The Learner’s Perspective Study: A Hong Kong Story

Abstract

The Hong Kong Learner’s Perspective LPS team is responsible for the research sites of Hong Kong and Shanghai. The Learner’s Perspective Study (LPS), led by Professor David Clarke, began in 1999, represents an innovative venture in classroom video study in at least two perspectives. With respect to research issues, it complements emergent national norms of student achievement and teaching practices with an in-depth analysis of classroom learning from the perspective of the learner as well as the teachers. With respect to design and methodology, it provides the opportunities to combine videotape data with participants’ reconstructions of classroom events of “well-taught” Grade 8 mathematics lessons. For a background, lecture will first give a brief introduction for the Hong Kong mathematics curriculum. This will be followed with the main thesis of an exemplary lesson based on the analysis of the data generated in the project. To conclude, I propose a challenge to teachers in their daily practice: “ To promote critical reflection and a positive attitude that implies modesty to prepare for ratification and correction, open-mindedness to receive alternative views and possibility, and a caring heart to share their learning process with the others.”