Chair Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and UNESCO Chair in Regional Education Development and Lifelong Learning, The Education University of Hong Kong
Professor John Lee Chi Kin is President and Chair Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at The Education University of Hong Kong.
His research interests focus on curriculum and instruction, geographical and environmental education, school improvement, and life and values education. He is active in leading and securing education research and development projects. He also has a solid track record in securing external grants. One of his projects (together with Prof Jim Chi Yung, Dr Alice Chow Sin Yin and team), ‘Tree Assessment for Life Education (TALE) 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. Professor Lee’s another project (led by Dr Song Yanjie), entitled ‘Learningverse – A 3D Metaverse for Online Collaborative Learning’, was awarded a Bronze Medal in the 48th Geneva International Inventions Exhibition in 2023.
Professor Lee is also the UNESCO Chair in Regional Education Development and Lifelong Learning, The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Research Fellow, and Director of the Academy for Applied Policy Studies and Education Futures, Academy for Educational Development and Innovation, and Centre for Religious and Spirituality Education at EdUHK.
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (hereafter referred to the GBA) is a national strategic development involving HKSAR as one of the key cities. One of the aspirations of the GBA is to become a world-class Bay Area where there is much demand for educational and talent development. While collaboration with Mainland institutions and universities has been emphasised in the higher education arena, it also witnesses the establishment of Schools for Hong Kong Children and enhancement of the Sister School Scheme.
There is rich socio-historical heritage, variations in geographical landscape of GBA and Guangzhou Province as well as potentials for economic and educational development. Against this backdrop, this keynote speech intends to explore from multi-disciplinary perspectives on the topic of GBA and its potentials of curriculum, learning and teaching.
In addition, this keynote presentation will discuss examples on historical figures, scenic attractions for fieldtrip, Intangible Cultural Heritage and values education as well as potential areas of economic and technological advancement and possible places for internship will be discussed. From the perspectives of life and career planning and values education, there are implications for students and youth to learn about, in and for the GBA. Such a tripartite approach of ’about, in and for’ makes reference to environmental education (Cheng & Lee, 2015; Lee, 1997; Tilbury, 1997) and is adapted to knowing GBA which entails an integrated or coherent approach including knowledge, on-site, experiential learning and reflection, cultivation of values and attitudes as well as learning through participation.
References
Cheng, I. N.-Y., & Lee, J. C.-K. (2015). Environmental and outdoor learning in Hong Kong: Theoretical and practical perspectives. In M. Robertson, R. Lawrence, & G. Heath (Eds.), Experiencing the outdoors: Enhancing strategies for wellbeing (pp. 135-146). Netherlands: SensePublishers.
Lee, J.C.K. (1997) Environmental Education in Schools in Hong Kong. Environmental Education Research, 3:3, 359-371.
Tilbury, D. (1997). Environmental education: A Head, Heart and Hand approach to learning about environmental problems. New Horizons in Education, 38, 13-30.