Jiahui (Jess) Luo | Education University of Hong Kong (original) (raw)

Papers by Jiahui (Jess) Luo

Teaching in higher education, 2024

Many observed that the rise of GenAI is causing an 'erosion of trust' between students and teache... more Many observed that the rise of GenAI is causing an 'erosion of trust' between students and teachers in higher education. Such distrust mainly stems from concerns about student cheating, which is believed to be massively facilitated by recent technological breakthroughs in GenAI. Despite anecdotal discussions, little empirical research has explored students' experiences with trust in the GenAI age. This study engaged university students in concept mapping activities followed by interviews to investigate how they navigate trust-building with teachers in this AI-mediated assessment landscape. The findings highlight an absence of 'twoway transparency'-while students are required to declare their AI use and even submit chat records, the same level of transparency is often not observed from the teachers (e.g. ambiguities around teachers' grading process of AI-mediated work). The transparency issue reinforces teacher-student power imbalances and topdown surveillance mechanisms, resulting in a low-trust environment where students feel unsafe to freely explore GenAI use.

International journal of Chinese education, May 1, 2023

Over the past two decades, China has formulated a series of policies regarding how to assess stud... more Over the past two decades, China has formulated a series of policies regarding how to assess students’ holistic development, aiming to transform its highly exam-oriented culture which traditionally emphasises knowledge transmission and book learning. Although the efforts have met with some success, various issues persist when bringing such policies into practice. This article has three goals — (1) to outline the 20 years of assessment policies of students’ holistic development under the holistic suzhi assessment scheme in China, (2) to explore how these policies have been translated into practice and the issues arose from practice, and (3) to discuss the potential implications for nurturing and assessing students’ holistic development in times of increasing uncertainties.

This study offers a critical examination of university policies developed to address recent chall... more This study offers a critical examination of university policies developed to address recent challenges presented by generative AI (GenAI) to higher education assessment. Drawing on Bacchi's 'What's the problem represented to be' (WPR) framework, we analysed the GenAI policies of 20 world-leading universities to explore what are considered problems in this AI-mediated assessment landscape and how these problems are represented in policies. Although miscellaneous GenAI-related problems were mentioned in these policies (e.g. reliability of AI-generated outputs, equal access to GenAI), the primary problem represented is that students may not submit original work for assessment. In the current framing, GenAI is often viewed as a type of external assistance separate from the student's independent efforts and intellectual contribution, thereby undermining the originality of their work. We argue that such problem representation fails to acknowledge how the rise of GenAI further complicates the process of producing original work and what it means by originality in a time when knowledge production becomes increasingly distributed, collaborative and mediated by technology. Therefore, a critical silence in higher education policies concerns the evolving notion of originality in the digital age and a more inclusive approach to address the originality of students' work is required.

Intensive research attention has focused on developing students’ evaluative judgement within the ... more Intensive research attention has focused on developing students’ evaluative judgement within the higher education curriculum, but little has addressed how it can be measured. The contextual nature of evaluative judgement makes it difficult to generate an encompassing instrument, highlighting the need for situated measurement tools. Against this background, this study develops and validates a self-report instrument to measure engineering students’ evaluative judgement of intercultural competence. A total of 815 Chinese engineering students participated in the pilot and formal phases of validation. Following sequential exploratory-confirmatory factor analyses, the final instrument contains 27 items covering six dimensions. Validity and reliability evidence supports the correlated six-factor model and a higher-order factor model. The study provides educators and policymakers with a useful tool to understand students’ development in their evaluative judgement of intercultural competence. More importantly, for students themselves, the instrument facilitates self-reflection and helps them achieve greater autonomy in directing their development and growth. Although the study adopts a situated approach to measure evaluative judgement, we also discuss the possibility of adapting this instrument for other judgement contexts.

Asia pacific education review, 2023

With the rise of accountability measures in education, many policymakers have also argued the nee... more With the rise of accountability measures in education, many policymakers have also argued the need to record, assess, and certify students' holistic development. However, using China as a case, we caution how a policy-driven reform on the assessment of holistic development might fall into the pitfall of performativity. Borrowing from Ball's (Ball, Journal of Education Policy 18:215-228, 2003) seminal work on policy technologies, we investigate the ways in which management cultures, market logic, and performance indicators have figured in China's assessment policies on students' holistic development. Using the findings as a base, we further discuss and problematize how these policies could have rendered students "managed," "marketized," and "performative," influencing what it means to become a "holistic" student.

