In the last 20 years, humane education (HE) has undergone a paradigm shift from a simple animal welfare education model to a teacher-led positive education approach that cultivates kindness, love, and empathy in children and youth. While teachers’ humane attitudes are considered a prerequisite for HE program success in school settings, their attitudes toward animals have received little attention to date. This study investigated pre-service teachers’ humane attitudes toward animals and assessed whether and to what extent these attitudes are correlated with empathetic tendencies as well as variables such as gender and current and previous pet ownership. A total of 226 pre-service teachers in Hong Kong completed the Animal Attitude Scale (AAS) and the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). The results showed that pre-service teachers showed moderate concern for the humane treatment of animals, and a difference in humane attitude was identified based on sex: female pre-service teachers tended to express more humane attitudes than their male counterparts. Moreover, pre-service teachers with greater tendencies toward warmth and compassion demonstrated a more welfare-oriented attitude toward animals. The results of the current study support using HE as a positive education approach and imply that the provision of training for pre-service teachers and teachers should be given higher priority by humane educators. Humane educators are recommended to recruit pre-service teachers as HE program instructors in their research projects. Copyright © 2020 ISAZ.

The following study reflects and explores the dynamics of aesthetic experiences within drama improvisations. This arts-based research was carried out in Hong Kong with six Cantonese children who were aged 3-5 years. Data were collected from the video transcripts of five workshops and the researcher's own research journal. Two significant milieus were observed: switching in-between roles and intuitive creativity is not talkback. I argue that because each of these two milieus provide the foreground for the complex -- and at times contradictory -- nature of children's aesthetic experiences where Deleuzian power is at play, opportunities arise for both, challenging the traditional adult-child power relations, and in so doing, educators can be able to reconfigure and reconceptualise teaching goals and practices, both generally and specifically, within the context of early childhood education.
[Copyright of Journal of Early Childhood Research is the property of SAGE Publications.]

This article reports the results of a study that assesses the effectiveness of a Philosophy in Schools (PIS) program in developing English as a Second Language (ESL) students' thinking skills and English competence in Hong Kong. In the study, training and support were provided for two English teachers to enable them to teach PIS to their Secondary 4 ESL students during English lessons. The students were found to be capable of reasoning and arguing about philosophical problems arising from various stimuli prepared by their teachers according to the English curriculum. Also, PIS was found to play an important role in promoting the students' critical and creative thinking and enhance the development of their English language proficiency to a significant extent. The findings of this study suggest that integrating philosophy into the English curriculum can promote critical thinking, creative thinking, and English language proficiency in ESL students. Copyright © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This study analyses responses (n = 309, across 94 schools) to the General Self-Efficacy Scale (Zhang and Schwarzer [1995]. "Measuring Optimistic Self-Beliefs: A Chinese Adaptation of the General Self-Efficacy Scale." Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient 38 (3): 174-181) from Hong Kong primary teachers of inclusive music classes. Analysis of these results sheds light on the impact that contextual reforms have on these non-core subject music teachers' practice. Respondents' perceived self-efficacy is moderate - characterised as a see-saw relationship between their personal and external domains. A possible behavioural intervention suggests professional-sharing being further enriched were current Education Bureau's in-service SEN courses to be inclusive of all primary school subjects, including music. Specific factors that underpin these respondents 'moderate' self-efficacy are identified as forming two clusters, human resource management and stress, with possible behavioural interventions for these being outlined.
[Copyright of Music Education Research is the property of Routledge.]

Guided with an integrated theoretical framework of textbook and ideology, this study compares two versions of Chinese history textbooks published by one publisher in two different publication systems which were enacted immediately before and soon after President Xi Jinping's 2012 ascendancy. Critical discourse analysis shows that, despite seeking to balance differ groups' histories, sharing a desire of consolidating the Communist Party of China's (CPC's) domination, and supposedly following curriculum standards made before 2012, the new version of textbooks greatly differed from the old version, reflected Xi's formal ideology and authority, and updated his informal ideology while following established guidelines for conveying historical materialism. This study concludes that knowledge in Chinese history textbooks serves the CPC's political needs, and especially reflects the-then top leader's efforts at consolidating Party dominance, signifying his power, and cultivating nationalism.
[Copyright of Compare-a Journal of Comparative and International Education is the property of Routledge.]

