News

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

Congratulations to Ms Michelle Cheng, a PhD student at the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and the Faculty of Education (Supervisor: Dr Cecilia Chan) who won the Online People's Choice Award in the HKU Visualise Thesis Competition 2019 organised by the HKU KE Office!

We are very pleased to announce that Miss Chan Hiu Fung, a PhD student in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences of the Faculty of Education, has been selected as one of the recipients of the scholar award under the Fulbright-RGC Hong Kong Research Scholar Award Programme 2019-20.

The award is offered by the Research Grants Council, in collaboration with the US Consulate-General in Hong Kong. Miss Chan will conduct dissertation research on the topic “Evaluation of Speech-Specific Quality of Life and Analysis of Risk Factors in Patients after Total Laryngectomy Based on Subjective and Objective Outcomes” at the University of California, San Francisco, USA.

Further information about the Fulbright-RGC Hong Kong Research Scholar Award Programme can be found at: http://www.hk-ac.org.hk/hkac/fulbright-rgc-research-scholar-program-2019-2020/

Many congratulations on her outstanding achievement!

The Research Grants Council (RGC) has announced the results for the General Research Fund (GRF), Early Career Scheme (ECS) and Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme (HSSPFS) exercises for 2019/20. In the latest GRF and ECS competition, the Faculty performed very well with an overall success rate of 42% (similar to the level achieved in 2018/19), with 12 out of 30 applications accepted for GRF and two out of three for ECS. In the Education sub-panel specifically, HKU achieved the highest success rate for GRF (39%) and ECS (67%), even in the face of increasingly keen competition.

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

GRF

Dr Jim Chan

Language attitudes in learning English and Chinese as a lingua franca: (Re)examining the choice of standards, norms and models in language education

Dr Mairin Hennebry

The Motivational Dynamics of Young English Language Learners as they Transition from Primary to Secondary

Dr Timothy Hew

Identifying factors to improve flipped classroom implementation in higher education STEM subject disciplines through meta-analysis and qualitative evidence synthesis

Dr Hugo Horta

Factors influencing current and expected career trajectories of PhD students and PhD holders in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan

Dr Carrie Lau

Role of the home and school in children’s early English language and literacy development in Hong Kong

Dr Yongyan Li

Chinese conceptualizations of “plagiarism” and intertextual education in schools 

Dr Margaret Lo

Teaching English for social justice and inclusion in high-poverty schools: Participatory research at the nexus of teacher education, schools and communities

Dr Elizabeth Loh

Examining the effects of executive function on Chinese word reading among Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners and Chinese students, from a developmental perspective

Dr Anatoly Oleksiyenko

Re-imagining Intellectual Leadership in Post-Soviet Higher Education

Professor Nirmala Rao

Are young children developmentally on track? Comparison between adult ratings and direct assessment in China and India 

Dr Gary Wong

Infusing engineering design process into science education in primary schools: Design-based research on students’ constructionist learning approach

Dr Patcy Yeung

Writing motivation and Chinese written composition development among children in elementary grades in Hong Kong

ECS

Dr Yvonne Huang

Conceptualizing the effects of informal teacher learning on adaptive instruction

Dr Priya La Londe

Policy Enactments in Hong Kong and Shanghai: The Character and Consequences of School Autonomy With Accountability on Learning and Teaching (SAWAhks)

HSSPFS

Professor Brendan Weekes

Intervention and Prevention of Neurodegenerative Disease in the Greater Bay Area (GBA)

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

Ocean Park organised The First Ocean Park International STEAM Education Conference 2019 (the Conference) on 21 and 22 June 2019, with the Faculty of Education as one of the co-organisers. Awards were presented to the winners of The First Ocean Park International Conservation STEAM Competition (the Competition) and the Ocean Park x HKU Hackathon, with the outstanding work from the two student competitions being showcased at the conference venue. The competition aimed to stimulate students to apply their knowledge and skills in STEAM-related disciplines to solve real-life problems.

The Caritas Fanling Chan Chun Ha Secondary School won the Champion on the topic of “STEAM Public Awareness” in the Competition. Two of the three supervising teachers were our Year 4 students (Law Kwan In Jessica and Ng Chi Yeung Ken) who are studying Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Science (BEd&BSc) programme. Dr Valerie Yip, Senior Lecture of the Faculty, was instrumental in the success and  a key member of the Steering Committee of the Conference.

In addition, five BEd&BSc Year 3 students also contributed ideas in a related project earlier on reducing marine debris, and they were Chan Ki Yan Ian, Liu Cherry, Shum Chung Kit Elsin, Wong Yu Yeung Gary and Yip Cheuk Lun Stephen.

Further information about the Conference and the Competition can be found at https://oceanparkhongkong.ievent.hk/event/p/39700?lang=en and https://www.hku.hk/press/news_detail_19631.html. 

For media coverage of the Conference, please click the following newspapers for details:

HK01

Hong Kong Economic Times

Sing Tao Daily

Sky Post

Congratulations to our talented students!

The Long Service Awards Presentation Ceremony 2019 was held on Thursday, June 6, 2019, in Loke Yew Hall. The President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Xiang Zhang officiated at the ceremony and presented the awards. Three Faculty colleagues were honoured.

Colleagues who have served the University for 25 years:

Professor Carol Chan (Professor)

Professor Lena Wong (Professor)

Colleagues who have served the University for 15 years:

Dr Patcy Yeung (Associate Professor)

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

We are very pleased to announce that the Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Sciences [BSc(Sp&HearSc)] programme has obtained full endorsement status from the Hong Kong Institute of Speech Therapists (HKIST).  Graduates from the programme will be accepted as eligible to apply for registration as Speech Therapists accredited by Department of Health.

The BSc(Sp&HearSc) programme is an intensive full-time programme which offers students a solid theoretical background in normal human communication and its disorders as well as in related medical and psychological disciplines, English and Cantonese linguistics and hearing sciences. For more information about the BSc(Sp&HearSc) programme, please visit: https://web.edu.hku.hk/programme/bsshs_6157

On April 17, 2019, Dr Jisun Jung and Dr Hugo Horta received a Best Book Award from the Higher Education Special Interest Group (HESIG) of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) at the 2019 CIES Annual Meeting in San Francisco, USA.

The book, “Researching in Higher Education in Asia: History, Development, and Future” (Springer), was selected as the best book of the year. The work resulted from a collaborative venture between the two HKU scholars and Professor Akiyoshi Yonezawa from Tohoku University, Japan.

The book was selected by the Award Committee for its contribution to the field of higher education providing the first comprehensive analysis and discussion of higher education as a field of study in Asia. 

Congratulations to Dr Jung and Dr Horta for their well deserved award!

For more information about HESIG, please visit: https://www.higheredsig.org/