Assesssment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2022

For students to sustain their learning beyond higher education, it is important for them to devel... more For students to sustain their learning beyond higher education, it is important for them to develop their evaluative judgement. Although the importance of evaluative judgement is well-established, the process through which students make such judgements remains contested. This study explores students' evaluative judgement process by asking 20 engineering students to evaluate their own intercultural competence and that of other engineers in task-based interviews. The findings reveal that in the process of judgement-making, students negotiate and navigate multiple dimensions, including their 'knowledge of intercultural competence' , 'awareness of bias' , 'attitude towards development' , 'capability to judge' , 'action towards improvement' and 'identity as assessor'. Building on these findings, the study further reconceptualises evaluative judgement as a negotiated process rather than a capability.

Educational Research Review, 2022

A number of methods have been recorded in the literature with regard to assessing intercultural c... more A number of methods have been recorded in the literature with regard to assessing intercultural competence, but extant reviews tend to focus on self-report instruments in which students' responses can be easily quantified. To address the gap, this paper provides an overview of qualitative methods used to assess students' intercultural competence in higher education research. Based on 34 studies, 25 qualitative assessment methods have been identified and captured in a newly-developed typology. Results show that (1) the majority of qualitative methods to assess intercultural competence were writing-based and 'expressive' in nature; (2) the assessment results were mainly analysed in a 'thematic' or 'scalar' manner; and (3) very little assessment took place among STEM majors. These results are further discussed and problematized to provide implications for developing and assessing intercultural competence in higher education research and curriculum.

Educational Research Review, 2022

A number of methods have been recorded in the literature with regard to assessing intercultural c... more A number of methods have been recorded in the literature with regard to assessing intercultural competence, but extant reviews tend to focus on self-report instruments in which students' responses can be easily quantified. To address the gap, this paper provides an overview of qualitative methods used to assess students' intercultural competence in higher education research. Based on 34 studies, 25 qualitative assessment methods have been identified and captured in a newly-developed typology. Results show that (1) the majority of qualitative methods to assess intercultural competence were writing-based and 'expressive' in nature; (2) the assessment results were mainly analysed in a 'thematic' or 'scalar' manner; and (3) very little assessment took place among STEM majors. These results are further discussed and problematized to provide implications for developing and assessing intercultural competence in higher education research and curriculum.

Asssessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2022

Learning to make informed evaluative judgement of holistic competencies prepares students for wel... more Learning to make informed evaluative judgement of holistic competencies prepares students for well-rounded development on a lifelong and self-directed basis. However, a review of the literature reveals that empirical studies framed under evaluative judgement have not yet explicitly acknowledged the judgement of these competencies. If we are to further promote evaluative judgement as a systematic line of research worthy of independent attention, there is a need to better theorise what evaluative judgement means when it comes to judging holistic competencies. In consideration of the above, this article presents an expanded framework of evaluative judgement in the context of holistic competency development. Based on three rounds of Delphi inquiries with 14 international experts, the framework conceptualises evaluative judgement as a multi-faceted construct comprising knowledge, attitude, capability, action and identity-related dimensions. The article concludes with both theoretical and practical implications for developing students’ evaluative judgement of holistic competencies.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education

In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to formally assess holistic competencies. The... more In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to formally assess holistic competencies. These efforts tend to be policy and expert driven, overlooking students’ subjectivities in being assess...

Higher Education Research & Development, 2020

ABSTRACT With society increasingly valuing soft skills and competencies, reflective practices are... more ABSTRACT With society increasingly valuing soft skills and competencies, reflective practices are more commonly adopted in higher education, particularly for experiential learning. As reflective writing is becoming a part of official assessments in many courses, an overarching question arises as to how teachers are currently assessing reflections. This study explores teachers’ perspectives on the assessment of written reflections by interviewing six university teachers in Hong Kong, who respectively assessed written reflections by 135 students. Teachers’ understandings of reflective writing, teachers’ understandings of assessing reflections, as well as teacher training are discussed in this exploratory study. The findings provide insight into how reflection is currently understood among teachers, also offering suggestions for reflective practices in higher education.

