Exploring a Group of Students’ School Experiences in a Secondary School: a Case Study in the Implementation of Invitational Education in Hong Kong

Abstract

Exploring a Group of Students’ School Experiences in a Secondary School: a Case Study in the Implementation of Invitational Education in Hong Kong

Poon Kwok Leung, George
Abstract

This thesis investigated the school experiences of 147 Form 3 academically low achievers in a secondary school, where Invitational Education was being implemented. The goal of Invitational Education is to create schools with a climate that encourages everyone in the school to experience success and its theory is based on the following four principles: respect, trust, optimism and intentionality. The present study described and analyzed how Invitational Education was implemented in the case study school and discussed how it might have influenced study participants’ school experiences, particularly in their emotions in school, social relationships, attitude towards school and learning, sense of belonging, personal aspirations and self-concept of ability and effort. To answer the research questions, an exploratory study was conducted through a case-study approach in which the use of triangulation in collecting data was employed. The triangulation included in-depth interviews, participation observations, classroom teaching observations, questionnaires and document review, while the triangulation of sources involved 147 Form 3 study participants of the school. At the same time, out of 147 study participants of the same cohort, 20 informants were screened for three in-depth interviews each over six months The themes of the in-depth interviews mainly concerned the informants’ successful or unsuccessful learning experiences, general satisfaction about their school life, their relationships in school and their attitude towards school and learning. Forming the theoretical basis for the investigation of the thesis was the approach of Invitational Education and motivation theories. Findings of the study have provided the researcher with insights and evidence showing how some of the inviting strategies managed to facilitate study participants to acquire general satisfaction in their school life and learning and activate their motivational dimensions, namely, social relationships, positive emotion, relatedness, intrinsic motivation, personal aspiration and self-perception of ability and effort.