This chapter presents findings from an exploratory case study, conducted in 2018 and 2019, that focused on the investigation of Free Learning at International College Hong Kong Secondary. Free Learning is one of the school-based curricular practices that can be considered an act of resistance against educational discourses centred around the learnification of education, which often implies an increase in learning freedom for students and a decrease in significance and value of the teacher role. The study explored the roles of teacher and student in Free Learning: to what extent Free Learning has an effect on both and how the student-teacher relationship is reconsidered. Data were collected and analysed through semi-structured interviews, observations and questionnaires, an analytical framework based on the school’s Approaches to Learning and the International Baccalaureate Standards and Practices. Additionally, Biesta’s (2009) work on the purposes of education and Foucault’s (1982) concept of “technologies of the self” were used as a theoretical lens. Findings show that the Free Learning approach allows for a student-teacher relationship that is reciprocal and that is neither focused on outcomes nor performance. These findings are discussed and framed, and suggestions are made for adoption and further research of Free Learning in different educational settings. Copyright © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ross Parker, David Coniam and Peter Falvey; individual chapters, the contributors.

This chapter describes how Free Learning was adopted at the Education University of Hong Kong in a course which is part of the bachelor of education – Minor in Teaching and Learning in International Schools, a pre-service teacher education programme. The decision to adopt Free Learning at university level since January 2019 was the result of positive findings of a case study at International College Hong Kong in 2018 and the promises Free Learning seemed to hold for wider application (see Chapter 13 this volume). The rationale, description and evaluation of the adoption process of Free Learning in this chapter is given with the purpose of getting tertiary educators to consider their thinking about the why and how of innovative practices and to connect their courses to a complex and crisis-ridden world. The chapter emphasises the importance of developing students as responsible and thoughtful individuals and also how Free Learning – with this in mind – could be considered in different contexts. Copyright © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ross Parker, David Coniam and Peter Falvey; individual chapters, the contributors.

In learning environments research, limited attention has been paid to the effects of the family environment on student thinking. This study constructed a five-dimension survey of the family environment, based on previous studies of the classroom learning environment, and used it to compare the effects of the family environment and the classroom learning environment associated with an interdisciplinary course (i.e., Liberal Studies) on the critical thinking disposition of 2189 secondary students in Hong Kong. Stepwise regression revealed that: the overall effects of the classroom learning environment of Liberal Studies on critical thinking disposition were greater than those of the family environment; the content-oriented dimensions of both environments were stronger predictors of critical thinking disposition than the relationship-oriented dimensions of both environments; and the effect of the dimension of challenging task on critical thinking disposition was stronger than that of other pedagogy-oriented dimensions. Also the means of all dimensions of the family environment were significantly lower than those of the corresponding dimensions of the classroom learning environment. It is suggested that more effort should be made to enhance both classroom learning environment and family environment to generate convergent forces to efficiently cultivate students’ critical thinking. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) has been the focus of significant attention in recent years because of its growing social importance and pedagogical value. In Hong Kong, an increasing number of K-12 schools are planning or piloting their grassroots AIED incorporation practices. However, progress is reportedly slow due to a number of barriers. Unfortunately, because of their limited scope, disputed interpretations and contextual irrelevance, current research literature seems to be of limited referencing value in aiding schools to address the issues and overcome the barriers. This paper highlights the necessity of embracing AIED as wide-ranging given the current understanding of it as a collective notion. Three major directions of AIED are identified: Learning from AI, Learning about AI, and Learning with AI. A collective case study, which examined the perceived barriers to AIED incorporation in Hong Kong K-12 schools with different AIED directions, was conducted. Qualitative data were gathered via ten semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders from two schools. Ertmer’s (1999) typology was applied to segregate the barriers. The findings showed that both first-order and second-order barriers existed, although they varied between the cases. It was also found that the barriers did not hinder in isolation but appeared to be interconnected. The findings suggest that schools use differentiated strategies to tackle barriers according to their approach to incorporating AIED. Moreover, there is a need to trace the links between barriers and prioritise school efforts to remove or reduce them with high linkage. Several recommendations for practice are given. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Undergraduates are often advised to expand their discipline-specific vocabulary in order to cope with the rigor of reading and writing academic texts. For the students studying in English-medium settings, it is in their interest to acquire vocabulary in their disciplines as this is vital to academic success. While students recognize the importance of discipline-specific vocabulary acquisition, they are typically unable to do so due to their heavy work on learning and assessment tasks. With the advent of mobile technology, one way to address this problem is to create vocabulary apps. To meet this need, this paper presents a gamified, discipline-specific vocabulary learning app Books vs Brains@PolyU. It was developed to help busy undergraduates to build a repertoire of the vocabulary across seven disciplines. We explored students' perceptions and evaluation of this tool via interviews with sixteen student participants of the project. The results show that students found the tool useful and motivating, indicating the effectiveness of the app in helping busy undergraduates to build and expand their knowledge of discipline-specific vocabulary. Copyright © 2021 Hong Kong Bao Long Accounting And Secretarial Limited. All rights reserved.