Teachers and Teaching, 2020

The organization is now well developed. The organization does not only consist of public and priv... more The organization is now well developed. The organization does not only consist of public and private organizations, but also mixed organizations (hybrid organizations). And it's influence to the organizations of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) as stated in the legal considerations of Constitutional Court (MK) Decision Nr. 48 and 62 / PUU-XI /2013 that exclaims that SOEs are private legal entities that carry out public duties. Referring to this matter, (a) elements of hybridity in SOEs, (b) benefits and risks in the form of hybrid SOE organizations, (c) the concept of hybridity in increasing the achievements of SOE objectives. By using an analytical approach and legislation results that based on the characteristics of BUMNs are categorized as hybrid organizations. As a hybrid organization has benefits and risks as a result of the influence of the public and private elements. The greatness of the benefits and risks of hybrid organizations is inversely proportional to the size comparison of public and private elements. The hybrid concept at Perum (Public Company) which aims for public benefit is a balanced public element with a private element. Whereas for Persero (State Company) that has commercial aims, the private element must be more dominant to create flexibility that drives the development of the Company. It is recommended that the concept of hybridity in SOEs must be adapted to the form of the company and the objectives of the company.

Teaching in Higher Education, 2020

While recent years have seen increasing initiatives to engage students as partners in higher educ... more While recent years have seen increasing initiatives to engage students as partners in higher education, some students tend to be privileged yet others are excluded based on certain selection standards. This paper situates near-peer mentoring within the 'students as partners' context, and investigates the mentoring experience of 3 student mentors whose self-perceived dispositions seemed 'unfitting' to the 'ideal' mentor standards in research and practices. These three cases presented how mentors' mentoring practices were influenced by their dispositions, and identified a growth pattern in holistic competencies which could in return benefit these student mentors' future development. A conceptual model has been designed to capture the potential relationship between mentoring, mentor dispositions and holistic competency development. Both theoretical and practical implications have been made to increase inclusive participation and to provide equitable learning opportunities for more students in higher education.

British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 2022

There is a widespread belief that youth mentoring contributes to students' holistic compe... more 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 development in an extracurricular mentoring programme for secondary school students in Hong Kong. Informed by both mentors' interviews and mentees' written/video reflections, we present three scenarios illustrative of the connection between mentoring strategies and impacts. Through detailed vignettes, we offer a productive and situated approach to understand the extent to which certain mentoring strategies are more likely to contribute to particular holistic competency outcomes.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2021

Universities around the world are encouraging teachers to provide more constructive feedback to s... more Universities around the world are encouraging teachers to provide more constructive feedback to support student learning, but do teachers know how to distinguish constructive feedback? What pedagog...

Curriculum and Teaching, 2020

Scholars are calling increasingly for educational reform to embed meaningful out-of-class events ... more Scholars are calling increasingly for educational reform to embed meaningful out-of-class events in the current curriculum, in order to enhance students’ generic competency development. Towards this goal, featuring self-confidence as an important generic competency, this mixed-method study explores key characteristics of extracurricular activities that lead to enhancement of students’ self-confidence. Based on an extracurricular program designed for developing students’ generic competencies, including self-confidence, questionnaire data was collected from 423 secondary school students in Hong Kong alongside 133 reflective journals. Four important activity characteristics—i.e. authenticity, being challenging, expressivity and reflectivity—have been identified to inform future activity and curricular design.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2020

As many universities worldwide have incorporated holistic competency development into their cours... more As many universities worldwide have incorporated holistic competency development into their course goals, developing assessment literacy in these competencies is placed high on the agenda. Yet, existing literatures on assessment literacy tend to focus on disciplinary knowledge, with little reference to holistic competencies. Based on 29 focus group interviews with 122 students from six universities in Hong Kong, this study first explores the extent to which previous conceptualisations of student assessment literacy also apply to assessing holistic competencies. Findings are subsequently used as a base for discussion towards a new framework of student assessment literacy in holistic competency development which constitutes four dimensions, i.e. knowledge, attitude, action and critique. The renewed framework incorporates features specific to holistic competency assessment, further highlights students' critical engagement with assessment, and understands learners as active agents who exercise discretion in holistic competency assessment.

