Catering for Learner Diversity

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computational thinking skills. Teachers actively participate in external training courses and, through practices and exchanges of professional views, keep on reviewing and refining the school-based curriculum to promote STEM education. Moreover, different subject panels also try to arrange learning activities that align with STEM education, such as the making of string telephones in Music and the use of heart rate monitors in Physical Education to assess one’s physical conditions when exercising. The school succeeds in delivering STEM education step by step, starting with the implementation by the General Studies core group members, then gradually extending it to all General Studies teachers, and later to teachers of other subjects.

Catering for learner diversity and providing students with hands-on and minds-on learning opportunities in authentic situations through STEM education

The school has set up a committee to co-ordinate STEM education-related work with comprehensive planning and clear objectives, and attaches importance to catering for learner diversity in the promotion of STEM education. The school has set aside a STEM education period for creative science and technology for Secondary 1 classes, providing students with rich learning content and choices of various themes for scientific inquiry as well as effectively catering for their different interests. The themes of scientific inquiry integrate both aspects of theory and practice. Apart from community visits for inspiring students to apply science and technology to help others, there are also opportunities for students to engage in hands-on and minds-on activities. For example, designing a “smart food bag”, which has a coded programme installed in it to make sound notifications when the food is about to expire, for visually impaired people, so that the user will not mistakenly eat expired food. To develop the potential of the more able students, the school takes part in the Enriched IT Programme and designs relevant enrichment courses to strengthen students’ computational thinking and problem-solving skills.

The school also optimises the use of the funding for the plan and strives to arrange for students at all year levels to participate in external competitions. Individual students have performed excellently and achieved brilliant results in international and territory-wide competitions.

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interaction, thereby helping students build confidence in learning. Outside class, there are tutorial classes as well as enrichment and intervention programmes to develop students’

potential or consolidate their learning. Regarding the support for student development, most schools are able to provide students with appropriate guidance and meet the different developmental needs of students. During the suspension of face-to-face classes, most schools provide support to students in need through an established inter-disciplinary collaboration mechanism. Class teachers, Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) or social workers maintain communication with students with special educational needs (SEN) as well as their parents- to understand their situation and needs at home, and arrange online professional support services.

 Most schools are able to adapt the curriculum and assessment according to the different abilities of students, for example, providing additional learning materials for the more able students and formulating challenging questions to help develop their thinking skills, whereas focusing on teaching the foundation topics or core learning elements to the less able students. In general, schools set the ratio for questions of different difficulty levels in the assessment papers according to the needs of students, or adopt diversified modes of assessment to understand students’ learning performance. Schools design a wide range of assignments for students with different abilities, such as reports with themes closely related to daily life or tasks for students to build or create things, to help stimulate students’ interest in learning. Schools are often able to set tiered assignments according to students’

abilities, such as providing graphic organisers or clues to help the less able students organise concepts and grasp important ideas. However, a few schools have not adapted their curriculum to cater for the needs of students and have overemphasised examination techniques. In some schools, the difficulty levels of tiered assignments and the clues provided fail to match students’ abilities, or students are instructed to employ certain thinking strategies, thereby restricting their ways of thinking. To cater for learner diversity, it is desirable for schools to make good use of collaborative lesson planning and peer lesson observation to further explore effective learning and teaching strategies.

Examples include capitalising on e-learning to better facilitate feedback or designing more activities that could stretch students’ potential to the full to consolidate and extend their learning as well as build their confidence in learning.

 For students with SEN, schools are generally capable of formulating appropriate integrated education policies and put them into practice through adopting the five basic principles of

“Early Identification”, “Early Intervention”, “Whole School Approach”, “Home-school Co-operation” and “Cross-sector Collaboration”. Most schools manage to adapt their assessment to cater for students with SEN, such as giving additional time or providing question papers with enlarged print. They appropriately deploy additional resources to increase manpower and arrange different support services, such as support groups for

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students with dyslexia, speech therapy or training on social skills, to cater for students’

learning and developmental needs. During the suspension of face-to-face classes, schools most often provide professional support services over the phone or online, including online speech therapy services, training to teach students with autism spectrum disorders to wear masks, and counselling to help students work with their emotions, so that students are able to receive ongoing support amid the pandemic. Staff like class teachers and social workers also conduct home visits to alleviate students’ emotional and family problems resulted from the suspension of face-to-face classes. Timely and appropriate support is provided and students’ learning is sustained.

