Many language proficiency tests include group oral assessments involving peer interaction. In such an assessment, examinees discuss a common topic with others. Human raters score each examinee's spoken performance on specially designed criteria. However, measurement models for analyzing group assessment data usually assume local person…

This paper reported an exploratory study that examined secondary school students' understanding of collaborative discourse in a computer-supported knowledge building environment in characterizing and scaffolding their engagement in productive online discourse. The participants were thirty-eight secondary school students in a visual arts course. A…

With rising nationalism across the world, and increased tension between East and West, internationalisation of tertiary education is arguably more important than ever before. This paper reports on a study of international and local students' experiences of intercultural encounters in two Hong Kong universities. More than 100 students from all over…

This study examined the usefulness of a mobile instant messaging (MIM) tool to support teaching and learning. Taking a usefulness theoretical perspective, we examined in detail the utility and usability of using WeChat in a postgraduate-level course. Multiple types of data were collected and analysed, including MIM interaction records,…

There has been much attention given to the use of technology in education; mostly concentrating on physical artifacts of technology to facilitate teaching delivery but little mentioning technology as a cultural resource to organize the learning environment promoting social interaction among students and between teacher and students. This paper…

This article reports the results of a study that assesses the effectiveness of a Philosophy in Schools (PIS) programme in developing students' thinking skills and English competence in Hong Kong. In the study, training and support were provided for three Integrated Humanities (IH) teachers to enable them to teach PIS to their Secondary 3 English…

Hosting guest speakers is a common practice among instructors because it can yield new insights for students. However, the experience is often disappointing. This article refers to guest experts to signal a break from the conventional approach, in which guest speakers deliver information primarily in a one-directional manner without any engagement…

Aesthetic experiences have proved as a valuable tool to enhance quality childhood life and learning; yet, how young children perceive such experiences is little known. This study investigated the aesthetic experiences and responses of Hong Kong young children through drama improvisation. Deleuzo-Guattarian concept of rhizome was used to form a…

This study determines the fine-grained bottom-up linguistic features involved in successful second language (L2) English academic group oral tutorial discussion through the use of a spoken learner corpus composed of more than 20 hrs of L2 production. Student performances were graded by teacher-raters using a can-do rating scale, which assessed…

Gamification offers potential for improving students' online discussion quantity and the depth of discussion content. However, very few studies have examined the social network patterns when students are posting and providing peer-feedback to each other in gamification-based environments. In response to those gaps, this study used a learning…

The goal of this study was to develop a classification for a range of discourse patterns that occur in text-based asynchronous discussion forums, and that can aid in the distinction of three modes of discourse: knowledge sharing, knowledge construction, and knowledge building. The dataset was taken from Knowledge Forum® databases in the Knowledge…

The objective of this study was to determine whether the incorporation of group work in a teaching intervention can effectively foster students' critical thinking skills. Building upon Kuhn's critical thinking model, the research involved comparison of pretest and post-test results for 140 secondary four (10th grade) students in Hong Kong on two…

Discussion of exemplars of student work is a productive means of explaining tacit knowledge and guiding students into the requirements of academic writing. Through two cycles of action research in a post-secondary institution in Hong Kong, this study examines how exemplars can be used to enhance student understanding of quality and to promote…

This paper, through discussion of a teaching intervention at two secondary schools in Hong Kong, demonstrates the learning advancement brought about by group work and dissects the facilitating role of teachers in collaborative discussions. One-hundred and fifty-two Secondary Two (Grade 8) students were divided into three pedagogical groups, namely…

E-learning is playing a significant and increasing role in elementary science education. The purpose of this study was to explore how primary Grade 3 students constructed an understanding of seasons through a series of interactive e-learning activities. One class of Grade 3 students from one local primary school was invited to participate in this…