教育大同論壇2015：「我要真假期」　如箭在弦 
主講嘉賓青田教育基金會教學顧問韋惠英分享：「教育，從故事開始」
EDiversity “We Need a Break” Education Conference 2015
“Education begins with stories,” shared by guest speaker Rebecca Wai, Education Consultant of Greenfield Educational Fund

Please scroll down for English

新聞稿（即時發佈）                                                               2015年6月16日

教育大同論壇2015：「我要真假期」　如箭在弦 
主講嘉賓青田教育基金會教學顧問韋惠英分享：「教育，從故事開始」

Photos: http://www.seedland.hk/press/ediversity/6/
Press release: http://www.seedland.hk/press/ediversity/6/EDiversity_Wai_C_final.doc

先後任職香港小童群益會圖書館程序幹事、新雅文化事業有限公司董事總經理兼總編輯，及香港朗文出版（遠東）有限公司雙語出版董事的韋惠英指出，現今本地學校大多本末倒置，孩子尚未打好基礎便要求他們一蹴而就：「除了不適當的英默，學校為準備基本能力試TSA，在低小就進行大量的操練，由小一下學期開始操到小學畢業，不少學生看到文字就感煩悶，討厭學習。」她將出席2015年6月27日（活動第一日）的教育大同論壇，主講題目為「學在故事中，樂在活動裡」。

憑藉多年從事兒童圖書出版的經驗，韋惠英對閱讀有一番獨到見解：「現今孩子身邊娛樂誘惑眾多，要引發他們對閱讀的興趣，關鍵在於讓他們體會當中的樂趣和成功感。」本著這股信念和熱誠，韋惠英於一九九二年創辦青田教育中心，提倡以故事作出發點的全語言閱讀方法。有別於「識字解碼」的閱讀方法，韋惠英推崇K. Goodman教授提倡的「閱讀是一個心理猜測遊戲」 ：「鼓勵孩子閱讀時，按圖畫或上文下理來猜測生字、情節，兒童不需要字字都識才能瞭解故事，這有助培養好奇心及想像力，更可建立對閱讀的興趣和自信。只要按部就班，孩子更容易領略閱讀以至學習語文帶來的成功感和樂趣。」

談到香港的教育情況，韋惠英認為孩子日夜埋頭課業中，老師為追趕進度疲於奔命，但本地英語教育的成效未如理想。她遂探索以故事書取代教科書的可行性，在一家津貼小學「試驗」新的教學模式，成果斐然。「默書配合拼音和語法教學來施行、學生六年來透過閱讀地道英語故事和篇章，累積了大量英語詞彙和習得語法，體會到英文並非想像中困難，自然建立起學習的信心。功課是切合英文拼音文字的特色來設計，例如，以聆聽、朗讀、交錄音功課代替傳統的抄寫。功課以外，課文、教學活動豐富有趣亦是關鍵所在。總括來說，從故事入手，輔以多元化的活動來促進學習成效。」

成功的教學不應與繁重的功課和補習畫上等號。在6月27日的教育大同「我要真假期」論壇中，韋惠英和她的學生將以自身的經驗，與大家分享如何在傳統教育的框架下，走出一條以孩子為中心來學習英語的道路。
配合是次論壇，教育大同現正舉辦「我要真假期」Facebook短片大募集，資深傳媒人張宏艷、著名藝人薛家燕、王祖藍、陳明恩、著名編劇林超榮（超人）和著名唱作人徐偉賢、綠色力量創辦人周兆祥博士已率先分享了他們心中的真假期，為活動打響頭炮，立即登入EDiversity教育大同Facebook專頁觀看（www.facebook.com/EDiversity）！

有關教育大同 
慈善團體「教育大同」由一群家長在2014年自發成立，旨在集思廣益、聚眾之力，鼓勵家長、教育界以至社會各界重新思考教育，勇於選擇忠於孩子需要的教育模式，共譜教育大同的理想。「教育大同」的成員來自教育界、資訊科技界、傳媒界、商界及法律界，眾人深感本地教育發展逐漸倒果為因，過度着重考試成績，智力以外，學生個別的身心發展需要卻備受冷待。期望透過舉辦會議與各界分享，推廣一些在世界上廣被接受但在香港卻被誤解的教育理念；並透過瞭解孩子及年青人現在和未來的需要，幫助大家在教育方面作出明智和有彈性的選擇。

有關教育大同「我要真假期」論壇2015
為期兩天的「我要真假期」論壇2015將於2015年6月27及28日舉行，由教育大同主辦，中文大學亞太研究所、綠腳丫親子讀書會、香港兆基創意書院及籽識教育顧問有限公司全力協辦。活動將集中探討功課與評核的實際效能，思考在沒有功課的假期中，孩子如何可學得更好更多；期望能藉此推動家長與學校選擇減少操練，騰出時間利用創意推展教育。活動請來多位在主流學制中走出不平凡的家長、老師及校長，及多位創意教育實踐者真人剖析真假期可帶來的更大教育及社會效能。論壇首天在中文大學以講座形式分享一眾敢創不同的案例，翌日移施兆基創意書院進行一系列互動環節，讓與會者認識本地創意教育的發展，帶來嶄新的教育體驗。詳情或購票：www.ediversity.org/tc/conference

發稿：教育大同  　　       代行：一口田有限公司 
電話：3583 3100 　           傳真：3583 1331　　　　電郵： info@seedland.hk
傳媒查詢請致電3583 3310或電郵 heidi@seedland.hk 與Miss Heidi Lam聯絡。

For Immediate Release                                                                       16 June 2015

EDiversity “We Need a Break” Education Conference 2015
“Education begins with stories,” shared by guest speaker Rebecca Wai, Education Consultant of Greenfield Educational Fund

