Research Highlights

This project aims to improve student learning effectiveness by helping teachers to understand and implement blended learning (BL) at PolyU SPEED. Teachers from other self-financed higher education institutions will also be invited to join the project activities. For more details about the project, please visit here.

This two-year project aims at achieving well-being through place-making in the local primary and secondary school environment. Good design of school environment has positive impact on educational outcomes as well as process, both within the curriculum and beyond. It influences well-being through helping students, staff and parents to create a sense of ownership and belongings to their school, prompting positive social interaction and a healthy lifestyle. A total of 15 sites of place-making would be completed through co-creation, engagement of stakeholders, design thinking and participatory design process. Guidebook, exhibition, public talks and video documentaries will be delivered.

This project aims at providing customised and individualised support for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN), equipping them with psychological readiness and practical experiences, and preparing them to have a smooth transition to advanced study in tertiary institutions and future career development. The project shall adopt a holistic approach to cover the support for SEN students in different dimensions. It will help the students to achieve their academic goals and better prepare them for lifelong planning. Training to teachers and student counsellors will be provided to enhance individual academic advice and career facilitation.
For more details about the project, please visit here.

The project aims at providing remedial integrated content and language support to help students, particularly those with a lower level of numeracy and/or with Chinese-Medium Instruction (CMI) learning experience, to cope with the learning challenges in the compulsory English-medium mathematics and/or statistics subjects, and to enhance students’ mathematical ability, analytical skills and numerical sense.

For more details about the project, please visit here.
(From left) Dr Lorena Chan, Dr Esther Tong and Dr Jodie Lee

(from CPCE annual report 2018-19)

The project, “Enhancing Teachers’ Professional Competencies in Teaching Business-related Subjects in the Digital Era”, received funding of over HK$1.9 million from the QESS. Led by Dr Phoebe Wong, Senior Lecturer, the project team also comprised Dr Peggy Ng and Dr Calvin Wan, Senior Lecturers, Dr Lo Man-fung and Dr Jack Chow, Lecturers, as well as academics from other local tertiary education institutions.
(from cspe: https://www.cspe.edu.hk/en/qess-detail.page?prjId=172)

Due to unprecedented technological advancement, the digitalisation of business has rapidly developed, presenting teachers with both opportunities and challenges when delivering business and business-related subjects. There is a genuine need for teachers to enhance not only their academic qualifications, but also their professional competency when it comes to delivering up-to-date knowledge of digital technologies to students in the classroom. Through organising a series of seminars and workshops, and inviting industry practitioners to share their industrial insights, this project aims to strengthen teachers’ professional competencies in understanding the latest concepts and applications of digital technologies.

Seminar on “Strategies for Digital Marketing & Social Media Success” held on 27 May 2019

(from CSPE: https://www.cspe.edu.hk/en/qess-detail.page?prjId=169)

In response to industry’s call for work-ready graduates, Work-Integrated Education (WIE) has been an important component for the students before their graduation in our institution. Through the Project ECD-WIE Office, we aimed to enhance students’ authentic work practices and employability competences, and in turn, graduates’ job-readiness and employability. The Project ECD-WIE Office arranged career-related and competency development activities (e.g. work placements, internship opportunities, job shadowing, career talks and the like) for students to transfer to the workplace and thus, contribute to higher employability. Moreover, it could help arouse student awareness to better equip and position themselves in the Hong Kong labour market.

Internship in Alibaba

Company visit to DDB

(from CSPE: https://www.cspe.edu.hk/en/qess-detail.page?prjId=166)

This project aimed at providing sub-degree students with adequate training before starting their internship. It was expected to help students understand their interests and expertise, enhance their knowledge for employment, and strengthen their practical skills in managing employers’ expectations. The training programmes included career aptitude assessment, company visits, pre-employment skills and work behaviours training, and individual guidance, etc.

(from 2015-16 CPCE Annual Report)

The project, “Supporting Students’ Academic Discourse Development in Sub-degree Programmes: An Adjunct Language-across-the-curriculum Instructional Model”, secured HK$800,000 in funding from SCOLAR in November 2015. The project was led by Dr Esther Tong, Division Head of Division of Languages and Communication, with lecturers Dr Cecilia Pun and Ms Phoebe Siu serving as the Co-Is.

This project aimed to prepare students with modest English proficiency for learning through English as a second/additional language in the English-medium sub-degree programmes. The findings define what constitutes sufficient language proficiency students are required to use to learn in their study disciplines and to participate in the corresponding disciplinary discourse communities in higher education. To help students meet the language demands of the target academic programmes identified in the first phase of the study, the research team developed an adjunct language-across-the-curriculum instructional model and examined the effectiveness of this model in aiding students’ development of academic discourse prerequisite to academic success in their field of study in three sub-degree programme, namely Associate in Business (Tourism Management), Associate in Applied Social Sciences (Sociology and Culture) and Higher Diploma in Mechanical Engineering. The results of this study have offered a linguistic account of sub-degree students’ language demands in the target academic programmes and drawn implications for the pedagogical practices of a bridging language-across-the-curriculum programme that supports students’ learning through English in tertiary education settings. Additionally, the study has shed light on ways that promote future collaborative planning of integrated language and content learning activities between disciplinary teachers and language teachers.

(From left) Dr Cecilia Pun, Dr Esther Tong and Ms Phoebe Siu