To Dr Anthony Pak Wan-hoi, education should be student-oriented. Yet, students and teachers today often seem to be living in two different worlds, without any mutual understanding. Dr Pak, however, works hard to understand as much as he can about young people and does not resist new things. While the community in general can be against the obsession of many of our young people for the cyber world, Dr Pak, on the contrary, takes a positive approach, appreciating their high efficiency, coordination skills and problem solving abilities. He believes that if these young people can transform their motivation to “play” into a motivation to “learn”, they would be able to achieve remarkable results.

“It is not difficult to find outdated textbooks in Hong Kong. For instance, main characters often still carry clichéd names such as “Kwok-keung” and “Mei-ling” and patriarchal families still represent the core family structure,” Dr Pak remarks.

Dr Pak thinks that we should proactively search for an answer when a question emerges. He believes that with clear direction backed up by excellent research facilities, the HKIEd’s research achievements will flourish, benefiting not only teachers and students but also future generations.