Projects

Life Education and Citizen Science through Tree Protection and Conservation Project

The commencement of the two-year project, titled Life Education and Citizen Science through Tree Protection and Conservation, was announced in June 2019. The project aims to develop a platform for the community to contribute to the greening and re-greening in Hong Kong to raise public awareness of tree conservation. The project also promotes the integration of environmental education and life education; cultivating caring, respecting and acting for our nature from preserving trees around us; facilitating citizen’s contribution to protect the environment.

Co-led by the Chair Professor John Lee and Professor Chi-yung Jim (Research Chair Professor of Department of Social Sciences at Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (FLASS) at EdUHK), the project has been implementing in two phases: (i) the development of a mobile app, and (ii) development of teaching and learning materials. A mobile application named “Tree Portal”, which is developed with the support from a UNESCO Student Ambassador, Miss Dolphin Chan from the programme of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Creative Arts and Culture (Visual Arts), has been developed to facilitate citizens’ and students’ learning of visual tree assessment and included a platform for users to upload tree assessment results and photographs. Following the first phase, teaching materials have been developing to engage EdUHK students and students from six local primary and secondary seed schools in tree assessment through fieldwork and learn about the importance of tree conservation through their related school subjects.

The mobile application is developed to facilitate citizens’ and students’ learning of visual tree assessment and provide a platform for users to upload tree assessments and photographs. The detailed tree and ecological knowledge have been written in plain language and illustrated with many annotated drawings. By integrating life education and environmental education, students would learn the methods and skills to build a life-long fraternity with nature. They would be cultivated to adopt a lifestyle that is synergistic to the environment. Starting at relishing trees, students would eventually learn to care for and respect nature, and subsequently achieve personal growth. Users are encouraged to become knowledgeable tree wardens and responsible citizens to help the government and the society as a whole to monitor tree health and performance.

The project website allowing public access to project documents as well as the tree data has been set up. Data submitted by the public will be analysed and shared with relevant authorities, the community, fellow scientists and practitioners at the local and international levels to foster research, knowledge transfer and citizen science. The project website is accessible at https://tree.eduhk.hk/index.php.

Following the first phase, teaching materials have been developed to engage EdUHK students and students from six local primary and secondary seed schools in tree assessment through fieldwork and raise their awareness about the importance of tree conservation through their related school subjects.

To engage our students in this meaningful project, 39 Student Ambassadors have been selected from EdUHK undergraduate students and trained with essential knowledge in tree assessment and life education beyond formal curriculum. Student Ambassadors with excellent performance and active participations would be awarded as UNESCO Student Ambassadors upon the completion of project. Structured learning opportunities were offered to cultivate students' values of life through observation of trees and their dissemination in schools.

The project has won a Silver Medal in the first-ever virtual edition of Geneva's Inventions Expo held in March 2021 and won a Gold Medal and Special Award in the International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada (iCAN) in August 2021. More details could be found on https://www.eduhk.hk/en/features/eduhk-wins-seven-awards-at-2021-geneva-s-inventionsexpo#:~:text=The%20Education%20University%20of%20Hong,since%20participating%20in%20t he%20competition and https://www.eduhk.hk/en/features/edtech-innovations-claim-10-ican-awards.

Life Education and Tree Conservation Activities at local primary and secondary schools.

Project of Lifelong Learning for Special Educational Needs (SEN) School Leavers

In response to the global trend and local concern to the education of person with disabilities and to provide the alternative learning opportunities in the university campus with unified effort and in an innovative approach, the Chair is one of the co-Principal Investigators of the project of Lifelong Learning for SEN School Leavers, collaborated with Centre for Special Educational Needs and Inclusive Education (CSENIE) and CRSE.

In order to fill the missing service gap, it aims at providing continual education and lifelong learning opportunities for SEN school leavers in tertiary institutions, building up an e-learning infrastructure for the course development, mobilising the university academics and researchers for nurturing the talents of SEN students, being collaborative with schools and community experts for innovative practices in the mode of delivery, and empowering the pre-service teachers, community helpers and parents with the necessary knowledge and skills for catering for diversity. It integrated learning components of career and life planning with value education and 21st century skills as well as whole person development.