Educational Research Review, 2022

Shadow education, also widely known as private tutoring or supplementary education, has attracted... more Shadow education, also widely known as private tutoring or supplementary education, has attracted increasing research attention in the past two decades. The global expansion of shadow education, as well as its penetration to different educational stages and social classes, are believed to have far-reaching implications for the overall educational landscape. However, despite a steadily growing body of literature, no study to date has systematically reviewed the influences of shadow education from an ecological perspective. Therefore, borrowing Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of how shadow education influences different levels of educational ecosystems (i.e. individuals, micro-, meso-, exo-, and macro-system). Based on 74 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2020, the review reveals complex influences exerted by shadow education on multiple systems (e.g., students, mainstream schooling, families, and larger socioeconomic structures), contributing to a more sophisticated understanding of this phenomenon. The paper then discusses how the rise of shadow education creates significant changes to the ecology of education in which it operates, and concludes with implications for future practice and research.

British Journal of Guidance and Counselling , 2022

There is a widespread belief that youth mentoring contributes to students' holistic competency de... more 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 development in an extracurricular mentoring programme for secondary school students in Hong Kong. Informed by both mentors' interviews and mentees' written/video reflections, we present three scenarios illustrative of the connection between mentoring strategies and impacts. Through detailed vignettes, we offer a productive and situated approach to understand the extent to which certain mentoring strategies are more likely to contribute to particular holistic competency outcomes.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2021

In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to formally assess holistic competencies. The... more In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to formally assess holistic competencies. These efforts tend to be policy and expert driven, overlooking students' subjectivities in being assessed. Questions remain about how prepared students are for holistic competency assessment. To address this research gap, we conducted 2150 surveys and 17 focus group interviews (N = 73) with Hong Kong university students, attempting to understand their level of preparedness through the lens of student assessment literacy. Findings suggest that while students may be reasonably prepared for holistic competency assessment, they also raise a range of issues that require further deliberation in assessment planning (e.g. how to report assessment results; the form of support provided to students; democratising the assessment process).

Teaching in higher education, 2024

Many observed that the rise of GenAI is causing an 'erosion of trust' between students and teache... more Many observed that the rise of GenAI is causing an 'erosion of trust' between students and teachers in higher education. Such distrust mainly stems from concerns about student cheating, which is believed to be massively facilitated by recent technological breakthroughs in GenAI. Despite anecdotal discussions, little empirical research has explored students' experiences with trust in the GenAI age. This study engaged university students in concept mapping activities followed by interviews to investigate how they navigate trust-building with teachers in this AI-mediated assessment landscape. The findings highlight an absence of 'twoway transparency'-while students are required to declare their AI use and even submit chat records, the same level of transparency is often not observed from the teachers (e.g. ambiguities around teachers' grading process of AI-mediated work). The transparency issue reinforces teacher-student power imbalances and topdown surveillance mechanisms, resulting in a low-trust environment where students feel unsafe to freely explore GenAI use.

International journal of Chinese education, May 1, 2023

Over the past two decades, China has formulated a series of policies regarding how to assess stud... more Over the past two decades, China has formulated a series of policies regarding how to assess students’ holistic development, aiming to transform its highly exam-oriented culture which traditionally emphasises knowledge transmission and book learning. Although the efforts have met with some success, various issues persist when bringing such policies into practice. This article has three goals — (1) to outline the 20 years of assessment policies of students’ holistic development under the holistic suzhi assessment scheme in China, (2) to explore how these policies have been translated into practice and the issues arose from practice, and (3) to discuss the potential implications for nurturing and assessing students’ holistic development in times of increasing uncertainties.

