Interdisciplinary Learning

To equip students for the rapidly changing and unpredictable future society, it is necessary to revamp the interdisciplinary curriculum from junior to senior secondary levels to meet students' learning and personal development needs. Practical learning is connected with real-life situations, addressing real-world problems, and is meaningful for the future.

Our school has established an interdisciplinary learning and values education curriculum for Form 4 – 'innovative design and development.

In the 2020-21 academic year, our school designed a new curriculum for Form 4 called "Exploration and Innovation in Design." The goal of this course is to develop 21st-century life skills in students, including entrepreneurial spirit, collaboration skills, and innovative thinking, through project-based learning. The school aims to provide students with an innovative cultural education, enhancing their interest in learning and equipping them to become outstanding talents with innovative capabilities. By integrating elements such as Design Thinking and entrepreneurial spirit, students are encouraged to engage in discussions and experiential activities that stimulate creativity, build empathy, and develop communication, problem-solving, and other soft skills. This course is held twice per cycle, and the curriculum was co-designed by a team of teachers who regularly hold collaborative lesson planning sessions and take turns leading related discussions.

Teaching students 'Design Thinking' through 'Prepare – Execute – Reflect.'

The teaching team received professional training related to Design Thinking as early as the summer of 2020. With a clear understanding of the entire process and their extensive teaching experience, the teachers actively participated in collaborative planning sessions, offering valuable insights. For instance, one teacher admitted to previously favoring worksheets, but students found them boring. A colleague then suggested incorporating more hands-on activities to make the lessons more engaging. This was particularly challenging during the first term when in-person classes were subject to numerous social restrictions due to the pandemic. Eventually, a colleague came up with the idea of using bulletin boards, allowing students to discuss by facing away from each other and then having one student post the discussion results on the board, increasing classroom interaction and engagement.

The teachers' training and initial course design were conducted in-person, and the course was designed with face-to-face classes in mind. However, before the end of the first term, in-person classes were suspended again, necessitating a shift to online learning. Fortunately, the theoretical parts of the course, including the five steps of Design Thinking—Empathize, Customer Journey Mapping, Define, Ideate, and Prototype—and related skill workshops, were completed during in-person sessions. The entrepreneur sharing sessions were held online. "Originally, Design Thinking included creating an empathy map, but after discussion, the teachers decided it would be easier for students to first learn the Customer Journey Mapping and Persona, and then teach the empathy map in the following term." This adjustment indeed helped students grasp the concepts more effectively.

The purpose of offering this course is to equip Concordia students with creativity and innovation, proactivity, and responsibility. Even in uncertain situations, they are encouraged to remain resilient, propose novel ideas to solve problems, and apply these ideas in simulated scenarios or real business operations to create value for society. The original plan for the Exploration and Innovation in Design course was to have students go out into the community. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, there were too many restrictions on allowing students to venture out and identify problems. The school later invited founders of social enterprises, NGOs, and startups to explain their company philosophies to the students. Some companies focused on sustainability, others on women's rights, student rights, or youth issues. After listening, students chose the problem they wanted to solve and began thinking about solutions. Although students had considerable flexibility in their decision-making, the course consistently adhered to its initial goal—fostering students' spirit of exploration and innovation.

Collaborative Learning in Groups

Students can work in groups during class, collaboratively engaging in Problem-Based Learning to understand community issues and provide innovative solutions. In each class, the first ten minutes are dedicated to a briefing session where students present their learning outcomes and creative processes. This time can also be used to allow different stakeholders to personally experience the students' work. The school will arrange for students to showcase their learning outcomes, projects, and share their creative processes during various off-campus activities. In the lesson plan, students can learn through Kolb’s Learning Cycle, which emphasizes experiential learning. According to this method, students are active participants who need to be motivated and responsible for their learning. The learning activities are real and meaningful, with the hope that students will reflect on the learning process and apply what they have learned to real life.

According to the experiential learning model, students are required to tackle simulated real-life challenges in class and design a product that can be used in daily life. In the last ten minutes of each class, every student needs to document their learning process and reflect on any shortcomings in the class activities.

