The academic capitalization in higher education has aroused much public attention with its impact on every aspect of universities. To survive in the market, universities in Hong Kong have been striving to build desirable images among stakeholders in public communication. Drawing upon critical genre theory and the notion of interdiscursivity, this study examines the annual reports of six universities in Hong Kong from academic year 1994/95 to 2015/16. Analysis shows that the genre of university annual reports is a hybridity of management discourse, reporting discourse, and public relation discourse. Such hybridity reflects the multi-facet nature of academic capitalization influenced by corporate values of managerialism, public accountability, promotionalization, and stakeholder orientation. The diachronic analysis indicates an increasing awareness of branding and public relations in university public communication. The study contributes to the previously overlooked research on university public relations communication, as well as to the understanding of academic capitalization and its development in Hong Kong. © 2021 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

This empirical study presents a thematic analysis of the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) framework from the perspectives of senior managers and program manager in Hong Kong. Data were collected from 25 in-depth interviews with self-financing institutions in Hong Kong. They were processed qualitatively through thematic analysis. The study has found uncovered attributes of (1) campus environment and facilities (2) peer and teacher influence (3) career opportunity (4) program design and (5) teacher quality and effectiveness in the enrollment stage of the SEM process from both senior and program management perspectives. A new insightful SEM framework has been developed. The results can be useful at the management level within Hong Kong’s higher education institutions as they seek to improve their institutions’ strategic and marketing plans by incorporating SEM as a means of increasing student enrollment and retention, enhancing institutional revenues. © 2020 Informa UK Limited.

Dialogic teaching has been demonstrated to be conducive to the development of important competencies and skills such as creativity, communication skills and critical thinking skills. Yet, the literature confirms that teacher–student interactions in the classroom are predominantly monologic rather than dialogic across subjects, grades and countries. This article reports the results of a study that evaluates the effectiveness of a Philosophy for Children (P4C) programme in facilitating the development of dialogic and inquiry teaching in teachers in Hong Kong. In the study, training and support were provided for teachers to enable them to teach P4C to their students during Integrated Humanities and English lessons. P4C was found to help enhance the teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom in terms of their ability to engage in dialogic and inquiry teaching. The findings of this study suggest that P4C plays a significant role in promoting the professional development of teachers. © 2023 University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education.

This study explores the trends of chatbots in education studies by conducting a literature review to analyze relevant papers published in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) journals by searching the Web of Science (WoS) database. From the analysis results, it was found that the United States, Taiwan and Hong Kong are the top three contributing countries or regions. In addition, most studies adopted quantitative methods in their research design, such as ANOVA (Analysis of variance), descriptive statistics, t test, and correlation analysis. ANCOVA (Analysis of covariance) was the most frequently adopted approach for comparing the performances or perceptions of different groups of students. From the analysis results, the greatest proportion of studies adopted guided learning, followed by no learning activities. It was determined that the studies related to chatbots in education are still in an early stage since there are few empirical studies investigating the use of effective learning designs or learning strategies with chatbots. This implies much room for conducting relevant research to drive innovative teaching in terms of improving the learning process and learning outcomes. Finally, we highlight the research gaps and suggest several directions for future research based on the findings in the present study. © 2021 Informa UK Limited.

Researchers have discussed Hong Kong’s localist identities, nativist sentiments, and populism, but have not widely examined the extent to which populism could be perceived in education in Hong Kong. As the chief participants of the Occupying Central and the radical Anti-Extradition Bill movements in Hong Kong were students, this suggests the need to explore the relationship between populism and education, particularly the then-controversial liberal studies textbooks. According to contemporary news reports, liberal studies textbooks contained much content stigmatising the Chinese mainland. Previous studies of liberal studies textbooks applied qualitative discourse analysis methods. In this study, mixed-method analysis was applied to a specialised corpus comprising seven commercial liberal studies textbooks containing 248,339 Chinese characters in total to explore the extent to which liberal studies textbooks contain information concerning the key features of populism—the heightened division between the inner and outer groups. A division was found between positive images of Hong Kong and negative images of China in the narratives of commercial liberal studies textbooks. Accordingly, the textbooks can be understood to contain populism. The present study advocates that relevant educational watchdogs in Hong Kong provide more guidance on the writing and publishing of liberal studies textbooks in the future, keeping the enquiry-based spirit of the liberal studies course fulfilled, and urges stakeholders of Hong Kong education to consider teaching peace education and developing a more inclusive environment. © 2023 by the author(s).

This study aims to develop an AI education policy for higher education by examining the perceptions and implications of text generative AI technologies. Data was collected from 457 students and 180 teachers and staff across various disciplines in Hong Kong universities, using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Based on the findings, the study proposes an AI Ecological Education Policy Framework to address the multifaceted implications of AI integration in university teaching and learning. This framework is organized into three dimensions: Pedagogical, Governance, and Operational. The Pedagogical dimension concentrates on using AI to improve teaching and learning outcomes, while the Governance dimension tackles issues related to privacy, security, and accountability. The Operational dimension addresses matters concerning infrastructure and training. The framework fosters a nuanced understanding of the implications of AI integration in academic settings, ensuring that stakeholders are aware of their responsibilities and can take appropriate actions accordingly. Highlights Proposed AI Ecological Education Policy Framework for university teaching and learning. Three dimensions: Pedagogical, Governance, and Operational AI Policy Framework. Qualitative and quantitative data collected from students, teachers, and staff. Ten key areas identified for planning an AI policy in universities. Students should play an active role in drafting and implementing the policy. © The Author(s) 2023.