While technology use is becoming increasingly common in education, teachers remain reluctant to use it and hesitant on how best to incorporate it into their teaching and practice.  There is a strong demand from institutions for English language teachers to cope with the changing landscape of teaching in the 21st century.  This explorative study investigated Hong Kong tertiary teachers’ beliefs on continuing professional development activities to enhance their teaching.  The study had a two-phase research design, with an initial questionnaire (N = 58) followed by semistructured interviews (N = 12) to unpack the participants’ hidden voices.  The findings illustrated that most teachers are enthusiastic about professional development activities, though there is a misalignment between what universities value and reward and what teachers see as most beneficial for enhancing their teaching practices.  The results suggested that professional development activities should focus on sharing good teaching practice (e.g., informal chats, mentoring) within universities rather than on rewarding attending conferences and on-off, nonintegrated workshops. Copyright © 2021 Lucas Kohnke.

The advantages and disadvantages of ability grouping for student achievement are strongly contested, with studies presenting different results. However, much of this research has focused on class-level or subject-level ability grouping. Relatively less research has focused on school-level ability grouping. More importantly, the role of teacher support has often been neglected in the ability grouping literature. The aim of this study was to shed light on the under-investigated area of school-level ability grouping, with teacher support examined as a crucial theoretical mechanism. We examined whether teacher support plays a mediating and/or moderating role in terms of how school-level ability grouping is related to student achievement in English and mathematics. The participants were 554 Hong Kong secondary students from the high- (Band 1), medium- (Band 2), and low- (Band 3) ability groups. The results indicate that students from high-ability groups enjoyed greater levels of teacher support, which partly explains their higher levels of achievement. This finding supports a mediation mechanism. Moreover, the results also provide support for a moderation mechanism. When students in low-ability groups received high levels of teacher support, they were able to achieve as much as students in the high-ability groups, in English but not for math. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive school closures worldwide and many schools were forced to adopt online teaching mode. Purpose: This survey study aims to examine the effectiveness of online teaching in physical education (PE) and support needed from the teachers’ perspective. Methods: Responses from 294 frontline PE teachers were collected via an online survey between 4 and 29 January 2021. Results: Four major findings were highlighted in our study. First, most teachers reported that online PE lessons were not effective to improve motor skill acquisition and physical activity level, the major reasons for which were “lack of practical training”, “students’ lack of learning motivation/interest”, and “limited interpersonal interactions”. Second, most teachers encountered difficulties in online teaching, with major difficulties comprising “limited interpersonal interactions’ and “difficult to retain students’ learning motivation/interest”. Third, most teachers felt that online teaching was stressful due to the increased workload in preparation and safety concerns of the home-exercise programme. Fourth, many teachers suggested that schools or governments should provide online teaching kits, such as suggested online lesson plans or home activity recommendations, for their reference. Conclusions: In summary, the effectiveness of online teaching in PE during COVID-19 school closures was generally perceived to be low and difficult by the frontline PE teachers. Schools and governments should provide sufficient support, such as online teaching kits and concrete teaching guidelines, for PE teachers to develop creative and interactive online lessons, which will in turn benefit students in motor skill acquisition and physical activity level. Copyright © 2021 JPES.