How do people’s international experiences affect what is learned in school? This study examines how teachers and students in diverse school settings in Hong Kong and The United States bring their international and cross-cultural experiences into classroom learning. Through the theories of global education and intercultural development, the authors analyze how students’ and teachers’ experiences are contextualized within classroom instruction and identify ways in which the shared experiences influence learning about the subject under study. The paper also synthesizes findings within and across schools and countries with illustrations to flesh out both commonalities and differences.

This study is an investigation in using action research and the VMS (Valuable-MuddiestSuggestion) method to improve the teaching and learning of a new General Education course for Early Childhood Education student-teachers. According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1992), to do action research is to plan, act, observe and reflect in continuous cycles with more careful, more systematic, and more rigorous way. Based on research evidence, self-assessment is asserted by some to be an essential skill for effective learning and lifelong learning, and this skill should be developed in university courses (Black & William, 1998; Boud, 1995; Cowan, 1998). VMS method is used to engender dual self-assessment of students and teachers in the course. Participants were undergraduate students enrolling in a Bachelor programme at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The VMS method is designed to record students’ responses in each lesson on their “valuable (V) learning experience in the lesson”, “the muddiest (M) point in the lesson” as well as “suggestions (S) for improvement”. Records of their valuable learning (V), their muddiest point (M), and their suggestions (S) can be assessed and analyzed by the students themselves and the teacher to explore the learning experience of the students as well as the content and pedagogy of the lesson. The results of the study is encouraging. The action research cycles with dual self-assessment give valuable hints and insights to the students for self-directed learning to clarify their muddiest point and to the teacher for self-assessment and reflection on content and pedagogy of teaching.

Creativity is of growing significance in educational reform worldwide. The Thinking School, Learning Nation policy of Singapore in 1997, the White Paper on Creative Education of Taiwan in 2003, the Learning to Learn educational reform of Hong Kong in 2001 and the report of National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education of England in 1999 all gave creativity a significant role in education (Craft, 2011; Hui & Lau, 2010). Nevertheless, creativity assessment in schools is always criticized as lagging behind the educational policies (Craft, 2011; Leong, et al., 2012). A tension view of creativity and assessment is common (Cunliffe, 2008). “Does assessment weaken student creativity?” (Beghetto, 2005, p. 254) is a question on the minds of many educators. Yet, Craft (2011) suggested that creativity assessment is multi-faceted. Assessment is not necessarily a negative force, but its influences depend on what kinds of assessment are conducted (Beghetto, 2005). Assessment may even have a strong leverage effect on educational reform, especially in the Chinese context (Cheng, 2010a). Started from the classic study of Black & William (1998), “assessment for learning” is of growing significance in education field. Parallel reforms are widespread around the world (Burnard, 2011; Earl, 2013) and in Hong Kong (Mok, 2010). Assessment is not merely for measuring and grading student achievements. “Assessment is an integral part of learning, guiding the process and stimulating further learning” (Earl, 2013, p. 25). Following this direction, this study explores various assessment practices which may facilitate (or hinder) creative teaching and creative learning. In the Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning , Burnard (2011) had offered a review chapter titled “Constructing assessment for creative learning.” This article revisits this topic by using classroom improvisation as a lens to search for various forms or possibilities of creativity-conducive assessments

This paper reports an on-going case study on the project of “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for seamless science inquiry” in a primary school in Hong Kong. The study aims at investigating how the students advanced their content knowledge in science inquiry in a seamless learning environment supported by their own mobile devices. The topic of inquiry was “The Anatomy of Fish”. Data collection included pre- and post-domain tests, student artifacts, class observations and field notes. Content analysis and a trialogical approach were adopted in the data analysis to trace the students’ knowledge advancement. The work of one group of students was used as an example. The research findings show that the students advanced their understanding of the anatomy of fish well beyond what was available in the textbook.
[Copyright © 2013 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.]

In this paper, we report on the findings with regard to classroom activities and their time use in a number of mobile technology-mediated classrooms at Hong Kong. The data was collected from a mobile learning project specifically designed to promote students' group and independent learning across a range of subject disciplines through using mobile devices within school environment. A total of 30 lessons in 10 primary and secondary schools were videotaped and analyzed. Results indicate that mobile devices can support establishing a well-balanced structure of classroom activities controlled by both teachers and students, where about 40% of the total class time was allocated to direct teaching and 40% was assigned to students' learning in independent and/or collaborative ways.
[Copyright © 2010 The authors.]

