Valid feedback is essential for the administrators, educators, parents and, of course, for children to be able to steer their development in a sustainable way. Key influential theorists such as Montessori, Piaget, Vygotsky, and others all used observations extensively to understand how children learn and use knowledge about children's learning to improve pedagogies and children's lives. However, most adults including teachers in the ECEC settings have not always observed children and tracked their growth.The grantees of Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Dr James Ko, Professor Doris Cheng, and Dr Jyrki Reunamo, have collaborated to find relationships between young children's involvement, adaptation and agency in early childhood settings through systematic observations. More than 100,000 observations were documented in research and professional development programs conducted in Finland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. By using simple cross-tabulation, researchers and teachers can obtain information about the context-specific aspects of learning, emotions and social relations. For example, children’s strategies to confront bullying were connected to their observed activities (Reunamo, Ko, Cheng, Lee, Wang, & Salminen, 2016). Agency and openness orientations observed in children were found affecting their differential development trajectories including their school readiness (Ko, 2015) and some children may show a higher risk in certain aspects of growth (Ko, 2015; Reunamo et al., 2016). It is well-known that "play" related activities in Hong Kong are very different from Finnish one (Cheng & Stimpson, 2004, Cheng, 2012), though western teaching approaches are translated in the Hong Kong early childhood curriculum (Cheng, 2006). By systematic observations, Cheng and Chen (2017) also showed that children in play-based activities showed the strongest class involvement. Recently, three researchers have developed self-accessible training materials with video clips and demonstrated how

This study was to examine the impacts of staff-child ratio on the quality of care and education for toddler-age children through controlling the variables of demographic features and structural characteristics of the compared classrooms. Two toddler classrooms in Hong Kong adopting different staff-child ratios were selected for the comprehensive quality assessments by using the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale - Revised (ITERS-R) approach. The findings indicated a negative association between the staff-child ratio and the global quality of centre-based care and education for toddlers. The quality related to the "Interaction" and "Personal Care Routines" was found to be significantly related to the ratio, while the quality associated with the "Space and Furnishings" and "Program Structure" was less affected. The results of the study demonstrate the applicability of the ITERS-R in a new cultural and linguistic environment, and provide information on how staff-child ratio affects various aspects of the quality of care and education for toddlers. Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

The concept of the associate degree is new to the Hong Kong tertiary education system. Public discussion and research have focused much on the policy and operational aspects of this tier, but empirical efforts to examine associate degree students' learning experiences and how it relates to the policy are relatively sparse. The present study characterised Hong Kong associate degree students' learning experiences in this new tier of tertiary education from the light of human capital theory using qualitative methods. Thirty-five students forming 11 focus groups participated in the study. The focus group interview was exploratory and semi-structured, inviting the students to discuss their transition experiences. Three themes were grounded on the data: 1) Inferior identity; 2) Dual purposes of associate degree; and 3) Intense competition and stress. The present finding regarding associate degree students' learning experience yields implications on policy-making; specifically on the provision of financial support to minimise the cost incurred and broadening of admission in order to make this tier an integral part of the tertiary education system in Hong Kong to promote public perception of economic gain. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Background: Although an increasing body of research shows the positive relationships between positive achievement emotions (enjoyment and hope) and students’ learning strategies, and academic achievement, the majority of studies were cross-sectional in nature and typically conducted in Western countries[Pekrun, 2006,; Pekrun, Goetz, Frenzel, Barchfeld, & Perry, 2011; Pekrun, Lichtenfeld, Marsh, Murayama, & Goetz, 2017].Aim: This study extended previous achievement emotions to a sample of Chinese university students by using an experimental design.Method: An intervention approach termed Team-based Learning (TBL) was implemented in four sessions of a general education breath course in Hong Kong Chinese students. Two classes of students were involved (N=80). One class was treated as experimental, the other was control.Results: The results showed that TBL produced significantly positive effects on enhancing students’ positive emotions (learning-related enjoyment and hope), meanwhile significantly reducing students’ negative emotions (learning-related boredom and anxiety) in the experimental class. In the control class, both enjoyment and hope increased, while both boredom and anxiety decreased. However, these changes of emotions in the control class were not significant.Conclusions: TBL may be a promising intervention approach to promote university students’ emotional well-being in terms of their learning-related emotions. Further research by increasing sample size and expanding to other courses and groups is needed. Copyright © 2018 ECPP.

