Raising achievement with adolescents in secondary education—the school counsellor's perspective

This qualitative study used data from semi‐structured interviews with eight school counsellors working with adolescents in secondary education and asked them how they perceived counselling interventions as helping to raise achievement. The present context in secondary education is perceived as results led. This adheres to government policy as manifested in the National Curriculum and the examination system. However at a grass roots level there is a growing acceptance of having counsellors working in schools to support the emotional and psychological needs of children and adolescents. The counsellors identified three areas in which they felt their clients' achievement was raised through a counselling intervention: developmentally, socially and less directly, academically. Further study is called for to explore what effect applying a complementary integration and understanding of counselling and educational philosophy might have on raising achievement with adolescents in secondary education.     

An assessment of the role of Hong Kong schools in promoting civic learning

Hong Kong underwent tremendous changes after the transfer of its sovereignty to China in 1997. This study attempts to explore the changing role of schools in preparing students for future democratic citizenship in the post-colonial era. Different researchers have postulated that schools play a crucial role in the political socialization process in meeting the developmental needs of adolescents. A mixed-method sequential explanatory research design was adopted to assess the effectiveness of Hong Kong schools in promoting civic learning. The significance of the present study was to analyse the school context by using the assessment framework from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Civic Education Study (CivEd) to generate citizenship education studies. An extensive review of research related to the role of schools through formal and informal curricula was conducted. This process helped extend the current understanding of the effectiveness of the political socialization in secondary schools in Hong Kong and contributed to the further development of the research on political socialization in the Chinese context. The findings from this study would help educators or policy makers rethink the future role of schools in citizenship education.     

iPads in higher education—Hype and hope

This paper systematically reviews current research on using iPads in the higher education sector. Since the release of iPads by Apple in 2010, this new technology has been quickly adopted everywhere, especially by the younger generation and professionals. We were motivated to find out how iPads have been adopted for use in the higher education sector. We searched for and collected all the peer‐reviewed publications in conference proceedings and scholarly journals in EBSCOhost, Scopus, Informit A+ Education, ProQuest Academic Research Library and Google Scholar, and conducted a content analysis of the full‐text papers collected. The results show that the reported studies are at an early exploratory stage from both the student and staff perspectives. From the student perspective, the iPad was found to enhance the learning experience but not necessarily lead to better learning outcomes. From the staff perspective, the iPad was found to offer benefits associated with electronic information dissemination, academic administration and professional development support. A finding common to both perspectives is that while the iPad has the potential to offer benefits to the academics and students who were found to be eager adopters of this technology, it is not clear how best to align and integrate it within the academic programmes and workflows, and how best to manage it as a resource within a university's organisational setting.     

Relations of blood? Racialization of civic identity in twenty-first century Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how notions of race, ethnicity, and blood are mobilized in educational texts in Hong Kong. It elaborates how civic identity is racialized as part of a nationalist education operating beneath the surface of expressed commitments to global citizenship, human rights, etc., in curriculum and textbooks. Many have commented on how cultural and ethnic ties are prioritized over political principles as bases for civic education in Asian societies. These cultural/ethnic bases should be critically examined, however, as they imply racial/ethnic exclusions. Examining how race, ethnicity, and blood are used to justify cultural framings of civic identity leads to questions about how education can be used to unify some, while alienating others from a sense of belonging and community. I argue that racialization of Hong Kong civic identity is not a happy solution for all members of society, and for more inclusive visions of identity in education.     

Brief of Language education in Hong Kong

This paper discusses the current language education and issues in Hong Kong,The language apply maintain successfully the international and local identity needs in Hong Kong,both English and Cantonese are mainly in the different areas,meeting the different needs of various aspects of the mainstream language.Hong Kong was a multi-lingual region.English was the official language in more than one hundred years before Return;English enjoyed a dominant position in Hong Kong,where expression under the influence of English,Chinese and English code-switching is also very common.The Return of Hong Kong has a considerable influence to language phenomenon;greatly strengthen the importance of Mandarin.In this paper,from the Angle of social linguistics,this paper discusses the English position before and after Hong Kong's return to China,discussing economic,business,education,and other areas of the social development and changes of English status,and analyzes the Hong Kong residents for English,Cantonese and Mandarin language attitude.     

