There is a widespread belief that youth mentoring contributes to students' holistic competency development, but research has not yet provided enough clarity on how exactly this contribution is made possible. To address this gap, in the current study we explore different mentoring strategies and their impacts on mentees' holistic competency…

Drawing upon the mutually constitutive notions of possible selves and agency, this study illuminates how maintaining a future orientation in doctoral education acts to supply candidates with a pivotal sense of direction and drive their experimentation with disparate pathways to realise their academic career aspirations. In-depth analysis of two…

By innovatively applying positioning theory with reference to a framework of willingness, capability and power, this study explored how pre-service teachers' professional identities dynamically change through the negotiation of various positions. A qualitative approach was adopted using data from six Hong Kong pre-service teachers in a teacher…

The adoption of online learning has been accelerated by COVID-19, including experiential learning such as service-learning (SL). This study compares the student developmental outcomes between the traditional face-to-face and e-service-learning (E-SL) to reveal the effectiveness of E-SL and its good practices. A self-reporting measurement…

Artificial intelligence (AI) literacy is at the top of the agenda for education today in developing learners' AI knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in the 21st century. However, there are few validated research instruments for educators to examine how secondary students develop and perceive their learning outcomes. After reviewing the…

Despite extensive research on student teachers' engagement with university coursework, teaching practicums, and research projects in teacher education curriculums, empirical studies on the coherence among these components are lacking (Flores 2018). Coherence refers to the degree to which a curriculum supports, reinforces, and reflects shared goals…

Residential halls are an important component of college education, and the benefits for holistic personal development have been documented by previous research. The majority of studies, however, have focused on Western universities. The current research therefore assessed the academic, social and independent development of students attending…

One of education's primary goals is to cultivate citizens who want to contribute to society. However, surprisingly little research has been conducted on how students' desire to contribute to society is related to crucial learning-related outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine how the desire to contribute to one's society, which we call…

Can residential experiences help undergraduates develop holistic competencies? To answer this question, a study was conducted based on the insights of 211 residents in Hong Kong. Deductive and inductive content analyses were respectively used to examine residence life outcomes, particularly in holistic competencies, and to categorise the types of…

This study investigates Chinese international students' acculturation strategies and pragmatic intentions to address identity conflicts in Hong Kong study experiences through a developmental lens. We treat conflicts and stressors as indicators of active commitments and the process of engagement as strategic, goal-oriented, intentional investments…

Reflection has been increasingly used to enhance student development in higher education, in both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Learner autonomy is essential on reflection, particularly on how learners interpret their learning experiences. The learner has to take initiatives in making meaning of their learning by examining their…

Student participation in extracurricular activities has been proven to be as an important element in personal development and become an indicator of their competencies in relation to their future career success. However, participation in extracurricular activities is not systematically recorded and is difficult to be used for planning and…

The growing complexity of doing a PhD necessarily demands candidates to robustly exercise their agency in navigating the doctoral journey. However, the conceptualisation of how students use their agency across multiple facets of their studies has yet to receive due scholarly attention. Drawing on the subject-centred sociocultural view on agency,…

We examined the developmental trajectories and cognitive predictors of first language Chinese reading, second language English reading, and mathematics skills in Hong Kong children in Grades 1-5. We used longitudinal data of 1,000 children (M[subscript age] = 7.59 years) assessed on phonological awareness, rapid naming, and morphological awareness…

Service-learning was introduced into Hong Kong over a decade ago, yet there is a research gap about the self-perceived developmental outcomes for students, partly due to the lack of a reliable measurement instrument across course disciplines and types of service-learning. This study validated a recently created Service-Learning Outcomes…