Hong Kong was one of the first places hit with the COVID-19 outbreak in January 2020 and has since responded with several periods of full or partial school suspension, during which teaching and learning often occurred remotely using digital means. During this time, collecting research data and testing students have become more difficult than before. In this article, we report on a large-scale digital literacy (DL) performance assessment in Hong Kong that had to be conducted in a mix of modes--onsite, online supported, and online self-directed--during the pandemic. We discuss the administrative and methodological challenges of assessing DL, and explore preliminary data on the associations between student performance and the assessment mode adopted. We further discuss potential implications, including for high-stakes testing, and make recommendations for assessing DL remotely. Copyright © 2022 Wiley.

This study compares and contrasts teachers' and students' perceptions of online teaching and learning during the COVID-pandemic in higher education using the co-orientation model. Data were collected from 145 students and 31 teachers in two Hong Kong higher education institutions. The findings show that teachers were generally more negative about online teaching and learning than students, but such negative views should be reconsidered as students positively evaluated teachers' efforts to various degrees. It is suggested that during future online learning experiences (1) teachers and students set up expectations together to evaluate online interactions, (2) teachers should not be overly concerned about the potential embarrassment of using camera for class activities, and (3) teachers pay more attention to feedback delivery. Understanding these gaps will provide teachers with insights into more strategic communication and planning to manage the expectations and optimise the online experience for both parties. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier.

Making online education effective and engaging has been a policy priority in the higher education (HE) sector since the COVID-19 pandemic arose in 2020. Based on an online survey and qualitative interviews, we examine experiences of HE students and teachers in Hong Kong, and provide recommendations that can enable countries/economies to leverage on the good practices of online education to rejuvenate HE in the post-COVID era. We find a need for greater institutional support beyond its current availability. Students’ perception of online education is less optimistic than what such labeling as “digital natives” suggests. However, with time, online education is being viewed more positively. Teachers find their online education workload to be higher. More female teachers cite difficulties in balancing work and life, while older teachers report more technological difficulties. Since many respondents come from public affairs programs, which emphasize interaction in the classroom, the findings suggest that a rethinking of pedagogical strategies of public affairs education is required. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

Despite the increasing number of studies on educational leadership during COVID-19, little attention has been paid to the intersections of different educational experiences and perspectives of school leaders, students, and their families that occur both inside and outside of schools. Drawing on eight case studies of public primary schools in Hong Kong, this article explores the challenges and strategies of online learning with a focus on effective leadership practices for supporting economically disadvantaged students during COVID-19. To incorporate the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, a series of questionnaires were distributed to principals (n = 8), teachers (n = 150), parents (n = 775), lower primary students (n = 855), and upper primary students (n = 850) and interviews were conducted with principals (n = 8), teachers (n = 37), parents (n = 32), and students (n = 62). Findings indicated that school leaders and teacher teams demonstrated strategic leadership practices prioritising and responding to the needs and constraints of economically disadvantaged students and their families. The present study draws attention to leadership encouraging collaboration among schools, families, and the wider community, which has become necessary during the shift to online learning during COVID-19. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

This chapter describes a small case study of differentiated instruction and inclusive design practices during a COVID-19-forced migration to online learning at a university in Hong Kong. Fourteen higher education instructors were interviewed, and their responses analyzed thematically. The participants reported that they felt overwhelmed with the workload to consider differentiated instruction initially; their sole focus was on delivering an online teacher-centred class. As they become more confident and familiar with a range of technologies, they started to differentiate instruction. They used student response systems to facilitate learning and focused on engaging learners in smaller groups. Their experiences suggest ways to facilitate differentiated instruction and design inclusive online classes in the higher education sector. Copyright © 2022 Rhona Sharpe, Sue Bennett and Tünde Varga-Atkins.

Despite its continuing rise, homeschooling in Hong Kong and many other Chinese cities is under-studied in academic research, underrepresented in society, invisible in public policy, and even marginalized within parent communities. Unlike many cases in Western societies, homeschooling in Hong Kong appears to be largely a ‘middle-class phenomenon’—better-off Chinese parents in Hong Kong can draw on their resources and navigate opportunities in the existing legal framework so that homeschooling is a viable option for their children’s education. Putting this phenomenon into a wider context of stratification and inequality, alternative middle-class choice and practice that ‘opt out’ of a traditional school system to homeschool their children problematizes our common sense understanding of middle-class trajectories. For instance, would these middle-class parents fear any loss of educational privilege that they would otherwise have in a traditional school system? Or, conversely, would these parents think that homeschooling is ideally suited for their children, who, in turn, may gain even more ‘home advantage’ over their schooled peers? Or would these parents pursue alternative forms of aspiration and privilege for their children? With these questions in mind, this study explores how Chinese homeschooling parents perceive and make sense of their homeschooling choice, with emphasis on the relation to social class. Data were drawn from in-depth interviews with 15 homeschooling families in Hong Kong. We will discuss the preliminary findings of this study and the theoretical implications for how Chinese homeschooling phenomenon constitutes the analytical leverage for theorizing a relatively unexplored area of middle-class reproduction processes. Copyright © 2022 British Sociological Association.

The study focused on Hong Kong mathematics teachers’ personal experiences and challenges in online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. A SWOC analysis is adopted. Results showed that they tried to offer e-learning as an alternative mode of teaching to maintain the education service within the pandemic. Hong Kong teachers tended to focus on external factors rather than internal factors in the initial period of online teaching. They agreed that there was a paradigm shift in the role of teaching during the crisis. They were commonly building a sufficient level in using technology, but this was not equivalent to be competent in achieving instructional goals. Mathematics teachers’ professional knowledge is influenced by their personal online teaching experiences. Their attitudes and beliefs are crucial factors in the role and effectiveness of using online teaching. Copyright © 2021 left to authors.

How can higher education institutions promote online education effectively? While education technology literature has offered various pedagogical prescriptions, inadequate attention has been paid to the individual-level factors that facilitate or prevent participant engagement, such as their e-readiness, work style, and work-life balance. Using data from a unique online survey of teachers and students in the three sites of Hong Kong, London and Singapore, this paper seeks to explore the ongoing experience of online education under the COVID-19 episode in a comprehensive manner that covers both perspectives of instructors and learners. It seeks to understand what kind of university-level support is available and how they are received by respondents, which offers timely insights as an unprecedented number of universities around the world are being pushed to embrace online education. Preliminary results suggest that while technological support is necessary, it needs to be supplemented by other policy instruments, such as flexible deadline and assessments or wellbeing and distressing advice, so as to help tackle the challenge of balancing teaching/learning with caring responsibilities while working/studying from home. Copyright © 2020 APPAM.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought various challenges to the education domain globally. This study examines how a group of non-local university students studying at EMI universities in Hong Kong adjusted to the dominant online mode of learning and communication based on their lived experiences in learning and intercultural social networking during the pandemic. Employing the theory of digital literacies and Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and capital, we show how students expanded, redeveloped and transferred existing awareness, knowledge, competences and practices to engage in a range of digitally mediated academic and social activities in this condition. We conclude by discussing how the findings may inform refinement or readjustment of digitalized/zing international higher education. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.