News

We are pleased to share the news that Professor Lena Wong has assumed Presidency of the International Society of Audiology (ISA).

ISA is an International Society which serves as a reference and communication centre for all people working in Audiology, “The global home of Audiology”. Its mission is to facilitate the knowledge, protection and rehabilitation of human hearing, inclusive of the effects of pharmacological and surgical measures, but exclusive of matters relating to the techniques of these measures. ISA serves as an advocate for the profession and for the hearing impaired throughout the world. Major activities include the biannual congress, publication of the International Journal of Audiology and supporting the World Health Organization by advancing the interests of those working in Audiology or related fields, the hearing impaired and the deaf community.

For more information about ISA, please visit: https://isa-audiology.org/

We are very pleased to share with you that we have been ranked number 4 for the second consecutive year among the top Education faculties worldwide by the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for Education 2019.

Apart from the Faculty of Education at HKU, the top five universities for Education in this year’s exercise are: 1) Stanford University, 2) Harvard University, 3) the University of California, Berkeley, and 5) the University of Oxford.

The subject areas used to create this ranking are Education, Teacher Training, and Academic Studies in Education. THE uses 13 performance indicators which are grouped into five areas for its ranking system – 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 of these criteria vary slightly from discipline to discipline. For Education, the weightings are 32.7% Teaching, 29.8% Research, 27.5% Citations, 7.5% International outlook, and 2.5% Industry income. We are delighted to see that we have obtained the high indicative score of 86.9.

Professor A. Lin Goodwin, Dean, Faculty of Education said:  “The Faculty is very encouraged by being ranked the fourth globally in the latest THE World University Rankings by Subject 2019 again.  This is an outcome of the unremitting efforts of our colleagues, students and alumni.  We will continue to strive to achieve excellence in teaching and learning, academic research and knowledge exchange, and to enhance the Faculty’s local and international impact.”

For the full set of rankings for Education, please refer to: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2019/subject-ranking/education

We are glad to share the news that Dr Hugo Horta was elected to the board of governors of the Consortium of Higher Education Research (CHER).

CHER is an international network and association of higher education researchers based in Europe, a counterpart to the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) based in the USA. It is a foundation with members from more than 30 countries, from whom almost a quarter are from outside Europe. Hugo is the only scholar in the board of governors who is not affiliated to a European institution, and the first in that position to be affiliated to at an institution based in Asia.

For more information of CHER, please visit: https://www.cher-highered.org/cher/presentation

We are delighted to announce the recipients of the Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award for 2017-18. The Selection Panel was deeply impressed with the awardees’ wholehearted commitment to their teaching, their innovative and tireless efforts to engage with students and curriculum development, and the impact that they have on students’ learning and personal growth. Please join us in congratulating the following colleagues for their dedication to teaching excellence.      

Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award (Individual)

Dr Thomas Chiu (Division of Mathematics and Science Education)

Thomas' outstanding work across MSc, UG, PGDE and Common Core was demonstrated by the letters of support written by many students and colleagues from across the Faculty. The Selection Panel appreciated the ways in which Thomas has sought to bridge theory and practice through powerful curriculum innovation, including a blended online course for MSc(ITE). His work spans many divisions and Thomas is clearly someone who works well with his peers, as shown in his co-teaching record and the way he collaborates across institutions. The Panel also recognised his tireless contributions to school-university partnership and it was noted how much Thomas is always keen to look ahead and make necessary changes even if it brings more responsibility. Thomas has a clear vision and is someone who has been able to make connections across his different roles.

Dr Valerie Yip (Division of Mathematics and Science Education)

The Selection Panel felt that Valerie was someone who has excelled in her teaching across many programmes over a number of years. She expects the very best from her students while providing them with rich opportunities for learning.  Her work in promoting STEM and in connecting our students to schools and external bodies demonstrates how she repeatedly takes learning outside of her classroom and promotes connectivity in her work.  The Panel appreciated the way Valerie has worked with colleagues from across divisions, Faculties and even universities to develop stronger learning experiences for our students. She has also pioneered extremely popular Experiential Learning (EL) courses in HK, Thailand and Vietnam and on these projects she has walked alongside every one of her students.

Faculty Early Career Teaching Award

Dr Jim Chan (Division of English Language Education)

The Selection Panel felt that Jim demonstrated a very deep and impressive knowledge of teaching and learning. Students repeatedly praised his work ethic and noted how he was always approachable and willing to help. This support is given in many ways including direct feedback on email and MOODLE, but also through carefully constructed peer evaluation tasks which require his students to analyse exemplars  and academic papers so as to better structure their own writing.  His use of e-learning clearly engages students and Jim has collaborated closely with many different colleagues bringing a lot of mutual benefit. The Panel noted the diverse number of student responses to Jim's teaching at MEd level, all of which were positive - something we know isn't always easy when teaching evening classes.  Jim was also praised for the way he has built links between his own teaching interests and his research; evidenced by a number of strong publications and funding awards in the last two years.

