Li Shuying, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

1 . Overview of Learning Study within the Hong Kong Education Reform Context

KO Po Yuk, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

2 . Theoretical Framework

LO-FU Yin Wah, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

3 . Implementation of Learning Study

KWOK Wing Yin, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

4 . Learning Study's impacts on local schools and its contribution to education reforms in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment

Ng Pun Hon, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Considerable evidence has been accumulated in Hong Kong that Learning Study, as a form of action research, provides a comprehensive platform and breakthrough point for the current educational reform, such as enhancing classroom learning, teacher professional development, school-based curriculum development and establishing schools as learning communities.

This symposium will explore the practice and theory of Learning Study as it has been developed with a special focus on its contribution to the educational reform in Hong Kong. The first part broadly outlines the history and overview of Learning Study development related to the current Hong Kong education reform context. The second part presents LS theoretic framework (the learning Theory of Variation) and its implementation process; the third part provides a comprehensive examination of its contribution and impact to the Hong Kong educational reform in curriculum, pedagogy and assessments.

1 . Privatization and the Rise of Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools and Independent Schools in Hong Kong and Singapore

Chan David K.K., The City University of Hong Kong

Tan Jason, Nanyang Technological University

2 . A Comparative Study on Hong Kong's School-Based Management with Singapore's School Excellence Model

Ng Pak Tee, Nanyang Technological University

Chan David K.K., The City University of Hong Kong

3 . Embracing the Market: Higher Education Governance Change in Hong Kong and Singapore

Gopinathan Saravanan, Nanyang Technological University

Mok Ka Ho, University of Bristol

Over the past decades, broadly speaking, education reforms of both basic and higher education have focused quite a large amount of efforts on the aspect of educational governance across the board. In this respect, both the basic and higher education sectors in Hong Kong and Singapore have been undergoing this trend, especially when these East Asian states are very concerned with the global competitiveness of their education systems. Comprehensive reforms of their education systems were conducted in order to identify areas of improvements aiming at providing “quality education”. Some of the significant changes in their education systems of these East Asian Tigers include the adoption of decentralization policy, as well as market principles and strategies in transforming the way that education is governed and managed. This symposium is set out in this wider policy context in order to critically reflect upon how the education systems in Hong Kong and Singapore have experienced these processes of decentralization and marketization.

“Privatization and the Rise of Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools and Independent Schools in Hong Kong and Singapore”

The Direct Subsidy Scheme and independent schools initiative represent attempts over the past two decades by the governments of Hong Kong and Singapore respectively to promote school privatization. This paper traces the evolution of the two initiatives: their genesis, rationale, current form and take-up rate. It also analyses them as education reforms in terms of policymaking dynamics. The very notion of the term ‘privatization’ will be examined.

“A Comparative Study on Hong Kong's School-Based Management with Singapore's School Excellence Model”

Both Singapore and Hong Kong’s education systems are undergoing change. In particular, in recent years, both economies attempt to promote diversity and innovation by decentralising its power to the schools, while setting up quality assurance structures that reassert the centrality of government control. The paper examines and compares the School Excellence Model (SEM) approach adopted by Singapore and the School-Based Management (SBM) approach adopted by Hong Kong. It discusses the implications of such a strategy and the challenges that both Singapore and Hong Kong schools face in navigating a new paradigm of diversity and innovation while satisfying the requirements of quality assurance.

“Embracing the Market: Higher Education Governance Change in Hong Kong and Singapore”

Attention in higher education has focused on the three aspects of governance, funding and academic work, which are the prime levers that re-define the purpose of higher education. Similarly, higher education developments in Hong Kong and Singapore have been part of the trends of higher education reforms, especially when these East Asian states are very concerned with their global competitiveness. Comprehensive reviews of higher education were conducted in identifying areas for improvement, in which one of the most significant changes in higher education of these East Asian tigers is the adoption of market principles and strategies in transforming the way higher education is governed and managed. This paper sets out in this wider policy context to critically reflect upon how higher education in Hong Kong and Singapore have experienced the processes of marketization and corporatization, with particular reference to examine how far the market-oriented reforms have improved higher education governance in these tiger economies.

