Student-driven approaches have generated positive results in student development. This study reports a Students as Learning Experience Designers (Student-LED) Project as one example of employing student-driven approaches to develop learning abilities, leadership skills and reflective habits, in the context of the new senior secondary curriculum reform in Hong Kong. In such reform, schools are encouraged to offer other learning experiences (OLE) to facilitate students’ all-round development. This Student-LED project can be seen as pioneering in its cultural context and for the target participants. Students in Hong Kong were traditionally described as lacking independence, which seemed to contradict the premise of student-driven approaches. The present study as a pilot shows that Hong Kong secondary school students could potentially benefit from a student-driven approach. Sense of autonomy and positional leadership opportunities were found to be important factors to student learning. The concerns of students and teachers during the process were also identified through reflective statements. This study provided some insights into the use of student-driven approaches with Hong Kong learners. Copyright © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The education reform in Hong Kong advocated the Project Approach as an effective pedagogy to support childrens' learning through exploration and play. This paper outlines a case study of a Hong Kong kindergarten which implemented the project approach using a picture book and digital picture book as a stimulus to begin the project topic and develop the inquiry process. The qualitative data sources included analysis of documentation such as teacher lesson plans, teacher questionnaire on reflection, documentation of children's works and activity photos of the project. The findings revealed that picture book was a good stimulus to arouse children's interest. The children were observed to be highly engaged in the investigation and the benefits from the picture book in project were not limited to literacy learning but also integrated learnings such as in the domains of music and movement, drama, and science. Additionally, the project provided opportunities to use the 21st skills of collaborating, communicating, creativity and critical thinking. The case also acts as an example of implementing the project approach in a non-Western context and recommendations are made for Hong Kong early child educators who participate the education reform. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

Gamified Authentic Mobile Enquiry in Society (GAMES) is a GPS-supported mobile application for gamifying social enquiry learning in outdoor environments. Teachers are always the "educational innovation gatekeepers" in schools. This paper reports on a 3-year study in which the Stages of Concern model was employed as a quantitative diagnostic instrument to continuously understand and address the emerging concerns of 91 social humanities teachers (from 91 high schools in Hong Kong) about adopting GAMES in their teaching practice. With adequate interventions for addressing the participants' ongoing needs, their peak categorical concern shifted initially from "Management" (in Year 1) to "Consequence" (in Year 2), and finally to "Refocusing" (in Year 3). The results reveal that the participants largely intended to go on harnessing GAMES to facilitate outdoor social enquiry learning in their schools. This work provides the field with profound strategic insights into sustaining technological innovations in schooling from the perspective of teachers--an important stakeholder of education.
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This study investigated the pedagogical interactions between teachers and young children in six sampled Chinese kindergarten classrooms. Altogether 4320 turns of dialogue were coded from 27 videotaped pedagogical activities, and the 12 class teachers were surveyed and interviewed. The results revealed a unique Chinese pedagogical interaction that is a fusion of participatory and transmissive pedagogies: teachers directed the interactions with open-ended questions and whole-class dialogues, whereas children responded with short answers based on the learning content. This was reported by the teachers to be associated with the joint influence of related child, teacher, and cultural factors.
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Extending Shulman’s work, this study investigated kindergarten teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in developing play-based learning. Data were collected from focus group interviews with 29 teachers, head teachers, and principals in Hong Kong. Findings suggested the development of play-based learning is contextual. Teachers believed that ongoing complexities and dilemmas regulating their practice which required them to modify pedagogical strategies. Situated forms of knowledge were found as dispensable component shaping their professional practice. This study highlighted how teachers developed pedagogical wisdom to complement their practice involving the construction of effective play-based learning. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The exam-oriented education system in Hong Kong has created a language learning environment that is largely confined to traditional classroom settings, which may not take best advantage of students' abilities to relate what they have learnt in class to real-life scenarios. Such learning environments may have implications for the way second language learners learn a new language. Numerous studies suggest that drama activities used in language classrooms can enhance second language learning. These studies put forward tasks that generate pleasant and rewarding experiences, enhance confidence and subsequently increase motivation to learn a language. By focusing on students studying in a beginning French course at a tertiary institution in Hong Kong, this article reports on how drama activities make a target language more enjoyable and easier to recall. Classroom observations and interviews with students (N = 30) revealed that learning French via drama had a number of positive effects on second language learners especially in terms of their confidence. The learning of French through drama may provide a language learning environment that enables students to apply their French language skills more effectively in real-life situations. Copyright © 2019 Adam Mickiewicz University Press. All rights reserved.