Mr Ben Moorhouse (Division of English Language Education)

Ben was seen by the Selection Panel to be a young teacher educator with enormous potential. His work with the UGs was seen as particularly impressive and he provided evidence of how he 'walks the walk' with all his students and lives out his teaching philosophy in every class. Ben's students talked about the sense of engagement they feel in his classes and praised him for his interaction during lessons. His work extends beyond the classroom and the Panel was impressed by his willingness to take risks in his pedagogy and course design while paying careful attention to the smaller details. One example of curriculum innovation is his collaboration with a school in Ningbo where he has set up a very well-received EL project funded by the Fan Foundation and which brings benefits to our BA&BEd(LangEd)-Eng undergraduates as well as teachers in the school. Ben was seen to be a dedicated, caring professional who has also demonstrated outreach in his work with the Education Bureau and local schools. 

Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award (Team)

Ms Jessie Chow (Team Leader), Ms Candace Mok, and Dr Gary Harfitt (Division of English Language Education)

Since 2016 the EL team has overseen the implementation of mandatory and voluntary EL projects on our UG, PGDE Full-time and Part-time courses, working alongside colleagues and students to develop and promote innovative and transformative learning opportunities for hundreds of beginning teachers. The Panel also wants to recognise the work of Ms Ivy Chung, Executive Officer of the EL team who has been an integral part of the team from the very beginning. Jessie, Ivy, Candace and Gary have built sustainable links between our Faculty and more than 30 NGOs in HK and SE Asia through a philosophy of reciprocity and co-construction. Evidence from student feedback as well as multiple stakeholders in the community speaks most strongly to the local, regional and international impact the team is creating through their work. The Panel noted how the EL team has managed to disseminate the impact of their students' engagement with EL through videos, workshops, conferences and journal papers.

Many congratulations to all the awardees for their outstanding achievements!

Professor Nirmala RAO and team members – Dr Diana Pui-ling LEE, Faculty of Education; Professor John BACON-SHONE, Social Sciences Research Centre; and Dr Patrick IP, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, won the Faculty Knowledge Exchange (KE) Award for 2018.

The winning project is entitled “Impacting Early Childhood Policy in East Asia and the Pacific through Contextually-appropriate Assessment of Early Child Development”. It was a very large project with concrete engagement and research in different countries, which has definitively assisted in drafting international early childhood care and education policies. The impact of this project on policy development, child assessment and ultimately on the well-being of communities has been at country, regional and global levels.

The project had also received the Best of UNICEF Research Award for 2015, which was a significant indicator and an excellent opportunity to show the quality of this project and share emerging knowledge with the development community. 

Our hearty congratulations to the colleagues concerned for their significant achievements in KE.

The Research Grants Council (RGC) has announced the results for the General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS) exercises for 2018/19. Our Faculty performed very well with an overall success rate of 42% (as compared with 20% in 2017/18), with 11 out of 28 applications accepted for GRF and four out of eight for ECS respectively. When the two successful GRF applications of the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) colleagues are also taken into account, the success rate rises further to 45%, representing a 25% increase over last year. In the Education sub-panel specifically, HKU achieved the highest success rate for GRF (50%) and ECS (43%), even in the face of increasingly keen competition.

The list of successful GRF and ECS projects are as follows:

GRF

Dr Gaowei Chen              

Analytics-supported collaborative observation of videos: The effect on student engagement and achievement in mathematics

Professor Jimmy de la Torre      

Methodological developments to enhance diagnostic modeling and scoring of multicategory skills

Dr Dennis Fung

Drawing and talking science with the aid of collaborative mind mapping in Hong Kong primary schools

Dr Xiao Hu         

Leveraging background music for learning: An interdisciplinary approach

Professor Frederick Leung          

Education equity in Hong Kong: Secondary analysis of the factors that contribute to Hong Kong students’ mathematics performance in Trends in the International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015

Dr Chun Lai        

The relationship between learners’ out-of-class autonomous technology-enhanced language learning and their vocabulary knowledge

Dr Yuen-yi Lo    

Investigating the role of language in CLIL assessments through examining teachers’ and students’ cognitive processes

Professor Bradley McPherson  

Oto-acoustic emissions in young adults: Effects of blood group

Dr Cheng-yong Tan        

What is the contribution of school leadership to student learning? A thematic review and meta-analytic study

Dr Shelley Tong               

From mind reading to text reading: What are the roles of executive function and pragmatic language comprehension?

Professor Lena Wong   

Development of a Mandarin speech perception battery

Dr Luke Fryer (CETL)

Diversity of university engagement across Greater China

Dr Tracy Zou (CETL)

Professional development at a meso-level: Conceptual development and impact analysis

ECS

Dr Jisun Jung     

Factors involved in master's degree pursuit in Hong Kong

Dr Man-kit Lee 

Unravelling the impact of giving and receiving peer feedback on second language writers’ social cognitive motivation, self-regulatory strategic processing and writing performance

Dr Guang Ouyang           

How does non-invasively measured neural activity reflect the learning process and ability?

