Equipping with digital literacy and skills related to the latest digital technologies and integrating the new contents into the conventional curricula have been in high demand in recent years. Despite the potential educational benefits addressed by scholars, many pre-service teacher education programs in visual arts still have not established a revised curriculum which is designed to strategically integrate the new digital tools going beyond screen-based multimedia. This exploratory case study was conducted in a pre-service teacher program in visual arts in Hong Kong to measure the effect of 3D modeling software and digital fabrication technologies in developing creativity and problem-solving skills. The participants learned fundamental design theories, digital and physical crafting skills. Then, they were asked to create a functional design for daily life with a 3D prototype using digital technologies and hand-craft skills. The results of this study provide evidence for potential advantages in using 3D digital technologies both in virtual and physical dimensions. Despite the steep learning curve in learning 3D modeling software for the first few lessons, the participants’ level of motivation and engagement increased gradually. The participants’ response revealed that an understanding how things are made to work functionally helped them develop problem-solving skills and expanded the scope of creativity. The shortcomings such as going beyond technical tooling, equipping with sufficient devices and lack of resources for further application were addressed. Copyright © 2019 UCC March. All rights reserved.

As a multilingual society, three major languages co-exist in Hong Kong: Cantonese, English, and Putonghua. After the political transition to Chinese rule in 1997, the Hong Kong government adopted the Biliterate and Trilingual policy, which aims to make citizens of Hong Kong trilingual in Cantonese, English, and Putonghua and biliterate in Chinese and English. However, there are no clear government guidelines on which language should be used as the medium of instruction (MoI) for which subject in primary schools. In order to gain a clear picture of how trilingual education is being implemented in Hong Kong primary schools, a survey was carried out across 155 primary schools and detailed case studies were conducted in three of the surveyed schools to find out the extent to which the MoI policies instituted in each school facilitated students’ trilingual learning. The findings suggest that the principals’, teachers’, students’, and parents’ views towards the use of different MoIs vary, as do the ways trilingual education is implemented. It is hoped that this chapter will help readers to gain a better understanding of trilingual education in Hong Kong primary schools, and of which methods of trilingual education best serve the interests of the students. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Peter Siemund and Jakob R. E. Leimgruber; individual chapters, the contributors.

This pilot study investigates the impact of using mobile devices to facilitate the practising of scales and arpeggios. The AI application was designed by an engineer/musician in Hong Kong. This AI application enables students to practise, record themselves, view their mistakes and prepare for examinations based on the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music’s scales and arpeggios syllabus for five instruments (violin, flute, clarinet, trumpet and saxophone). This study (a) examines the progress of learners who use the application to practise scales and arpeggios; (b) observes how elementary learners perceive mobile practising in a virtual learning environment and (c) proposes a blended learning model that uses mobile practising with the support of AI. Copyright © 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a mobile User-Generated-Content (m-UGC) tool on enhancing primary students’ vocabulary learning motivation and learning outcomes. A total of 40 primary students in Hong Kong participated in this study. The results showed using the m-UGC tool could increase primary students’ learning motivation and significantly improve their vocabulary learning. Copyright © 2020 Yanjie Song, Yin Yang.

In this chapter, a case study of implementing blended learning in a linguistics course will be reported. Traditionally, this course was taught in the mode of a 1-hour face-to-face plenary lecture plus a 2-hour small group tutorial session each week for 13 weeks. To promote blended learning and give students an enhanced learning experience that allows more flexibility and more peer interaction, two of the plenary lectures were converted into online lessons, and Moodle was used as the online platform for hosting the online content. Three levels of online activities were designed and provided online: every online lesson consisted of 3–4 mass open online course (MOOC)-style high-quality lecture video clips (Level 1, resource-based activities) followed by online quizzes (Level 2, response-based activities) and discussion forums (Level 3, collaborative activities). Post-lesson analysis shows that over 320 threads were posted by students on the Moodle forums, suggesting that students were actively engaged in online discussions. A post-lesson survey was conducted after the first online lesson, and the feedback was very positive. The majority enjoyed the flexibility of the online lesson and felt more independent during the learning process. They found the video lectures attractive and effective and the online discussion engaging and beneficial. Other than the online lessons, other resources and activities such as stand-alone course-specific website, weekly online quizzes, and Wikibook projects have been adopted to further promote blended learning. To ensure a fulfilling learning experience, instructional design plays a crucial part, especially in arranging the online lessons and other blended learning experiences. Clear and detailed instructions and guidance were also vital for the success of blended learning. Copyright © 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

With the rapid development of technology, Early Childhood (EC) educators have been urgently required to appropriately integrate various and cutting-edge digital technologies to support the diverse learning needs of students in Hong Kong. The Future Classroom of EdUHK offers an opportunity for educators to integrate innovative toolkits to explore students’ potential learning opportunities, embracing their design thinking and creativity. This study applies an exploratory case study approach to learn the ways of improving students’ learning by using digital technologies in the Future Classroom, and develop practical toolkits for EC educators. Data was collected by activity plans, class videos, and students’ artifacts. Three students aged 6-8 in Hong Kong were invited to participate in this study. Content analysis was employed to analyze the effectiveness of the toolkits on students’ learning modal and engagement. The findings show that digital technologies can help change students’ learning modal from passive to interactive by stimulating multimodal learning, i.e. making an AR vocabulary card required modals of linguistic, gestural, visual, and aural. The toolkits can build a platform for design thinking and creativity, i.e. a map and digital story of the ocean were created by using a toolkit composed of 3D printing models, coding robots, and a digital book App. Students’ learning engagement can be improved by the toolkits, especially on the emotional aspect since they took the initiative to create their stories and characters at a later stage. Lastly, a list of practical digital resources is provided. Copyright © 2020 International Conference on Learning and Teaching.

