HKU Faculty of Education holds public forum on "How do we know if an Education Reform is Successful? – Insights from European and Asian Education Innovations"

The Faculty of Education of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), its Centre for Information Technology in Education (CITE) and the European Commission (EU) jointly organized a high level expert seminar today (January 23) at HKU.  The theme was “How do we know if an Education Reform is Successful? – Insights from European and Asian Education Innovations”.

The Public Forum involved the key figures in education in the world, among them, they were Professor Cheng Kai Ming, Co-Convenor of Strategic Research Theme on Science of Learning of HKU; Dr Yves Punie, Senior Scientist of Institute for Prospective Technology Studies of European Commission; Professor Nancy Law, Director of CITE and Associate Dean of Faculty of Education of HKU; Dr Gwang-Jo Kim, Director of UNESCO, BKK; and Dr K K Chan, Deputy Secretary of Education Bureau of HKSAR.  Professor Stephen Andrews officiated at the Public Forum.

Based on the experience and interest of the speakers and audiences in education, the questions on the ways in identifying the outcome of education reform; the variables that were achieved or failed to achieve; and the lessons that we learned for achieving the reform goals, were addressed.

Throughout the presentations and discussions, it brought forward a message, “These debates and questions over education reform are not only found in Hong Kong, but in many countries and systems around the world.  Often, the debates are not about whether the goals are appropriate, but whether there have been the targeted impacts, and even more importantly whether the impacts are sustainable in the longer term and whether the changes and impact are scalable”.

In addition, the findings also indicated that different cases of reform and innovation from both Asian and European countries revealed that the starting point for change was different for different countries due to different contextual situations.  Learners have to be given the autonomy to identify their own learning goals and pathways to develop the necessary 21st century competences.  It was also agreed that change required ownership at all levels from policy makers to principals, teachers, parents and the wider community as educational change would be a process of continuity development and innovation beyond what teacher would do.  Thus, teachers have to be supported to build professional networks of learning and innovation to co-create new practices; communication channels and platforms should be built to foster dialogue, communication and collaboration across levels and sectors for education reform and change to be sustainable and successful.

Please visit https://web.edu.hku.hk/media.php to view the e-version of the press release. The photo can be downloaded at https://web.edu.hku.hk/press/20130123/.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Queenie Wong, Development and Communications Manager, Faculty of Education, HKU (Tel: 2219 4270 / mobile: 9220 5840 / fax: 2540 6360 / email: qlpwong@hku.hk).