Education Community

The First Vice Principals Forum

The Institute’s close collaboration with the school community reached new heights with its sealing of agreements with four major School Sponsoring Bodies (SSBs) in December 2010, including the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, the Anglican (Hong Kong) Primary School Council, the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ and the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals. Based on this strong connection, the Institute hosted the First Vice Principals Forum in collaboration with the four SSBs on 6 December 2011. Attended by over 500 vice principals and key stakeholders in education, with the theme of the Mission and Development of Vice Principals in the 21st Century, the Forum updated stakeholders on the wider education perspective while extending its support to the schools. Inspired by the event’s success, a group of enthusiastic vice principals planned to establish the first association for vice principals in Hong Kong.

Second Parent-Teacher Summit

With the aim of providing an opportunity for parents, teachers and the public to exchange ideas and discuss strategies and practices for effective family-school cooperation, the Institute organised and hosted the Second Parent-Teacher Summit in conjunction with the Committee on Home-School Cooperation and Federations of Parent-Teacher Associations from 18 districts on 26 November 2011. With a theme of Consensus and Synergy, the Summit featured distinguished overseas and local speakers sharing their insights into and experiences of home-school cooperation. The event attracted over 300 parent-teacher association leaders, school principals, teachers and home-school coordinators who engaged in fruitful discussion on family-school cooperation, particularly in relation to facing the challenges brought about by the 3-3-4 academic structure.

15-year Free Education Symposium

With its leading role in early childhood education, the Institute co-organised the 15-year Free Education Forum on 21 February 2012, with the Council of Non-profit Making Organizations for Pre-Primary Education and the Pacific Early Childhood Education Research Association. Representatives of the co-organisers and 25 early childhood organisations signed a joint statement, demanding the abolition of the current Pre-Primary Voucher Scheme and the government’s commitment to fully subsidising early childhood education. With a theme of Implementation and Way Forward of Quality Early Childhood Education, the Forum was attended by 400 academics and kindergarten principals, legislators from major political parties and candidate in the then chief executive election. Subsequently, an alliance was formally established to continue advocacy for quality free early-year education in Hong Kong.

Collaborative Project on Teaching Cantonese Opera in Schools

Cantonese opera has been officially listed as an item of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). To promote this art form, the Institute pioneered a partnership project with sponsorship from the Quality Education Fund by inviting Cantonese opera artists to schools and providing training for music teachers to teach the genre in the formal school curriculum so that students’ interests in traditional culture can be aroused. The three-year project has engaged 12 Cantonese opera artists and directly benefited 180 teachers and about 6,300 students from 54 primary and secondary schools. As a result, the Institute received the prestigious Musical Rights Award from the International Music Council and a HKIEd Knowledge Transfer Award in recognition of its contribution to music education.

Wider Community

Preservation and Learning of Education Heritage

In 2011-12, the Hong Kong Museum of Education, located on the Institute’s Tai Po campus, actively collaborated with schools and educational organisations through major exhibitions. These included The Future of School Architecture and Revisiting Modern Teacher Education in Pre-1949 Chinese Universities, a tour to the Po Kong School Village and two symposia on school architecture and learning environments. During the year, 12,000 visitors and 130 educational groups visited the Museum. The highlight of the year was an exhibition titled Evolving Schools co-organised by the Museum and the School of Architecture, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as part of the 2011 Hong Kong-Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture, which attracted over 100,000 visitors from around the world.

Reaching out through Multi-media Exposure

To help the community better understand its transformation under the “Education-plus” vision over the past few years, the Institute introduced a series of multi-media communication initiatives between April and June 2012. The first was the quarterly e-newsletter HKIEd News, which was launched in April 2012. Apart from reaching out directly to 23,000 key stakeholders, the inaugural issue was also accessible by 2.5 million viewers through an online platform. Following this drive, messages on the Institute’s community, programmes and internationalisation were carried in two Chinese dailies, Ming Pao and Sing Tao, in May 2012. The campaign culminated in the production of five video segments featuring the aspirations and commitment of the Institute’ s undergraduates, alumni and staff members. The video stories were transmitted for five weeks starting from June 2012 on Roadshow, a mobile network that reaches 3.6 million public-transport passengers daily.

Alumni and Graduates

Chief Executive’s Award for Teaching Excellence

As in previous years, the outstanding performance of the Institute’s alumni and graduates was recognised in the Chief Executive’s Award for Teaching Excellence 2011-12. The Award this year recognised achievements in the Arts Education Key Learning Area, Information Technology in Education and Pre-primary Education. Of the 54 awardees, 47 were our alumni, with 23 receiving awards and 24 certificates of merit. Since the scheme’s inception in 2003, 448 of 590 awards (76%) have been bestowed on graduates of the Institute or its predecessor Colleges of Education. These recipients have been invited to extend their support to the Institute as Teaching Consultants, to benefit our staff and students.

Community Support on Education Cause

Psychology Education

To strengthen psychology education at the Institute, the Lee Hysan Foundation has generously donated HK$3,163,000 to support the establishment of the Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Laboratory. For the Department of Psychological Studies, which will launch its Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Psychology programme in 2012-13, the well-equipped laboratory is designed to not only facilitate teaching and learning of practical skills but also to conduct research and assessment for community consultation projects. This will allow the Institute to further extend its support to the teaching profession, parents and the community. The ultimate goal of the laboratory is to serve as a platform for generating cutting-edge scientific findings that will be used to develop evidence-based practice for various community settings.

Internationalisation

The Institute’s internationalisation strategy is to enhance the learning experience of its students through regional and international exposure, as well as an internationalised curriculum and other on-campus experience. The strategy echoes the University Grants Committee and Education Bureau’s drive to promote internationalisation and Mainland experience through the dollar-for-dollar matching grants schemes. The Institute’s cause on internationalisation was made possible by philanthropic support from two generous donors. Dr Hui Chi-ming donated HK$1,500,000 to support student exchange, the Regional Summer Institute and the LEAD (Leadership Enhancement and Development) programme. Dr Annie Wong donated HK$150,000 to create student exchange scholarship in visual arts.