese as the MoI from Grade 7 to 9, but then switched to English from Grade 10 onwards (i.e. MoI-switching schools). By doing so, this study aimed to identify the possible effect of a change in the MoI on classroom interaction and its potential for learning. Sixty lessons were observed in Grade 9 and 10 in three MoI-switching schools and compared to two schools where English was used throughout all the grades. The results show that, when the MoI changed from students' first to second language, lessons tended to become more teacher-centred and there were fewer opportunities for negotiation of meaning and scaffolding. These findings have significant implications for the relationship between the MoI and classroom interaction and provide important insights into pedagogy and teacher development.
[Copyright of International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2011.588307]