 Starting from the 2019/20 school year, the EDB has provided all public sector primary and secondary schools with an additional teaching post so that schools can designate a teacher as the SENCO. Schools generally have appointed the SENCO or set up a committee to assist in implementing whole-school approach to integrated education. Most SENCOs support students with SEN through proper implementation of strategies, including enhancing communication with parents to jointly take care of students’ learning and developmental needs, and conducting collaborative lesson planning with subject teachers to design tiered assignments or co-teaching for the less able students. Some schools provide teachers with school-based training. One example is the practice of cross-subject collaboration which promotes exchange of professional views among teachers to foster a caring and inclusive school culture. However, schools should continue to enhance teachers’ professional capabilities through, for instance, sending more teachers to basic, advanced and thematic courses to help the teachers grasp the necessary professional knowledge and skills; and devise the overall planning through the collaboration of various subject panels to cater for the learning and developmental needs of students with SEN in a more systematic manner.

 Schools are generally able to provide appropriate support measures to meet the learning needs and the social adjustment of the newly-arrived children and cross-boundary students.

In terms of learning, schools generally arrange after-school support classes to consolidate students’ basic knowledge; arrange for SS students to be peer counsellors to help these children adapt to school life as soon as possible; and organise activities to enhance these students’ understanding of the Hong Kong community and culture. During the suspension of face-to-face classes, there are schools using e-learning platforms for students who are outside Hong Kong to access learning materials, and collect and submit assignments.

Arrangements for real-time online learning, adoption of formative assessment to replace the final examination, and provision of follow-up and support via mobile apps to individual students are also observed.

 Regarding gifted education, schools are more advanced in providing Level 2 school-based

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pull-out programmes and Level 3 off-school support. Students with potential are selected for special or advanced training to reach their full potential. Individual schools even collaborate with tertiary institutions and make use of external resources to provide students with diversified online courses. However, not many schools are able to execute Level 1 school-based whole-class teaching. Schools generally focus on developing students’

higher-order thinking skills while the cultivation of students’ creativity and personal-social competence still needs to be strengthened. There is room for improvement in the planning of gifted education. Most of the schools that have developed the “Talent Pool” are able to select students to participate in different activities according to their talents to broaden their horizons and further enhance their abilities. Most schools also place emphasis on nurturing leaders. They provide opportunities for students to shoulder various duties, organise activities, or even take part in school policy meetings so that their leadership skills can be developed.

 Schools attach great importance to the learning and developmental needs of non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students. Apart from classroom learning, most schools organise LWL activities or activities that promote integration of NCS students and other students to offer more opportunities of peer sharing and interactions, help NCS students integrate into school life and the Hong Kong society, and enhance their interest in learning Chinese. Schools are generally able to allocate extra funding flexibly to hire additional staff or purchase learning and teaching materials to support NCS students in learning Chinese. In accordance with the number of NCS students admitted, schools in general manage to employ appropriate support measures, including integration into mainstream classes, pull-out learning, cross-class or cross-level grouping, and a combination of these approaches. During the suspension of face-to-face classes, to help NCS students learn at home, individual schools record audio files of Chinese reading and highlight keywords with different colors in e-learning videos to help students learn Chinese vocabulary. However, for teachers’ professional development, quite a number of schools have yet to arrange for the Chinese Language teachers to take courses related to the learning and teaching of Chinese as a second language. According to the needs for professional development, schools should strengthen training for teachers and actively look for suitable external support services to further enable teachers to grasp the learning styles and needs of NCS students. In such a way, schools would be able to provide more appropriate and specific support for NCS students in learning Chinese.

 Schools with a larger number of NCS students mainly use English as the medium of instruction. Students often communicate in their mother tongue or English in class or in their spare time, resulting in insufficient motivation for learning and infrequent use of Chinese. Schools have to create a better environment for students to immerse themselves in Chinese, thereby increasing the opportunities for them to use Chinese and enhancing

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their interest in learning Chinese. Outside class, most schools offer after-school remedial classes to students, but with low effectiveness. For example, the objectives of the lessons are not clear and the learning content fails to address the difficulties NCS students encounter in learning Chinese, and thus students’ learning effectiveness is affected and it is unfavourable for enhancing their proficiency in the language. In all, although schools have planned their curriculum with reference to the “Chinese Language Curriculum Second Language Learning Framework”, they only focus on certain levels or key stages while the vertical continuity of the curriculum needs improvement. Schools should strengthen the monitoring of, and the follow-up actions on, the implementation of various after-school support measures and evaluate their effectiveness.

