The use of a drama-based pedagogical (DBP) approach, while well-documented to promote active learning and enhance students' generic skills, is under-utilised in the context of higher education, particularly in psychology learning and teaching (L&T). A project, comprising two virtual drama-integrated learning sessions, was implemented to gauge the efficacy of the DBP approach in psychology L&T at a Hong Kong university. Aside from facilitating effective learning and application of psychological theories on the topic of classroom management in a semi-authentic setting (i.e. a drama context highly analogous to a real-life situation), this project aimed to enhance students' creative thinking, problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking skills. A mixed-method evaluation framework was utilised to evaluate students' feedback upon completion. The project's quantitative analyses, while utilizing the subjective outcome evaluation approach, underscored students' acknowledgement of DBP's positive impact on their learning in alignment with prior research. Qualitative analyses, meanwhile, uncovered the underlying five elements through which DBP is conducive to achieving the current expected outcomes. Discussions pertaining to the possible interconnection of these five elements behind DBP and its implications on university psychology education are featured. Copyright ©2024 British Psychological Society.

Engaging students as partners (SaP) is an approach promoting meaningful pedagogical relationships in higher education. Scholars have called for more culturally situated research on SaP that compares Anglophone countries with other contexts. In response, we conducted an exploratory qualitative study by interviewing 36 undergraduate students from Australia, Mainland China, and Hong Kong. Adopting the relational lens of SaP, the interviews focused on conceptualisations of pedagogical partnership, specifically learner–teacher identities and power dynamics. Through comparative and reflexive thematic analysis, we found that understandings of partnership in different contexts were influenced by broader cultural differences. The findings showed that the perception of SaP in Australia was consistent with the prevailing Western discourse, but the notion of SaP was adapted and re-shaped in Mainland China, and in Hong Kong, there were diverse interpretations of it. This study contributes to new understandings of the influence of specific sociocultural and policy variations in SaP practises through culturally situated and comparative research using theorisations of perpetual translation. We argue for future research to contribute collective insights and nuanced, diverse understandings that expand SaP as an approach to global scholarship. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the adoption of distance learning as a new alternative educational approach globally, a shift that has persisted even to the post-pandemic period. Despite identifying online educational advantages in previous studies, the abrupt societal changes brought about by the pandemic have exposed disproportionate difficulties. This study aims to understand how attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children and their parents are influenced by this educational pattern, and to outline a framework to improve their home-based learning environment from a design perspective. Following the Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle (KELC), the research commenced with the analysis of ADHD children and online-schooling in Hong Kong. After problems are identified initially, the observational study of 32 school students with or without ADHD in a home-learning environment is conducted to interpret these problems. This process has identified the key issues of domestic distraction and the need for resource support. The study also provides a multi-functional table design as an initial direction for developing supportive frameworks. Then, another study is conducted with a total of 30 school students with or without ADHD and their stakeholders to assess the effectiveness of the design concept. Therefore, the study's findings provide a valuable insight for proposing the framework to improve the home learning experience via the working area for ADHD children. These research findings not only contribute to academic discourse for validating ADHD children challenges in distance education, but also facilitate ADHD parents, educators and designers to enhance the home learning environment by offering a structured design framework. Copyright ©2024 Scientia Socialis Ltd.

Feedback processes are crucial in doctoral supervision but require adaptation to meet the changing nature of the doctorate, and increasing impetus to publish during the candidature. This study builds on concepts of authentic feedback and feedback literacy to chart possibilities for the development of feedback socialization in doctoral education. Semi-structured interviews with twenty doctoral supervisors in a faculty of education in Hong Kong aimed to investigate their understandings of feedback, its enactment within the doctoral process, and broader feedback inputs beyond the supervisor. Data were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis and trustworthiness was enhanced through a member checking focus group with a sub-set of four of the interviewees. The analysis is informed by sociocultural theory with emphasis on co-construction of insights between supervisors and doctoral students. The findings highlight supervisors’ understandings of feedback as comments, interaction and follow-up; and authentic feedback generated from presenting at conferences or submitting to journals. A contribution of the paper lies in bringing to bear conceptual insights from feedback research in undergraduate education to inform feedback in doctoral supervision. We deploy the concept of authentic feedback, practices that resemble those of the relevant workplace, to demonstrate how journal peer review facilitates the socialization of doctoral students into academic publishing norms. Key supervisor roles lie in guiding the enactment of responses to peer review, and supporting the development of resilience. Proposed features of supervisors’ feedback literacy include sociocultural-based dialogue and co-construction, emphasis on the enactment of feedback and working with authentic feedback of different forms. Copyright ©2024 Taylor & Francis.