This study examined 44 students’ engagement in the composition of popular and classical music in a computer-mediated environment. The study took place over the course of one school year at a government-funded secondary school in Hong Kong that had 30 iMac music workstations. Participants were 22 Form 3 students (aged 14–15) and 22 Form 4 students (aged 15–16) who composed in different genres consisting of popular music styles and classical music styles (i.e. baroque, classical and romantic period music), respectively, on the computer as part of the school’s music curriculum. At the end of the study, participants completed a retrospective assessment to examine the correlation between engagement in music learning and computer-mediated composition. The results indicated three areas that should be considered in music curriculum development: 1) sustainable engagement in learning both classical and popular music; and 2) the idea of ‘de-composing’ and ‘re-composing’ pedagogy in both classical and popular music styles. The findings suggest that ‘de-composing’ and ‘re-composing’ pedagogy in computer-mediated composition may engage students in ways that promote deeper learning by combining ‘old’ and ‘new’ musical styles through an engagement cycle that enhances an understanding of both classical and popular music. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

FIBER (Flipped Issue-Based Enquiry Ride) is a teacher-facilitated interactive pedagogic framework that the authors propose to integrate flipped learning into social humanities education. This paper reports a quasi-experimental study (with mixed methods) which examined the pedagogic effectiveness of FIBER in the authentic setting of formal curriculum learning and teaching. The study involved totally 611 Secondary-4 students from academically top, middle and bottom schools in Hong Kong. In comparison with the conventional issue-based enquiry learning approach, FIBER had different intensity of positive effects on the high, moderate, and low academic-achieving student participants. This paper provides researchers and educational practitioners with empirical evidence for supporting wider adoption of FIBER in social humanities education, as well as harnessing flipped learning in formal schooling. Apart from discussing the benefits, the authors also underline the challenges of FIBER and suggest future work.
[Copyright of Interactive Learning Environments is the property of Routledge.]

歷史教科書的結構可以分為課文系統和課文輔助系統兩部分。課文系統是教科書的主體內容,課文輔助系統則起到工具性的作用,兩者都是教科書必不可少的組成部分。目前,學術界在教科書比較研究方面,關於內地和香港中國歷史教科書課文系統的研究成果較多,因而本文從課文輔助系統角度,對兩地初中中國歷史教科書進行比較分析。本文以香港雅集版和內地部編版初中中國歷史教科書為例,將兩版教科書進行分析和比較,以此深化對課文輔助系統的認知與理解。除緒論和結語外,文章總共分為四章內容:第一章內容為兩版初中中國歷史教科書導學系統的比較。本文從編輯說明、目錄和課前提要等方面,比較兩版教科書導學系統的異同點。總體而言,雅集版導學系統生動有趣,部編版則簡明扼要。第二章內容是兩版初中中國歷史教科書闡釋系統的比較。對兩版教科書闡釋系統進行比較,主要選取了文獻資料、注釋和圖表資料等欄目。通過比較發現,雅集版的闡釋系統形式多樣,部編版則傾向於典型性和針對性。第三章主要是兩版初中中國歷史教科書鞏固拓展系統的比較。通過課內思考題、課後習題和拓展活動的分析,探討兩版教科書鞏固拓展系統的特點。雅集版鞏固拓展系統注重探究能力的培養,部編版側重基礎知識的掌握。第四章是對內地初中中國歷史教科書課文輔助系統教學和編寫的啟示。在比較分析的基礎上,學習香港雅集版課文輔助系統的優點,使歷史教師課堂教學更加完善,也希望對歷史教科書課文輔助系統的編寫有所啟發。