Hong Kong's universities have been attracting non-local students to diversify the overall student mix and enhance internationalism in higher education. Mainland Chinese students have become the largest non-local student source in this Western-style higher education sector. The diversity of student body together with the promotion of multicultural experience has created major concerns about provision of high quality learning and teaching. Studies show there have been potential peer interaction obstacles between local and mainland students due to different social, cultural and educational backgrounds. However, research on the role of teachers in facilitating peer interaction is limited. This paper reports an investigation on how teaching strategies used in the English Department had an impact on enhancing peer interactions in the university classroom context. Classroom observation containing textual descriptions and numeric interpretations was used. Solutions were recommended to improve the multicultural learning environment in Hong Kong and other universities with diverse student cohorts.
[Copyright of Higher Education Studies is the property of Canadian Center of Science and Education.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/hes]

In this paper, we introduce a new approach to compute the partial fraction decompositions of rational functions and describe the results of its trials at three secondary schools in Hong Kong. The data were collected via quizzes, questionnaire and interviews. In general, according to the responses from the teachers and students concerned, this new approach has potential to be introduced at the senior secondary level, as an alternative to the method of undetermined coefficients described in common secondary mathematics textbooks. Some remarks on the related pedagogical issues are included.
[Copyright of International Journal for Mathematics Teaching and Learning is the property of University of Exeter / Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/journal/default.htm]

Background: There is currently ongoing debate in Hong Kong between the teachers' union and the Government on the reduction of large class size (typically more than 40 students) in secondary schools and whether smaller class sizes might facilitate improvements in teaching and learning. In fact, many Hong Kong secondary schools have already started to experiment with class size reduction. This study seeks to investigate from the students' perspective how class size reduction might alleviate one key psychological aspect of learning in Hong Kong and Asia, namely language learning anxiety. Research has shown that language learning anxiety can have a debilitating effect on students' classroom behaviour, and this study seeks to examine whether exposure to learning in a smaller class informs such findings.
Purpose: This small-scale exploratory study aims to examine whether, and how, class size reduction might help to alleviate language learning anxiety, which has long been seen as an obstacle to second language acquisition.
Method: This study employed multiple case studies in four Hong Kong secondary schools. Each case constituted one teacher teaching English language to first language Chinese students in a reduced-size class (where class size was between 21 and 25 students) and a large class (where class size was between 38 and 41 students) of the same year grade, and of similar academic ability. Multiple interviews were conducted with the four teachers, and data stemmed from group and individual interviews with 231 students. Student interview questions focused on their perspectives and experiences of studying in large and reduced-size classes. A total of 78 lessons were also observed across the four case studies. The data were analysed to identify any emergent patterns and themes.
Findings: The research findings indicate that students reflect on their experiences of studying in reduced-size classes in a mature and confident way. Students reported that smaller

This study investigates the learning outcomes of 25 student teachers in an online video-based learning community (VBLC). The students were participants in the teaching method course of a core primary subject in the two-year part-time Postgraduate Diploma in Education at a teacher education institution in Hong Kong. During the study, the student teachers served as both video producers and community members. Data were drawn from the student teachers' written comments and feedback recorded in the VBLC and the post-course interviews. Based on Biggs and Collis's Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy, the majority of comments and feedback were classified as uni-structural, but more sophisticated responses could also be found. The interviews revealed that the student teachers benefited from the opportunities of peer interaction and self-reflection. The study thus makes suggestions for further improvement of the operation of the VBLC.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2012.669828]

This study investigates how genre can be used as an organisational principle to interweave teaching and assessment in the L2 school context. Relying on data from interviews and lesson observations gathered from two Secondary 1 (that is, Grade 7) Hong Kong classrooms, the study sought to discover how teachers implemented genre-based teaching and assessment in traditional product- and exam-oriented writing classrooms, students' and teachers' evaluation of the approach, as well as the factors that might facilitate or restrain the genre innovation. The findings show that teachers worked collaboratively and shared a common vision in implementing genre-based teaching and assessment, making sure that they integrated teaching and assessment through a focus on genre. Although the limitations of the genre approach were noted, the innovation was generally well received by students and teachers, who felt that the innovation had enabled students to improve their writing and helped teachers enhance their practice. A few facilitative and inhibitory factors are discussed. The findings suggest that the implementation of genre-based teaching and assessment has to be considered within the ecology of teachers' work.
[Copyright of English Teaching: Practice & Critique is the property of Universidad del Zulia.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/research/journal/index.php?id=1]

This study explores the use of video reflective narratives. It reports on data derived from 28 in-service primary school teachers undertaking professional development to support small class (n = 25) teaching in Hong Kong. The findings serve to highlight that such professional development is fraught with confounds, for professional development works at the level of the individual, and is complex and interactive. Analysis of data derived from video reflective narratives suggests that such phenomenon may be explained by reference to a professional developmental learning model. Findings suggest that such interactions are predictable and accordingly, the effects of specific professional development programs can be monitored.
[Copyright of Teacher Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2012.730713]

E-learning has become an increasingly important teaching and learning mode in educational institutions and corporate training. The evaluation of e-learning, however, is essential for the quality assurance of e-learning courses. This paper constructs a four-phase evaluation model for e-learning courses, which includes planning, development, process, and product evaluation, called the PDPP evaluation model. Planning evaluation includes market demand, feasibility, target student group, course objectives, and finance. Development evaluation includes instructional design, course material design, course Web site design, flexibility, student-student interaction, teacher/tutor support, technical support, and assessment. Process evaluation includes technical support, Web site utilization, learning interaction, learning evaluation, learning support, and flexibility. Product evaluation includes student satisfaction, teaching effectiveness, learning effectiveness, and sustainability. Using the PDPP model as a research framework, a purely e-learning course on Research Methods in Distance Education, developed by the School of Professional and Continuing Education at the University of Hong Kong (HKU SPACE) and jointly offered with the School of Distance Learning for Medical Education of Peking University (SDLME, PKU) was used as a case study. Sixty students from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Malaysia were recruited for this course. According to summative evaluation through a student e-learning experience survey, the majority of students were very satisfied/satisfied on all e-learning dimensions of this course. The majority of students thought that the learning effectiveness of this course was equivalent, even better, than face-to-face learning because of cross-border collaborative learning, student-centred learning, sufficient learning support, and learning flexibility. This study shows that a high quality of teaching and learning might be assured by using the systematic PDPP

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]