Summer Enrichment Programme
(PI: Patcy Yeung; Collaborator: Margaret Lo, Ben Moorhouse; funded by the Outstanding Teaching Award 2018)

In order to enhance our undergraduate students’ teaching experience and extend their care to the needy children in the community, a Summer Enrichment Programme (“SEP”) was conducted in July-August 2020, in collaboration with The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Tsuen Wan Youth S.P.O.T..

The SEP is designed to support primary school students from underprivileged families who had their regular learning routines heavily impacted by COVID-19 this year. At the same time, the SEP aims to enhance our student-teachers’  understanding of underprivileged learners’ needs and strengths in the process and to put their learnt theories into practice by teaching English through an interactive and theme-based approach.

Full-time BA&BED(LangEd)-Eng students volunteered to join the SEP and have participated in lesson planning, administration and teaching. More than 20 children aged 8 to 12 years old were recruited with the help from our co-organiser HKFYG Tsuen Wan Youth S.P.O.T., an organisation devoted to offer continuous learning opportunities to children and youths. These children attended online English learning lessons conducted by our student-teachers during August 3 to August 13, 2020.

Throughout the programme, our student-teachers engaged with students from an underprivileged background, conducted constant reflections on their teaching performance and received training for their professional development conducted by alumni of the Faculty of Education. We are hoping to fulfil HKU’s third University Educational Aim, that is “critical self-reflection, greater understanding of others, and upholding personal and professional ethics”. 

Twenty-five participants were interviewed, based on a structured questionnaire. They were asked to describe all the obstacles they have encountered in school-based assessment and other learning experiences (OLE). They were also asked to suggest how teachers could minimize their difficulties and help them cope with obstacles. It was found that most participants encountered difficulties in OLE. Problems were specifically related to community service, aesthetic development and physical development. School-based assessments also presented difficulties, particularly in three compulsory subjects (Chinese Language, English Language, Liberal Studies) and the elective subjects of humanities. Suggestions are made related to increasing and improving training for teachers, making Braille / soft copies of reading materials available earlier, and strengthening the resource teacher support programme. The report of the study is available on request. Email: caise@hku.hk