
We invite you to join us here at FEHD for a series of ground-breaking lectures from some of the world's most distinguished academics.
The Distinguished Visiting Professors Online Series 2022 will be launched in April.
The series is designed to encourage continuous learning for educators, researchers, teachers and students.
Over four lectures it will explore topics as broad as racial classification, cross-cultural professional development for early childhood educators, the sciences of active learning, as well as the role of educational leadership in future education.
A panel of EdUHK researchers and educational specialists will also discuss how the issues relate to Hong Kong.
To watch the lectures, simply click "Watch Now" below.


Lecture 1
Who Are You?: The Dilemmas of Racial Classification
Speaker: Michael Omi
University of California, Berkeley
The attempt by states and institutions to categorize people by race is a process often fraught with confusion, contradiction, and unintended consequences. Any clear definition of race has historically proven to be ephemeral as social boundaries shift, slippages occur, and new names and collectivities emerge. How do individuals and groups embrace, challenge, and negotiate different racial categories and identities? Drawing upon the theory of racial formation, the system of racial classification in the US Census will be examined and its broader meaning considered.


The lecture will look at professional development (PD) research that has been influential in improving educator practice while also enhancing child learning. Professor Siraj will draw on the RCT intervention Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study undertaken in NSW Australia and it’s adapted version undertaken in Shenzhen China to demonstrate how evidence-based PD - alongside practice development support tools - can support educators to enhance quality, democratise assessment and improve child outcomes while developing a systematic way of improving educator practice at their own pace. During the session she will identify some important characteristics of effective PD.


Lecture 3
The Sciences of Active Learning
23 June 2022
8pm (Hong Kong Time)
Speaker: Professor Stephen Kosslyn
Active Learning Sciences, Inc.
Active learning leads to substantially better learning than occurs with traditional lecturing. This talk reviews the nature of active learning and explains why it is so effective. The talk focuses on fundamental principles drawn from the science of learning; these principles range from Deep Processing (the more mental effort one expends when processing information, the more likely it is to be remembered) to Chunking (humans can only absorb about four organized units at the same time, but each of those units can have up to four parts) to Deliberate Practice (practice is most effective when one uses feedback to focus on the most difficult aspects of the knowledge or skill). We not only consider the principles, but also see how to apply them to teaching—particularly when teaching online, both in synchronous settings (i.e., live, as occurs on Google Meet, Webex or Zoom) and in asynchronous settings (i.e., when the student and instructor are not present at the same time, and students learn largely at their own pace). The talk practices what it preaches by relying on demonstrations and illustrations of key points.


Improving education quality holds the hope of ending learning poverty for the most disadvantaged and marginalized children and young people around the world. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated many of the profound pre-existing inequalities in education provision, including the hundreds of millions of children who were not in school before the pandemic, and those not learning while in school (Save the Children, 2021). For these children especially, school represents an oasis of safety and hope where they can learn, play, grow and achieve. Although schools alone cannot address many of the centuries’ old issues of educational and social inequalities that still challenge many children’s fundamental right to quality education in modern times, they are spaces where many committed and caring teachers are dedicated to inspiring the learning and achievement of young minds. > Learn more