News

We are very pleased to announce that Dr Benjamin L. Moorhouse (Academic Unit of Teacher Education and Learning Leadership) has been awarded an Early Career Teaching Award in this year’s University Teaching Excellence Awards. 
The Selection Panel was deeply impressed with the awardee’s dedication to teaching, his tireless and creative efforts to make learning enjoyable and challenging, and the impact that he has made on students’ learning.  
Please join us in congratulating Dr Moorhouse for receiving this award!

We are thrilled and proud to share with you the news that the Faculty EL Team comprising Dr Gary Harfitt, Associate Dean (Learning & Teaching); Ms Jessie Chow, Lecturer, Academic Unit of Teacher Education and Learning Leadership; and Ms Ivy Chung, Executive Officer, has won the Gold Award 2020 in the Presence Learning and Teaching Category at the QS Reimagine Education Awards: known as the “Oscars” of Education.  The Team won the award for the project “Nurturing a twenty-first century teaching force through community-based experiential education”.  They were the only teacher education team to pick up an award, competing against universities, tech and start-up groups from all over the world. Award applications go through five rigorous rounds of evaluation and moderation, before being considered by a Grand Jury of 15 representatives from some of the world’s top universities, world-famous technology companies, highly-innovative online education providers, and educational think-tanks.
 
The QS Reimagine Education Awards are co-organised by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, compilers of the QS World University Rankings, and The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) – Learning Lab.  The Awards are designed to reward institutions of higher education that have created and implemented outstanding new approaches to teaching and learning, particularly those that can demonstrate the uniqueness, innovation, and efficacy of their pedagogy.

Many congratulations to the Team for such a noteworthy achievement! We’re very proud of you!

Dr Vincent Wong, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty’s Social Contexts and Policies of Education Unit (SCAPE), has just been elected Chairman of the Resolution Committee, Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA). EROPA is an international organisation for the leadership of public administration, administrative systems and governance, formed under international treaty in 1960, with representatives from 15 state-members including current and former top government officials, diplomats, policy-makers, and government policy practitioners. EROPA is also a partner of the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) possessing special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESC).  

At the same time, Dr Wong has also been appointed Special Researcher (Expert Consultancy Committee) of the Human Resources Research Center (HRRC) of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science (CAPS) under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Government of the People's Republic of China (GPRC). The HRRC of CAPS is established to formulate strategies and provide advice concerning the administrative, organisational and legal management of the human resources policy of national labour and civil servants for the consideration of the State Council of the GPRC.

For details of the EROPA, please visit: https://www.eropa.co/

The Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) is ranked third globally in the latest 2020 Times Higher Education (THE) World Rankings by Subject.  The Faculty has risen one place in 2020, having been ranked fourth in 2019.  HKU is the only university in Asia to rank in the top 10.  The other universities in the top five for Education in this year’s exercise are: 1) Stanford University, 2) Harvard University, 4) the University of Oxford, and 5) the University of California, Berkeley. 

The Faculty has performed consistently well in both the major global University Rankings by Subject. In the QS University Subject Ranking, the Faculty was ranked the seventh globally for two consecutive years in 2017 and 2018 and moved up to sixth in 2019. 

The THE rankings assess universities by means of 13 performance indicators, which are grouped into five areas: Teaching (the learning environment), Research (volume, income and reputation), Citations (research influence), International outlook (staff, students and research), and Industry income (innovation). The relative weightings are recalibrated to suit individual fields.  For Education, the weightings are 32.7% Teaching, 29.8% Research, 27.5% Citations, 7.5% International outlook, and 2.5% Industry income. The Faculty is delighted to see that it has obtained the high overall indicative score of 89.5. 

Professor A. Lin Goodwin, Dean of the Faculty said:  “We are thrilled to be listed among the world’s elite universities; the ranking reaffirms our excellence in teaching and research.  In an increasingly competitive environment, it is our staff members, students, and alumni who make our success possible through their high levels of commitment, hard work, and quality contributions. We will continue to strive for excellence and aspire to uplift our high academic and research standards internationally.” 

The Faculty of Education was established in HKU in 1984, and has at present, three Academic Units, six Research Centres and two Consortia.  As the premier teacher education institution in Hong Kong, the Faculty’s vision is to lead the study and practice of education, to influence public policy and improve community life through education, and to nurture graduates who are passionately committed to their professions. 
 

Professor Frederick Leung, Dean of the Graduate School and Chair Professor and Kintoy Professor in Mathematics Education, Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong (HKU), has been elected as an Honorary Member of the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement (IEA) at the Association’s General Assembly Meeting held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Professor Leung is the first Asian recipient of this honour.   

IEA is the largest international cooperative of national research institutions, governmental research agencies, scholars, and analysts working to research, understand, and improve education worldwide.  The IEA General Assembly is the central decision-making body of the IEA.  It consists of representatives appointed by the IEA member institutions, who are voting delegates at the annual General Assembly meeting and represent the interests of the educational research, policy, and practitioner of their country or region.  The Hong Kong Centre for IEA Studies is located in the Faculty of Education, HKU.  

Since IEA’s establishment more than 60 years ago, the Association has appointed a small number of individual honorary members, whose election is based on their excellent contributions to the work and mission of the IEA over the years.  There have been only 28 Honorary Members (including legendary figures such as Benjamin Bloom and Torsten Husén) awarded, 17 of whom are still living. Professor Leung is the 29^th Honorary Member of the Association.

The honorary membership serves as a recognition of Professor Leung’s outstanding contributions to the Association.  He has been a valued member of the IEA network for 28 years and was the Hong Kong National Research Coordinator of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) from 1995 to 2019.  He has been the General Assembly member for Hong Kong since 1998 and sat on its Standing Committee from 2007 to 2010.  

