Hong Kong Studies

The studies that have been conducted in Hong Kong into various aspects of IT use in schools are numerous and it is beyond the scope of this Study to review all of them here. A selection has been listed in Appendix I and interested readers are advised to refer to them for details. This section will focus on the three inter-related large-scale studies carried out by the Centre for Information Technology in School and Teacher Education (CITE) at the University of Hong Kong to investigate the application of IT in education in Hong Kong, which may provide some useful baseline data for comparison of the results of this study.

2.7.1 The SITES-M1 study

The first was the Hong Kong study of the Second International Information Technology in Education Study, Module 1 (SITES-M1) conducted in November 1998, which aimed to collect information on the application of IT in local school education for international comparison through questionnaire surveys of school principals, technology coordinators, teachers and students in primary and secondary schools.

Data were collected on IT-related curriculum goals and IT implementation, the availability of hardware, software and network facilities in schools, staff development, the organisation of IT coordination in schools and difficulties encountered, teachers’ and students’ use of IT in teaching and learning both in school and at home, as well as their self-evaluation of their own IT competence (Law et al., 1999).

While not part of the formal evaluation plan of the ITEd initiatives in Hong Kong, the study incidentally provided some baseline data on the application of IT in education with which the progress of the ITEd initiatives over the five-year period 1998/99 to 2002/03 could be charted. The main findings of the Hong Kong component of the SITES-M1 study are summarised below, in conjunction with a general overview of the findings from the 26 countries surveyed.

Access and Connectivity

The rate of home ownership of computers in Hong Kong was 34%. This was comparable with other countries like Japan, Singapore and the United States.

Curriculum and Pedagogy

The report refers to an ‘emerging paradigm’ which is ‘grounded in the growing need for information in the society at large and for life-long learning in particular’ (p.224). Many of the countries surveyed had

Chapter 2: Literature Review

formally adopted ‘Information Society’ goals for educational planning and about half of them had life-long learning as a goal.

Ÿ The surveys found evidence of emerging pedagogical practices in all of the participating countries except Hong Kong and Japan. These emerging practices were described as satisfying by school principals. However, in reality, these new practices had not permeated the curriculum.

There were isolated cases reported in many countries of teachers integrating IT effectively into the curriculum but only a few countries where this kind of use was widespread.

Ÿ The highest expectations with regard to ICT skills of students were observed in Canada, New Zealand and Singapore, with the lowest figures obtained from Hong Kong, Iceland, Japan, Norway and Slovenia. However, Hong Kong had one of the highest percentages of students capable at electronic communication skills.

Ÿ A large percentage of schools surveyed indicated that they had access to the Internet and that their students used email and the World Wide Web in their studies. Less than 50% of Hong Kong schools were using the World Wide Web for instructional purposes.

Ÿ Schools reported an emphasis on self-responsibility for learning and project-based learning to help to prepare students as life-long learners.

Infrastructure

Ÿ Nearly all of the participating countries had national initiatives to equip all K-12 schools with ICT, including adequate hardware and software. Hong Kong planned to provide about 65 000 computers for primary and secondary schools. Iceland and Singapore were particularly strong in establishing Internet connections in every school and had relatively low ratios of students to computer. More than half of the countries had developed national Intranets for education purposes. Hong Kong was one of the countries with fewest primary schools connected to an internal network (less than 20%), but a bit higher up in the rankings for secondary schools (about 30%).

Ÿ Comparisons to earlier data indicated that computer density had been doubling every three to five years. Hong Kong was among the countries with less favourable student-to-computer ratios (30 or more).

Ÿ An increasing amount of multimedia-ready equipment was reported. Hong Kong and Singapore were the leaders in the provision of this kind of infrastructure. Hong Kong was also one of the most advanced countries in terms of availability of computers with high-speed processors and recent operating systems.

Staff Development

Ÿ Almost all participating countries had national initiatives for promoting the development of teachers’ ICT skills, with some of these being mandatory. Generally it was found that teachers were willing to take basic IT courses even where they were not mandatory, but that they were not so interested to engage in continuing staff development. However, only about one-fifth of the principals surveyed felt that they had realised their goals.