Education and Colonial Transition: The Hong Kong experience in comparative perspective

While in some respects the nature of Hong Kong's colonial transition seems unique, several parallels exist with transitions elsewhere. This paper begins by identifying major differences and similarities in the macro-framework. It then turns specifically to the education sector, noting that the parallel operation of multiple education systems within the boundaries of a single country is quite common and, therefore, that models already exist for continued plurality of the type that might be envisaged for Hong Kong and the rest of China. Examining changes at various points in time, the paper observes that some reforms were made in Hong Kong's educational provision well ahead of the commencement of colonial transition and far in advance of parallel points in the history in other colonies. The paper then turns to specific changes which occurred during the period 1984-1997 and to commentary on the further changes that may be expected in the continuing period of transition that commenced in 1997. Analysis of the currents and counter-currents makes Hong Kong an important case to study, both in its own right and as a case to compare and contrast with patterns elsewhere.     

Perceptions of anatomy education—A student's view

Changes in anatomy education over the last two decades have, in large part, led to less emphasis on gross anatomy in the medical curriculum. This has led many to question whether streamlined anatomy courses truly provide adequate preparation for medical practice. Rather than wondering about the effects of these changes, we should be actively seeking answers and promoting understanding between professors, clinicians, and students about what anatomy education is and what it should be. Anat Sci Ed 1:133–134, 2008. © 2008 American Association of Anatomists.     

Nationalistic education as the focus for civics and citizenship education : The case of Hong Kong

Civic education has been assigned the mission of preparing critical thinking, responsible, participating, multidimensional citizens and is also used to serve the function of instilling a sense of national identity, loyalty to the nation state and patriotism In 1996, before the return of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, the Hong Kong Education Department published theGuidelines in Civic Education for School (1996), which includes education for democracy, human rights education, global education and nationalistic education This survey adopted an amalgamate framework of five types of nationalistic education to study the understanding of nationalistic education of civic educators in secondary schools in Hong Kong The initial findings showed that the civic educators were basically strongly eclectic in terms of education for cosmopolitan, civic, and cultural nationalism and moderately eclectic in terms of anti colonial nationalism but rejected education for totalitarian nationalism This eclectic understanding can be said to be heading towards a more liberal, rational, open and inclusive type of nationalistic education, which is compatible with a cosmopolitan and pluralistic society such as Hong Kong     

Implementing media education in the Hong Kong secondary curriculum

The tremendous influence of today's mass media can hardly be matched by the sum of its works from the past. There are more sources of media, more types of information and entertainment, more interactive modes for consuming these messages of the mass media in a more interconnected global village available than ever before. Since many pupils spend much of their time on the media, the call for media education is urgent. This article first describes the aims and objectives of media education, then portrays the power of the media and how the education sectors have responded. Finally, it argues for the need to implement media education into the secondary curriculum in response to proposed curriculum reform in Hong Kong.     

British degrees made in Hong Kong: an enquiry into the role of space and place in transnational education

The fundamental logic of transnational education programmes is a one-to-one transfer of institutional capital across space and an unimportance of place. This article interrogates these presumptions and argues that space and place play an important role in transnational education. Drawing on research that examines the experiences of students and graduates of British degree programmes offered in Hong Kong, we conclude that institutional capital does not always travel wholly and smoothly due to a combination of policy-related, social, cultural and economic factors. Our findings also underline the importance of place in students’ experiences, which are not sufficiently recognised by the providers. This, in turn, affects the ability of students to cultivate institutional and other forms of social capital, with implications for subsequent employment opportunities and social mobility.     