This paper investigated online collaborative learning on students' learning outcomes in higher education with an online platform called GMoodle that was implemented at The Education University of Hong Kong. To discover the benefits and drawbacks of online collaborative learning, students were invited to join this exploratory study and complete the pre and post questionnaires to evaluate their learning outcomes. The quantitative and qualitative studies of 75 undergraduate students were conducted based on the questionnaires and focus group interviews, and the results showed that students' learning outcomes especially self-management skills and collaborative skills were enhanced through the online collaborative activities. Before launching GMoodle, trainings were provided for the in-service and pre-service teachers. Most of them reflected that GMoodle is a useful platform for educators to understand students' learning progress, promote active collaboration and facilitate team teaching across different disciplines. Not only the students but also the teachers benefited from this online learning platform for collaborative learning, fair assessment, and team teaching. Copyright © 2019 Association for Computing Machinery.

The paper reports on an empirical study on adopting an innovative pedagogical design in project-based learning to improve upper primary students' problem solving skills in science learning. A Grade 6 class in a Hong Kong primary school was involved in this study. The findings show that the students produced high group artifacts/projects in problem-solving quality and were positive in facing challenges in their project-based learning process. This indicates that project-based learning with PF instructional design can be an effective way to develop students' problem solving skills. Copyright © 2018 authors.

Classroom instructions in Hong Kong secondary school context often involve code-switching/code-mixing, with textbooks in English yet the lessons being taught in Cantonese (A variety of spoken Chinese) or a Cantonese/English mix. The code-switching/code-mixing instruction has been a common practice in Hong Kong classroom teaching. However, the Education Commission of Hong Kong considered code-switching/code-mixing instruction as the primary reason for students’ inadequate levels of English and Chinese. Therefore, the Government adopted the policy of ‘mother-tongue teaching’ to promote Chinese-medium instruction so as to reduce code-switching/code-mixing instruction. In this paper, firstly, a summary of the historical background of the Hong Kong language polices will be introduced. Secondly, the role of code-switching/code-mixing instruction in classroom teaching will be discussed by illustrating examples from a case study in a Hong Kong secondary school. Finally, the reasons behind using mixed code and its impact on student learning will be analyzed and discussed. A number of research methods were employed: questionnaire survey, student focus group interviews and classroom discourse analysis. The research findings show that students in the case study school found the use of mixed code beneficial even though the school language policy does not encourage code-switching/code-mixing instruction. We anticipate that this study will shed some light on the study of code-switching/code-mixing. Copyright © 2019 GRDS Publishing.

Aim: Although the reasons behind the stigmatization of psychosis are manifold, poor mental health literacy among the general public is likely to be a major factor. In Hong Kong, the Early Psychosis Foundation (EPISO) was established in 2007 to tackle this issue by providing educational and mental health promotional activities, among other aims and services. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a school-based interventional programme, the School Tour, developed by EPISO.; Methods: The School Tour differentiates itself from other interventional programmes by supplementing a traditional psychoeducational talk with 2 additional elements: an engaging drama performance and exercise demonstrations. Twelve secondary schools, with a total of 4520 students, participated in the study. Knowledge and attitudes towards psychosis were evaluated before and after the school programme.; Results: The School Tour was found to improve both students' knowledge of psychosis (P < .001) and their attitude (P < .001) towards the illness.; Conclusions: Its effectiveness in reducing the stigma towards psychosis validates the use of novel strategies like drama performances to engage adolescent students, and urges the government to support increased student participation in the programme by providing funding to the relevant organizations.
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