The project duration is three years from 2019/20 to 2021/22. Various stakeholders, including SEN students, parents, community carers, school teachers and pre-service teachers, joined their hands to support the 250 project participants through the trainings provided exhibits and samples to stakeholders on the implications of 21st century skills for education and life planning.

“Dolphin Messenger”: Ocean Literacy Programme for the primary and secondary schools

With an aim of enhancing the “Ocean Literacy” of local community, the Chair, Professor John Lee supported a project titled “Dolphin Messenger”: Ocean Literacy Programme for the primary and secondary schools running from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022. The 12-month project adopts the flagship-species approach as the overarching strategy, integrated with various pedagogies, to develop teaching modules and materials on Chinese White Dolphins (CWDs) based on the primary and secondary schools’ curriculum in the subjects such as General Studies, Geography and Biology. The project includes school talks, teacher training (online and/or faceto-face), and student eco-docent workshops (online and/or face-to-face) for the primary and secondary school to deepen the participants’ understanding, as well as nurture their proenvironmental attitudes and life values on the local marine environment and the CWDs. The project offers opportunities to the students to become a docent, sharing the information and knowledge about CWDs and marine conservation with the public through ecotourism. For more details, please refer to https://flassnews.eduhk.hk/preview_article/WINTER_2021_ISSUE_2/Ocean%20Literacy%20P rogramme%20raises%20public%20awareness%20about%20dolphin%20and%20marine%20co nservation

The project was completed in December 2022. A website and a publication containing information about Chinese white dolphins and ocean literacy had been developed towards the completion of the programme. A summary of the programme as well as educational materials developed throughout the programme were available to the public on the website. For more details, please visit: https://dolphinmessenger.streak.hk/.

Professor Lee (sixth from the right, front row) and Dr Cheang (seventh from the right, front row) prepare to lead a study boat trip to western Lantau waters to observe Chinese white dolphins.

The publication of the project titled “Dolphin Messenger”: Ocean Literacy Programme for the primary and secondary schools.

Lazy Hero Rescues the World Movement 2021 – RISE after Pandemic

“Lazy Hero Rescues the World Movement” is one of the flagship projects hosted by JCI Apex regarding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The project promotes 12 international days through interviews, workshops, roadshows, videos and summits to echo and support SDGs. The theme of the event in July 2021 was “International Day of Cooperatives” and a summit was organised to explore the new normal after the Coronavirus Pandemic to echo SDG8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth and SDG17 - Partnerships for the Goal. Professor Lee delivered a keynote speech titled “Promoting sustainable development and international exchanges through education, sciences and culture” at the Lazy Hero Rescues the World Movement 2021 – RISE after Pandemic Summit on 31 July 2021.

UNESCO Hong Kong Association Green Citizen Youth Ambassador

Professor John Lee provided support to the project of the UNESCO Hong Kong Association Green Citizen Youth Ambassador in introducing the objectives and promoting the ambassador scheme to EdUHK students. The Project aimed to promote an in-depth understanding of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals among Youth in Hong Kong and engage them in international conversations related to the SDGs. Six EdUHK bachelor's and master's degree students, ranging from financial education to language education, enrolled in the Ambassador programme. As the Green Citizen Ambassadors, they organised and volunteered at a variety of events to support and promote sustainable development.

Book Project on Yau Tsim Mong

This Chinese book involves youth education, heritage preservation as well as education for ethnic minorities. It was co-planned by Mr Edward Yu, District Officer of Yau Tsim Mong and Professor John Lee. The Chair provided funding support to the video shooting activities of the Project. To explore the rich heritage, history, culture and development of Yau Tsim Mong District in Hong Kong, the project team interviewed different sectors related to the development of Yau Tsim Mong District including youth from different regions, representatives of different associations, principals and teachers, long-term residence, elderly, youth, students, government officials, representatives for different sectors and walks of life, citizens and academics, etc. Video clips of the interviews will be used for publicity and publications as well as the development of teaching and learning resources for principal and teacher development in relation to heritage preservation and youth education. Through this publication, the project team hoped to enhance the public’s interest in and understanding of the development path, milestones, and new features of Yau Tsim Mong District.

Student Research Project on UNSDGs Youth Tutor Training Programme

Professor John Lee supported the Student Research Project on UNSDGs Youth Tutor Training Programme initiated by The Secretariat of UNESCO Hong Kong Association. This research project served as an extension to the UNSDGs Youth Tutor Training Programme held by the Association in April 2022, aiming to equip youth with the knowledge and ability to teach UNSDGs to even younger generations and make positive impacts on their communities. The topic of the project is related to education inclusiveness and equality in Hong Kong.