This study highlights the role of educators in the resistance to Hong Kong's National Security Education (NSE) amidst waves of political repression in the wake of the anti-extradition movement of 2019-2020. Education reforms, teacher training and student assessment used to cultivate students' creativity, critical thinking and independent thinking skills. NSE, which emphasises China's perspective of knowledge construction, has contradicted long-standing pedagogies of teaching and learning. The research questions are: How do politically liberal educators navigate these changes? Do they conform and/or resist? Based on the study of social media and interviews with 22 politically liberal former and current teachers, school librarians, educators in public organisations and professors of teacher training programmes, I find that beneath the public transcripts of compliance in schools, there is a repertoire of 'winning quietly' among educators in Hong Kong by training students' 'civil society competence' using less politically sensitive issues, working perfunctorily on NSE-related tasks, using metaphors, jokes and prayers to convey hidden messages, and allowing students to engage in resistance. Classrooms and private online groups remain the third space for atomised resistance. Outside Hong Kong, educators openly counter the ideological influence under NSE both individually and collectively, enabling an alternative to NSE that can reach students in Hong Kong. This study illuminates that authoritarian governments never fully control the stage, and it is too soon to tell whether their attempts to create obedient citizens will prevail. Copyright ©2023 Sage Publications Ltd.

This paper reports a design and implementation of a STEM enrichment programme infused with affective elements designed for Hong Kong students. Specifically, it features a design-thinking approach to develop solutions to a self-selected problem addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Around 30 upper primary school (grades 5 to 6) and 20 lower secondary students (grades 7 to 10) enrolled in the study. Considering empathy as a core value of the design-thinking process and aligned with affective dimensions of thinking and learning, we investigate students' design-thinking development and STEM learning processes while highlighting empathy map as a pedagogical tool. We discuss the implications and insights of offering humanistic perspectives on STEM curricular design, especially for K-12 students. Our results showed that students at different age range were able to use empathy maps to devise designs effectively, despite their varying degrees of empathy. Furthermore, we conceptualize empathy maps as a pedagogical tool that creates physical boundaries in design thinking, making students' mental transitions across design stages more explicit. This study contributes to a better understanding of the educational potentials of design-thinking enhanced classrooms, with the results informing theoretical and practical advice on the integration of the empathy map in innovation-oriented projects. Copyright ©2023 Springer.

In-person teaching abroad experiences, where pre-service teachers spend a defined period teaching in schools in a foreign country, have received considerable research attention in recent years. However, virtual alternatives have yet to be explored. This exploratory study sought to understand the effects a virtual teaching abroad experience had on pre-service teachers' professional learning. Data included teaching logs and reflective writings of two groups of pre-service teachers from Hong Kong who participated in a virtual teaching abroad experience hosted by a university in the United Kingdom and interviews with their course coordinators. The findings suggest that the PSTs found the virtual teaching abroad experience novel and unique, contributing to professional learning. Specifically, the experience (a) increased the PSTs' confidence and flexibility; (b) improved their synchronous online teaching skills; (c) gave them greater awareness of learner differences and needs; and (d) exposed them to innovative pedagogical approaches. The study suggests that virtual teaching abroad experiences could have a place within initial teacher education, especially as the financial costs associated with them are lower than in-person experiences. However, they do not seem adequate to replace a sustained period immersed in an overseas school context. Copyright ©2023 Routledge.

In this study, researchers examined the effectiveness of integrating Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Mindfulness Training into a counseling program for parents of children with special education needs (SEN) in Hong Kong. The goal was to reduce parenting stress and improve parent-child interactions. The study involved 30 parents of children aged 10-15 years who participated in an eight-session online group program that incorporated solution-focused brief therapy and mindfulness techniques. The researchers collected qualitative data through pre and post interviews, as well as video or audio recordings, and analyzed it using content analysis. The results of the study demonstrated positive outcomes of the intervention program. It effectively reduced controlling and aggressive behaviors in parents while promoting empathy and improved interactions with their children. The integrative counseling program provided parents with practical skills and strategies such as positive imagery, focus meditations, and magic words to effectively cope with stress, enhance acceptance, and improve empathy towards their children. The researchers also developed training materials to support professionals, such as counselors, social workers, and teachers, in their work with parents. To expand the program's impact, the study recommended training more helping professionals and adapting the program to different contexts. Furthermore, it called for future research to explore the program's effectiveness among diverse populations and improvements in the quality of life for parents and families, and identify any factors that may contribute to these changes. All rights reserved.