Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is introduced to transform learning and teaching in K-12 education, yet empirical insights into teachers' apprehensions and expectations remain limited. Employing the Stages of Concerns (SoC) framework, this study investigated 83 Hong Kong teachers' perceptions of incorporating GAI into teaching practices. Analysis revealed that the participants simultaneously held both strong “hindering concerns” and “bolstering concerns.” The coexistence of the perceived “obstacles” and “opportunities” indicates that, although teachers confront substantive challenges, they remain motivated to exploit the effective integration of GAI into their pedagogical practices. The findings unfold the need for stage-specific professional development programs that systematically address teachers' concerns while building the competencies required for effective GAI adoption in K-12 sectors.

One challenge of online learning is that students do not necessarily follow the designed learning activities. Thus, how students perceive these activities and regulate their online learning is critical. This study examined the bidirectional relationship between OSRL and perceptions of learning activity design using a cross-lagged model. The Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive (ICAP) framework was used to classify learning activities. A total of 200 Chinese undergraduates participated in a questionnaire examining OSRL and their perceptions of learning activities twice. The results revealed that OSRL at time point 1 (T1) predicted perceived active activities (but none of the other three types of activity) at time point 2 (T2), while perceiving any type of learning activity at T1 did not predict OSRL at T2. These findings imply that participants did not perceive the learning activities of the same course in the same way; their perceptions of active activities depended on their OSRL.

This work in progress belongs to the innovative practice category. Nowadays, generative AI (also known as GenAI) can produce novel data samples that closely resemble authentic datasets. The advent of large language models (LLMs), in particular, has caused a huge interest in utilizing GenAI within and beyond the realm of higher education. However, little about engineering students' views and behaviours related to knowing and knowledge when using GenAI, such as ChatGPT, is known. In this WIP, we have engaged a class of N = 37 engineering students taking a postgraduate course titled “Social Media Analytics”. They were required to write essays related to their course learning in the form of blog posts. They were required to use LLM tools, such as ChatGPT, to assist their writing processes. Their GenAI usage was guided by the cognitive-agent approach, Search Tree, Analyze and Repair, and Selection (STARS), while STARS was proposed by Kirk et al. in AAAI 2024 to extend and complement prompt engineering. In addition, the participants were invited to fill in the Epistemic Cognition Inventory (ECI) questionnaire to associate five aspects of epistemic cognition (EC) with their writing experience. It is confirmed in our results that students' EC, i.e., their beliefs related to knowledge and knowing, significantly predict their prompting engagement and academic performance. However, students' academic performance is found to be significantly and negatively associated with their preference for GenAI usage. Here, we have uncovered engineering students' EC when interacting with generative AI, an area where little has been known so far. Our findings also suggest that proper use of GenAI prompting might promote engineering students' EC and, therefore, engineering learning.

This working paper discusses our initiative to explore the possibility of harnessing drones as an inquiry-based learning tool in geography education for supporting outdoor fieldwork. In particular, we focus on delineating (i) the rationale behind this initiative, and (ii) the direction of how to adopt drones in geography learning and teaching based on the high-school context in Hong Kong.

Students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) tends to decline as they reach high school. Among the factors to which this decline is attributed are the perceptions about the lack of communality and creativity in STEM. To address this problem, we implemented an 8-week STEM-based community service program where high school students learned about STEM and community service. The students were asked to design possible solutions to problems faced by people from disadvantaged groups (e.g., visually impaired people). Using the post-test data from 275 high school students who participated in the program, we examined a model of empathy predicting STEM interest via creative thinking. Results of mediation analysis showed that empathy predicted STEM interest through creative thinking. The findings provided support for the important roles of empathy and creative thinking in the promotion of STEM interest. This information can be used as a basis for designing STEM-based community service programs for the enhancement of students’ interest in learning STEM.

This paper presents a proposed doctoral study exploring STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) literacy for business students' work preparedness. The overall research consists of two studies. Study 1 will develop a theoretical model relating business students' STEM literacy for work preparedness by adopting a grounded theory approach. Based on the model, a measurement scale, viz. Business Students' STEM Literacy Scale (BSSLS), will be developed. Study 1 will involve fresh business graduate workers and business students with work experience in STEM-related industries. Study 2, which aims to recruit around 500 participants in mainland China and Hong Kong, will validate the BSSLS and investigate the current situation of final-year business students' STEM literacy. The proposed research will contribute to generating new insights into researching STEM literacy in higher education and incorporating this literacy as a curricular component in business education.