Curriculum Framework

When developing innovative solutions and implementing ideas, students need to apply the knowledge and skills they have learned in junior secondary school to create prototypes. These include: programming, 3D design, video production, presentation creation, VR scene development, online store creation, B2B, B2C, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), human resource management, marketing, customer behavior, cost classification, and more.

"Idea & Innovation Day" - A Showcase of Business and School-Parent Collaboration

We host a large-scale event in May or June each year called the "Idea & Innovation Day," which showcases the collaboration between the business sector and the school-parent community. The entire Form 4 cohort, along with our teachers, industry guests, community members, and representatives from the Parent-Teacher Association, serve as judges. Over 50 guests attend, including representatives from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the Chief Advisor of Education Reimagined, representatives from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Head of Development at Hong Kong Education City, and representatives from the Association of IT Leaders in Education and The Education University of Hong Kong.

On the day of the event, students prepare speeches and presentations of their projects to showcase to the industry guests. Our teachers noticed that students were very diligent in presenting and speaking before the guests, engaging in exchanges with them. Students had to think critically to answer the guests' questions and share their year-long learning journey. Each group received feedback from the guests, helping students to reflect on the highlights of their projects and areas for improvement, leading them to write reflections on their year's learning in the classroom.

In this innovative teaching approach, teachers have discovered different facets of their students. They were pleasantly surprised by the students' abilities, as they quickly adapted even when stepping outside the traditional classroom framework. For example, one group of students planned to convey their concept using Virtual Reality (VR), but none of them had any prior experience with it. As a result, they had to start from scratch within just 24 cycles, identifying problems, analyzing them, determining solutions, and learning VR knowledge. After encountering setbacks, they found alternative paths and ultimately succeeded in producing a tangible product. Additionally, some students who typically showed little interest in studying or lacked motivation to learn made a deep impression. In the classroom, these students were very serious, actively participating in every aspect and eagerly sharing their ideas with teachers and classmates to find the most efficient and convenient solutions. This remarkable transformation was truly refreshing.

On "Idea & Innovation Day," each group had a booth on the playground, where students took the initiative to divide the tasks and determine the order of their presentations. The basketball court was filled with the fruits of the students' efforts over the 24 cycles, proudly displayed to the public. The problem-solving approaches were diverse—some students addressed issues via online stores, while others used VR. The willingness to showcase themselves is a characteristic that Concordia students possess; when facing strangers, they are not shy but instead proactively explain their group's ideas to the public.

Innovative Business-School Collaboration Model

The school collaborates with various social enterprises and non-profit organizations to create community scenarios for students to engage in problem-solving activities.

Past Student Ideas from School-Organization Collaborations:

Fully Implement the School-Based "Computational Thinking" Curriculum

Since September 2020, the school has been invited by the Jockey Club to become a part of the "Jockey Club Computational Thinking Education" innovative community and has simultaneously served as a CoolThink Resource School. In this role, the school leads and assists other schools in implementing computational thinking education and opens its classrooms for research and observation by other schools and educational partners. Additionally, as a Resource School, it collaborates with other schools to promote and improve the curriculum, sharing teaching practices and experiences.

Compared to programming, computational thinking places a greater emphasis on cultivating problem-solving skills. Programming involves writing computer code to give instructions to a computer, while computational thinking refers to the thought process behind programming. It requires students to think like computer scientists, using logic and problem-solving skills to break down problems and identify solutions.

Lesson Design Process

Using the Design of the MyPiano App (School-Based) as an Example:

Computational thinking includes the following three actions:

The characteristics of Digital Empowerment include:

Digital Empowerment

• Meaningfulness

The perceived value of programming activities to one's self-concept.

• Impact

The belief that mastering programming can help solve global issues.

• Programming Self-Efficacy

Confidence in possessing the necessary skills and abilities to complete programming tasks.

• Creative Self-Efficacy

Confidence in being able to generate innovative ideas and solutions.

Fully Implementing "Artificial Intelligence"

Since September 2022, our school has been selected as one of the ten "CUHK Jockey Club AI for the Future Project — Leadership Schools (2022-2023)" by The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The school will incorporate AI elements into both junior and senior secondary curricula, using Design Thinking and community understanding as entry points. One of the assignments involves students working in groups to use online AI tools, leveraging NLP and GAN technologies to input complete sentences and generate artwork, which will then be peer-reviewed by teachers and classmates.