Mok Mo Ching, Magdalena, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Callingham Rosemary, University of New England

Phillipson Norman Shane, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Heene Moritz, University of Heidelberg

Bond Trevor Grahame, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Ho Fuk Chuen, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

The use of Rasch measurement in the high-stakes testing of educational achievement increases at an outstanding rate. It provides the psychometric background for system-wide examinations in Hong Kong, Australian national benchmarking testing and many educational systems in the US. Its use in Computer Adaptive Testing is fundamental to the in-school assessment systems provided by NWEA in the US and the CEM Centre in the UK. More important for APERA delegates is the growing use of Rasch measurement for small and large scale educational research projects conducted in schools and universities by academic researchers. The development of sample independent invariant measures for educational research allows researchers to address problems that remained intractable under previous analytical methods. Presenters in this symposium will provide an international perspective on the use of Rasch scales in projects including student feedback about teaching, gifted students, mathematics education, self-efficacy, dyslexia in Chinese language and readiness for early school learning.

Roberts Brian, International Journal of Educational Management

Power Colin, Educational Research for Policy and Practice

Gopinathan S aravanan , Asia Pacific Journal of Education (To be confirmed)

Shin Jongho, Asia Pacific Education Review

This session aims to provide an opportunity for editors and prospective authors to have direct and informal dialogues and discussion on all issues related to the publication opportunities in their journals in particular and in education in general. It is hoped that this kind of dialogues will benefit researchers and scholars who wish to make contribution to international journals.

1 . Complexity Theory and Education

Morrison Keith, Macau Inter-University Institute

2 . Complexity Theory and Online Learning

Jakubowicz Peter, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

3 . Complexity Theory and Staff Development

Fong Ka In, Shivonne, Macau Inter-University Institute

4 . The External Agent as a Creator of Complex Conditions for Change

Tong Sai Tao, Keith, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

5 . Complexity Theory and Nursing Education in Macao

Lam Nogueira Oi Ching, Bernice, Macau Inter-University Institute

6 . Complexity Theory, Parental Involvement and the Impact of Economic Forces in the Macao Secondary Education System

Tchiang Van Man, Isabel, Macau Inter-University Institute

7 . Complexith Theory as a Moral Theory

Noronha Ruta, Macau Inter-University Institute

8 . Complexity Theory, Visible and Invisible Pedagogies in a Kindergarten Classroom

Fong Pack Jon, Elisa, Macau Inter-University Institute

9 . Complexity Theory and Macao’s School Curriculum Management System

Fong Peng Long, Macau Inter-University Institute

Though complexity theory has established itself in the natural sciences and some branches of the social sciences, its emergence into education has been hesitant. This symposium is designed to introduce complexity theory and its applications to education, its central tenets and current issues that it can address, including: the consequences of unpredictability for knowing, responsibility, morality and planning; the significance of networking and connectedness; non-linear learning organizations; setting conditions for change by emergence and self-organization; fostering feedback for learning; changing external and internal environments; schools and learners as open, complex adaptive systems; cooperation and competition; pedagogy; and the significance of context. These elements of complexity theory are then applied to a wide range of age phases of education and fields of education, including: online learning; staff development; the nature and facilitation of change; curriculum change and innovation; complexity theory and Bernstein’s visible and invisible pedagogies; and the questioning of complexity theory’s contribution to the moral debate over schooling. The papers introduces the context of Macau as an emergent, self-organizing territory, and locates several of the subsequent papers in this context, focusing on the fields of nursing education; premature school leaving; parental involvement in education; and curriculum change. Examples of online learning and school development from Hong Kong are also provided. The symposium aims to: introduce complexity theory and its potential contribution to education; stimulate further interest in complexity theory and education through the presentation of papers that attend to diverse areas of complexity theory and its applications to education; act as a precursor to the establishment of a Special Interest Group.

1 . What do Teachers Gain Through Their Participation in the Learning Centre Scheme?

CHENG May Hung, May, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

YEUNG Yau-Yuen, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

2 . Evaluation of Hong Kong Secondary School Students' Views and Understandings of Nature of Science

YEUNG Yau-Yuen, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

NG Pun-Hon, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

3 . Improving Science Teaching Through Video Analysis: A Multi-facet Approach

Yung Hin Wai, Benny, The University of Hong Kong

What do Teachers Gain Through Their Participation in the Learning Centre Scheme?

