published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Curriculum Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis is a comparative study which examines the formal art curriculum guides of Hong Kong and British Columbia. The rationale for this study lies, in part, with the documented demographic change that has taken place in British Columbia schools over the past decade, in particular, the significant numbers of Hong Kong immigrant students who have enrolled in four of British Columbia's five largest school districts. The study examines the Hong Kong and British Columbia education systems overall, places the art curriculum for each jurisdiction in respective context, and surveys the content of the guides themselves. The study then examines in comparative fashion the guides with regard to general content of the guides, conceptual frameworks for the curriculum, the presentation of expected learning outcomes, curricular content, and assessment and evaluation. The findings within these topics are summarized in terms of similarities and differences. The findings are also analyzed relative to traditional Chinese conceptions of education and the extent to which they reflect the histories and traditions of art education in Hong Kong. The curriculum guides are also analyzed according to the three conceptual orientations of curriculum posited by Miller and Seller: transmissional, transactional, and transformational. The thesis finds that while there are a number of similarities between the art curriculum guides of Hong Kong and British Columbia, the differences between the two sets of documents are significant in terms of 1) how art curriculum is conceptualized, 2) implied expectations with regard to teaching and learning styles, and 3) the specificity of curricular content. The thesis also suggests that the Hong Kong art curriculum guides reflect a transmissional orientation to curriculum, while the British Columbia guides reflect a transformational, if not transactional orientation. The thesis concludes by pointing to the need for comparative observation of art education in Hong Kong and British Columbia in order to more concretely identify the similarity or differences in the actual art educational experiences of students within each jurisdiction.

Communicative language teaching (CLT) has been extensively discussed and researched, especially in an English as a second language (ESL) context. Some literature has also explored the adaptation of CLT in English as a foreign language (EFL) environments, such as in Asian countries like China. No research, however, has been conducted with consideration given to a specific group of teachers who teach non-English major students at the tertiary level in China. The present study was designed to investigate Chinese university teachers' perception of the implementation of CLT in non-English major programs in China. / This study first differentiates ESL and EFL environments, and then distinguishes the characteristics of CLT and of the traditional Chinese teaching methodology. Second, this study examines how the implementation of CLT is perceived by the university teachers of non-English major programs and whether there exist some constraints that impede the implementation of CLT at the tertiary level in China. / The results show that the adaptation of CLT to the Chinese context is welcomed by university teachers of non-English major programs. However, in the implementation of CLT in the teaching of non-English major students, there are difficulties arising from four directions, namely, the educational system, the EFL context, the cultural tradition, and the students. The results suggest that only by overcoming the difficulties from those four sources and by creating more favorable conditions for the implementation of CLT can teachers of non-English major programs in China implement CLT in their daily teaching practice.

This thesis is a comparative study which examines the formal art curriculum guides of Hong Kong and British Columbia. The rationale for this study lies, in part, with the documented demographic change that has taken place in British Columbia schools over the past decade, in particular, the significant numbers of Hong Kong immigrant students who have enrolled in four of British Columbia's five largest school districts. The study examines the Hong Kong and British Columbia education systems overall, places the art curriculum for each jurisdiction in respective context, and surveys the content of the guides themselves. The study then examines in comparative fashion the guides with regard to general content of the guides, conceptual frameworks for the curriculum, the presentation of expected learning outcomes, curricular content, and assessment and evaluation. The findings within these topics are summarized in terms of similarities and differences. The findings are also analyzed relative to traditional Chinese conceptions of education and the extent to which they reflect the histories and traditions of art education in Hong Kong. The curriculum guides are also analyzed according to the three conceptual orientations of curriculum posited by Miller and Seller: transmissional, transactional, and transformational. The thesis finds that while there are a number of similarities between the art curriculum guides of Hong Kong and British Columbia, the differences between the two sets of documents are significant in terms of 1) how art curriculum is conceptualized, 2) implied expectations with regard to teaching and learning styles, and 3) the specificity of curricular content. The thesis also suggests that the Hong Kong art curriculum guides reflect a transmissional orientation to curriculum, while the British Columbia guides reflect a transformational, if not transactional orientation. The thesis concludes by pointing to the need for comparative observation of art education in Hong Kong and British Columbia in order to more concretely identify the similarity or differences in the actual art educational experiences of students within each jurisdiction. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The current study aims to explore how PMI instruction and other psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic factors that might affect the production of Mandarin consonants by Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong. A total of 63 participants were invited to participate in a Mandarin consonant production test in which they had to pronounce words starting with these three pairs of Mandarin consonants /ts/-/tʂ/, /tsh /-/tʂh / and /s/-/ʂ/. 6 participants were invited to a post-experiment interview. Results of the Mandarin production tests showed that secondary school students who had completed PMI instruction had the highest Mandarin production score. However, no significance could be found between the use of PMI instruction and the production of Mandarin consonants by Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong. Results of the interview showed that age, length of exposure to Mandarin, instrumental motivation were the factors that led to a higher accuracy in Mandarin production whilst a lack of motivation, low social acceptance towards Mandarin, high social distance towards mainland China and political factors are the factors that led to a lower accuracy in Mandarin production. To improve Cantonese speakers' Mandarin consonant production accuracy, the government should introduce Mandarin to the curriculum starting from kindergartens and improve the image of Mandarin among Hong Kong people.