This paper presents our initiative for leveraging SV-IVR (spherical video-based immersive virtual reality) to give Hong Kong ethnic minority students exposure to local Chinese culture via EduVenture VR—an interactive learner-immersed virtual interactive learning application. The work was conducted in the COVID-19 pandemic context; outdoor fieldwork-based learning was not recommended in the circumstance. The research participants were 63 ethnic minority students (from Grade 7 to Grade 9) from a Hong Kong secondary school. The ARCS model of instructional motivation was employed to evaluate the motivational effectiveness of the Chinese culture learning activity supported by EduVenture VR. In the study, we obtained positive results in terms of the 4 motivational dimensions: “Attention,” “Relevance,” “Confidence’ and “Satisfaction.”

This work-in-progress paper discusses an interview-based study in a VR-assisted Chinese language learning program during the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong. Due to the pandemic, an online instructional mode was adopted. We examined teacher and student motivation through the framework of self-determination theory. The results revealed autonomy was fostered in their teaching and learning process. Students perceived they acquired competence in writing with improved learning performance and motivation. Relatedness also existed among the teacher-student interactions. This work is among the first to evaluate how an online VR-assisted Chinese writing curriculum was implemented in a secondary school under the pandemic.

Virtual reality (VR), which is regarded as one of the important educational technologies in recent years, has become more popular to be adopted in teaching and learning contexts in Hong Kong. The present study investigated the changes in teachers’ pedagogical and technological knowledge, attitude and satisfaction after attending a teacher training course on the educational use of VR. Participants were 29 in-service teachers in Hong Kong taking the course. Data were collected from the pre- and post-participation in the course by using four scales: (i ) Pedagogical and Technological Knowledge, (ii) Technological Knowledge, (iii) Positive Attitude towards Harnessing VR, and (iv) Teacher Satisfaction. The results showed good reliability of the scales and significant differences between the pre-test and post-test on using VR in their teaching. Participants had significant improvement in the knowledge of the VR technology and the ICT integration after the training course. They also showed a positive attitude towards harnessing VR in their teaching. Since the factor of content knowledge was not significant in the present study, we will reinforce the teacher training course based on the subject content via school-based development. Thus, the teaching training package will be more comprehensive and suitable for training teachers to adopt VR in practice.

This qualitative study reports the results of a phenomenographic analysis of students’ conceptions of Interactive Spherical Video-based Virtual Reality (ISVVR) supported Chinese writing. In the study, six Grade-9 students in Hong Kong participated in an ISVVR supported Chinese writing learning program. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Three qualitatively different themes related to ISVVR supported Chinese writing learning were revealed: 1) purpose of learning Chinese writing, 2) use of ISVVR to improve Chinese writing, and 3) motivation of using ISVVR to learn Chinese writing. Different conception categories of the themes form a hierarchy and show a trajectory that writing paradigm shifts from learner-oriented to author-oriented. This study offers an empirical reference for teachers and researchers to have a closer look at students’ conceptions of Chinese writing and ISVVR supported Chinese writing.

The present study used the PISA 2015 dataset (n = 39,297) of six East Asian economies to investigate the relationship between students’ ICT-based learning and their science proficiency level. Using Mplus 7, CFA and SEM were conducted to obtain the three major findings. Firstly, students’ socio-economic status is highly related to students’ science proficiency level but is weakly related to ICT-based learning. Secondly, although both learning enjoyment and instrumental motivation are weakly, positively related to ICT-based learning, the association between learning enjoyment and students’ science proficiency level is much stronger than that between instrumental motivation and science proficiency level. Lastly, ICT efficacy is positively related to ICT-based learning, which in turn, is significantly and negatively related to science proficiency level.

Flipped Issue-Based Enquiry Ride (FIBER) is a pedagogical framework to integrate flipped learning into the approach of issue-based enquiry in social humanities education. This working paper presents the work that we conducted in the first research cycle (the first year) of a piece of two-cycle design-based research (DBR) on implementing FIBER in the context of formal curriculum learning and teaching in Hong Kong. The entire DBR involved 9 teachers (from 9 different secondary schools at different academic bands) and their Secondary-5 classes in two consecutive school years. In this paper, we focus on discussing the unforeseen impediments emerging in the course of FIBER that hindered students’ learning in the first research cycle. The findings not only shed light on how to improve and optimize the current teacher facilitation acts in FIBER to be enacted in the second research cycle of the DBR, but also alert “flipped” educators and researchers to the potential problems occurring in the course of flipped learning.

This work-in-progress poster discusses our preliminary work on exploring the possibility of harnessing spherical video-based immersive virtual reality (SV-IVR) in learning and teaching of Physical Geography. In particular, it focuses on delineating (i) the rationale behind our initiative, and (ii) the proposed direction of how to adopt SV-IVR in the context of formal schooling in Hong Kong.