The Learning Centre (LC) Scheme is a collaborative project between the Education Manpower Bureau, a primary school, a secondary school, and the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) for facilitating the implementation of the recent education reform in various key learning areas. As a pilot stage of the LC Scheme, the primary LC works on the subject of General Studies and the secondary LC focuses on the subject of Junior Secondary Science. Both LCs achieve the aim of facilitating professional development in their respective key learning areas through a series of face-to-face teacher education workshops, school-based support service and the web-based Teacher Learning Community. The LC teachers need to take up the role of cascading good practices in curriculum and pedagogical changes through carrying out test-bed trial teaching in their own classes, facilitating other teachers’ professional development in workshops and providing outreach school-based support. In carrying out these responsibilities, the LCs work with the HKIEd consultant Team which provides mentoring and consultancy services, and evaluates the project.

The project is structured into three phases, to wit (I) preparation in leadership or teacher development understanding, (II) the implementation stage (including teacher professional development workshops, web-based development opportunities and school-based support) and (III) the evaluation stage. Using structured interviews, we identified the professional development that the LC teachers experienced in the first year of the project. The paper concludes with recommendations for future development of the LC Scheme in terms of ways and conditions to support LC teachers in realizing this meaningful mission.

Evaluation of Hong Kong Secondary School Students' Views and Understandings of Nature of Science

The contents of nature of science (NOS) in science curriculum have been changed in the past few decades. In the sixties, the contents were mainly about science process skills. Later, the tentative, replicable, probabilistic, humanistic, historic and empirical natures were included in the seventies and psychological and social factors were included in the eighties. In the recent science education reforms of many countries, students’ adequate understandings of NOS were explicitly stated or required. In order to achieve similar educational goal in the current curriculum reform in Hong Kong, we must first develop a valid, reliable, practical and easy-to-analyse research instrument for large-scale probing of students’ understanding and views of NOS. The present paper reports on how we have made use of 3 cases from history of physical science (to wit, biography of Galileo Galilei, Thomson and Rutherford’s atomic models, and observation of “canali” in Mars) plus three other historical cases and issues from the biomedical field (to wit, Jenner’s use of vaccination for immunization against smallpox, discovery of SARS virus in Hong Kong, and discovery of the mosquito’s role in transmitting the malaria disease) to develop two new sets of questionnaire research tools. The major criticisms on past paper-and-pencil NOS questionnaire instruments had been properly considered and addressed during the design process. Subsequently, questionnaire surveys were administered to about 640 students at junior secondary level in 6 Hong Kong schools and about 450 science students at senior secondary level in another 6 schools in Hong Kong. Those surveyed data were triangulated with the group interviews of a few randomly selected students in each class. Some key findings on the students’ attitudes and misconception towards NOS will be presented in this conference paper together with a brief discussion on their implication in science education.

Improving Science Teaching Through Video Analysis: A Multi-facet Approach

This study originated from an earlier project through which a database of over 100 hours of raw footage of exemplary science teaching at the junior secondary level was established. Through video analysis workshops and web-based discussion forums, comments on these videos were collected from more than 100 participants including teacher educators, inservice and preservice teachers. As an elicitation tool for probing participants’ conceptions of good science teaching (CoGST), further comments on the videos were collected from 88 preservice teachers in a later study.

Capitalizing on comments made by various people on these videos in the previous studies, a video-based Likert-scale survey instrument was then developed and used to investigate the CoGST held by 110 teachers and 4024 Year 7 students. Factor analysis of the results suggested a CoGST model as comprising 11 dimensions including: Focusing on science, Establishing a Clear Learning Purpose, Creating a Conducive Learning Environment, Making Learning Fun, Encouraging Active Experimentation, Modelling Data Interpretation and Valuing Students’ Contribution.

Significant gaps between teachers’ and students’ conceptions on some of the dimensions were identified. This raised important questions like: How can these gaps be closed? Who is to change in the process, the teacher or the students, or both? Answers to these questions have huge implications for teacher professional development. The present paper reports on a follow-up study in which teachers are helped to tackle the above problems. It employs a model of school-based teacher professional development with videos of exemplary science teaching as initial inputs for the teachers, who then further develop their lessons collaboratively through cycles of lesson studies that involve video analysis of their own teaching.

