A Need or a Force? Shadow Education in Hong Kong From Secondary School Parent’s Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-50
Author(s):  
Ching Ho Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Private Tutoring ◽  
After School ◽  
Shadow Education ◽  
Learning Centers ◽  
Surrounding Area ◽  
Public Examination ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Education In Hong Kong

It is becoming more common for students in Hong Kong to take extra lessons after school. Several surveys indicate that more than 70% of students need to take private tutoring classes after school in their final year of secondary school (Bray, 2013). This indicates that “shadow education” has become a trend in Hong Kong. There are different types of private tutoring classes in Hong Kong, such as one-on-one tutoring or tutorial classes for groups of five to eight students. These classes aim to help students to perform better in public examination, but it has become more competitive in recent years. Even if students have satisfactory results at school, they may be expected to take extra classes, since doing so has become a societal trend. However, do students really need to take so many classes after school? Does the quantity of private tutoring lessons taken correlate with good academic results? This study investigates why parents in Hong Kong are sending their children to learning centers after school. Do these children really need extra classes, or are they being affected by the surrounding area?

scholarly journals Academic and Career Aspiration and Destinations: A Hong Kong Perspective on Adolescent Transition

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwok-Tung Tsui ◽  
Chi-Kin John Lee ◽  
King-Fai Sammy Hui ◽  
Wai-Sun Derek Chun ◽  
Nim-Chi Kim Chan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Career Aspirations ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Bachelor's Degree ◽  
Public Examination ◽  
Life Planning ◽  
Adolescent Transition ◽  
Senior Secondary

Understanding the academic and career aspirations of adolescents and their destinations could inform policy makers and educators about how best to provide support at society and school levels to facilitate adolescents transitioning from school to further education and work. The current qualitative study investigates seven senior secondary students from three schools with varying intakes of student ability under the “Secondary School Places Allocation System” in Hong Kong. By employing a Systems Theory Framework, the study looked into the academic and career aspirations of these students and tracked their destinations immediately after secondary school graduation. Findings show that the academic and career aspirations of adolescents and their destinations are shaped by prevailing preferences for attaining higher qualifications, preferably a bachelor’s degree, parental and others’ influences, and outcomes of public examination results. The implications of enhancing support for the societal, school, and career- and life-planning education of individuals are discussed.

scholarly journals Learning, Teaching, and Researching in Shadow Education in Hong Kong: An Autobiographical Narrative Inquiry

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Wai-Ho Yung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Private Tutoring ◽  
Shadow Education ◽  
Education Inequality ◽  
Reflective Journals ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Strict Regulation ◽  
Autobiographical Narrative

Purpose: This article aims to illustrate from the author’s insider perspective the lived experiences of engaging in private tutoring in Hong Kong as a tutee, a tutor, and a researcher and draw implications on several issues arising from the prevalence of shadow education. Design/Approach/Methods: This article adopted an autobiographical narrative approach. Data were collected through the author’s memoir of events, stimulated by the tutorial materials he used when he was a tutee and a tutor, his own video-recorded lessons of tutoring, and reflective journals from his research projects. Findings: Various issues are discussed based on the narrative of the author playing different roles in the tutoring industry, including (1) the positive and negative washback on mainstream education, (2) the lack of strict regulation of the quality of tutors and advertisements, and (3) how shadow education may exacerbate education inequality and how some tutorial companies and nonprofit organizations are addressing the issue. Originality/Value: This article, to the best of the author’s knowledge, is the only one that discusses the issues of shadow education from an author’s own personal experiences as a tutee, a tutor, and a researcher. It illustrates how practices and policies of the private tutoring industry are evolving in Hong Kong from an insider perspective.

scholarly journals English Private Tutoring in Macao: Perceptions of Senior Secondary Three Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivien Nga Man Chan
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
Private Tutoring ◽  
After School ◽  
Perceptions Of Students ◽  
Enrollment Rates ◽  
Individual School ◽  
The Government ◽  
Senior Secondary ◽  
To Receive

Purpose: This article examines how individual, school, and social factors shape the perceptions of students in Senior Secondary Three (SS3; in some schools called Form Six [F6]) toward English private tutoring in Macao. Design/Approach/Methods: This is a comparative study of two F6 classes of an English-medium secondary school and four SS3 classes of a Chinese-medium secondary school in Macao, with a total number of 145 students. Mixed-methods approach (questionnaires and interviews) is employed in the study. Findings: The respondents’ participation in English tutoring is not very intensive. They prefer to receive government-subsidized after-school tutoring taught by their schoolteachers more than fee-paying English tutoring taught by tutors outside. Low level of social competition and high tertiary enrollment rates contribute to this phenomenon. Students’ needs and beliefs in English learning play key roles in determining their receipt of English tutoring. Originality/Value: Teachers may need better understanding of their students’ needs so as to design suitable pedagogies. Schools can consider more fully the types of tutoring that they provide for different kinds of pupils. The government-subsidized after-school tutoring could be a plausible way to reduce educational inequality.

scholarly journals Important Developments of Leisure Education in American Public Schools: What Can We Learn From Them?

1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
Kian Lam TOH
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Leisure Education ◽  
Secondary School Curriculum ◽  
Education In Hong Kong

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in English; abstract also in Chinese.The notion of leisure education can trace its roots far back to Ancient Greece. The aim of leisure education is not to increase the number of subjects offered by the schools, but rather to infuse the values of leisure into the existing subjects. The objective is to guide the students in making good use of their leisure, which in fact is one of the secondary school curriculum aims. Besides presenting some of the important developments of leisure education in American public schools, this paper also highlights some of the reasons why leisure education fails in the United States. These problems are relevant to us especially if we want to make leisure education in Hong Kong a reality one day.休閒教育的起源可追溯到古希臘時代。休閒教育的目的不在於增加學校的科目，而是將休閒的價値溶入目前學校既有的科目中，引導學生善用閒暇時間，這也正是香港的教育目標之一。美國學校的休閒教育可說是失敗的。本文首先提出休閒教育在美國的一些重要發展，然後舉出一些造成他們失敗的可能原因，若是有朝一日休閒教育在本港萌芽，那麼我們就不得不重視這些我們也可能面對的問題。

scholarly journals New Interpretation of Extracurricular Activities via Social Networking Sites: A Case Study of Artificial Intelligence Learning at a Secondary School in Hong Kong

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Tsz Kit Ng
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Extracurricular Activities ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
After School ◽  
School Activities ◽  
After School Activities ◽  
New Interpretation

During the COVID-19 pandemic, attending after-school activities now becomes a luxury to students, which used to establish interests, friendships and social networks in an informal setting. Students lost contact with peers and teachers and were forced to attend blended courses at home, which may constitute threats to their non-academic issues, especially social needs and mental health of the most vulnerable students. This article overviews a new interpretation of extracurricular activities (ECAs) to teach artificial intelligence (AI) via a social networking site (SNS) among junior secondary school students in Hong Kong. A three-stage action research with the use of semi-structured interviews, motivational surveys and lesson observation was conducted. Based on how students perceived such pedagogical changes, the teachers employed various strategies to transform the “after-school” activities online. The investigation presented the planning processes on how to transform the informal learning activities to an online mode via SNSs that can reach the roles of ECAs in schooling. Our study indicated that meaningful activities rely on teachers’ leading role to build a collaborative social media environment in order to facilitate social engagement among students.

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