Blended learning in higher education: professional development in a Hong Kong university

ABSTRACT

Online learning has become a ubiquitous part of the educational landscape and how teachers are supported in developing approaches to teaching online is a fundamental aspect of the students’ learning experience. Based on the implementation of a professional development course on becoming an online teacher offered in a blended learning mode at one university in Hong Kong, this article proposes that offering this type of professional development in a blended mode is very effective in facilitating enhanced usage of the university’s learning management system. In a blended mode, teachers are actively engaged with blended learning and were found to make more extensive use of features/tools in Blackboard after they attended the professional development course. Results support that offering professional development in a blended mode provides teachers with an authentic student perspective, at the same time as they take guided steps in the teacher’s role in blended learning.     

大学竞争战略:核心能力与组织创新

核心能力(Core Competence)是大学竞争优势的根源,以核心能力为基础的竞争是当今大学竞争的新范式。大学是资源与能力的集合体,大学核心能力来源于资源与能力的有机复合。核心能力培育与发展过程是大学将静态的资源存量变为动态的资本增殖的过程,组织创新(Organizational Innovation)则是组织资本投资。大学组织创新就是为了促进核心能力和学术生产力的提高,通过改变组织的战略、结构和文化来实现组织资源的潜在价值的过程。     

Beyond educational attainment: The importance of skills and lifelong learning for social outcomes. Evidence for Europe from PIAAC

Empirical evidence suggests that educational attainment nurtures people's social outcomes and promotes active participation in society and stability. However, it is unclear to what extent other types of human capital also correlate with social outcomes. Hence, we explored the opportunity offered by the PIAAC survey through its provision of information on educational attainment, observed individual key skills proficiency, and participation in adult education and training (adult lifelong learning). We therefore studied the association between these human capital variables and social outcomes, and more specifically interpersonal trust and participation in volunteering activities. Results revealed that these social outcomes were affected not only by the formal qualification obtained, determined by the education variable, but also throughout the life‐cycle. Indeed, education and training when undertaken during adult life have a significant impact, especially on volunteering. The fact that the skill proficiency also plays a significant role is extremely relevant, as skills are more likely to change over the life‐cycle, either in a positive or negative way. Whilst the formal education received is constant after exiting the educational system, skills reflect competences more accurately: first, because those with the same level of education may have different skill levels because of differences in the quality of education or ability; second, because skills can vary over time. For example, they may increase with work experience or informal education, or decrease as a result of depreciation and ageing. These findings suggest that social outcomes are prone to be affected by many factors other than formal education, suggesting that policy makers can implement recommendations even after formal education has been completed.     

Adjustment scales for preschool intervention: Extending validity and relevance across multiple perspectives

A series of studies extended psychometric research on the Adjustment Scales for Preschool Intervention (ASPI). The ASPI is a multidimensional measure of preschool emotional and behavioral adjustment for use within formal early childhood educational programs. These studies used a multiple method, multisource approach to provide additional evidence for the reliability and validity of the ASPI. Findings documented inter‐rater reliability of the ASPI across key informants within early childhood educational programs—teachers and teacher assistants. Findings supported concurrent validity of the ASPI with direct observations of preschool classroom adjustment problems and the developmentally salient constructs of temperament and emotion regulation. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 725–736, 2004.     

对企业继续教育的几点思考

企业是社会的细胞，也自然成为学习型组织的天然载体。有人曾形象地将企业的“企”字拆解为“人”和“止”两个部分，比喻做企业是从事一项起于人又止于人的事业，以此说明人力资源对于企业发展的重要性。如何使人力资源及时、有效、长期的配置和使用，是摆在所有企业面前的普遍课题。其中，抓好员工的继续教育，建立学习型组织，不断提高员工的学习力非常迫切，非常重要。     

Development of system thinking skills in the context of earth system education

The current study deals with the development of system thinking skills at the junior high school level. The sample population included about 50 eighth‐grade students from two different classes of an urban Israeli junior high school who studied an earth systems‐based curriculum that focused on the hydro cycle. The study addressed the following research questions: (a) Could the students deal with complex systems?; (b) What has influenced the students' ability to deal with system perception?; and (c) What are the relationship among the cognitive components of system thinking? The research combined qualitative and quantitative methods and involved various research tools, which were implemented in order to collect the data concerning the students' knowledge and understanding before, during, and following the learning process. The findings indicated that the development of system thinking in the context of the earth systems consists of several sequential stages arranged in a hierarchical structure. The cognitive skills that are developed in each stage serve as the basis for the development of the next higher‐order thinking skills. The research showed that in spite of the minimal initial system thinking abilities of the students most of them made some meaningful progress in their system thinking skills, and a third of them reached the highest level of system thinking in the context of the hydro cycle. Two main factors were found to be the source of the differential progress of the students: (a) the students' individual cognitive abilities, and (b) their level of involvement in the knowledge integration activities during their inquiry‐based learning both indoors and outdoors. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

中国:加入WTO与改革的新阶段

中国加入WTO，开放进入新阶段，改革也进入新阶段。开放倒逼改革是改革新阶段的突出特点。在开放的倒逼下，混合所有制经济的发展、国有垄断部门及服务业的改革进程、以行政审批为重点的政府改革大大加快。政府改革成为改革新阶段的重点之一。加入WTO，政府下一步的改革面临四大转变：从政府主导型经济向市场主导型经济转变；从优先经济目标向优先社会目标转变；从审批型经济向服务型经济转变；从行政控制体制向依法行政型体制转变。结构性改革成为改革新阶段的主要难点。加入WTO，结构性改革面临五大任务：经济体制改革同经济政策的关系；产权制度改革同收入分配政策的关系；稳健的金融体制改革同货币政策的关系；城市与农村经济改革的关系；经济体制改革和政治体制改革的关系。     

Exploring inclusive pedagogical practices in Hong Kong primary EFL classrooms

Social diversity is now commonplace in many communities in today’s globalised world. This diversity can be seen in any classroom of learners, and international studies have shown the complex ways in which disabilities, race, ethnicity, gender and social class can determine a child’s opportunity to succeed or fail in the education system. In Hong Kong, like in many educational contexts around the world, teachers are grappling with increasing diversity amongst their students, including teaching students with special educational needs (SEN) and non-Chinese speaking students (NCS) living in Hong Kong. This paper examines how three primary TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teachers are constructing identities as inclusive practitioners as they grapple with enacting the inclusive education policy recently introduced into Hong Kong schools. The data are drawn from a small-scale collaborative reflective inquiry for teacher professional development. Drawing upon a sociocultural and critical framing of identity theory, we trace the three teachers’ identity construction as EFL teachers and inclusive education practitioners. We view the role of discourse, self-positioning and social context as key processes in teacher identity formation. Implications for furthering the development of inclusive education in EFL classrooms are offered.