This research investigated educational pathways into a Global Middle Class characterised by professional or managerial careers, cosmopolitan sensibilities, and global mobility. The focus was upper middle-class International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) alumni at universities in Hong Kong. 42 in-depth interviews were conducted with IBDP alumni at two “world-class” Hong Kong universities. Findings illuminated how students were well-positioned for careers associated with the Global Middle Class. Despite growing up in expatriate and local families across a diversity of countries, most IBDP alumni discussed self-perceptions of cosmopolitan sensibilities, a close-knit social clique based around a globalised identity, participation in globally-oriented extracurricular activities, and global economic futures. Nevertheless, there were paradoxes of cosmopolitan sensibilities as the IBDP alumni perceived a lack of belonging to the universities and a disconnection with the local society. Copyright © 2019 CESHK Spring Conference.

Achievement emotions have been identified as important psychologic constructs that are closely linked with self-regulated learning and academic achievement (Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, & Perry, 2002; Pekrun, Goetz, Frenzel, Barchfeld, & Perry, 2011). Very recently, a team of researchers (Pekrun, Lichtenfeld, Marsh, Murayama, & Goetz, 2017) have identified the reciprocal relationships between achievement emotions and academic performance through longitudinal design. Despite these desirable outcomes associated with positive achievement emotions, experimental studies aiming to enhance students’ positive emotions are rare. This study extends achievement emotions research by using an experimental design. An intervention approach termed Team-based Learning (TBL, Michaelsen & Sweet, 2011) was implemented in a general breath course in a Hong Kong university. Experimental and control classes were used. Two negative emotions (anxiety and boredom) were included in order to better understand the effect of TBL as an intervention approach to promote positive and reduce negative emotions in learning. The Chinese version of learning-related Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (L-AEQ, Yang, 2017) was used to test students’ positive and negative emotions (enjoyment, hope, anxiety, boredom). The results showed in the TBL class, students’ enjoyment and hope significantly enhanced, meanwhile students’ boredom and anxiety declined. Comparatively, there were no significant changes in terms of positive and negative emotions in the control class. Implications of TBL as one of productive educational interventions to promote students’ enjoyment and hope in learning are discussed in relation to the control-value theory of achievement emotions. Copyright © 2018 ERAS-APERA International Conference.

香港推行十二年免費教育，很多殘疾學生，無論就讀於主流學校或特殊學校，都可以完成高中學習階段，而生涯規劃，也是學校教育的重點。在盡展學生的潛能的概念下，為殘疾學生提供的教育及訓練，有根本的轉變。殘疾學生的生涯發展需要，已由簡單的技能評估及訓練，超越至擴闊視野、引發興趣、設定目標、培養能力及體驗學習。不少研究指出，如能以殘疾學生的興趣及優勢，配合社區支援及自主學習動機，更能發揮他們的專長，有助他們融入社會及公開就業。講者將綜合近年支援殘疾學生的措施及經驗，介紹生涯規劃的內容及重要性，協助殘疾學生如何從學習到就業階段的準備，期望能結集不同的社會力量，為殘疾人士創造機遇，指出未來發展方向。 Copyright © 2018 殘疾人士就業能力研討會.

Policies of career-planning education have been developed and implemented in different societies over the past decades. The policy facilitates the sustainable development of people, particularly the youth, in exploring career aspirations, identities and pathways at different stages of their development. In Hong Kong, the senior secondary school curriculum has been revised to incorporate career-related learning for all students. A teacher in the position of career master/mistress is responsible for the coordination of student career development in each ordinary public school. The teacher has specifically experienced increasing learning diversity in the school setting where integrated education is provided for students with special educational needs (SEN). This paper aims to explore the teacher’s experience in support of career development of students with or without SEN in the school. We adopted an interview method to capture three teachers’ experiences in three schools located in different districts in Hong Kong. What were the teachers’ experiences of implementing the policy of career-planning education for senior secondary students in the schools? What effects on the students’ career development did the teachers perceive? The findings can unveil the challenges facing the teachers for coordination of career-planning programmes in the schools. Although the programme can generally awaken the students’ self-understanding and career competencies, more resources and intense support for SEN students’ career development are needed. This seems to be an agenda missing in the current policymaking. Implications of the education for positive whole-person development of students are also discussed.過去數十年，不同社會都實施職業規劃教育政策。該政策有助於人們，特別是青年人的可持續發展，於不同階段中探索職業志向、專業身份和發展方向。香港的新高中學課程亦為所有學生提供多種職業相關的學習，而學校亦增設職業輔導主任及教師為高中學生制定職業規劃課程。不過，教師也要面對在融合教育環境內，不斷增長的學習多樣性。本文旨在探討職業輔導教師支援學生職業發展的經驗（包括有特殊教育需要學生）。透過面談，研究問题包括：學校為高中學生實施職業規劃教育，教師有甚麼經驗？職業規劃教育對學生的職業發展有何影響？調查顯示教師在統籌學校職業規劃教育活動所面對的挑戰。雖然職業規劃教育活動可以喚醒學生的自我理解和職業能力