Intangible Cultural Heritage Funding Scheme: ICH@Schools “非物質文化遺產資助計劃︰非遺進校園” 項目

Professor John Lee supported the Intangible Cultural Heritage Funding Scheme: ICH@Schools in order to raise awareness about the importance of intangible cultural heritage and promote local culture and heritage among teachers and students. With the support of Professor Lee, ICH@Schools provides teachers' professional development activities and on-site professional support services for 15 schools (9 primary schools and 6 secondary schools) on Cultural Heritage Education implementation in February 2023 - August 2024.

Promotional material of ICH@Schools “非物質文化遺產資助計劃︰非遺進 校園”項目.

UNESCO Chair project: Development initiatives’ strategies for self-sustainability (November 2022)

The Chair is one of the co-authors of the project, Development initiatives’ strategies for selfsustainability. The project is a long-term project that seeks (a) to identify cases where education development organisations across the world have successfully implemented and sustained change in the domains in which they work; (b) to understand those changes in terms of complexity theory and integrated service delivery; (c) to disseminate emerging best strategies and practices to other organisations in the field through our project website; and (d) to theorize those changes and cases for publication in leading journals. Three papers with the co-authors of this project (Emilia Szekely, Mark Mason and the Chair) would be published in the Journal of Education Policy.

Project on “Global Media Education through Development of Online Teaching (GloMEd)” Funded by the Finnish National Agency for Education (July 2021)

In April 2021, The University of Lapland proposed a collaborative project on “Global Media Education through Development of Online Teaching (GloMEd)” to be applied for funding support from the Team Finland Knowledge funding program 2021.

The collaborating partners in this project are the University of Lapland and EdUHK that are both committed to the activities of UNITWIN/UNESCO Network on Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity, as well as UNITWIN/UNESCO Online and Rural Education Group activities, for which EdUHK joined the network in January 2020.

Led by the UNESCO Chair in Regional Education Development and Lifelong Learning, Faculty of Humanities and The Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology from EdUHK supported the project. The objective of the proposed project is to deepen and strengthen the existing collaboration between the University of Lapland and EdUHK into a solid one and answer to local, national and global education goals of sustainable development, understanding education and citizenship competencies in digitalisation to be part of these intentions.

The application was approved by the Finnish National Agency for Education in July 2021. The lecture on Intercultural Communication in the Digital Age and the workshop on AI literacy were delivered by EdUHK team members online to students from the University of Lapland in September 2021 according to the proposal.

The online teaching course had been started in September 2022. Project members from the University of Lapland planned to visit to the EdUHK for collaboration teaching activities in March to April 2023 and November 2023. Seminar and workshop for the University’s staff, and development of online self-access resources about the online pedagogy model would be organised. In addition, the possibility of joining the conference in Finland from early August to September 2023 had been explored. Further details on the visits would be confirmed at a later stage.

A visit to Finland was conducted in June 2023 for the GloMEd project to meet the delegates of Tampere University and University of Helsinki. Please refer to the table below for details of the delegates. The GloMEd project is based on the collaboration between the University of Lapland and The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) in the UNITWIN/UNESCO Network on Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity in Education, the first UNITWIN network coordinated by Finland (University of Lapland), since its establishment in 2018.

The project seeks to develop a joint study course on Global Media Education through collaborative knowledge exchange between experts from University of Lapland, Finland and Education University of Hong Kong, China.

UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) Research Project on Higher Education and Ageing Societies

In his dual capacity of UNESCO Chair in Regional Education Development and Lifelong Learning and Senior Advisor of Elder Academy at the University, Professor Lee was invited by UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) to attend an interview about the University’s strategies in addressing the learning needs of ageing societies in support of lifelong learning.

During the online interview held on 28 January 2022, the Chair shared the institutional support at EdUHK and good practices of EdUHK’s Elder Academy to address the needs of older learners and ageing societies with the wider research community in the field of lifelong learning as well as the region. In November 2022, Professor Lee was invited to review the draft research report and provide advice on highlighting the unique contribution of the Elder Academy regarding the provision of lifelong learning for older adults in Hong Kong.