Chair in Regional Education Development and Lifelong Learning

Knowledge Transfer Initiatives

New and Ongoing Knowledge Transfer Initiatives

Developing Life and Employment Skills

Background

The University has committed resources to the flagship KT project under the UNESCO Chair in TVET and Lifelong Learning entitled “Developing Life and Employment Skills”. The objective is to provide an alternative learning platform where students can learn skills that are really valued by employers and thus increase their opportunities for worthwhile employment. The findings of the President’s survey of employers provided the motivation for this initiative.

Specific Objectives:

· to develop a website portal focusing on Skills for Life (initially in English but with future translations into traditional Chinese and other major languages). The portal will contain information pages including definitions, examples, links to useful sites, videos, and some teaching units;

· to report on or undertake EdUHK projects, activities and other forms of community engagement relating to Skills for Life, with dissemination through on-line channels, symposia, seminars and print-based publications; and

· to strengthen links and knowledge transfer activities with the UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre in Bonn and UNEVOC Centres throughout the Asian region in the areas of TVET-related research (such as education for sustainable development, skilling unemployed youth, green skills and curriculum design) and TVET teacher education.

Planned/potential Specific Deliverables

The main deliverable is a website with resources and links for students and young professionals to use which provides information on the skills required for entrance to tertiary education or to begin a successful career. This ongoing initiative has expanded the outputs to include two series of video interviews (with more planned). The UNESCO Chair (through CLLRD) is working on video interviews with elder students and teachers of elders to provide life experiences and mentoring advice to younger students. We are also working on a series of interviews with stakeholders in education of minority language students (which also ties in with KT initiative 2).

Contribution to Hong Kong’s Economic and/or Societal Well-Being

Higher skill levels and enhancing employability of young people has major economic implications for fully utilizing human capital to the benefit of society as a whole. Lack of basic skills in areas such as communication and problem solving are frequent concerns or employers and result in unfulfilled potential from the workforce.

Forum Series on Education for Minority Language Students

Background

The UNESCO Chair (through CLLRD) organizes and facilitates a series of KT forums on Inclusive and Equitable Education for All. These bring together scholars, minority group representatives, education practitioners and students to exchange views on priority areas in education for minority language students (students who do not use Chinese as a "home" language and may wish to have instruction in English and/or their first language, or need additional assistance if learning in Chinese). The purpose of these forums is to discuss the key issues affecting minority language students in the school system. The forums are now focusing on how this University, in its role as a teacher education university, can better prepare its students (as future teachers) to be more understanding and sympathetic to the needs of minority language students in the classroom in order to facilitate their moving away from low wage employment and entering tertiary education and professional careers.

Planned/potential Specific Deliverables

The forum discussions and conclusions are reported on the UNESCO Chair website and are available for download. These will be used to influence the content of programmes and curricula to enhance our staff and students’ understanding of minority language students’ needs through introduction of appropriate teaching materials. The reports were sent to the LEGCO Subcommittee on Rights of Ethnic Minorities for their reference at their third meeting on: "Education for children of ethnic minorities - implementation progress of the 'Chinese language as the second language' curriculum, placement of EM students and support measures to these students and to schools admitting them". The forum findings have been developed into policy briefs on the improvement teaching minority language students, and a submission was recently made to the HK government. In the longer term deliverables could include the development of a teaching programme specifically for minority language students planning to go on to teach in this area.

Contribution to Hong Kong’s Economic and/or Societal Well-Being

Hong Kong’s minority language students often fail to complete school and face particular difficulties entering tertiary education and moving into professional careers. This leads to a cycle across generations of low/median wage households with poor quality of life. Our initiative aims to put steps in place to break this cycle. There would be obvious improvement in the various ethnic minority communities' well-being and sense of respect. There would be improved harmony and understanding in the wider Hong Kong community and a reduced reliance on government support, for example, through the provision of public housing and health care.

Lesson Planning for Teaching Minority Language Students

Background

We are undertaking a KT project to develop teaching materials that can be incorporated into Dept. IELL's Minor in Key Issues and Changing Values in Education and/or the course Philosophical and Socio-Cultural Issues in Education. These materials will provide student teachers with information on the situation facing minority language students, how teaching methods may need to be changed and provide practical advice from case studies and HK classroom experience. The intention is to broaden the international and inter-cultural mindset of future HK teachers with a view to benefitting the 17,000 minority language school students in terms of assisting them in successfully completing school, gaining the best qualifications possible and hence increasing their life-chances.

Planned/potential Specific Deliverables

The development of a lesson plan for Dept. of IELL is a specific outcome of this KT initiative and we will seek support for this across other departments to introduce materials into their programmes.