遊戲教學法在國際漢語教學的課堂操練中能引起學生興趣，具帶動作用。教師話語對遊戲的應用質量有關鍵性影響，但目前針對課堂遊戲教師用語的研究並不多見。故本文以遊戲教學法設計詞彙教學，錄製準教師的教學視頻，並轉寫教學話語，從話語量、話語類型和話語策略等方面進行分析，討論遊戲教學中教師應如何利用話語帶動課堂操練，並針對準教師在模擬教學中存在的問題提出改進建議，為提高準教師教學話語質量以及國際漢語師資培訓作參考。The game-based approach can arouse learners’ interests in international Chinese teaching and improve teaching efficiency. Teacher talk has a key impact on the application of games, but there are few studies on it in classroom games. This paper uses the game-based approach to design vocabulary teaching, recorded the classroom teaching conducted by a pre-service teacher, and transcribed the video into texts. In view of the problems existing in the simulation teaching, this paper puts forward some suggestions, which can be used for improving the discourse quality of pre-service teachers and as a reference for teacher training in international Chinese teaching. Copyright © 2020 香港中文大學中國文化硏究所吳多泰中國語文硏究中心.

自教改以來，學校都建立了同儕備課及觀課的專業發展文化，期望教師互相學習、共同成長，然而，研究員發現當備課和觀課恆常化之後，往往流於形式和技術性討論，對於提升學與教質量的效能不彰。研究員嘗試在一所小學的中文科引入課堂學習研究的模式進行備課和觀課，從學習困難難點出發，分析學習內容及設計教學，並進行有系統的觀課、交流和反思，探討課堂學習研究對備課和觀課成效的影響，並認為提升教學滿足感和發展校本教研模式可以成為未來持續發展的關鍵。Since the reform of education, schools have formed a mode of professional development in collaborative lesson preparation and peer lesson observation with the expectation for creating the atmosphere of mutual learning and professional development. However, researchers have found that when lesson preparation and lesson observation become a usual practice in schools, it may hinder the effectiveness of professional development. Researchers attempt to incorporate the lesson study method in Chinese Language lessons to enforce collaborative lesson preparation and peer lesson observation. Based on the perspective of learning difficulties, the research team analyzed the teaching content and lesson plans, and conducted systematic lesson observation, communication and reflection in order to explore the effectiveness of using learning study model in lesson preparation and lesson observation. The team found that enhancing teaching satisfaction and developing a school-based learning study model could be a key to future sustainable development. Copyright © 2020 香港教師中心.

In discussions about how to implement learning through/in/at play, there is still not a commonly agreed view. This qualitative study investigated Chinese teachers’ and parents’ perspectives on learning in play to attain a co-constructed picture of learning in play through real classroom practices and perceptions using the Mosaic approach. Fourteen teachers and six parents took part in this study. Among the participants, six kindergarten teachers were interviewed to obtain their perspectives on learning in play. They assisted the researchers in the selection of exemplary play episodes, which were filmed in their own classrooms. Four three-minute videos containing the largest amount of learning elements based on the teachers’ views were selected for further in-depth focus group discussions. The selected multivocal video-cued interview clips were shown to eight other teachers and six parents in focus groups to elicit their perspectives on learning in play. The co-constructed picture of learning in play that emerged included discipline in the classroom, more difficult and complicated learning matters, more freedom to play, and teachers’ intervention to facilitate children’s learning in play. The findings revealed different social representations of learning in play in the Hong Kong context, the contributions of which are important and useful for professional education practices and curricular policy currently undergoing reform. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

The development of children’s fundamental motor skills (FMS) is shaped by the environment surrounding them. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the changes of children’s FMS after an intervention program differed between classes conducted in different schooling conditions. Participants were 295 preschool children (62 boys, 133 girls; M = 5.4 years; SD = 0.28) from eight preschools in Hong Kong. Children participated in an 8-week FMS program and their FMS were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2). A linear mixed model was used to analyze the association on the changes of FMS score between children in different schooling conditions: (1) teaching venue size (large or small); and (2) class size (large, medium, or small), while accounting for the clustering of participants within preschools. The changes of object control skills were significantly different between groups with different teaching venue size (p = 0.000) (small: 5.54 (SD = 5.84) vs. large: 2.46 (SD = 6.42)) and different class size (p = 0.000) (small: 8.12 (SD = 6.34) vs. medium: 2.92 (SD = 6.26) vs. large: 4.00 (SD = 5.79)). The findings have practical implications for the teaching of FMS in that the social and physical environment in preschools should be considered for the design of FMS intervention programs. Copyright © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.