This study is a qualitative case study of a geography field trip of secondary four (year 10) students in a Hong Kong school. It conceives fieldwork as an experiential activity in which an understanding of the experiences of teachers and students in their contexts is important. The results revealed that the students' intent before the trip and their learning experiences after the trip were much richer than their teachers had intended. Despite some students' negative experiences of previous field trips, there was a universally strong desire to escape from their perceived boredom and constraints of the classroom. Field trips were cherished for their rarity and freedom, and the field sites were sought for their novelty. The study has revealed the relative freedom of the field as a learning environment in which the students were more proactive and teacher-student rapport improved. Besides deepening their understanding of what they had previously learned in class, some students were able to see things in new perspective. For many of them, there was a desire to be free from the presence of the teachers and to have greater control over their learning. The findings also indicated that upon return to school, there was a quick return to the status quo. The inspiration which resulted from freedom of learning from the field trip was often not transferred to the classroom setting.
[Copyright of International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10382049908667614]

The number of distance education providers and learning options has increased rapidly in recent years with the emerging flexible learning technologies. The main challenge facing Australian and other universities aiming to deliver distance education programs nationally or internationally is to find economical ways to encourage and enable effective learning at a distance and at the student's own pace. The authors state that this challenge cannot be met by computer technology alone, but rather by integrating this technology within flexible learning approaches based on the universality of learning processes and teaching and learning approaches that encourage deep learning. The article focuses on the question of quality in distance education and how quality relates to student learning and flexible learning technologies used for this purpose. A particular student-centred model for flexible learning that is based on this paradigm of quality is presented. The implementation of this model is discussed in greater detail using the experiences of the RMIT Mechanical Engineering distance education program offered in Singapore and Hong Kong.
[Copyright of European Journal of Engineering Education is the property of Taylor & Francis. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0304379032000129322]

This study examines the post-observation interactions between six English as a Second Language (ESL) student teachers and their university tutors during their teaching practicum in Hong Kong. Data consist of interviews with university tutors, transcriptions of recorded conferences and stimulated recall interviews with student teachers. Case studies of two student teachers are used to examine the impact of the tutors' feedback and to highlight the way that the student teachers' response is affected by the power relations involved in the dialogue. The article also considers some areas in which miscommunication occurred between tutors and student teachers and discusses possible reasons for this.
[Copyright of Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13611260500493535]

Over the past few years, curriculum innovation has been regarded as an essential strategy for educational reform throughout the era of educational change. Because of the changing nature of the knowledge age, students need to develop ways of dealing with complex issues and problems that require different kinds of skills and knowledge they have ever learned. Given the advancement of information and communications technologies (ICT), a number of cases of building learning communities in classrooms have been developed in recent years. Realizing the impact of this new learning culture, six primary schools in Hong Kong participated in the implementation of building learning communities through science project works. During the project, students from different schools engaged in the discussion and knowledge construction using a computer mediated communication (CMC) platform called Knowledge Forum. The aim of this case study is to explore the role of ICT in building learning communities and the conditions are essential to building learning communities from the different ways that students and teachers experienced the processes of community and knowledge construction using Knowledge Forum. Through the analysis of the interviews of students and teachers, conditions that support learning community building were emerged in three major themes, namely; conceptions of learning, knowledge construction processes, and development of social processes.
[Copyright of Educational Media International is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0952398032000092198]