Knowledge Transfer Projects

“Butterfly” is known as the most beautiful of insects and has long held a magical appeal for people. This program intends to use the much-adored “butterfly” as its theme to promote nature writing in Hong Kong, thereby achieving the goal of university knowledge transfer. On one hand, the program will offer public lectures and teacher training workshops on nature writing for secondary school teachers; on the other hand, it will provide opportunities for secondary school teachers and students (pre-service teachers) enrolled in Chinese Education bachelor’s degree programs at the EDU, CUHK, and HKU to visit Fung Yuen in Tai Po for on‑site butterfly watching, to learn about nature writing and to develop teaching materials on nature writing.

In the Education Bureau’s curriculum guidelines, the cultivation of students’ positive attitudes and values is strongly emphasized. In response, this project is based on a positive education picture book – “The Worried Lion and the Magic Rabbit” – and uses language-based stories to convey seven “Self-Esteem Treasure Box” tools (derived from the Saveya counseling model). Its aim is to help primary school students improve their language skills while discovering inner strength to solve everyday problems.

To promote a positive attitude toward life, the project will stage a contest encouraging primary school students to apply the “Self-Esteem Treasure Box” in their daily lives. The project will provide teaching designs based on the picture book along with a “Treasure Hunt Guide” (worksheet) free for all Hong Kong teachers to use. Primary students will use an AR filter provided by the project to randomly draw a “Self-Esteem Treasure Box” and then share—by recording a short video—their experiences of facing life’s challenges with that tool. Finally, a judging panel will select outstanding entries, which will be uploaded onto a positive life attitude platform maintained by the project leader for public voting.

This contest aims to build a platform for sharing positive life attitudes among students throughout Hong Kong. Participants will reflect on how to apply the “Self-Esteem Treasure Box” in real life, actively face personal growth challenges, and by sharing via short videos, they will also enhance their speaking and language skills. Meanwhile, the public can use the platform to exchange ideas on fostering a positive life attitude. This project broadens the scope of positive education beyond traditional, one-way classroom teaching and places an emphasis on practical application. The extended worksheet derived from the picture book will deepen students’ use of the “Self-Esteem Treasure Box” and also help teachers, social workers, and parents learn methods to guide students in sharing and enhancing a positive life attitude.

Aligned with the mission of the Department of Literature and Cultural Studies, this project seeks to cultivate students’ ability to produce digital teaching materials, enhance our students’ educational professionalism, and deepen their understanding of positive education—responding to the Education Bureau’s emphasis on fostering positive values. It also supports the Faculty of Humanities’ engagement with local education and collaboration with various partners to drive knowledge transfer, in keeping with our institution’s commitment to leading educational innovation.

The objectives of the project are as follows:

• Use an Instagram AR filter as the contest theme, encouraging primary school students to share daily positive life attitudes in response to the Education Bureau’s curriculum guidelines, by participating in positive education activities centered on real-life topics to help them actively face changes and challenges.
• Employ picture books and short video productions, combined with social media platforms, to encourage students to practice a positive attitude toward life and diversify the methods of positive education.
• Transform theoretical and research outcomes into practical capabilities, letting theory drive practice by providing teaching designs and worksheets to support pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, social workers, and parents in delivering positive education.
• Through professional sharing sessions, evaluate, consolidate, and promote related teaching materials and research outcomes while exploring new directions for multimedia teaching and positive education.
• Establish partnerships between the department and local schools and organisations to offer our students more opportunities for deepening, applying, and practicing teaching

• Host professional development session(s) for frontline history instructors; 
• Introduce the concept of historical empathy; 
• Provide practical examples of how to apply the pedagogy in their history lessons; 
• Collect feedback from participants; 
• Produce teaching and learning resources on historical empathy.