This study explores kindergarten teachers’ understanding of, comments on their actual practice of giving feedback to children in Hong Kong. The research employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, with data being collected through questionnaires and interviews. The sample was chosen from the in-service kindergarten teachers who were enrolled in the teacher certificate course offered at Hong Kong Institute of Education during the academic year 2015-2016. Questionnaires were sent to 150 in-service kindergarten teachers and six teachers were interviewed. Finding indicates that many teachers have the basic understanding of using feedback. They can analyze the aims of giving students feedback not only from the perspectives of students, but also the interaction between teachers and students. However, they seldom explore it through the views from teachers. Teachers’ aims of giving students feedback are mostly for encouraging and it is mainly positive and appreciation. It is common for teachers to give motivational feedback in kindergartens, however, over-emphasize has its disadvantage. It is found that teachers encountered two problems. Firstly, teachers do not have adequate training about giving students feedback. Secondly, teachers lack follow-up work after giving feedback to students. Some suggestions for teachers’ development are made at the end of the paper. Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

Early childhood is viewed as a fundamental stage of life in terms of physical and cognitive development; therefore, the investigation of pedagogy used in kindergarten and young children’s surrounding environment becomes essential. Play is being viewed as a central pedagogy in kindergartens of many countries, and teachers are considered as a vital element affecting child development. In Hong Kong, the importance of “Play” has been stressed for over 30 years; however, government reports and researches reflect the reality that learning and teaching in early childhood settings is deviated from the government’s expectations. In fact, kindergarten teachers face many challenges implementing play in their classroom. Factors such as parental expectations and school policy may discourage kindergarten teachers to further develop quality play time. Playwork is considered as the art and science of facilitating children’s play, and in this poster more about playwork and teachers as playworkers would be explored. Teachers will have a general idea on the benefits of having quality play time in early childhood, how playwork can facilitate play time, and strategies applying playwork theories in early childhood education settings. Strategies such as evaluating play values of different materials, creating playful environments and assessing play environment would also be mentioned. The intended results of this poster presentation are to increase teachers’ awareness in improving play quality in their classroom and to enhance their self-efficacy when hosting play activities. Copyright © 2017 The Education University of Hong Kong.

Teachers' instructional practices surrounding written assignments have been little researched, despite writing remaining the primary means of assessment in higher education, including postgraduate professional development programmes. In this paper, we report a study that explored what a sample of lecturers in a Master of Education programme at an English-medium university in Hong Kong did to support students' assignment writing. We integrate perspectives provided by the relevant higher education literature, the academic literacies approach and North American rhetorical genre studies to shed light on the findings derived from our analyses of interview and documentary data. We showed that our lecturer participants both engaged in direct instruction on assignment writing and provided indirect support. Our study contributed to the existing literature and raised questions for future research.
[Copyright of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education is the property of Routledge.]

This study examines the development of education and the curriculum for children with mental handicap in Hong Kong, the influence of the Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) reform on the development of the curriculum for these children and its implementation in a special school over a period of two years. Three research strategies were used: historiography, naturalistic evaluation and a case study. Data was gathered by means of document collection, interviewing and observation, and analysed by the method of constant comparison. The findings are considered in the light of political, technological and cultural factors in the developments of education and curriculum for children with mental handicap, in the introduction of the TOC to these children, and in the school personnel's interpretation and views towards its implementation. The extent of implementation of the TOC in the case study school was examined with regards to changing practices in materials, teaching approaches and teachers' beliefs. Five key themes emerged from the study: the extent of TOC implementation at school and classroom levels, the Education Department's commitment towards the education of children with mental handicap, whether curriculum reform was truly considered necessary, the ethos of teaching and the culture of special education/schools. It was concluded that the implementation of the TOC for children with mental handicap was a poor example of effective change, given the problematic nature of the reform, in particular the inadequate management of the change process. It was also evident that this reform repeated many past failures, making long term success of the TOC in special schools somewhat doubtful.

Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) diving is always regarded as a risky activity to be conducted as an extra-curricular activity in the schools of Hong Kong. However, it provides a golden opportunity for students to experience the marine nature and serves as an excellent pedagogical tool of field based learning on the environmental education. The presentation will report a case study of an international school in Hong Kong on how they utilize SCUBA diving as a tool to enhance their students' knowledge about ocean and to foster the pro-environmental attitude. The teachers of the school have developed a tailor-made curriculum using problem-based approach, articulating with the discussion of current local environmental issues on marine conservation. The students have been forming a team to join the annual global citizen-scientist programme, Reef Check, to contribute their effort in revealing the health of coral community system in Hong Kong. A mixed research method, which includes semi-structured interviews of teachers, current students and alumni, and the self-administered questionnaire for them, was adopted in the study to evaluate the ocean literacy and pro-environmental attitude of the students and the effectiveness of the programme. The difficulties faced by both the teachers and the students throughout the implementation period of the programme will be reported. The opportunity and the challenge to run such a programme in the local school will be discussed, which would provide significant insights to other local schools conducting similar field-based learning and teaching activities.

Recent educational research reveals that case studies can be applied in STEM education as a pedagogically powerful method for teaching scientific concepts and contents as well as science process skills. However, there exists very little research or literature on the instructional use of case study in STEM education in Hong Kong. Hence, a team of science educators and scientists initiated a collaborative project to investigate how feasible case study can be incorporated in STEM education. Over a period of seven months, we developed case teaching materials (including case story line with authentic data, worksheets for field trip and laboratory experiments, online/remote-controlled experiments, aerial movies filmed by drones and virtual reality videos etc.) for topics purposefully selected from (i) Hong Kong Wetland Park, (ii) two large sewage treatment plants/projects of the Drainage Services Department, and (iii) landfill gas used by the Town Gas company. This teaching approach was implemented in three different courses in our education university. A set of instrument for mixed research method was specifically developed or modified for collecting data on the learning effectiveness and feedback from a total of 115 students enrolled in the aforementioned three courses. Essential features of the case teaching materials and preliminary findings of the evaluation will be presented. The discussion on the difficulties encountered in the development and implementation stages as well as the direction for the future research and development work will be highlighted.

This study examined the relationship between teachers’ beliefs regarding self-regulated learning (SRL), together with key demographic variables, including gender, school sector and teaching experience, and their SRL instruction. A survey investigating teachers’ beliefs and instructional practices regarding SRL was administered to 873 Hong Kong teachers teaching in primary (N = 429) and secondary schools (N = 444). The instruments were examined from a Rasch measurement perspective and the results demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties of the instruments for use with the current sample. The Rasch-calibrated person measures were subsequently subject to hierarchical multiple regression analyses. The results showed that teachers’ beliefs about the benefits of SRL and student capacity in implementing SRL were positive and significant predictors of SRL instructional practices. Gender was also a significant predictor of SRL instructional practices, with female teachers demonstrating higher levels of SRL instructional practices. The implications of the findings for teaching practice and teacher education are discussed.
[Copyright © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.]

In this paper, drawing on Bakhtin's carnival theory, I argue that teachers can play a transgressive role - similar to that of the carnival fool - by taking on a story role and by interacting with the children in the drama convention of Teacher-in-Role. The carnival notion of 'decrowning-crowning' allows me to understand how the teachers disguise and share their power in the drama classroom. Based on a lesson conducted in a Hong Kong kindergarten, I investigate how the teachers and the children's acting bodies, exaggerated emotions and transgressive props can materialise 'decrowning-crowning' actions. In the process, the teachers decrown themselves of their own authority, parody the given story and at the same time, crown the children to laugh, feel, respond and act freely. However, the mainstream ideology and educational culture prevailing in Hong Kong can regress in the process and serve to restrict, if not counterfeit, the decrowning-crowning process.
[Copyright © 2017 Pedagogy, Culture & Society.]