The Hong Kong School Curriculum and the Political Transition: Politicisation,contextualisation and symbolic action

This paper uses a historical perspective to analyse the impact on the school curriculum of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. Whilst the transition has relaxed the criteria used by the state to select school knowledge, it has occurred at a time when the selective and allocative role of schooling has become paramount. Consequently, the transition has had a significant impact on the intended curriculum as a result of attempts by the departing colonial government to reform the curriculum. However, these reforms have had a limited impact on the implemented curriculum, which has been more strongly influenced by the emergence of a market in which schools compete for academically more able pupils.     

The general education initiative in Hong Kong: organized contradictions and emerging tensions

In 2012 all Hong Kong universities will be extending the length of the undergraduate degree from 3 to 4 years and adding General Education as a degree requirement. This reform initiative represents a unique case of comprehensive organizational change of higher education on an unprecedented scale. This paper examines several of the most significant contradictions and tensions facing this initiative—the current structure of higher education based on the British system and the prevailing culture of teaching and learning in Hong Kong. The nature of these pre-existing conditions, and their contradictory relationship to the substance and purpose of general and liberal education, are outlined. The contradictions and tensions generated by the general education initiative are situated within the larger organizational tension between theory and practice, and structure and action. The paper delineates some of the strategies developed to address the existing and emerging tensions.     

公民共和主义:平教总会公民教育的思想特色

晏阳初对共和主义的理解是公民都担负起国家社会的各种责任,共同民主治理国家社会,这可谓之公民共和主义。中华平民教育促进会总会在定县的公民教育研究与实验是以这种公民共和主义理念为指导的。对责任意识与能力培养的强调是定县公民教育实验的核心。坚持以人为本原则的公民教育自我创造是其富有成效的根本原因。     

Media education in Hong Kong schools: possibilities and challenges

In Hong Kong, media education is not a new initiative. With the recent education reform, curricular space will undergo significant changes. Instead of having fixed subject boundaries, key learning areas will be introduced. As such, media education will find much more space for negotiating a place in the reformed curriculum. This study aims to look at how media education is implemented in schools in Hong Kong and the content and pedagogy of the media education curriculum against the background of education reforms.     

Internationalisation and distance education: a Hong Kong case study

The accelerating globalisation of world economic relations has been paralleled by a progressive internationalisation of higher education, including the use of distance education. But the modification of distance education materials and the provision of local tutorial support are only rarely undertaken, despite the fact that in social science and the humanities such materials are culturally saturated. This Hong Kong case study in teacher education examines the issues, describes the opportunities and difficulties involved, and argues that cultural adaptation merits a higher priority than at present.     

A qualitative and postmodern perspective on open learning in Hong Kong

Most educational research in Hong Kong is nested within a top‐down or expert view of the world and there has been little interest in the views of the ordinary citizen. The authors adopted a postmodern perspective and interviewed 110 ordinary citizens in public places (on ferries, in restaurants or parks) about what open learning means to them. Responses were arrayed in four discourses. The authors deconstruct and reflect on the meaning of each discourse. Of the four, only the Idyllic Island discourse involved a positive construction of open learning. The others — the Shameful Inferiority discourse, the Lonely Learner discourse and the Impropriety discourse involved exceedingly perjorative constructions that will pose a considerable challenge for providers of open learning.     

Major issues of university education policy in Hong Kong

University education is believed to be one of the most controversial public policies in Hong Kong. Numerous changes have also occurred in the university education sector since the 1990s when the rapid expansion of university places was put into force. The most notable changes may include the institutionalization of quality assurance mechanisms, the reform of university governance and staff remuneration systems, the adoption of role differentiation among the universities, the potential emergence of private universities and community colleges, and the trend of internationalizing university education. This article identifies major issues of university education policy and examines those factors that are affecting the development of university education, in Hong Kong.