Early childhood education as a field has heavily relied on theories from developmental psychology since the 19th century to inform pedagogy and practice. The use of developmental theories has been significant in assisting the field to raise its professional status, however, an over-reliance on these theories alone has contributed to marginalising children with rich cultural, linguistic and religious diversities. This chapter will focus on exploring co-constructed pedagogies as creating inclusivity in early childhood education (birth to age 8). In particular, co-constructed pedagogies engage children, educators/teachers, families and community in dialogue to inform curriculum and practices that reflect diverse learning communities. It is argued that co-constructed pedagogies are not only important in early childhood education but also offer insights that can support inclusivity in primary and secondary education.

This chapter will examine how a transdisciplinary approach to curriculum design provides a context for the development of intercultural awareness, fosters conceptual understanding and places the learner at the heart of the educational experience. A theoretical basis for transdisciplinary learning will first be presented. This will be followed by an analysis of the nature of the individual in the learning process and how this relates to the development of a global mindset. The chapter will conclude by offering practical considerations for the planning, teaching and assessing of learning through a transdisciplinary approach.

This chapter discusses how questionnaire-based research can be implemented in the English Medium Instruction (EMI) contexts. It presents an empirical study which that examined Chinese EMI university students’ attitudes and motivation (i.e., integrative and instrumental orientations) toward learning content subject knowledge in English. An EMI scale adapted from Gardner’s (2004) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB), which takes the format of Likert-point scale as explained in Chapter 3 of the this book, was validated and administered to 541 EMI students from three Chinese universities. The validity and reliability of the scale were measured, the correlations of the three dimensions (i.e., attitudes, integrative orientation, and instrumental motivation) were tested, and the role of demographic variables (i.e., gender, level of study, disciplinary background) in EMI attitudes and motivation were explored. The research findings suggest the validity and reliability of the scale, the positive correlations among the three dimensions, and the different degrees of EMI attitudes and motivation between male and female students and between soft science and hard science students. The researchers argue that questionnaire-based research is appropriate for the EMI contexts, but its effectiveness can be enhanced if the mixed methods design is adopted.

This chapter explores the use of one-way between-groups multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to investigate the effects of gender on perceived English language ability challenges in an English Medium Instruction (EMI) university in Hong Kong. Contrasting with ANOVA which evaluates mean differences on one dependent variable, MANOVA evaluates if there are mean differences on two or more dependent variables. The two dependent variables used were perceived writing challenges and perceived speaking challenges. The independent variable was gender. We checked for univariate and multivariate outliers, homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices and normality and found no deviation from the standard parameters. The results show a significant difference between males and females in terms of the combined dependent variables, F (2, 75) = 3.444, p = 0.037, Wilks’ Lambda = 0.913 and partial eta squared = 0.087. When the dependent variable is analysed separately with reference to the Bonferroni adjusted alpha level of 0.025, a significant difference is only found between males and females in terms of the perceived speaking challenges, F (1, 75) = 6.658, p = 0.012, partial eta squared = 0.084. A closer examination of the mean score shows that females (M = 3.042, SD = 0.34) perceived speaking English to be more of a challenge than males did (M = 2.71, SD = 0.55). The findings are discussed in relation to teaching and learning in an EMI university.

Grammatical complexity has been considered as an important research construct closely related to second language (L2) writing development. Although theoretical models were developed to demonstrate what grammatical complexity is, few studies have been conducted to analyze how this construct is represented from an empirical perspective. This chapter presents a data-driven investigation on the representation of grammatical complexity with an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The investigation is based on (1) a corpus of scientific research reports written by Hong Kong students in an English Medium Instruction (EMI) scientific English course, and (2) an EFA, which is a statistical approach to uncover an underlying structure of a phenomenon, which fits this research purpose well. A corpus has been built with the science writing from EMI undergraduate students in Hong Kong. After corpus cleaning, Second Language Syntactic Complexity Analyzer – a software – was applied to output the values of fourteen effective measures of grammatical complexity for running the EFA in SPSS, and a step-by-step instruction was described in the chapter. The final model includes three latent factors: clausal (subordination) complexity, nominal phrasal complexity, and coordinate phrasal complexity. This EFA model is generally consistent with the argument of investigating grammatical complexity as a multidimensional construct (Biber et al., 2011; Norris & Ortega, 2009). In the end, we highlighted the research and pedagogical implications that readers should pay attention to when the EFA is applied in other EMI contexts in the future.

This chapter outlines creative and body-based learning (CBL) as a pedagogical approach that puts principles of transformative pedagogy into action. CBL provides a provocation to engage with the body and creativity as instruments for learning and modes of representation. In highlighting the liberatory impact for both learners and educators, we explore how such approaches disrupt power imbalances and allow young people agency, higher-order thinking and a sense of belonging to a community of learners. In developing a theoretical base for our work, we are drawn to theories of embodiment, arts and affect.

In today’s complex world, we know as educators that learning is most meaningful when established through experience – learning by doing rather than by simply listening or observing. Our learners need to be supported in nurturing their creativity, developing as critical thinkers and flexible problem solvers, to apply skills and understanding in new domains and different situations creating solutions to problems encountered. Education and life should not be isolated from each other. By providing opportunities for learners to engage and learn through authentic, real-life, relevant experiences, we are scaffolding their application of skills to learning including adapting and changing their ideas and forming habits of lifelong learners. This chapter provides educators with a guide for embedding cross-curricular exploratory learning experiences as an integral part of planning, teaching and assessment responsive to all learners; and inclusive of the theoretical foundations and instructional strategies that inform their approaches. Authentic studies will be utilised, and practical tools outlined, to demonstrate how to bring these concepts to life within a constructivist framework.

The use of English Medium Instruction (EMI) for teaching content subjects has gained popularity worldwide. There has been a significant interest in exploring different aspects of research in the EMI context, focusing on language and content learning, teaching disciplinary language, evaluating the effectiveness of EMI implementation at various educational levels, and investigating the perspectives of teachers, students, policymakers, and other stakeholders regarding the use of English for instruction. Within this complex landscape, researchers come from diverse backgrounds and orientations. The use of English as a medium of instruction and the exploration of teaching content subjects through English have garnered attention from researchers in various disciplines such as science, technology, mathematics, engineering, medicine, business, history, and sociology. In their recent publication, McKinley and Rose (2019) presented a comprehensive handbook on research methods in applied linguistics, covering the rapid changes in this field. They identify two main types of researchers in applied linguistics: “researcher-practitioners,” who focus on teaching and learning within language classrooms, and “educational psychologists,” who study the cognitive and psychological processes of language learning (2019, p. 1). These classifications are particularly relevant for EMI research, as they underscore the need for an interdisciplinary approach that can address the multifaceted nature of teaching and learning in EMI contexts. The diversity of research orientations represented by these classifications further emphasizes the imperative for a holistic approach to EMI research.