In recent years, the Invitational Education (IE) philosophy and its application into schools have been spreading from the West to East. Many schools at different levels: kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, are gradually adapting this philosophy together with their own curriculum to enhance students’ learning. This philosophy is believed that human potential can best be realized to invite development, and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others. Being the secondary school that is of the same sponsoring body of the pioneer primary school for introducing Invitational Education to Hong Kong, the school possesses great potential to be developed as a truly inviting school. However, at the same time, as a new school, many ideas were needed to be developed including policies, student activities, and new ideas for the curriculum, developing programs for different stakeholders and establishing networks with other schools. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to know how the implementation of IE philosophy affects on students’ learning in a Hong Kong secondary school – case study. There are 3 main questions: (1) How is teaching and learning is shaped or affected by IE? (2) What are the factors affecting the success or applicability of IE in the school? (3) Is IE applicable in the school under study? This study adopts a mixed approach in its method of inquiry because of its descriptive and exploratory nature. The outcome shows that the staff is pleased to have Invitational Education philosophy adopted in the case school. It could help the teachers to shape their way of teaching with invitational education qualities but this needs further research. There is a lot of room for improvement as there are factors that affect the success or application of IE in the school. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

随着中国经济的发展，国家地位不断崛起，“汉语热”也在世界各地逐渐兴起，对外汉语教学开始成为语言教育中一个新的关注点。无论是内地还是香港，大量的国际学校开始开设中文课，家长们都希望自己的孩子可以从小就学习中文。由于学生母语并非中文，背景也参差不同，因此，使用什么方式，既可以提高学生学习的兴趣，也可以帮助学生学习汉语成为了教师关注的焦点。 本文将通过实际的汉语教学实践，介绍音乐教学法在小学对外汉语教学中的应用，并详细解释音乐教学法的使用方式，旨在把音乐作为一种载体，用更加朗朗上口的方式教学中文，以求达到更好的教学效果。 本文共分为五个章节。 第一章为引言，介绍当前对外汉语教学的大背景，提出问题。 第二章为文献综述，搜集音乐教学法的理论基础，并且联系音乐与汉语间的密切关系。 第三章将介绍音乐在教学中的应用，包括音乐的优点、教学功能和其他功能。 第四章将详细分析笔者在香港九龙小学做的一系列音乐教学实验。 第五章为总结，阐述音乐教学法的优势和认知上的误区，以及文章在写作上的限制和对音乐教学法的展望。 With the economic development, China’s position continues to rise. "Chinese fever" is also gradually on the rise around the world, teaching Chinese as a second language (TCSL) in language education became a new focus. Both the mainland and Hong Kong, a large number of international schools begin to offer Chinese language classes. Parents hope their children to learn Chinese from an early age. As the student's native language is not Chinese and the background also varies, thus, using which method, not only can enhance students' interest in learning but also can help students to learn Chinese, has become a spotlight in teaching. This article will introduce using music pedagogy in primary school TCSL class and explain in detail through the teaching practice. The purpose is that using the music as a carrier, with more catchy way to teach Chinese in order to achieve better teaching results. This paper is composed of the following five chapters. The first chapter introduces the current foreign language teaching background and asks questions. The second chapter is literature review, collecting theoretical basis of music teaching, contacts the close relationship between Chinese and music. The third chapter describes the application of music in teaching, including the advantages of music, teaching and other features. The fourth chapter will analyze a series of music teaching experiment in detail of author in Hong Kong Kowloon primary school. The fifth chapter is Summary. It describes the advantages and knowledge errors of music pedagogy, limitations on article writing and the prospect of music pedagogy. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Research on participant perceptions of one-to-one mentoring and peer tutoring programmes is available although little empirical study exists of schemes which recruit English-speaking foreign exchange students as language ‘mentors’ for tertiary learners wanting to improve their spoken English. This paper examines mentor and mentee perceptions before and after experiencing an English Language Mentoring Scheme at a university in Hong Kong, as well as possible causes of mentee attrition and retention. Research aims are met through implementation of pre- and post-programme questionnaires as well as post-programme focus group discussions. Using a grounded theory approach to data analysis, three main categories of perceptions emerge, including: Improvement of English; Social, Cultural and Interpersonal Growth; and Mentee and Mentor Responsibilities. Programme strengths as reported by mentees include improvement of spoken English, friendship, enhanced cultural knowledge and strengthened confidence in using spoken English. Uncertainty regarding mentor and mentee roles was found to be a programme weakness and one possible cause of mentee attrition. As the programme is perceived as a platform for spoken English improvement, friendship and improved cultural awareness, this dissertation argues for stronger promotion of this and similar programmes to meet stated university goals of internationalization and whole-person development. / published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

