Projects funded with external grants

Project Title: Refine and Evaluate a Pedagogical STEM Toolkit for Young Children’s Spatial Reasoning: A Design Experiment

Amount: HKD 798,908

PI: Dr. HU Xinyun Annie, Department of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

Project Introduction: Spatial skills instruction is absent from most early education classrooms (Pritulsky et al., 2020), especially in Hong Kong. This hinders children’s subsequent learning processes and outcomes, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Spatial reasoning involves active learning to allow children to interpret images, create representations, and manipulate objects to improve their STEM performance. Inadequate curriculum, teacher preparation, and learning materials contribute to the limited spatial learning opportunities in kindergartens. This project aims to address this gap by focusing on spatial reasoning as a critical facet of spatial learning for children.

Specifically, this mixed-methods project will follow the iterative cycle of design experiments aiming at refining and evaluating the effectiveness of a pedagogical STEM toolkit (P-STEM toolkit) in enhancing kindergarten children’s spatial reasoning skills. Grounded in constructivist and social constructivist learning theories, the ExperienceLanguage-Pictorial-Symbolic-Application (ELPSA) pedagogical framework (Lowrie et al., 2018) provides a logical structure for developing spatial reasoning skills, integrating pedagogical approaches and a P-STEM toolkit (built upon the PI’s pilot study, *Hu, 2021). We will use a two-phase design experiment to complete refinement and rigorous testing. In the first phase, we will collaboratively work with two kindergartens to improve our current PSTEM toolkit for children and test 40 children across two classes. In the second phase, we will approximate a controlled experiment via statistical matching for large-scale testing. 162 children aged 5-6 years from eight kindergartens in Hong Kong, and 16 teachers will participate in this phase. Eight participating classes will be randomly assigned to either the experimental group (using the P-STEM toolkit) or the control group (traditional instruction). We will evaluate all the participants’ spatial reasoning skills with the validated Children’s Mental Transformation Task (CMTT) before and after the intervention. To test the effect of using the P-STEM toolkit, we will analyse the data with a difference-in-differences structural equation model. Concurrent qualitative data consisting of classroom videos and teacher interviews will be collected. It will provide a comprehensive understanding of the implementation process and outcomes of improving spatial reasoning skills for children via statistical discourse analysis.

The project findings will provide research-based knowledge through implementing the P-STEM toolkit, which teachers can use to integrate spatial reasoning skills effectively. More importantly, the project will build a conceptual framework to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and spatial reasoning skills across the kindergarten curriculum. The results will inform curriculum revisions to enhance kindergarteners’ development of spatial reasoning skills.

Project Title: Conceptualizing, Investigating, and Cultivating Teachers' Generative Artificial Intelligence Competency

Amount: HKD 692,660

PI: Dr. HUANG Xianhan Yvonne, Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I)

Co-PI: Dr. Chen Logan CHEN, Prof. Kin-fung Thomas CHIU, Dr. Celik ISMAIL, Prof. Chun LAI, Prof John Chi-Kin LEE

Project Introduction: Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) offers tremendous potential for teachers’ professional practice, yet existing studies consistently report significant challenges in teachers’ GenAI integration, such as minimal integration between GenAI and pedagogy and ignoring ethical concerns. These challenges are closely tied to teachers’ GenAI competency, meaning the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to understand and effectively leverage GenAI for teaching and professional development. Despite the growing importance of GenAI in education, there is currently no framework outlining essential GenAI competencies for teachers. Constructing such a framework and developing a targeted professional development program to cultivate these competencies is therefore a matter of urgency. This research project aims to address this gap through a three-phase design. Phase ONE aims to formulate a teachers’ GenAI competency framework. We will comprehensively review and analyze existing global and local research and documents on teachers’ GenAI integration. Experienced Hong Kong teachers will be interviewed to investigate their perspectives and practices regarding GenAI integration. These data will inform the development of a context-relevant teachers’ GenAI competency framework, laying the groundwork for the second phase of the study. Phase TWO seeks to develop an instrument to assess Hong Kong teachers’ GenAI competency. The instrument will be developed through a systematic process, beginning with initial item development based on the framework generated in Phase One. This will be followed by an expert-panel review and a pilot study with at least 300 in-service teachers to ensure the instrument’s validity and reliability. Phase THREE will focus on developing and evaluating a professional development program for teachers’ GenAI competency. Informed by the framework generated in Phase One, the program will employ a flipped professional development model and consist of five modules delivered over 15 weeks. A randomized controlled trial involving 250 teachers will be conducted to assess the program’s effectiveness. Three waves of surveys using the instrument developed in Phase Two, as well as teacher interviews, shared practices, and reflective journals, will be analyzed to evaluate the program’s efficacy. In summary, this project addresses a significant research gap in teachers’ use of AI, outlining a teachers’ GenAI competency framework and providing a solid theoretical foundation for future research. The developed instrument and the professional program can serve as benchmarks for similar initiatives globally.

Project Title: Flourishing and healthy learning communities: A Collaborative Learning and Teaching Framework for International Teacher Education

Amount: EUR 72,000

Project Period: 1 August 2026 to 31 December 2028

Collborators: Univeristy of Turku, University of Jyväskylä

Members:

• Professor Siu Sze YEUNG, The Education University of Hong Kong  

• Professor Ka Shing Kevin CHAN, The Education University of Hong Kong  

• Professor Yuzhuo CAI, The Education University of Hong Kong  

• Dr. Xinyun Annie HU, The Education University of Hong Kong  

• Dr. Dr. Norman Biliwang MENDOZA, The Education University of Hong Kong  

• Professor Inkeri Ruokonen, University of Turku   

• Dr. Anitta MELASALMI, University of Turku  

• Dr. Sara Sintonen, University of Turku 

• Dr. Kristóf Fenyvesi, University of Jyväskylä 

• Dr.  Josephine Lau, University of Jyväskylä 

Project Introduction: The project aims to facilitate cross-cultural collaboration, exchanged learning, and blended mobility between Finnish and Chinese Early Childhood and Primary Teacher Education students.  It also involves doctoral students (University of Jyväskylä) who participate as mentors, providing analytical challenges and formative feedback. Furthermore, the focus of collaboration and professional development related to shared teaching involves also lecturers and professors in Early Childhood Teacher Education (University of Turku), Primary Teacher Education (Education University of Hong Kong), and researchers at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research (University of Jyväskylä). The project Flourishing and Healthy Learning Communities [FLHC] consists of a combination of online teaching collaboration and two onsite practice-based learning phases, first taking place at the University of Turku (UTU) in Finland in 2026, and the following phase in China (2027), hosted by the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). During the online phase, HEI students will learn together and design innovations, drawing on theoretical knowledge of educational wellbeing needs of children, students, and teaching staff, and taking active agency in engaging with diverse field actors. During the onsite phase, HEI students will work closely together, exchanging their developed innovations, ideas, and culturally rooted educational beliefs, promoting deep intercultural learning and shared reflection on values and pedagogical assumptions. 

This project responds to a practical challenge in Finnish teacher education: international mobility opportunities remain limited, especially for students in early childhood and primary education, even though future teachers increasingly need to work across cultural, linguistic and pedagogical boundaries. Bringing together the University of Turku, the University of Jyväskylä and the Education University of Hong Kong, the project develops and pilots a COIL PLUS model that combines joint online learning, intercultural collaboration, doctoral mentoring, and short blended mobility periods in Finland and Hong Kong. Its longer-term result is a credit-bearing, reusable model for sustained international cooperation in teacher education across the partner institutions.