The study aimed to uncover the conceptions of creativity among early childhood teachers in Hong Kong. The sample comprised 563 early childhood teachers. Factor analysis supported the multidimensional hypothesis of teachers' conceptions of creativity. Five dimensions were found: novelty, product, problem solving, cognitive processes and personal attributes. Early childhood teachers in Hong Kong ascribed high importance to these dimensions as defining characteristics of creativity, with a person's cognitive processes and personal attributes being ascribed relatively more important while product as relatively less importance. In particular, imagination, multiple perspectives and curiosity were perceived as very important concepts of creativity. Teachers with different teaching backgrounds shared very similar conceptions of creativity. Significant results were found with regard to product only. The findings have implications for early childhood teacher education programmes and professional development in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2012.735645]

This article adds to computer-assisted language learning by extending a study on an essay critiquing system (ECS) feedback to secondary school language learners' writing. The study compared two groups of participants' performance, namely the treatment group which received both the system feedback and teacher feedback (i.e., blended learning mode), and the control group which received teacher feedback only. The study was conducted in a secondary school in Hong Kong in the form of an extra-curricular activity after school. Fifty-three students from the ages of 16 to 17 with different argumentative writing experience participated in a series of five writing workshops once a month voluntarily. The participants were assigned to a treatment and a control group based on the stratification approach. Their scores were compared and an interview with the treatment group was conducted. Analysing the total and content and organisation scores of the two groups, it was found that both groups demonstrated statistical significant gains. Nevertheless, the treatment group's gain appears to be more meaningful than the control group's in view of its group composition. The blended learning mode contributes to the encouraging results as revealed through the treatment group's scores, high rating and positive comments on both system and teacher feedback in the survey and interviews. The analysis also implies the need to improve the system feedback on paragraph coherence, workshop design and grading criteria.
[Copyright of Computer Assisted Language Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2011.630672]

Capitalizing on the comments made by teachers on videos of exemplary science teaching, a video-based survey instrument on the topic of 'Density' was developed and used to investigate the conceptions of good science teaching held by 110 teachers and 4,024 year 7 students in Hong Kong. Six dimensions of good science teaching are identified from the 55-item questionnaire, namely, 'focussing on science learning', 'facilitating students' understanding', 'encouraging students' involvement', 'creating conducive environment', 'encouraging active experimentation' and 'preparing students for exam (PSE)'. Significant gaps between teachers' and students' conceptions on certain dimensions have been revealed. The inconsistency on the dimension 'PSE' is particularly evident and possible reasons for the phenomenon are suggested. This study raises the important questions of how the gap can be addressed, and who is to change in order to close the gaps. Answers to these questions have huge implications for teacher education and teacher professional development.
[Copyright of International Journal of Science Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2011.629375]

Since 2008, outcome-based learning (OBL), a student-centred strategy aiming to enhance the quality of teaching and learning, has been launched as a major initiative among higher education institutions in Hong Kong. When adopting OBL at course level, other than designing the OBL framework, it is also very important to evaluate the effectiveness of the OBL implementation. However, studies focusing on the evaluation of OBL have been rare. In this paper, the authors will report on the evaluation of the implementation of OBL in 17 pilot courses in the English Department in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Five evaluation instruments were developed, and questionnaire surveys and interviews based on these instruments were carried out to find out both students' and teachers' perceptions of OBL adopted in the pilot courses. The findings suggest that both the students and the teachers hold a generally positive attitude towards OBL, but a number of issues have been raised concerning the successful implementation of OBL at course level.
[Copyright of Research in Higher Education Journal is the property of Academic and Business Research Institute. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://www.aabri.com/rhej.html]

A major challenge for language teacher educators working in the area of teacher language awareness (TLA) is to develop pedagogical approaches that will go beyond merely enhancing L2 teachers' knowledge about language by enabling them to make the bridge between the declarative and procedural dimensions of TLA. This paper sets out to investigate the effectiveness of using online discussion forums to develop the language awareness of a group of student-teachers of L2 English in Hong Kong. Through content analysis of the 18 discussion threads initiated by these novice teachers, the research team found that despite the different reasons they had for posting their discussion topics, most of them had used extensively the e-learning platform to request help regarding the two dimensions of TLA, and that their reflections showed a strong tendency to move from the declarative to the procedural dimension of TLA. The study, though exploratory, has enhanced our understanding of learning to teach by opening up a small window for people to understand how TLA affected the teacher behaviour of this group of student-teachers during their teaching practice. The study also shows the research potential of using online discussion forums to understand teachers' language awareness development.
[Copyright of Language Awareness is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2012.680467]

One major impact of globalisation on education is denoted by the growing trend to use English, the global language, as a medium of instruction (MOI) in emerging polities that are trying to enhance their English-speaking capacities. This article emphasises developing an understanding of MOI from a language policy and planning as well as an educational perspective. It explores the policy and practice of MOI in 10 polities in Asia including Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Maldives, Nepal, Timor-Leste and Vietnam, using a broad-based framework that aims to explicate the context, motivation, goals, actors, implementation process and outcomes of MOI. The article points out the dominance of English as MOI which is used in eight of the polity studies included in the analysis. It concludes that while the Asian region as a whole reflects the globalisation of English as medium of instruction policies, individual polities may have specific motivations and goals and that they may develop specific strategies to protect their own interests and identities. More crucially, at the macro-policy level, there seems to be a simplistic understanding of MOI as a cheap solution to complex language problems for achieving overly ambitious politico-economic goals and that this leads to less than ideal MOI implementation illustrated by teachers' and students' struggles as policy actors at the micro level.
[Copyright of Current Issues In Language Planning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2013.792130]