This thesis addresses academic underachievement by ethnic minorities, a persistent sociological problem, in the context of low-income South Asian students in Hong Kong. South Asians have deep roots in the history of Hong Kong; however lower income groups among them find few opportunities for upward social mobility. Students from this community attend ‘designated’ local public schools, which do not seem to offer them a challenging academic environment. Hence, these students generally show poorer levels of academic performance and higher levels of dropout rates compared to the majority Chinese students. Most of them also do not go to university and seem to make poor career choices. Existing research on this issue has explored the impact of factors such as limited school choices, segregation in designated schools, poor quality of education, Chinese language requirement, and stereotypes associated with the South Asian community, suggesting that the disadvantaged position of South Asian students is a consequence of their ‘non-Chinese status’ as it denies them the privileges enjoyed by the mainstream population. However, prior research has generally overlooked the role of South Asian parents in their children’s academic life. This thesis addresses this ‘research gap’ by exploring low-income South Asian parents’ understanding of the educational opportunities available in Hong Kong and their attitudes towards children’s education and future. A qualitative study within the social constructionist paradigm is used, to examine the ways in which low-income South Asian parents understand and respond to the education system in Hong Kong. Grounded theory approach is used to collect and interpret the data obtained from seventy one interviews with South Asian students, their parents, teachers and social workers. Using ‘constant comparative’ and ‘inductive’ methods, three sensitizing concepts are identified - ‘parental involvement’, ‘ethnic identity’ and ‘folk theory of making it’; and these are used as the theoretical foundation for the data analysis process. In addition, four conceptual categories are developed - ‘educational perspectives’, ‘limited support’, ‘beyond control’, and ‘ensuring future success’, which define the process of adaptation of the South Asian parents to the education system in Hong Kong. Data shows that the low socioeconomic status and strong ethnic identity of South Asian parents has a major impact on their educational expectations for their children and their adaptation pattern reflects ‘resistance’ against marginalization in the local education system. This study highlights the ‘instrumental’ view of education wherein South Asian parents do not conform to standard achivement ideology of Hong Kong society. Instead, they seem to withdraw from high academic expectations and upward social mobility, which further widens the existing social and economic gap between them and other groups, especially the majority Chinese group. In this process, their ethnic identity is reinforced with a focus on strong ties with their home countries; hence, most of them consider themselves only as ‘economic stakeholders’ in Hong Kong society. These findings emphasize the immediate need for the provision of quality education for ethnic minority groups and concerned attitude from the educators and citizenship education / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Invitational Education (IE) is a theory to be practiced in the five areas of People, Places, Processes, Policies, and Programmes (the five P’s). The emphasis of IE on creating an inviting school environment, developing students’ self-concept, and fostering positive perceptions of school is well supported in the field of education. This study investigated the invitational climate of seven secondary schools in Hong Kong that implement IE. The research involved a large scale survey of the seven schools that received the “Inviting School Fidelity Award” in 2008, followed by a qualitative study undertaken in the school with the highest invitational climate. A Chinese translation of the revised Inviting School Survey (ISS-R; Smith, 2005) was used to measure the invitational climate in the seven schools. The five subscales of ISS-R were found to be valid and reliable in a sample of 706 Grade 11 students. Students’ perceptions of the invitational climate in the key areas of People, Places, Processes, Policies, and Programmes were analyzed. The findings of this study suggested that indications of invitational climate in the five P’s could facilitate teachers’ and administrators’ consideration in improving invitational practices to cater for the needs of different groups of students. Teachers also need to be aware that IE may be perceived and received differently by students of different genders and levels of ability. In addition to the invitational climate, students’ affective and social development were also examined in the areas of academic affect (feelings about learning and achieving in school), academic self-concept (beliefs about oneself as a learner), self-regulation(the ability to manage one’s own learning and behaviour), goal setting (setting own learning targets), and social concern(concern for self and others). Correlations were found between the five key components of IE and students’ academic affect and self-concept, self-regulation, goal setting and effort, and social concern. ANOVA revealed differences in perceptions and outcomes across different academic achievement levels, and by gender. Results supported the view that IE encourages students to become self-motivated and autonomous learners. The qualitative part of the study involved individual and focus group interviews with 30 Grade 11 students from the IE secondary school with the highest invitational climate (according to the ISS-R survey). Students’ perceptions of the school climate were examined in relation to five key areas―People, Processes, Policies, Places, and School Programmes. The aim was to explore how these five areas influence students’ academic affect, academic self-concept, self-regulation, goal setting, and social concern. Findings suggested a definite relationship between these five areas of affective and social development of the students and their perceptions of the inviting school climate, particularly the influence of teachers, and the processes used to encourage autonomy in learning. In addition, this qualitative section confirmed the survey findings that students with different levels of academic achievement had different perceptions of invitational climate. Less-able students felt less positive than more-able students about the inviting nature of people, policies, and places. Implications for the implementation of Invitational Education to cater for learner diversity are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

This study examines a five‐month process in which students from an International Baccalaureate (IB) school were introduced to Knowledge Building. The study occurred throughout three of the six Units of Inquiry that students cover over one year in the IB program. The transition from independent inquiry in the IB system to collective inquiry using knowledge building was aided by the Knowledge Forum software. The participants were 26 students from an international school in Hong Kong. Findings indicate that students responded positively to the knowledge building process, and showed significant of gains in knowledge in two units. Contributions to the knowledge building wall and Knowledge Forum showed evidence of some of the principles of knowledge building. Results also indicate more could have been done on the part of the teacher to promote the program. A number of recommendations for future implementations have been made. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Over the years, many studies have been shown that storytelling plays a significant role in vocabulary acquisition (Speaker, Taylor, & Kamen, 2004). My research focused on vocabulary development in native and bilingual English speaking kindergartners through storytelling. Findings from this study of storytelling that revealed a positive relationship between the number of occurrences to words in the story and the vocabulary development as well as the positive relationship between the numbers of exposures to the storybooks and the vocabulary development are presented. Findings also confirmed that older kindergartners acquired more new vocabulary compared with the younger group kindergartners. The kindergartners who were all non readers listened to stories over a two week period by a professional storyteller. The kindergartners listened to the first story only once in the first week and completed a multiple-choice vocabulary posttest immediately thereafter. This test included 5 unfamiliar words from the story. The second storybook was read twice in the following week, two days apart and a multiple-choice vocabulary posttest with a different set of 5 unfamiliar words was presented after the second time the story was read. Three weeks after this, a delayed posttest with the 10 words were administered. There were 10 target words throughout the 2 stories. Only one target word appeared in both stories, once in Story 1 and twice in Story 2. Likewise, 4 target words appeared once in Story 1 and the other set of 4 target words appeared once in Story 2. There was 1 target word (not heard word) which had not read to the kindergartners in each of the story. As expected, the scores on the second multiple-choice vocabulary posttest was higher than the first multiple-choice vocabulary posttest because children vocabulary acquisition increased with the numbers of the exposures to story and the number of occurrences to words in the story. Nevertheless, storytelling would have no benefits on children’s vocabulary acquisition if words were not being delivered or told to the children, whereas the number of occurrences of the story read increased. Findings in the present study proved that reading the same story at least twice and more exposures to words contributed the positive influence to kindergartners’ vocabulary growth. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study focused on the relationship between classroom interaction and small class teaching in a Hong Kong secondary school, an issue which has long been recognized in a range of international and local studies. The observation of one teacher teaching two S.1 classes of different class size (n=34 and n=23) and another teacher teaching two S.7 classes of different class size (n=23 and n=12) over a period of time has revealed key differences between teaching and learning in large and small classes. This study draws on both quantitative and qualitative data. The study includes a pilot case study which comprised of three-hour lesson observations in each of the two S.1 (grade 7) classrooms, an action research study which consisted of 20-hour lesson observations in each of my two S.7 classes (grade 13), interview with the S.1 (grade 7) teacher participant and a total of 15 students, writing from my S.7 students, and my own teacher journal reflections from my S.7 classes. Findings from both the case study and the action research reveal that students in the small classes have more opportunities for participation and classroom interaction after they were offered more group work, discussion, scaffolding and open-ended questions. It was found that small classes were more conducive to the fostering of dialogic teaching as well as the formation of communities of practice. Implications for pedagogy and further research are included. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

