About AClass

Welcome to Active Classroom (AClass; http://www.eduhk.hk/aclass/), an electronic platform for sharing teaching resources to promote active learning in schools and higher education institutions.

The idea of AClass is to share practices that are pilot-tested by users through active experimentation and knowledge transfer. We envision the formation of a community of practice through the platform AClass, which hope to benefit the overall teaching quality within the community.

AClass was first set up in 2005. At that time, professional teacher development for school teachers was in great demand because teachers wanted to be prepared with new skills and knowledge that would allow them to face the challenges of teaching brought about by education reform. Back then, the project leader worked with a local primary school to support schoolteachers in developing lesson plans. The project leader also pilot-tested the use of questioning skills for a full semester. With a small special project grant, the team turned the output into a Web site that provided a self-study platform on the theory and practice of questioning skills that served the great needs of the teaching community for teacher training and professional development. In 2008, AClass renewed its image and re-targeted its audience to include teachers, student teachers, and alumnus as collaborators and users. By 2010, more courses were added to AClass, which was supported by a knowledge transfer grant.

This 2013, the structure of AClass is being revamped to emphasize the theme "Enhancing Teaching Excellence through AClass." AClass is also extending its platform to the higher education community to accommodate teaching professionals in all sectors, signifying a new era in Hong Kong education and in education all over the world. Excellence has become the standard of performance in every profession. Therefore, AClass would like to be established as a platform for transferring knowledge to the whole sector of teaching professionals so that professional learning may be accelerated through the exchange of innovative practices. AClass is still at its formation stage, but we envision AClass to grow exponentially because of the growing need for professional exchange among teachers as an important learning method.

As implied by the title of this site, the notion that learning is an active process underlies the “Active Classroom.” Learning as an active process places the learner at the center of the learning experience. Learners are expected to develop self-responsibility to regulate their own learning progress (self-regulated learning), are actively engaged in meaning in learning (authentic learning), and discover and develop new knowledge through learning (constructivist learning). These elements are the attributes of a learner-centered ideology, which is promoted in education today.

Therefore, materials contained in AClass are centered on these concepts. AClass demonstrates the effort of teachers to identify the “learner” as an important agent in the learning process. It also considers the interests, characteristics, and prior knowledge of the learner to make learning meaningful and to eliminate the struggles of learners through the power of teaching and knowledge. Moreover, it helps learners recognize their “selves” in learning. 

To promote these concepts, AClass intentionally selects representative theories from the learner-centered branch, such as active learning, constructivist learning, authentic learning, experiential learning, and cooperative learning, to guide lesson plans and practices. The examples of teaching innovations, lesson plans, professional articles, and research reports contained in the site represent the theories that support healthy learning for students at all levels from primary school to the university. Prescriptions for practice are not given. Therefore, each example given in the site will hopefully add to the professional “toolbox” of the teacher. Through these examples, teachers will think broadly and critically about their own teaching and consider practices from all contextual factors in order to make use of the materials to maximize student learning.

AClass is currently used by educators, undergraduates and post-graduates, schoolteachers, principals and curriculum developers, government organizations, and non-government organizations. A site such as AClass may have many contextual constraints. Clearly, it would not have been created without the enthusiasm and support of our colleagues from The Education University of Hong Kong and without the contributions of a number of individuals. We have expressed our appreciation in a separate page. Again, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude. We hope that you, as viewers, will also join us and use the platform for dissemination, sharing, and exchange, as well as the home of your professional development.

The AClass project team would like to acknowledge the financial support provided to us by the Faculty of Human and Education Development of The Education University of Hong Kong through various project grants.
Although we have sought the assistance of many people in proof reading the materials in the site, errors, which are the responsibility of the authors, may still be present.

Dr. Lam Bick Har
AClass Developer
The Education University of Hong Kong