Master-level postgraduate professional development (PPD) programs have grown rapidly in many parts of the world. Being able to complete written assignments successfully is a significant concern for students pursuing PPD studies. Yet the nature of written assignments in such programs has been under-researched. This paper reports a study conducted…

Self-assessment is believed to complement peer assessment in the classroom. However, whether, how and why this is done remains unclear. This study, by investigating the combined use of self and peer assessment for an academic writing task among a group of undergraduate students in Hong Kong, aims to shed light on how self-assessment complements…

Reading is a core element in language education. Despite extensive research in second/foreign language (L2/FL) reading, relatively little is known about the differences between two common practices: Compulsory reading (i.e. reading assigned by teachers) and voluntary reading (i.e. self-initiated reading). This article reports two related…

Despite the increasing amount of literature on the educational potential of social media for learning, little is understood about how different functions of social media might affect learning in the K-12 context, the primary school education context in particular. This study examined the effect on learning of a key function of social media-online…

The analysis of exemplars of different quality is a potentially powerful tool in enabling students to understand assessment expectations and appreciate academic standards. Through a systematic review methodology, this paper synthesises exemplar-based research designs, exemplar implementation and the educational effects of exemplars. The review of…

Teachers' instructional practices surrounding written assignments have been little researched, despite writing remaining the primary means of assessment in higher education, including postgraduate professional development programmes. In this paper, we report a study that explored what a sample of lecturers in a Master of Education programme at an…

This study aimed to find predictors of learning outcomes for an undergraduate social work research course. Participants' scores on various assessment tasks were used as dependent variables and their perceptions and learning experiences as independent variables. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed. Student performance on weekly…

Flipped classrooms emphasise a learner-centred and results-oriented approach. They have been widely adopted in recent years, to enhance the effectiveness of student learning and encourage students to understand and apply new information. This approach is also regarded as a type of blended learning, given that tutors decide on the pre-class work,…

Research Findings: This study explored the moderating effect of child competence in independent learning in relations between the amount of learning assignment, length of online learning, and parent satisfaction with children's online learning during COVID-19 imposed class suspension. The data came from an online survey conducted in Hong Kong in…

Syntactic complexity is a crucial aspect of linguistic proficiency and thus understanding and supporting such development in learners is a keen concern for language teachers. Research conducted has shown growing sophistication of noun phrase structures by writers of different abilities in academic writing (Biber & Gray, 2010; Liu & Li,…

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…

This study focuses on the perceptions of learning EAP of first-year undergraduates with high ESL proficiency admitted to an English-medium university in Hong Kong. Two in-depth individual interviews were conducted with nine participants and their written assignments were analysed. The data reveal several challenges facing the high achievers in…

Testing has been found to facilitate students' long-term retention of information. However, the learning performance of highly test-anxious students can be impaired by tests. Thus, these students may learn ineffectively in a testing context. By contrast, summary writing may not trigger test anxiety and is therefore another learning strategy to…

This study investigates how a class of university music students who engaged in a "lived" experience of informal learning adopted methods and strategies to complete a self-learning "aural copying" performance assignment in a musicianship class in Hong Kong. Data were collected from observations of the performances and the…

This paper is focused on an innovation which involved students being assessed on short written responses to an issue to be addressed in the following classroom session. The innovation was evaluated through a student survey, individual and focus-group interviews with participants, and the analysis of a critical friend. Positive findings included…