Ÿ There was relatively little evidence of countries providing professional development that enabled teachers to prepare to integrate IT into their daily instruction. It was suggested that policy makers may not have been aware of the importance of this kind of support. Even school technology experts reported that, while their technical knowledge and skills were adequate, their pedagogical knowledge of how to use IT effectively was not. Hong Kong was one of the countries with relatively high availability of external courses at primary school level but did not stand out in either the highest or lowest extreme groups for any other aspects of staff development.

Management and Organisation

Ÿ Management and organisation were generally left up to local school leadership. Some ministries of education had established curricula for their schools and developed instructional materials.

Ÿ The majority of school principals reported that their schools had goals for a common vision on the use of computers, but several said that these goals were not being realised. Hong Kong was one of the countries in which less than 50% of the schools surveyed had written IT policies.

Ÿ The principals tended to have favourable attitudes to IT but this was not reflected in their actions.

Ÿ Safe and ethical management of the Internet was considered to be an emerging issue of importance for schools, particularly with respect to establishing and defining acceptable boundaries and the consequences of crossing these boundaries.

Ÿ The results indicated that it may be easier for schools to implement managerial applications of IT than instructional ones.

2.7.2 Case studies of ICT use in Hong Kong schools

In conjunction with the Hong Kong SITES-M1 study, a series of case studies (including seven primary schools, eleven secondary schools and one special school) was conducted by CITE in 1999-2000 to identify and examine cases of good practices in the use of IT in Hong Kong schools at the classroom level, and construct analytic models of such practices (Law, et al., 2000). Law’s et al. (2000) study of good practices in Hong Kong schools, undertaken as a part of the SITES study, made the following key observations and recommendations:

Ÿ There was generally a heavy emphasis on information processing and production activities. At primary school level, Hong Kong schools showed a higher level than the international pattern in focus on basic IT skills and use of IT for remediation.

Ÿ While there was little evidence of changes in teachers’ teaching practices, there was considerable evidence of changes in teachers’ perceptions of their roles as changing from transmission to facilitation. There was less increase in collaboration amongst teachers in Hong Kong than was shown in the overall international data.

Ÿ Principals reported gains in students’ knowledge and skills, followed by concentration, interest and motivation. These were all reported more frequently in Hong Kong than internationally.

There were no negative impacts on students reported by principals.

Ÿ The majority of lessons observed at both primary and secondary levels followed the expository approach, followed by task-based approach, then inductive approach. IT was used primarily as part of the stimulus to enhance teacher-student interaction, in environments that were mostly teacher-directed. Only two lessons, at secondary level, were based on each of problem-based and social-constructivist approaches.

Ÿ Teachers indicated that the successful implementation of IT in their classes was challenging for the majority. One of the major factors contributing to this was lack of confidence and another was lack of pedagogical competence.

Ÿ Students’ and teachers’ feedback suggested that the use of IT did help to arouse students’ interest to some extent. However, the importance of varying methods of presentation was emphasized in order to prevent the novelty effect of IT use wearing off.

Ÿ Some pitfalls were identified in the use of computer presentations. One of these was the tendency for the teacher to follow the prepared materials closely, thus reducing the opportunities to respond spontaneously to the students’ reactions. There may be a danger in using IT to convey large amounts of information without giving the students time to reflect on and digest this information. While animations can help students to visualise concepts more clearly, there is a danger that the students’ construction of meaning may be reduced to a simple viewing of computer animations.

Ÿ In the cases where an inductive approach was used in conjunction with IT there was evidence of development in students’ cognitive skills and processes. The teachers reported that this approach enabled them to explore topics in greater depth than covered by the textbook.

Ÿ Students reported a preference for sharing computers for collaborative work, partly for social

Chapter 2: Literature Review

reasons and partly for the purpose of sharing the work.

2.7.3 The Preliminary Study

The Preliminary Study on Reviewing the Progress and Evaluating the Information Technology in Education (ITEd) Projects (CITE, 2001) was the first extensive study of reviewing the ITEd development covering a group of primary, secondary and special schools in Hong Kong. In the report, there were 13 major findings for the review period from 1998/99 to the 2000/01 school year. Directly or indirectly, they are related to the four different areas of ITEd initiatives and projects specified by the Education Department (ED, now merged with the Education and Manpower Bureau, EMB) of the HKSAR Government. One finding was that there had been a great improvement in the hardware, software and network infrastructure provisions due to the “Access and Connectivity” policy from ED.