This study offers a critical examination of university policies developed to address recent chall... more This study offers a critical examination of university policies developed to address recent challenges presented by generative AI (GenAI) to higher education assessment. Drawing on Bacchi's 'What's the problem represented to be' (WPR) framework, we analysed the GenAI policies of 20 world-leading universities to explore what are considered problems in this AI-mediated assessment landscape and how these problems are represented in policies. Although miscellaneous GenAI-related problems were mentioned in these policies (e.g. reliability of AI-generated outputs, equal access to GenAI), the primary problem represented is that students may not submit original work for assessment. In the current framing, GenAI is often viewed as a type of external assistance separate from the student's independent efforts and intellectual contribution, thereby undermining the originality of their work. We argue that such problem representation fails to acknowledge how the rise of GenAI further complicates the process of producing original work and what it means by originality in a time when knowledge production becomes increasingly distributed, collaborative and mediated by technology. Therefore, a critical silence in higher education policies concerns the evolving notion of originality in the digital age and a more inclusive approach to address the originality of students' work is required.

Intensive research attention has focused on developing students’ evaluative judgement within the ... more Intensive research attention has focused on developing students’ evaluative judgement within the higher education curriculum, but little has addressed how it can be measured. The contextual nature of evaluative judgement makes it difficult to generate an encompassing instrument, highlighting the need for situated measurement tools. Against this background, this study develops and validates a self-report instrument to measure engineering students’ evaluative judgement of intercultural competence. A total of 815 Chinese engineering students participated in the pilot and formal phases of validation. Following sequential exploratory-confirmatory factor analyses, the final instrument contains 27 items covering six dimensions. Validity and reliability evidence supports the correlated six-factor model and a higher-order factor model. The study provides educators and policymakers with a useful tool to understand students’ development in their evaluative judgement of intercultural competence. More importantly, for students themselves, the instrument facilitates self-reflection and helps them achieve greater autonomy in directing their development and growth. Although the study adopts a situated approach to measure evaluative judgement, we also discuss the possibility of adapting this instrument for other judgement contexts.

Asia pacific education review, 2023

With the rise of accountability measures in education, many policymakers have also argued the nee... more With the rise of accountability measures in education, many policymakers have also argued the need to record, assess, and certify students' holistic development. However, using China as a case, we caution how a policy-driven reform on the assessment of holistic development might fall into the pitfall of performativity. Borrowing from Ball's (Ball, Journal of Education Policy 18:215-228, 2003) seminal work on policy technologies, we investigate the ways in which management cultures, market logic, and performance indicators have figured in China's assessment policies on students' holistic development. Using the findings as a base, we further discuss and problematize how these policies could have rendered students "managed," "marketized," and "performative," influencing what it means to become a "holistic" student.

Assesssment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2022

For students to sustain their learning beyond higher education, it is important for them to devel... more For students to sustain their learning beyond higher education, it is important for them to develop their evaluative judgement. Although the importance of evaluative judgement is well-established, the process through which students make such judgements remains contested. This study explores students' evaluative judgement process by asking 20 engineering students to evaluate their own intercultural competence and that of other engineers in task-based interviews. The findings reveal that in the process of judgement-making, students negotiate and navigate multiple dimensions, including their 'knowledge of intercultural competence' , 'awareness of bias' , 'attitude towards development' , 'capability to judge' , 'action towards improvement' and 'identity as assessor'. Building on these findings, the study further reconceptualises evaluative judgement as a negotiated process rather than a capability.

Educational Research Review, 2022

A number of methods have been recorded in the literature with regard to assessing intercultural c... more A number of methods have been recorded in the literature with regard to assessing intercultural competence, but extant reviews tend to focus on self-report instruments in which students' responses can be easily quantified. To address the gap, this paper provides an overview of qualitative methods used to assess students' intercultural competence in higher education research. Based on 34 studies, 25 qualitative assessment methods have been identified and captured in a newly-developed typology. Results show that (1) the majority of qualitative methods to assess intercultural competence were writing-based and 'expressive' in nature; (2) the assessment results were mainly analysed in a 'thematic' or 'scalar' manner; and (3) very little assessment took place among STEM majors. These results are further discussed and problematized to provide implications for developing and assessing intercultural competence in higher education research and curriculum.