The goal of this study was to forward information technology (IT) in education among secondary schools for promoting the paradigm shift to learner-centered learning. This study investigated the readiness of secondary schools in Hong Kong for IT integration into curriculum delivery. All 463 secondary schools in Hong Kong were invited for a territory- wide survey. With the response rate of 72.79%, the feedback from 337 schools indicated that most of the secondary school teachers confidently and habitually used IT for curriculum delivery. The teachers were adapted to integrate the use of digital resources, especially the free-of-charge ones, into students’ in-class learning process and after-school learning tasks. The teachers were also willing to try the pedagogical use of Web 2.0 technologies for supporting subject learning and teaching. This study revealed that secondary schools in Hong Kong are ready to forward IT integration into curriculum delivery for learner-centered learning. It also revealed the need of sustainable and scalable teacher development to help teachers enhance pedagogical competency in promoting learner-centered learning along with the trend of digital classrooms.
[Copyright © 2013 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.]

Hong Kong provides an excellent case study of language policy in a multilingual world. Cantonese is the medium of instruction for all government primary schools, where English and Putonghua are taught as subjects. The majority of HK's secondary schools are also Chinese (Cantonese) medium, but about a quarter are English medium. This policy has not been popular with parents and the government has now bowed to parental pressure for more access to English and announced a ‘fine-tuning' of the current policy, to take effect from the school year 2010-2011. This new policy will allow secondary schools to teach more subjects through English, as long as certain criteria concerning student and teacher capabilities and resources are met. After a brief historical review of Hong Kong's language policy, the paper will report on an empirical study into the practical and pedagogical consequences of the new fine-tuning policy. The study surveyed 127 secondary schools to identify what changes in practice were planned. The hypothesis was that schools would be primarily influenced by parental demand and that therefore the overwhelming majority of them would plan to use the maximum allowance given by fine-tuning to increase their teaching through English as a subject and as a medium of instruction. In reporting the findings, the paper will show whether these predictions were in fact met, and the effects it could have on schools, teachers and students.

MOI for sure affects the effectiveness of teaching, schooling and even language landscape of society. Under certain language policies or social language environments, selection of MOI is a metaphor of politics and resources. HK is a special place with a history of British colony over 150 years. After return of sovereignty to China in 1997, language landscape of HK does not change a lot. According to government statistical figures, Cantonese which HK people consider as their mother tongue is still a dominant language in daily life and local context (96.5% Proportion of the population able to speak Cantonese in 2006). This article is going to study how Putonghua becomes a core subject and Mol of Chinese Language subject in primary and secondary school curriculums from perspectives of policy making and responses of stake holders. According to scholars' research, by 2011, 46% of schools will adopt Putonghua as Mol for Chinese Language subject. Is enhancing Chinese standard of students the sole rationale behind this move? Can Putonghua, L2 or L3 of many Hong Kong students, enhance L1 Chinese standard of Cantonese speaking students? This is an interesting research question as Singapore is investigating how to use English, official L1 in Singapore, as Mol to teaching Chinese. As Putonghua has not developed from L2 or L3 to L1 in Hong Kong, is teaching Chinese Language subject in PMI a correct move right now? The findings of the paper can help us address the nature of L1 learning in multilingual and cultural societies such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

Scaffolding in education refers to the strategies of support which facilitates student development and aims at assisting them to learn effectively. When students are able to learn independently, the scaffolding can be withdrawn. This paper aims at analyzing how effective scaffolding is to the non-Chinese specking students in learning Chinese through video-recording of actual classroom teaching of three periods in a Hong Kong primary school. Research methods include observing classroom teaching and analyzing video-recording-turned scripts. The research finds out that teachers and students can communicate through the target language (Cantonese) without the need for translating. This implies it is feasible to apply immersion method in the teaching Chinese as the second language. The research also finds out that teachers applied eight scaffolding strategies in helping students to learn Chinese, namely: 1. recall scaffolding; 2. language scaffolding, including dialogue scaffolding, sentence pattern scaffolding and dominant language scaffolding; 3. predictable book scaffolding; 4. concept scaffolding; 5. “directed reading-thinking activity” structure scaffolding; 6. peer scaffolding; 7. demonstration scaffolding; 8. multi-media scaffolding. Most of the scaffolding strategies are effective in helping students to learn Chinese. However, a few of them are not running effectively and need to be improved.