IT skill levels of students and teachers had been increasing steadily due to the various initiatives.

However, there were still obstacles and difficulties hindering the use of IT in teaching and learning.

Insufficient instructional software and teacher competence were two of the many factors identified by the Preliminary Study (CITE, 2001). More importantly, many schools viewed ITEd as a move to

‘technologize’ education rather than an opportunity to re-engineer it to promote student-centred learning through the use of information technology. The realisation of a possible paradigm shift to re-engineer education via implementing IT was not clear. Nevertheless, a few schools have emerged successfully with innovative pedagogical approaches where clear vision and good school leadership occurred.

Some of the major findings from the review period from 1998/99 to the 2000/01 school year are summarised below. These findings were related to five aspects of the ITEd initiative:

Access and connectivity

Ÿ Hardware, software and networking infrastructure provisions had improved since the SITES-M1 study conducted in 1998. Student to computer ratios were reported as 13.4, 7.5 and 3.0 students per computer for primary, secondary and special schools respectively and more than 90% of students reported having computers at home that they were allowed to use.

Ÿ The dominant peripherals in schools were those such as video projectors which, the study proposed, are necessary for whole-class presentations.

Ÿ The most common usage of software used at primary and secondary levels was for teacher demonstration.

Ÿ The teachers used computers in lessons more often than the students.

Learning and teaching

Ÿ In both primary and secondary schools it appeared that longer exposure and engagement in computer use was helpful to students’ building up a habit of using IT in school and in life in general.

Ÿ Despite the evidence of quantitative differences in the amount and use of computers in classrooms, there was little evidence reported of any paradigm shift in IT teaching and learning as advocated in the EMB’s Five-Year Strategy.

Teachers’ teaching with technology

Ÿ Teachers in both primary and secondary schools were reported as being the most competent in applications that they also considered to be important to their teaching, including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation software and Internet usage skills and the least competent in advanced multimedia and web design, which they also considered to be the least important.

Ÿ The subjects in which teachers reported having had the most satisfying experiences with using IT were Chinese, English, General Studies and Mathematics in primary schools and Chinese,

English and Mathematics in secondary schools. The majority of teachers perceived their role to be the transmission of knowledge.

Ÿ The teachers indicated that their preferred mode of professional development was workshops and demonstrations. While they wanted to learn how to communicate with students using email, the need to learn how to use the Internet to carry out collaborative project work with other schools was relatively low.

Ÿ A need was identified to integrate teachers’ teaching with professional development provisions.

School policies and implementation

Ÿ While the school principals’ responses suggested they regarded development of students’

analytical powers and problem-solving abilities as high policy priorities, the actual practice was more concerned with enhancing teachers’ abilities to present information effectively or interestingly. The principals reported that they considered their primary role to be to provide training opportunities and professional development opportunities for teachers and to plan resources, rather than becoming involved in the actual use of IT in their schools.

Ÿ Secondary schools were found to be more out-reaching to the broader network of other schools and the wider community than primary schools, but mostly schools were still behaving as individual units rather than members of the broader community.

Support and the community

Ÿ Between the SITES-M1 study and the Preliminary Study there was a reported shift in teachers’

perception of the main obstacles to using IT, from lack of support and resources in the former to instructional software and teacher competence in the latter.

Ÿ Students reported being generally satisfied with the existing support and assistance from schools but indicated clearly that they wanted more provision of computer access.

Ÿ More than half the teachers had visited the ITERC or Teachers’ Centres. HKedCity, ITEd Web and TSS were the most frequently used resources. They rated general satisfaction with IT courses and resource/support services.

Ÿ More than 70% of the teacher respondents reported positive experiences in sharing their experiences of IT use in teaching and learning with other teachers, although generally their views about the impact of IT were fairly reserved compared to the students’ perceptions.

The present study will make reference to the methods and outcomes of these prior studies as appropriate in designing the research instruments and process and outcome measures to ensure, as far as possible, consistency and comparability of the findings. In this way, meaningful comparisons can be made across the studies to chart the progress of the implementation of the ITEd initiatives over the five-year period.