Outcomes

The KE Project has successfully received Knowledge Exchange Grants for three consecutive years running from 2014 to 2017.

45 workshops were conducted over three years spanning from 2014 to 2017 with phenomenal increase in scale. The project which was first launched in 2014 encompassed 10 schools and 362 secondary students. By 2017, it successfully reached-out to the wider community of Hong Kong benefitting over 1600 students from 28 local secondary schools and international Schools in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The local secondary schools range from top-tier direct-subsidy schools, such as St Stephen’s College in Stanley, St. Paul’s Co-Educational College in Central, and Heep Yunn School in Ma Tau Wai, to government-aided schools, such as La Salle College in Kowloon City, Sacred Heart College in Chi Fu, and HKTA Tang Hin Memorial Secondary School in Sheung Shui.

25 HKU German Program Students were given the chance to share their knowledge, expertise and skills in teaching German in language and cultural KE workshops.

A “German Fun Day” was organized in collaboration with the German Consulate Hong Kong, Goethe-Institut Hong Kong, German Swiss International School Hong Kong and HKU German Association on May 20, 2017. Teachers and students of participating schools were invited to come to HKU to attend this event. Representatives of co-organizers gave talks and addressed the students on various topics including overseas studies in Germany. This event provided a platform and occasion for secondary school students to meet with each other to share their learning experiences and to communicate in German through various talks, competitions and interactive games. Moreover, the KE team promoted the German Programme at HKU and provided secondary school students with some insight on undergraduate German studies at HKU.

The KE Project supports Hong Kong educational system by providing secondary school students with opportunities of learning a new foreign language and culture with recognition as "Other Learning Experience" for "Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education" curriculum.

Since the launch in 2014, this project has been developed as a sustainable project by fostering long-term partnerships with numerous local schools in Hong Kong. Increased offerings of German courses have been undertaken across a wide social spectrum of secondary schools in Hong Kong. Such development shows the tangible impacts of the KE project and is a clear indication of the intrinsic value of this knowledge exchange initiative which can be adopted as a best practice model for future projects involving the teaching of German and other foreign languages at secondary school level in Hong Kong and beyond, adapted to fit other cultural contexts. The content of the language and cultural workshops will clearly need to be tailored according to which foreign language is taught in which context.