The implementation of a research-based curriculum that enables students to develop essential capabilities for this complex world is challenging. There is limited understanding of the implementation of a research-based curriculum in a whole degree programme, and few studies examined how faculty members and students perceived such a curriculum. This study explored faculty members’ perceptions and students’ experiences of four research-based curricula in two research-intensive universities in Hong Kong. Based on document review, 18 faculty interviews, and 113 student interviews, we discovered an overall positive view of research-based curricula but also substantial differences between faculty members’ perceptions and students’ experiences. For example, faculty members emphasised the learning and critical evaluation of knowledge. In comparison, students focused on exploring specific interesting issues and collecting and analysing information without fully recognising the potential of research in generating, applying, and validating knowledge. Moreover, students’ experiences of research-based curricula contained a broader scope of activities than the curriculum perceived by faculty members. These gaps demonstrate that the fundamental goals of research-based curricula to develop ‘powerful knowledge’ and induct students into disciplinary ways of thinking have yet to be fully achieved. The study implies a need to enhance communication between students and faculty members and build a consensus on designing and supporting undergraduate research across the curriculum. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

While play-based learning is important for a high quality early education, only when teachers are confident and competent in enacting play-based learning in their everyday practice are expected benefits of play-based learning for whole-child development realized. A sample of 592 early childhood educators who assumed different job titles in Hong Kong kindergartens participated in this study. This study investigated the roles of these educators’ perceptions of personal and organizational enabling factors in facilitating teachers’ enactment of play-based learning and further their perceived children’s whole-child development. Research Findings: These educators reported that two personal enablers (i.e. beliefs of play-based learning and self-efficacy beliefs) and two organizational enablers (i.e. teacher collaboration and home-kindergarten collaboration) were positively associated with their enactment and further enhanced their perceived whole-child development through different mechanisms. Teachers’ reported enactment of play-based learning played significant mediation roles. Practice or Policy: Policy makers and change facilitators should convey clear messages and take effective measures to promote play-based learning in kindergartens. Kindergarten principals need to create a mutually supportive climate in the kindergarten to praise and appreciate teachers’ good practice of play-based learning, and enhance two kinds of collaborative relationships: teacher collaboration and home-kindergarten collaboration. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Students as partners (SaP) has become an impactful practice in higher education as it enables students to take ownership of their learning and exercise agency. However, the implementation of SaP, particularly in Asia, has encountered many challenges, including concerns about a large power distance between students and teachers. Despite the emerging interests in exploring SaP in several Asian regions, there have been few studies about students’ experiences of partnership throughout a project life cycle. This study explores students’ experiences of SaP in three projects spanning two research-intensive universities in Hong Kong based on the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and positioning theory. Data were collected from exit interviews with student partners, their reflective writings, and their responses to open-ended questions in a post-project survey. Our main contribution is the discovery of multiple contradictions between the project designs and students’ enactment of partnership. Specifically, students’ hesitation in assuming a partner’s role was related to their disciplinary identity, the inquiry methods of the projects, and the pre-determined project specifications. In contrast, the cultural factors, which are largely framed as barriers in the literature, only affected the partnership development at the beginning of the project. Our study implies that future SaP projects need to ensure the alignment between project designs and a partner’s role to facilitate equal and sustainable contributions from students and staff members. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

In this study, we explore the identity development of PhD graduates transitioning into non‐researcher roles. Through the conceptual lens of identity‐trajectory theory and based on interviews with 26 PhD graduates from three leading research universities in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, we analyse their identity‐trajectory development after their transition to non‐research employment. The findings show that PhD graduates develop their identity trajectories based on their existing sense of researcher‐self through a variety of practices that involve intellectual, networking and institutional dimensions. Individual agency plays a key role in overcoming structural constraints in the workplace, yet its level varies according to one's willingness to pursue a non‐research career. The findings highlight the fluidity in identity development and the role of the researcher‐self as a positive legacy of doctoral training, including for PhD graduates taking non‐researcher roles. Copyright ©2024 Wiley.

Introduction: Audio description (AD) should satisfy the needs of people who are visually impaired; however, quality assessment in university training programs has rarely been based on feedback provided by AD users. Aiming to help students truly understand the needs of people who are visually impaired and their criteria for AD, this study adopted user-centered evaluation in an AD training program offered by a university in Hong Kong. Method: Three evaluators with visual impairment, representing the views of AD users, were invited to evaluate 29 students’ film clips that included AD and discuss their evaluation criteria. Eleven students participated in focus-group interviews and were asked to comment on AD products and discuss their own evaluation criteria. The evaluation criteria of the two groups were compared qualitatively and quantitatively with the aid of the software NVivo. Results: The results showed discrepancies between the users’ and the trainees’ criteria as well as differences in their focuses when evaluating the AD products. The users’ criteria were more numerous; however, certain criteria were perceived exclusively by the trainees. Discussion: Without sufficient knowledge of users’ needs, AD trainees are inclined to provide redundant information (e.g., easily identifiable film sounds and speaker information) while neglecting some aspects of AD (e.g., the prudent use of pronouns and literary expressions), which are deemed important by the users. Implications for Practitioners: The results prompted AD instructors to integrate user feedback into AD training to improve students’ understanding of how to produce AD that better meets its users’ needs. Copyright ©2024 Sage.

Flipped learning is an educational method that utilizes technology to provide instruction outside regular class hours, enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes. Bibliometric studies have been increasingly used to assess the status of research in a field. However, no study has explored research trends in implementing the flipped classroom model (FCM) in educational research. Hence, this research explored trends in implementing FCM in educational research using bibliometric analysis. For this purpose, I analyzed the data from 1,093 publications indexed in the Web of Science database using VOSviewer software. The results showed that publications on flipped classrooms increased annually, and most studies were conducted in 2020. In addition, the results also revealed that Interactive Learning Environments journal published the most articles, and most of the publications were conducted in the USA. The institution with the most publications is the University of Hong Kong, while the researcher with the most publications is Gwo-Jen Hwang. Furthermore, the results also revealed 10 clusters demonstrating research trends in flipped research in the education field. Based on the findings, recommendations for practice and research are made. Copyright ©2024 Modestum.