Many non-English-speaking countries and regions are establishing medical programmes using English as the sole medium of instruction, with the aim of producing global leaders who can function without communicative barriers. However, graduates from these programmes still have to use the local, non-English language to communicate with their local patients. The aim of this study is to examine whether these graduates experience any difficulty in communicating with their patients in the local language. We looked at the medical graduates of The University of Hong Kong as a specific example. The results of the study can be used for designing a local language course in these programmes. Graduates from the MBBS program of The University of Hong Kong were invited to take part, using selective, convenience and snowball sampling methods. Nineteen subjects voluntarily took part. Semi-structured interviews were individually conducted, and were based on a framework of questions in the four areas of Chinese language usage: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. All subjects indicated a certain degree of difficulty in using Chinese language in their clinical practice. In reading professional medical documents in Chinese, they had problems in recognizing the hand-written and the simplified Chinese characters. They also had difficulty in understanding the meanings of the words, in particular the Chinese medical terms, their variants, their abbreviations, and in following the complex Chinese academic discourses. In listening, they had difficulties in understanding Mandarin, especially those subjects who graduated more than 14 years ago and had little exposure to Mandarin during their school education. Even if they were able to recognize the spoken words, they may still have difficulties in understanding their meaning, just as they did in reading. In writing, the subjects did not perceive much difficulty, mainly because they could avoid writing professional medical documents in Chinese. In speaking, the subjects had difficulty with Mandarin. But the subjects did not complain of difficulties in speaking to their patients in Cantonese, despite their poor Chinese medical vocabulary, mainly because they developed strategies to avoid using Chinese medical terms, including giving the English terms instead, using a more general term, and or giving a description or explanation instead of the name. These strategies of complete omission, code switching, generalization, circumlocution are commonly used by learners of a second language when they experience lexical difficulties. They may jeopardize doctor-patient communication. Many subjects recognized the importance of having a good level of Chinese medical vocabulary. They also think that the use of Chinese medical terms, under appropriate conditions, allowed patients to have a more accurate and concrete picture of their conditions. The present study has identified Mandarin and Chinese medical vocabulary as the areas in which medical graduates from the HKU medical programme are particularly deficient. With the increasing emphasis on Mandarin in primary and secondary schools, new graduates from the programme can become more competent. But Chinese medical vocabulary remains a problem, and should be considered in the planning of a Chinese language course for the medical students at HKU. The results may also inform medical programmes in other non-English speaking countries and regions which use English as the sole medium of instruction. Training in the local language is important when English is used as the sole medium of instruction. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Liberal Studies was introduced to the Hong Kong Senior Secondary Curriculum as a compulsory subject in 2009. Liberal Studies lays strong emphasis on students’ self-learning abilities and critical thinking skills, and reduces rote memorization or cramming of knowledge. However, the large-scale tutorial schools – also known as cram schools - which are notorious for teaching students to focus on examination materials instead of genuine learning have ironically been successful in attracting student-consumers for the subject. This dissertation describes elements students receive from tutorial schools and reasons why the elements can successfully retain student-customers, followed by a discussion on the possible impacts of tutorial school learning which may have on students’ learning and on their formal schooling. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is employed in the analysis. It is found that tutorial business have made use of a lot marketing strategies for the promotion. Not only that they employ a lot of tactics to satisfy students’ needs, but they also create and stimulate demand by boosting students’ anxiety levels and by devaluing the day school education that they are receiving. On one hand, the extent to which the so-called ‘examination techniques’ or ‘skills’ is useful to students’ learning is doubted; on the other hand, it is found that tutorial schools’ unethical business practices and their business-driven ways of teaching would impose hidden yet serious long-term impacts on students’ learning and whole-person development. Moreover, tutorial schools’ marketing strategies would hinder the education reform which is in progress. All in all, tutorial school’s hindrance to successful schooling deserves immediate attention from educational policy makers. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of this study was to explore the classroom learning research to enhance the proficiency of fifth grade students to read expository articles and self-efficacy studies. Students through the teaching of reading text, Mind Mapping, Hypertext to enhancing the ability and self-efficacy of the fifth grade primary school students in expository comprehension. The fifth grade students included 55 boys and 77 girls, a total of 128 students. The study was designed by learning study .The research carried out in three weeks, Through Mind - Mapping and Hypertext strategy to improve students reading abilities of expository articles and use interview survey progress of students abilities. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This research aims at finding out the effects of teaching beliefs of History teachers in interpreting NSS Liberal Studies curriculum. Using autoethnography as the research methodology, the researcher, as a novice History teacher, reflected on his curriculum interpretation in comparison to other LS teachers in his context. This self-narrative is then compared with another History teacher's curriculum interpretation in its respective context. The findings of the research identified some common features between the two History teachers in LS curriculum interpretation. They are more likely to highlight the importance of socio-historical context to an issue and transfer from History studies the training of source interpretation skills and argument formation of students and the expertise towards political concepts in the Liberal Studies curriculum. This subjective curriculum interpretation forms the perceived LS curriculum of History teachers. Moreover, the subjective curriculum interpretation is a dynamic process. Individual teacher’s beliefs dynamically balance and rebalance factors in context, between a spectrum from individual teacher’s belief to socio-cultural contextual demands and constrains. Lastly, the complexity in the socio-cultural context correlates to the extent of manifestation of individual teacher’s belief in the subjective Liberal Studies curriculum interpretation. Between the two History teachers, the History teacher, who was situated in a more individualistic and cooperative context, transferred much more teaching beliefs in interpreting Liberal Studies curriculum. On the contrary, another History teacher projected limited teaching beliefs in LS curriculum situation. The more collaborative context leveled individual teacher’s teaching belief. Teacher’s belief is a moderator in context. / 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

Under the current policy of medium of instruction, schools in Hong Kong may use either Cantonese or Putonghua to teach Chinese Language subject. In this research, different media of instruction have been designed based on literature review and were imposed in five classes of primary one student studied in the same school. This study aims to examine the impact on using Putonghua, Cantonese or diglossia as the medium of instruction in Chinese language learning and teaching as well as the development of students’ general Chinese competence. Data were collected from multiple sources, validated and checked for consistency using triangulation. Quantitative analyses were conducted via quasi-experimental study and questionnaire surveys to examine the impact on the development of students’ general Chinese competence as well as students’ learning. Qualitative analyses were executed via multiple case studies, classroom observation, teacher-student interviews and text analysis of transcripts of interview protocols to examine the impact on teaching and learning. The research results show that, using different media of instruction have no negative impact on teaching and learning. Among those media of instruction, Cantonese, the mother tongue, is the preference of teachers and students. Nevertheless, qualified and experienced teachers and well-planned lessons and curriculum are the prerequisites for using Putonghua, Cantonese and Diglossia as the medium of instruction of Chinese language learning. The research results show that there are positive impacts on the Chinese language development of students. However, students have different performances in the mastery of mental lexicons, writing and reading abilities among the five classes. These results reflect that the teaching goals, strategies and the allocation of teaching time are affected by the different media of instruction. In brief, this study is a basic research that provides information for future studies on the media of instruction of Chinese language learning and teaching. Moreover, the result of this study can also serve as a reference to policy makers and teachers in making their decision in selecting the medium of instruction of Chinese language learning. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

This research is a journey of mine, as a CSL (Chinese as second language) teacher, using autoethnographical method to explore my own emotions and professional growth in the teaching of Chinese language to EM students. This research is a study of self-exploration. To make it simple, the autoethnography is written in accordance to the natural sequence of my self-exploration. First, I have chosen to report some of my raw experiences over the two-and-half years of teaching with the 2009 and 2010 cohorts of EM students (S2 and S1) as significant critical incidents that form the basis of my layers of reflection. They form the primary domain of the study. The writing is structured according to the classification suggested by Schon: 1. Reflection in Action: This part of the writing provides rich description of a series of critical incidents or episodes and my thoughts and feelings in the incidents. In writing each incident, the memory brings me back to the time and some instant reflection (usually filled, with some heavy emotions, confusion which needs clarity) may also be added to the description. The ‘Reflection in Action’ with the 2 cohorts of students is reported in two separate chapters. 2. Reflection on Action: After each ‘Reflection in Action’ chapter (which is mainly narratives of the critical incidents), there is a ‘Reflection on Action’ chapter which provides more in-depth analysis and reflection of my experience. With the 2009 cohort (S2 students), the associated ‘Reflection on Action’ is structured around the various emotions and relations experienced. And then with the 2010 cohort (S1 students), the associated ‘Reflection on Action’ is structured around my roles, values and cultural conflicts in the experience. 