The IEA website cites Professor Leung’s distinguished career in mathematics education and research, highlighting his particular interest and contributions in the study of cultural differences in mathematics education.  Internationally, Professor Leung has worked as an expert consultant to the World Bank, UNESCO and the United Nations Development Programme.  He has published extensively and received numerous national and international awards for his research, including the prestigious Hans Freudenthal Medal, which is the highest international accolade in mathematics education, from the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction in 2013.

The award of the honorary membership took place at the IEA General Assembly Meeting held in Ljubljana, Slovenia earlier in October. Commenting on the appointment, IEA Chair Dr Thierry Rocher said: “We are very grateful for his (Professor Leung’s) years of dedicated service to the IEA and the wider international educational community.  We would like to take this opportunity to recognise and celebrate his outstanding achievements.”

Professor Leung said: “I am humbled to be given this honorary membership, that I am listed among legendary educators and researchers in the history of international comparative educational studies. I am happy about the appointment, which puts Hong Kong on the world map of comparative studies of educational achievement. This is something that I take pride of as a Hongkonger.”

For details of the IEA’s announcement, please visit: 
https://www.iea.nl/news-events/news/frederick-ks-leung-elected-honorary-member-iea
 

The Common Core@HKU: Transdisciplinarity-in-Action Team (Common Core Teaching Team) from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has won this year’s UGC Teaching Award.  The team is led by Professor Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Director of Common Core, and comprises teaching staff from different Faculties, including Dr Xiao Hu from the Faculty of Education, Professor Gina Marchetti from the Faculty of Arts, Mr Mathew Pryor from the Faculty of Architecture and Dr Julian Tanner from the Faculty of Medicine.  

The Common Core programme, introduced in 2012, is a key element of the new four-year university curriculum for all undergraduate students.  The Common Core emphasises transdisciplinarity across academic disciplines as well as between the university and many local and global partners.  It has created multiple learning formats including flipped classrooms, summer school courses, experiential learning classes, and Common Core Global Experiences.  Over the past six years, the Common Core Teaching Team has undertaken the Transdisciplinarity-in-Action (TIA) initiative which is integral to the Common Core.  

The Common Core Teaching Team attended the presentation ceremony for the 2019 UGC Teaching Award held by UGC on October 10, 2019.  At the ceremony, Dr Kennedy Chan, Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Education, was also announced as one of the finalists for 2019. 

Congratulations to all the members of the winning team, including our own Dr Hu, and also to Dr Chan!  

Further information about the Award, please visit:  
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201910/10/P2019100900536.htm

We are very pleased to announce that the Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Education and Special Education BEd(ECE&SE) programme has obtained the following professional qualifications from the Government. 

Graduates from the BEd(ECE&SE) programme will be:

• eligible for registration as Qualified Kindergarten Teachers with the Education Bureau;
• eligible for registration as child care workers and child care supervisors under the Child Care Services Ordinance; and
• considered as having acquired training on the One-year In-service Course in Special Child Care Work offered by the Social Welfare Department for special child care workers. 

They will also meet the academic qualifications required to become kindergarten principals.

The BEd(ECE&SE) programme prepares students for dual certification as both early childhood teachers and teachers of children with disabilities in early childhood.  It includes engaging academic courses, supervised practicum placements in multiple early childhood settings, and independent research experiences to help students facilitate the development and learning of children from birth to six years.

For more information about the BEd(ECE&SE) programme, please visit:  https://web.edu.hku.hk/programme/becese

With effect from September 1, 2019, the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong has transformed its seven Divisions into three new Academic Units:

The aim of the restructuring is to further strengthen our Faculty’s position as a world class education faculty for research, learning and teaching, and knowledge exchange. The three new Academic Units serve as communities of scholars and educators, under which our research and teaching areas are framed more broadly and conceptually. The new structure is expected to generate new conversations and collaborations among Faculty members, thereby stimulating more innovative and inter-disciplinary synergies that enhance our impact locally and globally. At the same time, we maintain our unity as a unitary Faculty in which our undergraduate and postgraduate curricula are implemented at the Faculty level, spanning across the Academic Units. 

We are very proud of being placed among the world's best education faculties, thanks to the unremitting efforts of our staff members, and the consistent support of our students, alumni and valuable partners within and outside the University.  We will continue to strive for excellence and look forward to deepening our engagements with you through our exciting new initiatives in the near future.

Our new Academic Units: https://web.edu.hku.hk/our-academic-units/

Giving to the Faculty: https://web.edu.hku.hk/about/giving-to-the-faculty

 

The Tin Ka Ping Foundation has recently pledged a generous gift of $5M to further support the Tin Ka Ping Education Fund, which was established in 2008 in the University's Faculty of Education.

Professor Xiang Zhang, President and Vice-Chancellor, HKU and Mr Sam Tin Hing Sin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tin Ka Ping Foundation, signed an agreement at the University Lodge on August 22, 2019 (Thursday). Professor A. Lin Goodwin, Dean of the Faculty of Education, HKU, also attended the signing ceremony.

We gratefully appreciate the unfailing support of the Foundation over the years.

We are happy to announce that a series of educational videos on Developmental Language Disorder, produced by Dr Anita Wong and her speech-language therapist colleagues, has been launched by the Child Language and Speech Laboratory, Faculty of Education, HKU.

The purpose of this video series is to raise public awareness of Developmental Language Disorder in Hong Kong and the videos can be used for parent education, teacher education and speech therapist education.

Please enjoy the videos by clicking the URL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrYYKhKw5LBCKRrnLc4lYIQ