1 . Reading and Comprehension Abilities of Emergent Readers: Implication for Reading Instruction in Lower Primary Level

Shegar Chitra, Nanyang Technological University

2 . Fostering Love of Reading: An Investigation of Reading Attitudes among Singapore Primary School Children

Curdt-Christiansen Xiao Lan , Nanyang Technological University

3 . Instrument Development in Reading Intervention at Primary Level

Harris Karen, Nanyang Technological University

4 . Empowering Young Readers through an Integrated Unit

Yio Claire Siew Koon, National Institute of Education

Learning to read is the central academic activity undertaken by children during their initial years of schooling. Research confirms that reading is fundamental to academic success, and reading ability is the basis for children’s success in school and tends to determine their academic achievements (Mathewson, 2004; Stanovich, 1986; Ruddell, 2006; Wilson, Chapman & Tunmer, 1996). This symposium reports the preliminary research data on a school-based reading intervention project in a Singapore primary school. This project aims at improving children’s reading ability through a variety of literacy programmes including Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading Programme (USSR), Buddy Reading Programme, Learning Support Programme, Reading Programme within Curriculum, and Integration of reading within Strategies for Effective Engagement and Development (SEED) unit. In addition, the project enriches the teachers’ reading instruction at primary one level.

Viewing language learning, reading and literacy as mediated socio-cultural phenomena, (Lantolf, 2000; Luke 2003; Moll & Dworin, 1996; Norton, 2000; Rampton, 2001), the presenters examine the complexities of language and culture diversity, taking into consideration the socio-economic diversity of the students, their reading attitudes, and school culture including professional development that are embedded in teaching and learning. Each paper addresses an important issue related to the politics of “reading acquisition”.

Shegar presents a model for teacher development in reading instruction, focusing on assessment of reading and comprehension ability of emergent students. Curdt-Christiansen explores children’s reading attitudes, derived from baseline data of the project. Harris’ paper discusses issues related to instrument developments for collection of baseline data. Yio focuses on significant moves in Singapore to engage and develop young readers through the application of effective aural/oral, reading and writing strategies, and the incorporation of language arts processes in an integrated unit for empowering young readers.

Our research draws on theoretical perspectives which emphasize the centrality of interactions, language and cultures in the construction of meanings, teacher identities, and professional partnerships: Vygotsky for his conceptualization of learning and teaching through mediational tools, Grundy and Robinson’s (2004) ‘shared knowledge’ to understand the relationship between researchers and teachers as partners, and Bourdieu’s notions of cultural capital to examine how reading programmes represent particular ideologies. This allows us to understand how we as educators operate ‘reading’ and ‘literacy practices’ from certain ideological perspectives.

Fraisse Robert, California Lutheran University

1 . Preparing Effective Leaders for Urban Schools

Marsh David, University of Southern California

2 . Preparing Leaders for Social Justice

McCullough Mary, Loyola Marymount University

3 . Refocusing a doctoral leadership program: policies and practice

Cannings Terry, California Lutheran University

4 . Leadership Development: new ways of thinking and doing

Valadez James, California Lutheran University

This symposium will focus on the efforts of three leading California universities as they revise and renew their professional doctoral leadership programs to focus on the needs of today’s leaders as they transform and lead schools in urban communities. Many U.S. universities are attempting to delineate their doctoral leadership programs: from a research doctorate, with its emphasis on scholarly publications, to one that focuses on real world leadership challenges with an emphasis on action research projects focused on challenges identified by school districts and school superintendents. For example, at the University of Southern California (USC) the faculty overhauled their Ed.D. and Ph.D. offerings to make them two distinct programs with clearly different goals, requirements, and student populations. Currently, USC Ed.D. students are in a 3-year, part-time program with a practice emphasis. The Ph.D. program limits existing cohorts to a handful of students in a full-time, research-intensive program. USC now has two programs, two philosophical approaches, two different types of graduates. In this symposium, presenters will describe the factors that led to this reconceptualization of the doctoral leadership programs, the ensuing tense faculty deliberations and the final program “product”. Of particular importance will be the focus on the culminating dissertation project as doctoral candidates, in teams of 2, 3 or 4 members, produce a research report on a contemporary local issue. In this new approach, the final project report will be presented as a university doctoral defense as well as to the local education agency. Issues such as selecting the research project theme, nominating team members, role of faculty chair and school district readers, team interactions and writing the final project report are themes that will be discussed. In addition, the symposium will reflect on issues related to effective leadership strategies for urban school leaders. For example, the doctoral leadership program for social justice at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, focuses on developing leaders who recognize the need to redesign under-resourced schools and create realistic solutions for difficult or systemic challenges. This symposium will reflect on concepts raised recently by Lee S. Schulman et.al. in “Reclaiming Education’s Doctorates: A Critique and a Proposal”, and Henry Levine’s report on “Educating School Leaders”. Presenters will give examples of why it is essential to reclaim and promote an effective professional leadership doctoral program.