Photos: http://www.seedland.hk/press/ediversity/6/
Press release: http://www.seedland.hk/press/ediversity/6/EDiversity_Wai_E_final.doc

Having served as the Programme Secretary (Libraries) of The Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs Association, the Managing Director and Editor-in-chief of Sun Ya Publications, and the Director of Bilingual Publishing of Longman Group (Far East), Rebecca Wai Wai-Ying points out the current problem of education is that the Education Bureau and many local schools have put the cart before the horse. Children without a solid foundation are asked for high performances as reflected by dictation and public assessment. “In order to prepare for the TSA exams in Primary Three and Six, and the Pre-Secondary One Attainment Test, the primary schools would arrange a massive amount of drilling exercises for students as early as the second term of Primary One, which would go on until they have taken the Attainment Test in the summer of Primary Six. As a result, many students feel fed up with reading and hate learning.” On 27 June 2015, the first day of EDiversity Education Conference, she is going to give a talk on the topic “Less is More – Learning and Teaching English can be Fun”.

Rebecca’s years of experience in publishing children’s books have granted her an acute understanding of the nature of literacy. “Kids nowadays are surrounded by plenty of entertaining temptations, so the key to nurture an interest in reading is to let them experience the fun and sense of accomplishment brought by leisure reading.” It is with such belief and enthusiasm Rebecca have founded Greenfield Educational Centre and advocated the story-based whole language reading method. Instead of the conventional “decoding” approach to learn new words in order to read, Rebecca follows Professor K. Goodman’s idea of “Reading as a psycholinguistic guessing game”. She suggests, “We encourage children to guess the meaning of new words, structures and plot based on pictures or contextual clues. They don’t have to recognise every single word in order to understand the story. Not only can guessing enhance children’s curiosity and imagination, but also help establish their interest and confidence in reading. In fact if we start with stories children feel comfortable and interested in the lower primary, once they enjoy the fun of reading and have the confidence in learning, they can move on with a much faster pace in the middle and upper primary.”

Speaking of the status quo of local education, Rebecca thinks that although children have to struggle with assessments, drilling and assignments days and nights, while teachers suffer from fatigue to finish the syllabus at the end of each school term, local primary English education is still far from being effective. Seeing this, Rebecca introduced authentic stories and text from New Zealand and England in teaching local children English. A subsidised primary school had practiced this approach for six years. The result is encouraging.

“Students build up vocabulary and comprehension skills as they move along with reading authentic English reading materials in six years. Besides the magic of stories, one key element that makes the ‘experiment’ a success is that dictation goes hand in hand with the teaching of phonics and grammar. Teachers bear in mind that English is a phonic language, and homework is designed accordingly. Instead of the traditional copying and drilling exercises, students are asked to listen to CDs, then read aloud at home every day, and hand in audio recordings as homework. Another crucial key of success is the teaching materials and classroom activities are designed in such a way the teachers find them user-friendly. The students enjoyed the fun in learning English. They are not scared of dictation and had confidence in learning English. After six years of primary English learning, students were well prepared to move on to secondary school education. To sum up, a story-based education, supplemented by diverse activities, can serve as a better solution for making primary English education more effective.”

Rebecca’s example proves that successful education should not be equated with heavy workloads and tutorial classes. On 27 June, Rebecca and her students are going to share their experience at EDiversity’s “We Need a Break” Education Conference, where they will discuss with participants an alternative path amid the framework of traditional education, so that children can enjoy the kind of English education that truly serves the purpose.

In support of the conference, EDiversity has launched “We Need a Break” Facebook Video Campaign. Celebrities including former news anchor Lavender Cheung, renowned artistes Nancy Sit, Wong Cho Lam, Corinna Chamberlain, scriptwriter Lam Chiu Wing and singer-songwriter Peco Chui, as well as Dr Simon Chau, founder of Green Power, have already joined and shared their ideas about what makes a real break. To watch the videos, please visit EDiversity’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/EDiversity.

About EDiversity
EDiversity is a charity organisation founded by a group of parents in 2014. It aims to gather the collective effort to encourage parents, educators as well as the public to reexamine the current education system, to allow deviant education modes that suit children’s need, and to achieve the ideal of educational diversity. Members of EDiversity come from a variety of backgrounds, including education, information technology, media, business and legal services. They are concerned that local education has taken a wrong direction by over-emphasising examination results and intellectual performance but neglecting the physical and mental developments of individual students. Via conferences and sharing sections, the organisation hopes to promote education concepts that are widely accepted worldwide but misunderstood in Hong Kong; by understanding the current and future needs of children and youngsters, it also strives to offer wiser and more flexible choices in education.

About EDiveristy “We Need a Break” Education Conference 2015
From 27 to 28 June 2015, “We Need a Break” Education Conference 2015 will be held for two consecutive days by EDiversity, together with co-organisers including the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hapi Reading Club, HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity and La Violet Education Consultants Ltd.. The event will investigate the actual effectiveness of assignments and assessments, and explore how children can learn more and better on an assignment-free holiday. It will also invite parents, teachers and principals who have adopted extraordinary approaches within mainstream institutions, as well as practitioners of creative education to testify the educational and social benefits resulted from taking real breaks. The first day of the conference will take place at CUHK, featuring talks on cases of unique educational attempts, whereas the second day will be comprised of a series of interactive activities at HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, introducing the latest development of local creative education and bringing an innovative education experience to participants. For details and ticketing, please visit: www.ediversity.org/tc/conference.

Released by: Seedland International Limited
On behalf of EDiversity

Media enquiries:
Tel: 3583 3100 　                Fax: 3583 1331　　　　E-mail: info@seedland.hk
Contact person: Please contact Miss Heidi Lam at 3583 3310 or email to heidi@seedland.hk.