Contribution to Hong Kong’s Economic and/or Societal Well-Being

Responding to the Needs of Minority Language Students’ at EdUHK through Cross-Faculty Collaboration

Background

The UNESCO Chair (through CLLRD) has a funding application pending for a KT project that aims to enhance the awareness of EdUHK students, in their capacity as future teachers, of the needs of minority language students in Hong Kong. This project will review programmes within the University to see where there are gaps in teaching about the needs of minority programmes and looking to fill the gaps through development of appropriate materials and changes to programme curricula. This is an expansion of the work above outside of a single department into the University as a whole.

Planned/potential Specific Deliverables

This is an expansion of the above initiative which would plug gaps in the EdUHK programmes to enhance teaching materials for minority language students on a University-wide scale.

Contribution to Hong Kong’s Economic and/or Societal Well-Being

Review of the Potential of EdUHK to attract Ethnic Minority Students into Teaching

Background

The UNESCO Chair (through CLLRD) is developing a funding application for a KT project to undertake a review of the University's programmes, student social activities and infrastructure to determine interest and relevance to Hong Kong's ethnic minority school leavers, with the aim of encouraging them to become teachers. We will also review existing research materials and conduct surveys and interviews with ethnic minority students currently at EdUHK to determine likes and dislikes with the aim of determining how the University can appeal more to ethnic minority students and encourage them into teaching careers.

Planned/potential Specific Deliverables

There are 17,000 minority language students currently in the mainstream school system (i.e. excluding International Schools). There is potential for many of these students to qualify as teachers from EdUHK. These will be teachers who have a particular understanding of the needs of other minority language students and will be able work with them in the classroom in a sympathetic way. The deliverable will be a set of recommendations in the areas academia and support services that the University needs to implement in order to attract more local minority students. A marketing plan will also developed.

The real outcome of this work would be an improvement in the quality and experience of education in the Hong Kong mainstream system for these students with success determined by an increase in numbers of minority language students reaching tertiary education (academic or vocational) and whether employment opportunities are up-skilling to more professional levels.

Contribution to Hong Kong’s Economic and/or Societal Well-Being

There are 17,000 minority language students currently in the mainstream school system (i.e. excluding International Schools). There is potential for many of these students to qualify as teachers from EdUHK. These will be teachers who have a particular understanding of the needs of other minority language students and will be able work with them in the classroom in a sympathetic way. The real outcome of this work would be an improvement in the quality and experience of education in the Hong Kong mainstream system for these students with success determined by an increase in numbers of minority language students reaching tertiary education (academic or vocational) and whether employment opportunities are upskilling to more professional levels.

Enhancement of Global Perspectives of Students at EdUHK

Background

This flagship KT project, undertaken in collaboration between CLLRD, the UNESCO Chair and Dept. of C&I, is a Teaching Development Grant funded project in Globalization which is designed to enhance the global perspectives of students in this University. The purpose is to facilitate a mechanism for academic and administrative staff to share views and experiences of teaching global issues and conduct and analyze surveys, interviews and other assessment tools; and to gauge and evaluate the development of students’ global perspectives. There is a funding application pending to expand this project into other tertiary institutes in Hong Kong.

Planned/potential Specific Deliverables

The deliverable will be enhancements of teaching materials on globalization within the core curriculum of the University's programmes.

Contribution to Hong Kong’s Economic and/or Societal Well-Being

Economists point out that the knowledge and implementation of global initiatives leads to: positive political, cultural, economic, and ethical consequences; leads to the rise of organizations designed to promote international cooperation; and fosters cross-cultural awareness and a sense of global civics.

Purely economically, access to a variety of low-cost goods from across the globe has raised the standard of living for consumers and manufacturers.

Hong Kong as a Source for Education Policy in England: Rhetoric and Reality

Background

This KT projects aims to inform academic debates in both comparative education and national policy analysis with particular reference to the English education system. It is also making a significant contribution to the various stakeholders who contribute to, and are affected by, education reform, but do not have the expertise to evaluate or assess the claims that underpin these reforms. The project is a joint research study undertaken with colleagues at the UCL: Institute of Education in London. The Hong Kong team joined their UK counterparts at a KT seminar organized in the Houses of Parliament, UK, for politicians and their advisers.

Planned/potential Specific Deliverables

This provides advice to the UK government through briefing sessions and policy documents on which HK education policies might successfully enhance the English education system.

Contribution to Hong Kong’s Economic and/or Societal Well-Being

This project enhances the status of HK internationally as a source of academic research and policy development that can be of assistance to other countries. The economic and social benefits are somewhat less tangible than other initiatives but may result in influence and changes of attitudes to HK in terms of being a knowledge economy.