Dr Chung-pui Tai             

Cross-boundary hegemony over schooling: Republican China-registered secondary schools in British Hong Kong, 1928-1949

Congratulations to all of our staff who have been successful in this year's exercises!

Please join us in congratulating Dr Tan Cheng Yong on his article "Conceptual diversity, moderators, and theoretical issues in quantitative studies of cultural capital theory", is selected as Article of the Year 2017 by Educational Review.

Educational Review is a leading journal for generic educational research and scholarship. For over half a century it has offered authoritative reviews of current national and international issues in schooling and education. It publishes peer-reviewed papers from international contributors which report research across a range of education fields including curriculum, inclusive and special education, educational psychology, policy, management and international and comparative education. It offers an Article of the Year Award for the best piece of research published in the journal within a given year.

Dr Tan’s article reviewed quantitative empirical studies examining the relationship between cultural capital and student achievement. For details of the article, please visit: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2017.1288085

The Long Service Awards Presentation Ceremony 2018 was held on Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Loke Yew Hall. The Acting President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Tam presented the awards. Seven Faculty colleagues were honoured.

Colleague who has served the University for 35 years:
Professor Frederick Leung (Chair Professor and Kintoy Professor in Mathematics Education)

Colleagues who have served the University for 25 years:
Ms Cindy Chung (Executive Officer)

Ms Scarlett Wong (Clerk)

Colleagues who have served the University for 15 years:
Miss Chloe Chu (Lecturer)

Dr Gary Harfitt (Associate Professor & Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching))

Dr Ng Hung-wai (Research Officer (Research Manager))

Ms Ada Poon (Lecturer)

Having served the University for 35 years, Professor Frederick Leung regarded his career of teacher educator as meaningful. “I am nurturing future teachers. It brings great impact to the society!” he said, in his interview with media.

The Faculty appreciates and is grateful for colleagues’ dedicated service. Warmest congratulations to all!

For details of Professor Leung’s interview (in Chinese), please visit:

HK01: https://www.hk01.com/%E7%A4%BE%E6%9C%83%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E/198554/%E7%84%A1%E6%82%94%E6%A3%84%E8%AE%80%E9%86%AB-%E6%B8%AF%E5%A4%A7%E6%95%99%E6%9B%B835%E5%B9%B4-%E6%A2%81%E8%B2%AB%E6%88%90-%E8%80%81%E5%B8%AB%E5%B7%A5%E4%BD%9C%E5%A5%BD%E6%9C%89%E6%84%8F%E7%BE%A9

Ming Pao:
https://news.mingpao.com/pns/dailynews/web_tc/article/20180613/s00011/1528826395074

As a pioneering collection in the international field of the learning sciences, the International Handbook of the Learning Sciences involved contributions from more than 100 prominent scholars from 17 countries in four continents. In an interdisciplinary field, the book consists of more than 50 chapters and provides a compendium of past, current, and emerging theoretical and empirical directions for learning sciences research.

The book captures the research work of Faculty scholars. The chapters: “Knowledge Building: Theory, Design, and Analysis”, authored by Professor Carol Chan and Dr Jan van Aalst, and “Interactional Ethnography” authored by Dr Susan Bridges, and Professor Judith Green of the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, are included in the handbook. Professor Nancy Law was a reviewer for the book.

Professor Law, in her review, commented, “The book captures theoretical advances beyond the established perspectives to address learning at the neural, institutional, and network levels. The wide-ranging innovations in learning environments and research methods make it a valuable resource for established scholars, early-career researchers, and educators interested in research-informed policy and/or practice.”

The Faculty is proud to contribute to this definitive volume of international learning sciences scholarship and we are committed to maintain high academic and research standards in the field.

Dr Susan Bridge (right) and Professor Cindy Hmelo-Silver, who is one of the editors of the International Handbook of The Learning Sciences.

We are very pleased to announce that Mr William Choi Tsun Man, a PhD student in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences of the Faculty of Education, has been awarded a Croucher Fellowship for Postdoctoral Research.

The award offered by the Croucher Foundation Ltd. was set up to enable applicants who are permanent residents of Hong Kong to undertake full-time research in natural sciences, medicine or technology in approved academic institutions outside Hong Kong.

William was also awarded a Fulbright-RGC Hong Kong Scholarship in 2017 and has been continuing work, begun in the Faculty, on psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic aspects of lexical tone perception at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA since September 2017. He will be submitting his thesis this month.

Further information about the Croucher Fellowship for Postdoctoral Research can be found at: https://croucher.org.hk/funding/study_awards/postdoctoral_fellowships

Many congratulations on his outstanding achievements!