 On the whole, in catering for learner diversity, schools are generally able to formulate school-based policies and allocate resources to support students’ learning in accordance with their learning abilities and motivations, but there is room for improvement in planning and co-ordination. Cross-subject collaboration should be further strengthened to build consensus to achieve whole-school participation in catering for the different learning and developmental needs of students. It is desirable for schools to continue to review learning materials, the design of assignments and after-school enrichment or remedial programmes with a view to providing support that better suits students’ learning styles and needs.

Schools should also explore more effective support strategies, such as using e-learning to provide feedback or designing more experiential activities that connect the subject learning content, to help students consolidate, deepen and extend their learning.

Exemplars

Effectively using in-class activities to cater for learner diversity and enhance learning effectiveness

The school attaches great importance to the effectiveness of classroom teaching and students’

learning. Teachers carefully analyse the strengths and weaknesses of students in subject panel meetings as well as through collaborative lesson planning. Based on the curriculum content and the difficulties students have encountered in learning, they design classroom activities and adopt appropriate follow-up measures to improve the effectiveness of learning and teaching.

In class, teachers increase the opportunities for students with different abilities to participate in learning through activities that allow students to demonstrate their potential. Teachers make use of a variety of learning and teaching materials, such as images, realia and e-learning tools, to facilitate students’ understanding and enhance their interest in learning. In general, teachers conduct group activities to increase classroom interaction, arrange appropriate grouping and

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learning tasks according to students’ different abilities, and encourage students to share their learning outcomes with the whole class. Most teachers are able to address the difficulties students have in learning and use questions to understand their learning progress, as well as give positive feedback in a timely manner. At the same time, teachers can use a range of questions to guide students to think, or provide concrete feedback to facilitate students’

learning. Apps are also effectively employed to involve students in peer assessment.

Appropriately taking care of the learning and developmental needs of different students;

promoting a caring and inclusive culture

The school can formulate strategies to support learning according to different needs of students.

At the beginning of the first term, the school uses different ways to understand the lifestyles, interests and learning attitudes of Secondary 1 students, and provides early support for their learning and development. For newly-arrived children, the school arranges for the SS students to act as peer counsellors to help them adapt to the new school life, and organises various activities such as community visits to let them know more about Hong Kong. Regarding the LPE of the NCS students, the school manages to provide multiple pathways for their further studies and career opportunities according to their abilities, aspirations and cultural backgrounds. For example, the school endeavours to establish partnerships with numerous tertiary institutions outside Hong Kong, provide after-school support and arrange for students to take various vocational and professional education and training programmes.

In response to the ethnic diversity of students, the school is committed to promoting an inclusive culture. In addition to organising lunchtime activities to cater for the characteristics of students from different racial or ethnic groups, the school also takes their religious background into account when preparing food for them. The school organises “Ethnic Culture Day” annually to let students learn about the culture of other countries. There are exhibitions to display ethnic costumes and items donated by students from various racial or ethnic groups, who are assigned to be guides to introduce the exhibits to help other students understand and respect the culture of different countries and regions.

Identifying students’ needs early and providing all-round support to students of different abilities

All staff of the school works closely together as a team to adopt a whole-school approach to supporting and fostering students’ learning and whole-person development, and provide anti-pandemic supplies as well as emergency grants for families of students in financial difficulties to ease the hardship the families face due to the pandemic, and cater for the needs of

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students. The school sets up a task force to co-ordinate relevant work. Class teachers fully perform the bridging role to keep close contact and communication with students and their parents, be they in or outside Hong Kong, through sunshine calls or instant messaging, so that teachers get to understand students’ learning and emotions as well as the financial situation of their families. In this way, teachers can report to the task force as early as possible, or use the newly launched “electronic referral service” to seek timely intervention from professionals such as counselling teachers, social workers or school-based educational psychologists.

During the pandemic, the school seizes the opportunity to continue working on “cultivating positive thinking and gratitude”, which is the school’s major concern of this school year, through conducting online activities or support services to meet students’ needs. When face-to-face classes are suspended, the school capitalises on the real-time or instant messaging apps to closely connect with different stakeholders, and invites parents to participate in talks on various topics. The school also updates anti-pandemic information and circulars about online learning arrangements on the school website and via other electronic communication systems in a timely manner, so that parents can better understand the development of the pandemic as well as the school’s support measures. In response to parents’ opinions about the impact brought by long hours of online learning on students’ eye health, the school immediately adjusts the duration of online learning. Such an experience demonstrates how home-school collaboration can properly cater for the diverse needs of students.

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