This paper discusses how IT changes the way of teaching and learning of music composition at school. Four music teachers in Hong Kong took part in a series of semi-structured interviews. They described how they had employed IT in teaching music composition and what types of musical products their students were able to create. It was found that the teachers were simply substituting IT for paper and pencil to notate musical pieces, and they were using a rather traditional “practice and drill” approach to teach music composition. A teaching framework, called Pedagogical Framework for Music Composition with Information Technology (PFMCIT), was thus formulated. The purpose of the framework is to promote the more effective student-centered approach in teaching music composition. It is hoped that the framework can help to improve pre-service and in-service music teachers’ knowledge and skills in the area of IT-assisted music composition education, and to establish a better technological environment for teachers to develop students’ creativity. Copyright © 2012 International Society for Music Education (ISME).

This research aims to explore a pedagogical strategy for the optimal use of free e-resources for supporting Chinese learners in Hong Kong to learn primary English grammar. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this research will progressively design, evaluate and then establish an effective pedagogical strategy that optimizes the use of free e-resources for learning primary English grammar. A twofold documentary analysis will be conducted for the design of a potential pedagogical strategy. To evaluate the effectiveness of the designed pedagogical strategy in the real classroom environment, two classes of local Primary 4 students will be subsequently invited to a one-month trial teaching. Students in the experimental group will learn primary English grammar under the designed pedagogical strategy; whereas their counterparts in the control group will receive no treatment during the trial teaching period. These two groups of students will sit for a pair of identical pre-test and post-test before and after the trial teaching, respectively, to investigate the impact of the designed pedagogical strategy on the learning achievement of students. Students in the experimental group will be asked to complete a questionnaire survey after the trial teaching to indicate their perceptions of the designed pedagogical strategy. One-fifth of the students in the experimental group will be further invited to attend individual interviews to share more in-depth opinions on the designed pedagogical strategy. This research will finally advise a model of the pedagogical use of free e-resources that optimizes the learning of primary English grammar among Chinese learners in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2010 The authors.

In this paper, we proposed a productive failure instructional design (Kapur, 2008) to enhance Hong Kong secondary students’ English grammar learning and collaborative problem-solving skills in a MCSCL environment. It is believed that the pedagogical implications of this study will make contributions to the technology-enhanced language learning field. In addition, insight gained from this study will hopefully extend to investigating the impact of productive failure pedagogical design on listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills in the L2 acquisition. Copyright © 2019 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.

A study was conducted for creating digital classrooms to support students to learn subject knowledge and develop information literacy competency as well as critical thinking skills. A total of 144 students in four Secondary 1 classes in a secondary school in Hong Kong were invited to participate in the study. In the 12 trial lessons, every three students shared a Tablet PC for learning the topic “Air Pollution Problems in Hong Kong” in the Integrated Humanities subject. After the trial teaching, the students and teachers were interviewed about their perception of the support from the designed digital classrooms. The study found that the students and teachers positively perceived the support from the designed digital classrooms on developing subject knowledge, information literacy competency and critical thinking skills. Three recommendations are made for enhancing the pedagogical designs in digital classrooms that emphasize the use of mobile technology. Copyright © 2012 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.

This study explores the evening activities of students at the Hong Kong Design Institute in Zone24, a 24-hour opening learning space managed by Hong Kong Design Institute Learning Resources Centre, also referred to as the Library. In doing so, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of 24-hour learning spaces. Qualitative research was undertaken to identify and compare the students' behaviors between daytime and night in Zone24. In addition, this study investigates how overnight activities in the learning spaces facilitate a student's learning. The result of this study can contribute to improving librarians' or administrators' understanding of students' needs at night in a 24-hour learning space in order to implement more effective programs and services for users.
[Copyright of Journal of Librarianship & Information Science is the property of Sage Publications Ltd.]

Inclusive education has been promoted in primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong since the 1990s, and it has now spread to pre-primary education. Without qualified teachers and sufficient resources, however, it is difficult to implement inclusion in early childhood settings. This case study investigated how inclusive education was practised in an ordinary kindergarten in Hong Kong with a focus on its benefits and challenges. Two children with special educational needs, their teachers and parents, the learning support team members, and the school principal were involved in the study, which included the triangulation of observations, interviews, and documentation analysis. The results indicated that (1) the chosen kindergarten demonstrated a variety of inclusive practices and (2) although there were some problems and difficulties, all of the participants interviewed showed positive attitudes towards the inclusive programme. The implications and challenges of implementing inclusion in Hong Kong early childhood settings are discussed.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge.]

The conflicting education values in Hong Kong kindergartens and primary schools pose various challenges to kindergarten teachers in providing pupils with a smooth transition to primary school which requires collaboration from schools and families. This study explored these challenges as well as the benefits of a professional teacher training programme. In-service teachers (N = 35) and tutors (N = 2) engaged in the module ‘The Social and Emotional Aspects of Teaching and Learning’ participated in this study. The trainees’ weekly reflective journals throughout the 22-week module were subjected to documentation analysis. Group interviews with the in-service teachers and individual interviews with the tutors were conducted on completion of the module. Findings reveal a gap between teacher training and providing pastoral care for pupils through supporting the social and emotional aspects of their families in Hong Kong, and indicated that traditional beliefs associated with the teaching profession should be widened. Meanwhile, counselling knowledge and skills should be contextualised and integrated into teacher training programmes.
[Copyright of International Journal of Early Years Education is the property of Routledge.]

This study examined the relationships between teachers' perceptions of faculty trust, professional learning communities, and their professional learning among a sample of 2106 Hong Kong kindergarten teachers. It analysed the differences between the effects of faculty trust in various stakeholders (i.e., colleagues, parents, and the principal). The results show that while trust in colleagues exerted a positive effect on teacher professional learning, the direct effects of trust in the principal and trust in parents were non-significant. Meanwhile, professional learning communities positively mediated the effects of teachers' perceived faculty trust on their learning. Implications for teacher learning in kindergartens are presented.
[Copyright of Teaching & Teacher Education is the property of Elsevier Ltd.]

In this article, factors contributing to the poor perceptions and inferior status of vocational education in Hong Kong are discussed. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is employed as the methodology in examining the discursive construction of vocational education in the policy context. A total of five policy documents published between 1970 and 2015 are included. Our findings show that the socioeconomic transformation of Hong Kong in recent decades, massification of higher education, and cultural factors such as parental expectations are pertinent to the stigmatization observed in vocational education. This article discusses the implications from the findings and concludes with possible solutions for the future development of vocational education in Hong Kong under the novel vocational and professional education and training (VPET) initiative launched by the government.
[Copyright of Chinese Education & Society is the property of Routledge.]

Although the relationship between the classroom learning environment and academic achievement has been explored in subject-free and disciplinary subject contexts, research into this relationship is still lacking in the context of interdisciplinary subjects. This study investigated the relationship between the classroom learning environment and student achievement in an interdisciplinary subject (i.e. liberal studies) in Hong Kong secondary schools. The mediating role of critical thinking was also explored. The participants were 410 Hong Kong secondary school graduates. The structural equation modelling analyses indicated that (1) the Content aspect of the classroom learning environment had an effect on the achievement in liberal studies, and this effect was not mediated by critical thinking; (2) the Pedagogy aspect predicted critical thinking skills, which in turn predicted the achievement in liberal studies; (3) the Relation aspect had no significant effects on critical thinking skills and student achievement in liberal studies. Suggestions on enhancing students' high-order thinking skills and achievement in interdisciplinary subjects were provided.
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