For Each and Everyone

This book describes a three-year research project which built on students’ learning experience, and addresses the issue of individual differences in mainstream primary schools in Hong Kong. The Learning Study model described in this volume presents a view of learning which stems from a humanistic interest, and stresses on the possible “experiences” that the student has gone through in their learning process.

This project went through cycles of action research in implementing, evaluating and modifying a lesson. A total of 29 Learning Studies were conducted and the results showed remarkable improvement in students’ learning outcomes. Participant teachers also found the Learning Study model useful in their professional development.

Lo Mun Ling is head of the Centre for Learning-study and School Partnership (CLASP), the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Pong Wing Yan is currently the principal of the Hong Kong Management Association David Li Kwok Po College, and was an associate professor in the Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong. Pakey Chik Pui Man is a project manager at the Centre for Learning-study and School Partnership (CLASP), the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

“Catering for diversity is the great challenge for teachers in schools throughout the world. The content of this book represents a major contribution to thinking in relation to this challenge. Grounded in sound theoretical roots and based on extensive field work, it describes how teachers can work together to make their lessons more effective for all their students. The book provides concrete advice that can have a real input on practice in the field. The evidence is that these approaches will also lead to significant improvements in learning outcomes.” —Mel Ainscow, Professor of Education, University of Manchester

“This book breaks new ground in looking at individual differences in learning outcomes and challenges previous explanations that have been provided. It does so in the context of the curriculum reforms in Hong Kong, and promises to unleash a strand of research into teaching and learning that will make Hong Kong one of the major centres of pedagogical transformation in the world.” —John Elliott, Professor of Education, University of East Anglia