Educational Research Review, 2022

A number of methods have been recorded in the literature with regard to assessing intercultural c... more A number of methods have been recorded in the literature with regard to assessing intercultural competence, but extant reviews tend to focus on self-report instruments in which students' responses can be easily quantified. To address the gap, this paper provides an overview of qualitative methods used to assess students' intercultural competence in higher education research. Based on 34 studies, 25 qualitative assessment methods have been identified and captured in a newly-developed typology. Results show that (1) the majority of qualitative methods to assess intercultural competence were writing-based and 'expressive' in nature; (2) the assessment results were mainly analysed in a 'thematic' or 'scalar' manner; and (3) very little assessment took place among STEM majors. These results are further discussed and problematized to provide implications for developing and assessing intercultural competence in higher education research and curriculum.

Asssessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2022

Learning to make informed evaluative judgement of holistic competencies prepares students for wel... more Learning to make informed evaluative judgement of holistic competencies prepares students for well-rounded development on a lifelong and self-directed basis. However, a review of the literature reveals that empirical studies framed under evaluative judgement have not yet explicitly acknowledged the judgement of these competencies. If we are to further promote evaluative judgement as a systematic line of research worthy of independent attention, there is a need to better theorise what evaluative judgement means when it comes to judging holistic competencies. In consideration of the above, this article presents an expanded framework of evaluative judgement in the context of holistic competency development. Based on three rounds of Delphi inquiries with 14 international experts, the framework conceptualises evaluative judgement as a multi-faceted construct comprising knowledge, attitude, capability, action and identity-related dimensions. The article concludes with both theoretical and practical implications for developing students’ evaluative judgement of holistic competencies.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education

In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to formally assess holistic competencies. The... more In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to formally assess holistic competencies. These efforts tend to be policy and expert driven, overlooking students’ subjectivities in being assess...

Higher Education Research & Development, 2020

ABSTRACT With society increasingly valuing soft skills and competencies, reflective practices are... more ABSTRACT With society increasingly valuing soft skills and competencies, reflective practices are more commonly adopted in higher education, particularly for experiential learning. As reflective writing is becoming a part of official assessments in many courses, an overarching question arises as to how teachers are currently assessing reflections. This study explores teachers’ perspectives on the assessment of written reflections by interviewing six university teachers in Hong Kong, who respectively assessed written reflections by 135 students. Teachers’ understandings of reflective writing, teachers’ understandings of assessing reflections, as well as teacher training are discussed in this exploratory study. The findings provide insight into how reflection is currently understood among teachers, also offering suggestions for reflective practices in higher education.

Teachers and Teaching, 2020

The organization is now well developed. The organization does not only consist of public and priv... more The organization is now well developed. The organization does not only consist of public and private organizations, but also mixed organizations (hybrid organizations). And it's influence to the organizations of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) as stated in the legal considerations of Constitutional Court (MK) Decision Nr. 48 and 62 / PUU-XI /2013 that exclaims that SOEs are private legal entities that carry out public duties. Referring to this matter, (a) elements of hybridity in SOEs, (b) benefits and risks in the form of hybrid SOE organizations, (c) the concept of hybridity in increasing the achievements of SOE objectives. By using an analytical approach and legislation results that based on the characteristics of BUMNs are categorized as hybrid organizations. As a hybrid organization has benefits and risks as a result of the influence of the public and private elements. The greatness of the benefits and risks of hybrid organizations is inversely proportional to the size comparison of public and private elements. The hybrid concept at Perum (Public Company) which aims for public benefit is a balanced public element with a private element. Whereas for Persero (State Company) that has commercial aims, the private element must be more dominant to create flexibility that drives the development of the Company. It is recommended that the concept of hybridity in SOEs must be adapted to the form of the company and the objectives of the company.

Teaching in Higher Education, 2020

While recent years have seen increasing initiatives to engage students as partners in higher educ... more While recent years have seen increasing initiatives to engage students as partners in higher education, some students tend to be privileged yet others are excluded based on certain selection standards. This paper situates near-peer mentoring within the 'students as partners' context, and investigates the mentoring experience of 3 student mentors whose self-perceived dispositions seemed 'unfitting' to the 'ideal' mentor standards in research and practices. These three cases presented how mentors' mentoring practices were influenced by their dispositions, and identified a growth pattern in holistic competencies which could in return benefit these student mentors' future development. A conceptual model has been designed to capture the potential relationship between mentoring, mentor dispositions and holistic competency development. Both theoretical and practical implications have been made to increase inclusive participation and to provide equitable learning opportunities for more students in higher education.