The new 5-year plan of implementing e-learning in Hong Kong has been laid out in the government’s “Report on the Fourth Strategy on Information Technology in Education” in which flipped classroom is one of the important pedagogic approaches being advocated. While many researches were conducted to explore the advantages of flipped classroom, some challenges should not be ignored. This paper discusses the challenges of flipping Hong Kong’s classrooms that include “learning by videos”, “technological and pedagogical concerns” as well as “students’ low learning motivation”. Through understanding these challenges, educators and researchers can develop articulated strategies and models to address the problems, and more importantly, inform the government to provide articulated professional development to schools and teachers in order to perfect the implementation of flipped classroom in Hong Kong.

We have developed EagleEye-a GPS-supported integrated educational system for supporting teachers and students respectively to facilitate and pursue outdoor exploratory learning in Geography fieldtrip activities. We conducted a quantitative study (complemented with qualitative methods) with 98 Geography teachers to evaluate whether our work could provide students with more desirable outdoor exploratory learning experience in comparison with conventional outdoor fieldtrips. Results showed the teachers perceived positively that the EagleEye approach can offer students better student-centred learning experience, enhance their learning motivation, and give them more effective exploratory scaffolds, however, they had reservation about if EagleEye can promote better collaboration among students. The findings provided us with new insights into further studying the implementation of Eagl Eye in real teaching practice.

This study aimed at evaluating the information literacy skills of 29 pre-service teachers. Information literacy skills include five essential areas: the ability to (1) identify the information needs; (2) select information sources; (3) locate information; (4) evaluate information; (5) synthesize information. These areas are essential life-long learning skills for pre-service teachers to cope with the rapid change in the information age. In the present research, information literacy skills were measured by questionnaire, multiple choice knowledge test and task-based information problem. The findings indicate that the majority of participants lacked information literacy skills. It is concluded that instructional support to foster pre-service teachers’ information literacy skills is essential.

This article presents the theoretical framework for Dynamic Collective Mobile Gaming (DCMG), an emerging paradigm of educational games enhanced with cloud computing and mobile technologies. Theoretical and pedagogical underpinnings, technological infrastructure, new opportunities and challenges brought by DCMG are also discussed.

LOCALE (Location-Oriented Collaborative Authentic Learning Environment) is a blended pedagogical framework for empowering exploratory learning in fieldtrip activities, while Eagle Eye is an integrated mobile educational system to implement the LOCALE approach.

EagleEye is an integrated GPS-supported educational system for supporting students and teachers respectively in pursuing and facilitating exploratory learning in outdoor fieldtrip activities. This system has four components, including the (1) Location-based Exploratory Resource Authoring Tool, (2) GPS-supported Exploratory Platform, (3) Repository Server, and (4) Teacher Console. A preliminary study, which involved 40 participants (38 students and 2 teachers from a school) adopting EagleEye in an outdoor fieldtrip activity, was carried out to investigate their perceptions of this system. It was found that EagleEye brought desirable fieldtrip experience to the students. The teachers also perceived positively the educational potential of EagleEye for outdoor fieldtrip activities from both technical and pedagogical perspectives.

VISOLE (Virtual Interactive Student-Oriented Learning Environment) is a teacher-facilitated constructivist pedagogical approach to empower game-based learning. In combination with scaffolding, situated cognition, reflection, and debriefing, VISOLE aims at providing students with opportunities to acquire subject specific knowledge in a multi-disciplinary fashion and sharpen their higher-order thinking skills for problem solving. Farmtasia is the first online game designed to facilitate the VISOLE approach. We conducted a qualitative case study, in the setting of formal curricular teaching in a secondary school, to look into the course of students' learning in VISOLE. This paper discusses a part of the entire study, focusing on delineating an impeding phenomenon, arbitrary gaming, which emerged in an academic achievement-oriented student's learning process. The findings provided insights into the issue of implementing VISOLE and game-based learning in general in school education.

VISOLE (Virtual Interactive Student-Oriented Learning Environment) is a teacher-facilitated pedagogical approach to empower game-based learning. In combination with scaffolding, near real-life gaming participation, reflection, and debriefing, VISOLE aims at providing students with opportunities to acquire subject specific knowledge in a multi-disciplinary fashion and sharpen their higher-order thinking skills for problem solving. Farmtasia is the first online game developed based on this approach. We carried out a qualitative case study in Hong Kong for investigating students’ learning process in VISOLE. This paper discuses a part of the entire study, focusing on delineating (1) an impeding phenomenon, unsustainable gaming, which emerged in an “angry” student’s learning process, and (2) how the teacher’s emotional support mitigated this phenomenon. The findings shed light on the enhancement of the current design of VISOLE.

VISOLE (Virtual Interactive Student-Oriented Learning Environment) is a new Game-based Situated Learning Paradigm for Web-based teaching and learning, which aims to help students learn from near real-life experiences and social constructions of knowledge. In this paper, we discuss the theoretical foundation, education paradigm, and technological implementation of VISOLE.