English language enjoys a high status in Hong Kong. Many parents enroll their children to language classes at a very young age aiming to get them into well-regarded schools for a better prospect. One way that can help learners improve English proficiency is through reading. However, when local students are streamed into different secondary schools, the motivation to read is lowered. This thesis aims at highlighting the different learning contexts of our students that contribute to reading. A new genre, graphic novel, is used to investigate the effectiveness to motivate secondary school students to read. Factors are also identified which may facilitate the revival of the interest of students of different backgrounds and abilities in reading. The study consists of 8 Form 3 (grade 9) students and 2 secondary English teachers. 5 students are studying in a secondary school with English as medium of instruction (EMI) and the other 3 students are studying in a secondary school with Chinese as medium of instruction (CMI). The 2 teachers are working in these two secondary schools respectively. This research was conducted using an action research approach. Questionnaires, interviews and students’ journals were used to achieve the aim of the study. The results reveal that graphic novel can positively motivate secondary school students to read. Teachers can also make use of the features of the genre to make the lessons more interesting. However, more research needs to be done about the introduction of the genre in classrooms and the value of the genre in improving the language proficiency. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Many studies have been conducted on the application of Web 2.0 technologies (e.g., wikis) in educational environments. These studies have dealt with topics such as exploring the potential of their use, what effect they might have on student learning, and how effectively they can be used with appropriate instructional practice. However, whether these findings conducted on the tertiary and high school levels are applicable to young learners of English as the second language (L2) in primary levels have yet to been examined. This study investigated how wiki’s key affordances might help in scaffolding students during collaborative writing projects among primary five and six students (n=119) in a Chinese primary school in Hong Kong, where English is taught as the L2. Three classes of students and their English subject teachers participated in a three-month English language writing programme using a wiki. Data was collected and analyzed from both non-wiki collaborative writing prior to a wiki intervention and the other from wiki supported collaborative writing after the intervention. Employing a mixed methods design, both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed from student and teacher interviews, student and teacher questionnaires, and from activities recorded in the wiki system, including posted edits and comments and students’ group writings. To understand human activity in a complex classroom environment, activity theory was used as an analytical lens to help examine and compare the learning processes and their outcomes in the two different collaborative writing environments. The study found that the use of a wiki in three upper primary classes was perceived positively, with the wiki's technology affordances matching positively with the required tasks of collaborative writing. The key affordances from wiki collaborative writing supported and enhanced the learning tasks required of the nonwiki collaborative writing. These affordances, available in wiki collaborative writing, also helped overcome some of the constraints and limitations observed in non-wiki collaborative writing and helped to enhance writing and social skills necessary for collaborative writing tasks. When some of the key affordances -- temporal and access control applications which provided an online platform for peer comments and history pages to track student’s editing processes -- were combined together, they can become a powerful tool for peer feedback and peer editing leading to meaningful revision processes. The tracking functionality of the wiki gave in-depth information about the types of edits the students were making, mainly content meaning versus surface level, and it may have helped improve student group writing. Examining the two collaborative writing environments within the framework of activity theory revealed the dynamic changes and development of the activity system through tension and contradiction among the components of the activity structure. The tension and contradiction among the tools, the community of learners and the objective of their tasks – tension and contradiction which was caused by the need to implement group writing within the given curriculum time -- seemed to have decreased after the introduction of the wiki technology. Findings may shed light on how wikis can help provide necessary support for students’ collaborative writing and how peer-feedback can influence this process. It may help provide practical recommendations for primary school English language teachers and help researchers and educators understand the potential that Web 2.0, specifically wikis, can bring to scaffold primary-school L2 writers in collaborative learning. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education