Community Engagement through Intergenerational Learning and Mentoring

Background

The EdUHK Elder Academy (under CLLRD) currently provides lifelong learning opportunities to elder students. This community/KT initiative is very popular with elder students and is always over-subscribed in terms of places available. The Elder Academy also runs a programme for a professional development qualification in the area of teaching elders.

There is a proposed KT initiative (currently seeking funding) that aims to provide further opportunities for intergenerational learning between younger and elder students. We are proposing a scheme to facilitate the mentoring of younger students by elders who will share their life experiences and knowledge.

Planned/potential Specific Deliverables

The Elder academy delivers content to 200 elder students each year. It also provides continuing professional development qualification in teaching elder learners. There are approximately 40 professional students each year on this course.

The mentoring initiative will deliver a formal mentoring programme to enable elder students to provide younger students with “real-life” learning from their own life experiences. Numbers of students involved in the mentoring programmes has not yet been determined and would depend on the level of funding received for this initiative.

Contribution to Hong Kong’s Economic and/or Societal Well-Being

Much research indicates that keeping an active mind in later years leads to improved mental and physical health, and general well-being as a person ages. A healthy elder population has obvious economics benefits through the reduction in health care needs and costs, less dependence on family and social welfare services for day-to- day care and needs.

The mentoring initiative will link with “skills for Life” initiative to make the younger people more employable and will enable HK to fully utilize their human capital for the benefit of society and the economy.

Models of Trilingual Education in Ethnic Minority Regions of China Project

Background

Since 2002, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has instigated various language policies in education designed to foster trilingualism in ethnic minority groups. Trilingualism, if implemented effectively, enables marginalized groups to engage in the social and political life of mainstream society and enjoy educational and economic benefits. Poorly conceived and ineffectively implemented policies, however, could exacerbate marginalization and deprivation.

The project deepens our understanding of the four models of trilingual education and their sustaining contextual factors, so that these models of trilingualism could be added to the literature, where European models currently predominate. Also, given that the two of the models appear to be effective in producing “additive” trilinguals (i.e., the learners develop three languages without one negatively impacting on the others), the in-depth understanding of the mechanics of these models has allowed for their propagation inside and outside of the PRC.

The objectives of this project are to:

1. To deepen understanding of the genesis of the four trilingual education models [uncovered in our previous research] and the contextual factors sustaining them

2. To identify models that are effective in promoting additive trilingualism in students

3. To broaden the international literature on models of trilingual education, currently dominated by Eurocentric models, by presenting Chinese models of trilingual education

4. To increase awareness of the successful models for the purposes of teacher training

Although this project was initially funded as by the GRF (funds now exhausted) it remains ongoing through partnership collaborations.

Planned/potential Specific Deliverables

A book entitled “Trilingualism in education in China: models and challenges” was produced with 31 authors, indicating the contribution and sharing of knowledge of this project. In addition to the book, this project has resulted in the publication of 6 chapters, 4 peer reviewed journal articles and 9 international conference papers from 2013 to date. Two students have completed and one has nearly completed their doctoral theses in the area of multilingualism as a result of this project.

Four international symposia on the research findings and methodology were held in Sichuan (March 2013, with 40 researchers, policymakers and teachers); Yanbian (October-November 2013, 40 participants); Ningbo (November 2014, over 60 participants); and in Xining (June 2015, more than 80 participants).

In the Kunlun Expert Programme, over 200 teachers were trained in effective pedagogical approaches to address the shortage of multilingual teachers; and trilingual classes were introduced by the university in 2012. Similar professional teacher development programmes in Yunnan reached over 500 teachers. Professor Adamson and other team members contributed to these and other programmes, directly or indirectly impacting on some 450,000 minority students in China.

In 2013 the Ministry of Education of China funded "Models and Proposals for Trilingual Education in China's Ethnic Minority Area: Case Studies of TAR and Gansu Province”.

The project website www.eduhk.hk/triling has been created to share and disseminate findings of the project and research methods.

Contribution to Hong Kong’s Economic and/or Societal Well-Being

The models of trilingualism in education identified in this study have applicability in Hong Kong, where there is the stated goal of fostering biliteracy and trilingualism so Hong Kong can play a significant national and international role in trade and intercultural exchanges. Hong Kong’s experiences with multilingualism in education have been deemed problematic by many stakeholders, and policies have resembled a pendulum swing between an emphasis on learning through the mother tongue and through English as the medium of instruction. The China models have potential to refresh the debate in Hong Kong by providing viable evidence-based alternatives.