This study examined the design of a computer-supported environment using online discussion for alignment of learning, collaboration and assessment. Participants were 155 student teachers attending a course in psychology of classroom learning in a teacher education program in Hong Kong. The design included students contributing to online forum; engaging in regular discussion; and reflecting on their discourse. For reflective assessment, student teachers identified three best examples (clusters of notes) from the class community’s discourse and explained why they were important for their inquiry. Data consisted of questionnaires on epistemic beliefs and collaboration; students’ postings on online forum; reflective assessment notes (3 best clusters of notes); and end-of-term theory-practice summary paper. Correlation analysis show that students’ beliefs about collaboration was related to their beliefs about knowledge (development); as well, regression analysis indicate that reflective assessment scores significantly predict summary paper (domain understanding). Implications of examining both individual and community learning through reflective assessment in computer-supported environments are discussed. Copyright © 2018 EARLI.

This small-scale exploratory study identified strategies used by three intellectually very able university students with specific learning difficulties for maintaining motivation on their path to achievement. All three participants were located in Hong Kong. The research questions were: (a) What coping strategies are used by intellectually very able university students with specific learning difficulties? (b) What are the critical influences driving and supporting their motivation to achieve? A narrative inquiry method was used to obtain and analyze data. Two gifted university graduates and one undergraduate, all with specific learning difficulties, were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire and open discussion. Data indicated that they developed strategies to cope largely in response to adverse learning environments. The support of significant persons, such as parents and teachers, were also seen to be essential for sustaining their motivation to achieve. Implications for supporting university students with specific learning difficulties are briefly discussed.
[Copyright of Gifted Education International is the property of SAGE Publications]

近年來，兩岸三地的課程改革均將自主學習作為一項重要目標，試圖培養和鞏固學生的自主學習動機與策略。西方學者的許多研究表明，宣導學生中心的課堂環境有助於促進學生自主學習能力的發展，而偏重教師中心的課堂環境則不利於學生的自主學習。本研究基於香港中小學生對課堂環境觀感和自主學習動機與策略的兩項調查，發現教師中心的課堂環境對香港學生的自主學習同樣具有促進作用，並依此分析了華人文化情境中課堂環境及學生自主學習的特徵。
[Copyright © 2010北京大學.]

This paper reports the experiences of using a pedagogical framework for creative practices (PFCP) to support preschool teachers in fostering children's creativity in their classrooms. The PFCP includes five pedagogical components: 1) motivation; 2) a divergent process of generating possibilities; 3) a convergent process of selecting ideas; 4) putting ideas into practice; and 5) evaluation. Eighteen teachers from six Hong Kong preschools participated in the study. According to the PFCP, each teacher developed six creative practices and implemented them in their classrooms. Individual semi-structured interviews were used elicit teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the PFCP and the changes of teachers' teaching pedagogy. The observations used as a source of evidence to illustrate teachers' actual teaching behaviours and children's creative performance. The results suggest that the PFCP was perceived as being effective in helping teachers improve their lesson planning and pedagogy. Positive effects such as enhancing teachers' knowledge and skills, infusing creativity into the various learning domains and shifting teaching practices from being strongly teacher centred to being more child centred were documented. This paper discusses the implications and suggests that the PFCP could serve as a starting point for teachers to explore their own creative-practice methods. Finally, the study should lead to further inquiry on effective creative practice teaching strategies.
[Copyright © Pergamon Press].

This paper examines dominant views in Hong Kong with regard to the pedagogy of teaching and proposes a new perspective. The alternative view employs the Theory of Variation, which has its theoretical foundations in the phenomenographic approach to learning proposed by Marton and Booth (1997). The theory argues that learning takes place when the learner discerns “something” in a new and meaningful way. This theory argues that problems in learning lie in the failure in discerning the critical aspects for a particular way of seeing a phenomenon, or certain aspect of reality, i.e. the object of learning. Therefore, instead of attributing poor learning outcomes to the student’s innate incompetence, which teachers may be able to do little about, teaches should focus on changing students’ way of seeing what is/are intended for the learning, or developing an object of learning. The paper compares this conceptual framework with some other influential theories including the behavioristic, cognitive and constructivist learning theories. It also analyses how this approach to teaching and learning is able to enhance student learning, teacher professional development and school improvement.

This paper reports parts of the results of a study on secondary students’ motivational changes on musical composition after completing a compositional task. A total of 606 students from four secondary schools in Hong Kong responded to a set of pre- and post-activity questionnaires before and after completing a compositional task. A t-test was used to compare the mean score changes in motivation. In addition, a multiple-case study approach was undertaken to observe the class teaching of the schools, consisting of non-participant observations and reviewing video recordings. The nature of each of the different compositional tasks undertaken in various schools was reviewed, and each one’s relationship with the resultant motivational changes was examined. Results suggest that the teacher presentation, the nature of the composition tasks, and the level of structure may affect motivational changes. Using computers in a compositional task and students’ academic background are irrelevant to the students’ motivation changes.
[Copyright © 2008 USF CoTA School of Music.]