British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 2022

There is a widespread belief that youth mentoring contributes to students' holistic compe... more 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 development in an extracurricular mentoring programme for secondary school students in Hong Kong. Informed by both mentors' interviews and mentees' written/video reflections, we present three scenarios illustrative of the connection between mentoring strategies and impacts. Through detailed vignettes, we offer a productive and situated approach to understand the extent to which certain mentoring strategies are more likely to contribute to particular holistic competency outcomes.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2021

Universities around the world are encouraging teachers to provide more constructive feedback to s... more Universities around the world are encouraging teachers to provide more constructive feedback to support student learning, but do teachers know how to distinguish constructive feedback? What pedagog...

Curriculum and Teaching, 2020

Scholars are calling increasingly for educational reform to embed meaningful out-of-class events ... more Scholars are calling increasingly for educational reform to embed meaningful out-of-class events in the current curriculum, in order to enhance students’ generic competency development. Towards this goal, featuring self-confidence as an important generic competency, this mixed-method study explores key characteristics of extracurricular activities that lead to enhancement of students’ self-confidence. Based on an extracurricular program designed for developing students’ generic competencies, including self-confidence, questionnaire data was collected from 423 secondary school students in Hong Kong alongside 133 reflective journals. Four important activity characteristics—i.e. authenticity, being challenging, expressivity and reflectivity—have been identified to inform future activity and curricular design.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2020

As many universities worldwide have incorporated holistic competency development into their cours... more As many universities worldwide have incorporated holistic competency development into their course goals, developing assessment literacy in these competencies is placed high on the agenda. Yet, existing literatures on assessment literacy tend to focus on disciplinary knowledge, with little reference to holistic competencies. Based on 29 focus group interviews with 122 students from six universities in Hong Kong, this study first explores the extent to which previous conceptualisations of student assessment literacy also apply to assessing holistic competencies. Findings are subsequently used as a base for discussion towards a new framework of student assessment literacy in holistic competency development which constitutes four dimensions, i.e. knowledge, attitude, action and critique. The renewed framework incorporates features specific to holistic competency assessment, further highlights students' critical engagement with assessment, and understands learners as active agents who exercise discretion in holistic competency assessment.

Educational Research Review, 2022

Shadow education, also widely known as private tutoring or supplementary education, has attracted... more Shadow education, also widely known as private tutoring or supplementary education, has attracted increasing research attention in the past two decades. The global expansion of shadow education, as well as its penetration to different educational stages and social classes, are believed to have far-reaching implications for the overall educational landscape. However, despite a steadily growing body of literature, no study to date has systematically reviewed the influences of shadow education from an ecological perspective. Therefore, borrowing Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of how shadow education influences different levels of educational ecosystems (i.e. individuals, micro-, meso-, exo-, and macro-system). Based on 74 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2020, the review reveals complex influences exerted by shadow education on multiple systems (e.g., students, mainstream schooling, families, and larger socioeconomic structures), contributing to a more sophisticated understanding of this phenomenon. The paper then discusses how the rise of shadow education creates significant changes to the ecology of education in which it operates, and concludes with implications for future practice and research.

British Journal of Guidance and Counselling , 2022

There is a widespread belief that youth mentoring contributes to students' holistic competency de... more 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 development in an extracurricular mentoring programme for secondary school students in Hong Kong. Informed by both mentors' interviews and mentees' written/video reflections, we present three scenarios illustrative of the connection between mentoring strategies and impacts. Through detailed vignettes, we offer a productive and situated approach to understand the extent to which certain mentoring strategies are more likely to contribute to particular holistic competency outcomes.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2021

In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to formally assess holistic competencies. The... more In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to formally assess holistic competencies. These efforts tend to be policy and expert driven, overlooking students' subjectivities in being assessed. Questions remain about how prepared students are for holistic competency assessment. To address this research gap, we conducted 2150 surveys and 17 focus group interviews (N = 73) with Hong Kong university students, attempting to understand their level of preparedness through the lens of student assessment literacy. Findings suggest that while students may be reasonably prepared for holistic competency assessment, they also raise a range of issues that require further deliberation in assessment planning (e.g. how to report assessment results; the form of support provided to students; democratising the assessment process).