连系与成果

Prof C P Lim’s collaboration with four local universities through the Blended & Online Learning & Teaching (BOLT) project has enhanced student learning across different programmes, and in higher education institutions in Cambodia, China, Korea, Mongolia and Sri Lanka.

Supported by the Asian Development Bank, UNESCO and the World Bank, the research increased the availability of equitable quality education.

Prof Lim’s framework was also adopted by UNESCO (Asia-Pacific) for its information and communication technologies in the education project Seizing Digital Opportunities in Higher Education, funded by the Shenzhen Municipal Government (US$500,000). The Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) in Cambodia and Colombo University in Sri Lanka have adopted Lim’s framework to guide their senior management teams. This has impacted around 25,000 students.

Dr Susanna Yeung’s partnership with 20 kindergarten teachers across eight kindergartens has led to an intervention project on a language-rich phonological approach with 250 children in K3. The teaching resource manual produced in this research has benefited around 400 pre-service and in-service early childhood education teachers annually.

Another researcher in this study, Dr Dan Lin, collaborated with more than 10 schools from three districts in Hong Kong and directly benefited over 500 children on early literacy skills and learning motivation. This collaboration was later extended to Macau and mainland China, in particular, Nanjing and Hangzhou, to over 100 participants, including educators, practitioners, parents, and students.

Dr Gail Yuen’s research has revealed that marketization models using voucher funding decreased educational quality and increased social and economic inequities.

Her research impact was strengthened by convening an alliance of 30 educational bodies, and by her inclusion in the Education Bureau’s Committee on Free Kindergarten Education.

Her findings led to the government’s abandonment of its policy of marketization and a new funding model of direct subsidies for not-for-profit kindergartens. The change has decreased the economic burden of poor families, and improved teacher-student ratios and teacher salaries: key conditions for improving education quality.

Drs Ian Lam and Eva Lau’s studies have impacted over half a million parents. The three studies, on more than 950 Chinese families, have resulted in a paradigm shift from parenting guidance based on Western studies to one that emphasises the use of local research to inform parenting practices.

Knowledge has been disseminated through the print and online media, as well as in knowledge exchange activities, including conferences, newsletters and public talks.

Working with the Centre for Child and Family Science, and with funding from the Simon K. Y. Lee Foundation, an evidence-based intervention, Early Prevention, Early Identification, and Early Intervention (3Es), was established to promote children’s cognitive control and prosocial skills.

Dr Esther Lau’s team has collaborated with the University of Oxford to develop and validate the Chinese version of the Sleep Condition Indicator (SCI) for both clinical and research use. The research has established a unique, eight-year longitudinal dataset of over 8,000 students and community adults with over 100 psychosocial-spiritual variables per person to generate the first empirical evidence in the world that sleep quality predicts optimistic/pessimistic attitudes to life, both directly and indirectly through its effects on mood.

Furthermore, Dr Lau has partnered with the Correctional Services Department of the HKSAR government to provide training sessions for 26 psychologists to equip them with the skills to help persons in custody with sleep problems, related to their behavioural and mental health issues, with suicide and violence.

Dr Lau later developed a partnership with counsellors in 14 local tertiary institutions to conduct sleep assessments and interventions.

Dr Margarita Pavlova, Director of the UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre of Hong Kong since 2013, has worked with the policymakers, government officials, institutions and educators of 34 countries.

Her work focuses on implementing low-carbon economies and changing policy and educational practices in technical vocational education and training (TVET). With funding from UNESCO, the Asian Development Bank, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Research Grants Council in Hong Kong, her work has uncovered evidence-informed strategies for the effective implementation of green skills.

Her work has benefited industries such as hospitality management, auto-mechanics, waste management, PVC industries, photovoltaics and agro-forestry.