Early childhood caries is a condition of rapidly progressing rampant dental caries in infants and young children. It is considered as a major public health problem affecting pre-school children and it is the most common dental disease which affects 28% of children within two to five years of age. ECC not only induces pain and discomfort, but can also affect communication, nutrition status, learning abilities, speech and quality of life, which may progress into adulthood and pose a heavy burden on the healthcare system in long-term. In Hong Kong, over 50% of children were affected by dental caries in 2001 but over 70% of children had never been to a dentist for a regular check up at age five. Thus, much of the tooth decay was remained undetected and untreated. Dental caries can be preventable and achievable. Collaboration between families, early care and health care professionals is required to promote effective oral health care. Numerous studies have found that educational programs and workshops are effective in promoting oral health and can provide children a lifelong opportunity to be free from preventable oral disease. In order to promote oral health to achieve the mission of the Department of Health in Hong Kong- at least 65% of 5 years old children are free from caries by the year 2020, an evidence-based guideline for a community-based programme in oral health education was developed in the proposed setting after a critical appraisal of the reviewed evidence. The comprehensive intervention plan, including communication plan with stakeholders, training of staffs and pilot testing will be carried out to facilitate the implementation of the innovation. The oral health programme will be evaluated for its effectiveness in achieving the patient outcomes, health providers’ outcomes and system outcomes in the proposed settings. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

In this dissertation, I would like to focus on the authentic interpretation to patriotic education sites in Shanghai. Before looking into the authentic interpretation, we shall understand the background of patriotic education in China and in Shanghai. Patriotic education is the tradition of Chinese nation and now it’s part of political education in mainland China, whose purpose is to encourage the national to love the country and love the Communist Party of China. Place’s patriotic education is an important way to help the people know the places and come to understand of the patriotic stories happened in the history. With lots of photos, illustrations, sculptures used and many activities advocated, historical stories are commemorated to the public. In this dissertation, I would classify the typology of the patriotic education sites into 10 categories in three different levels and search the typical sites in each category to find out each individual site its age, physical nature of the place, architectural aesthetics/ design, construction, date of opening to the public, date of patriotic education site and level of patriotic education site. This will be the original finding in my dissertation, as to my knowledge, there was never been a category system of the patriotic education sites in Shanghai. To analyze the authenticity to the objective place’s patriotic education, I will attempt to find out the political significance of the site, the authentic location of the site and the authentic fabric of the place. I will try to find out the issues of the authentic location and fabric in the place’s patriotic education. Whether the authenticity of the location and fabric playing an important role in the patriotic education depends on whether they are the part of the history of that time. When the location and fabric in the site are the parts of the education to help the public to understand the stories and the culture of that time, the authenticity of the location and fabric in the sites has a positive impact on the objective of place’s patriotic education. Otherwise, the unauthentic location and fabric will mislead the visitors. But to keep the authentic new location and new fabric will help the later generation to understand why and how we are doing now in the future. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

This thesis is on motivation. It is an action research case study of my own classroom practices coupled with the study of motivational forces that drive or inhibit students to learn or disengage. As Covington (1998) cited in McDonough (2007:370) offers: “the importance of the beliefs learners hold about themselves, and therefore their level of aspiration and the kinds of strategies they operate or can be taught to adopt, to achieve what they want for themselves”. It incorporates the instrumental planning, teaching and supporting that the teacher’s role in the classroom defines. The time frame, participants and research methods such as interviews and questionnaires are all outlined within. The findings showed that students in my classroom were intrinsically motivated and regarded learning English as important, useful, fun and participated in classroom activities with a sense of enjoyment. The implications of the research study indicates motivational strategies have their place in the classroom. With an increased understanding of these motivational strategies, their implementations and the motivational dynamics that interplay within the classroom, motivational levels can be raised further and with a concerted effort of building relationships between teachers and students, appropriate and relevant contents and contexts, a step towards the bridging of learning and language acquisition of English by students in local CMI schools can be envisioned and realized. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

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

As one of the most influential constructs in educational psychology, academic motivation represents individuals’ drives and energies to learn; as an emerging construct attracting increasing interest, engagement manifests individuals’ drives and energies, such as the use of self-regulation strategies. However, little existing research simultaneously considers these two groups of constructs within one framework, or takes their antecedents and outcomes into account, especially in regards to Chinese university students. The present study attempts to systematically study motivation and engagement on the basis of social-cognitive motivation theory and achievement orientation theory as a means of unifying substantive and empirical claims. To accomplish these purposes, two studies, each with two parts, have been conducted with Chinese university students as participants. In Study One, Part One explores the factor structure of several instruments – including the Motivation and Engagement Scales-University/College (MES-UC), the Goal Orientation and Learning Strategies Survey (GOALS-S), the Scale of Institution Integration (SII) and the Academic Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ) – in half the sample (426 cases). Cross-validation with the other half of the sample is then undertaken (423 cases). Part Two investigates a process model, which includes student multiple motivational beliefs, engagement and educational outcomes through path analysis. The results suggest that students’ work avoidance goal predicts their academic dissatisfaction directly and indirectly via maladaptive engagement; their social concern goal indirectly predicts intellectual development via adaptive engagement; their social approval goal directly influences achievement; and student engagement mediates the impacts of other motivational beliefs on their academic dissatisfaction, intellectual development and achievement. Furthermore, social concern, social approval, social status goals and work avoidance goals are significantly related to motivation and engagement. 　　In Study Two, Part One cross-validates the MES-UC instrument in a new independent sample (836 cases) of Chinese university students. Other instruments including the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey (PALS) are also validated. Part Two investigates a process model, which includes classroom goal structure, motivational beliefs, engagement and achievement through path analysis. The results find that the classroom mastery goal structure predicts adaptive and maladaptive engagement via adaptive motivation, and the classroom performance-avoidance goal structure affects maladaptive engagement via personal performance-approach goal orientation and maladaptive motivation In summary, by considering the classroom goal structure as a contextual antecedent and a variety of motivational beliefs as individual antecedents, as well as achievement-related constructs as outcomes, the thesis finds the mediation effect of motivational beliefs between classroom goal structure and student engagement, as well as the mediation effect of engagement between motivational beliefs and achievement-related outcomes. The thesis also summarizes the main contributions, and implications, noting the limitations and pointing out some directions for future research in the field of student motivation and engagement. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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