3. ‘Reflection for Action’: After I have completed ‘Reflection on Action’ on my experience to these two groups of students, I then make an overall reflection. The intention is to develop a better conceptualization of the whole experience and develop some theory that can serve as direction for my future practice, or hypothesis for consideration and future research by others. Before writing this final ‘Reflection for Action’, to provide a more valid and reliable basis for it, I interview some students (those involved in some of the significant incidents), three teachers from my school and three other teachers from other educational institutions. (One is a teaching staff working at the University of Hong Kong, one is from a Band 2 secondary school with lot of EM students, and the last one is a teaching staff working in a subsidized secondary school with some EM students.) Having the private talk with students can give me more insight on how some issues are seen from the students’ side. In the interviews, the critical incidents are used as stimulus together with questions which are designed for sharing emotions and enhancing understanding. After the final ‘Reflection for Action’, I will reflect on how the process of autoethographic writing and try to share with readers its values in teacher growth and other practical knowledge on using this methodology, including its strengths and limitations. In reflecting on my interaction, relation and emotions with students, I found my weaknesses; but I also came to realize fear existed in most of us. The way we handled our fear reflects our values and attitudes and in turn affected the fear of others. Our students also had their fear. The cultures of my students and me, and the differences, had made a great impact on our understanding of each other, and hence our emotional feelings towards each perceptions on cultural identity, and I tried to match the cultural strategies I learnt from literature with the cultural strategies practiced by me and my students. I also began to question how I saw (and would need to see) myself as their teacher, and respond to the differences between us. The issue of a teacher’s self and its formation in intercultural teaching then also became the focus of the study. In the end, you may ask, ‘what do you get from writing this autoethnographic research? In this teaching journey: teaching Chinese to the non-Chinese, you may ask, is teaching pedagogy very important fro students to learn better? Yes. But apart from teaching pedagogy, we need to take other issues into consideration. The issue of emotions and intercultural difference often emerges during the process of teaching and learning especially when teaching with ethnic minority students and this we need to take it into consideration to make the teaching of ethnic minority more smooth. To make the teaching of ethnic minority successful, we also need to understand our limitations and be accommodating, positive and show understanding to our students. In short, in the process of autoethnographic study, I have learned from lived experience. Through layers of reflection in different perspectives and different timing: reflection, it allows me to have some space to understand myself, show respect to others: students, parents and colleagues. We learn when we teach and we grow when we nurture our students with understanding and teach them with the virtue of gratitude. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

With specific reference to junior secondary schools in Shanghai, China, this qualitative empirical study examines the dynamics and complexities of leadership in school and, in particular, citizenship education exercised by principals and school party secretaries (SPSs), who are de facto equally-ranked school leaders. Specifically, it examines, from a macro- and micro-political theoretical perspective, the interactions between these two types of school leaders, and how they respond to the demands of various school stakeholders, including macro-political actors (e.g., the state) and micro-political actors (e.g., other school leaders, teachers, students and parents), at the school level. Data were gathered from document analysis, non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 44 school leaders from 24 schools and two educational officials in Shanghai, conducted in 2011. This study has four major findings. First, in addition to the leadership responsibilities inherent to their particular portfolios, the interviewed principals and SPSs were also politically and administratively responsible for leading the school and citizenship education, and struggled to balance these (at times conflicting) responsibilities. Second, there were four major school leadership/citizenship education scenarios in which principals and SPSs were torn between faithfully executing state policy demands, adapting those demands to suit the specific needs and conditions of their school, pursuing their professional autonomy, and addressing the interests of different micro-political actors. Third, principals and SPSs enjoyed a complicated working relationship at the micro-political (school) level in which they collaborated to fulfill their responsibilities and respond to school macro- and micro-political actors, while simultaneously competing for power over school leadership and citizenship education. Fourth, principals’ and SPSs’ leadership in school and citizenship education was shaped by inter-related factors, including diverse influences in a multi-leveled world, the integration of politics and education, the demands of macro- and micro-political actors, and personal factors. To interpret these findings, this study proposes a theoretical framework for understanding leadership in school and citizenship education in China as a political exercise in which school leaders actively use their influence and resources to lead and administer school and citizenship education, resist other school leaders’ (at times contradictory) administrative and political responsibilities, and interact with and mediate between the interests of various actors at the macro- and micro-political levels in response to political, economic and social needs. This theoretical framework is useful for understanding the complexity of school and citizenship education leadership, the micro-political relationship between Chinese principals and SPSs, and their dynamic and complex interactions with macro- and micro-political actors as they fulfill their intertwined political and administrative responsibilities in school leadership and citizenship education. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Recent curriculum reforms in Hong Kong emphasize learning how to learn, inquiry, collaboration, and similar capabilities. Problem-based learning (PBL) seems an appropriate approach for addressing these new requirements. However, little is known about the use of PBL in secondary (middle) schools, particularly in East-Asian countries in which Confucian-heritage values influence learning approaches. Therefore, the goal of this research was to provide a systematic account of an attempt to implement PBL in Form 1 (Grade 7) Integrated Science classes. The study investigated the teachers’ pedagogical actions, the aspects of the PBL environment that helped to motivate students in science learning, their pattern of discourse for science development and the possible differences of their learning outcomes compared with PBL and conventional learning conditions. A quasi-experimental and mixed-method approach was employed to gather data from two experimental classes (n = 62) and two control classes (n = 63). Data sources included field notes of classroom observations, audio recordings of students working in small groups on their PBL problems, interviews with teachers and students, and science tests administered immediately prior to each instructional unit (pre-test), at the conclusion of each unit (post-test), and before the school term ended (delayed post-test). The study has five main findings: (1) PBL teachers used different strategies to help students who were new to PBL to adapt to the new pedagogical practice, to facilitate group confrontation, and to help students become self-directed learners. (2) Choice, challenge, control and collaboration seem to have motivated students’ learning in the PBL classrooms. (3) Disagreements about the problem situations stimulated task-related cognitive activity and resulted in academic progress. (4) Students’ questions during collaboration facilitated learning by directing their’ inquiry and expanding their thinking. (5) Science test results show that the PBL group performed at least as well as the traditional learning group in knowledge acquisition, and that PBL helped the high achievers to retain information better than their peers in the traditional learning group. The study provides valuable information that shows how PBL can work in secondary school science classrooms. Implications for future research on PBL, and its practice in secondary school science, are also outlined. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In the domain of second language reading instruction, the teaching of inferencing to young L2 students seems to be a less explored area. The present study aims to investigate the extent to which the explicit instruction approach could enhance my ESL students' inferencing skills in English reading comprehension. It explores the relevance of teaching inferencing to my students, how they drew inferences in English before intervention and how they benefited from the intervention. I used an action research approach to study the effectiveness of my teaching of inferencing to my Primary Six ESL students in Hong Kong over a one-year period. I conducted this project following a two-cycle action research pattern within a seven-step framework. I implemented the project in three phases: Pre-intervention Phase, Intervention Phase One and Intervention Phase Two. Pre-intervention Phase involved baseline studies and think-aloud studies, whilst the intervention phases involved two cycles of teaching and a post-intervention think-aloud study. I used the data from the Pre-intervention Phase for designing the teaching content of the intervention phases. Data sources of this project included the students’ think-aloud protocols, the students’ work, lesson recordings, entries in my reflective journal, and my colleagues’ lesson observation feedback. I focused on the growth of the students’ learning and the effectiveness of the explicit instruction approach when analyzing the data. Findings from the Pre-intervention Phase suggested that the participants needed improvements in L2 inferencing and they were particularly weaker in the awareness of textual cohesion and coherence in informational texts. This had the immediate pedagogical implications that for initiating a reading programme in my school context, I should consider placing inferencing at a higher position; I should adopt different text types when teaching inferencing; and I should design and adopt higher-order thinking tasks more frequently when teaching reading to my students. Findings from Intervention Phase One and Two showed the students’ gradual growth in their inferencing abilities and their understanding of this reading skill. They became more confident in producing inferences while reading in English and showed an understanding of the importance of this skill to reading. Results from the post-intervention think-aloud study showed an increase in terms of the participants’ production of inferencing instances, the variety of inferencing applied by them, and their sense of textual cohesion and coherence. I estimated that the use of the explicit instruction approach had benefited the participants in general despite the fact that their internalization of inferencing was not evident. This study is significant in that it examines how inferencing could be explicitly taught to young ESL students to enhance their English reading competence. It also contributes to the theoretical understanding of inferencing in the teaching and learning of reading in L2. Based on the findings of this action research project, I derived and proposed a set of pedagogical principles for ESL inferencing instructions, pointing to the importance of explicitness in lessons, clarity of lesson outline, using students’ responses, text choice, and curriculum planning. I suggest that front-line L2 teachers make inferencing and other reading skills an important component in their language programmes. Future researchers should explore further on the use of the explicit instruction approach to teach other reading skills to young L2 learners and a wider range of materials to teach inferencing should be used. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education