Dr Amelia Lee

About

Dr Amelia Lee’s research interests are in the fields of education policy, early childhood education, parent education and nature-based education.  

She has researched extensively on education vouchers, school choice and related education policies.  While assuming the Chair of the Curriculum Development Council’s committee, which serves to formulate the curriculum for all Hong Kong kindergartens, Dr Lee leveraged on her own expertise and that of leading researchers from around the globe to promote an evidence-based approach to education policy formulation that has significantly benefited the Hong Kong community. The Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide was launched in 2017.

As a core member of the Education Bureau’s Task Force on Home-school Co-operation and Parent Education, Dr Lee has drawn on her research and the latest academic findings in the field to propose to the Bureau a framework for planning parent education programmes in Hong Kong. The framework was cited in the Task Force’s report published in April 2019. She has been leading the Early Childhood and Elementary Education Division (ECEED) at the School of Continuing Education in conducting research on parent education, and providing school-based training to help the kindergarten community in Hong Kong keep abreast of the latest research findings in parent education. 

Dr Lee’s most recent research interest is in nature-based learning, an emerging global trend in early childhood education. During 2017 and 2018, she led the design and development of Hong Kong’s first two nature-based learning resource centres and related materials for kindergartens at the Hong Kong Wetland Park in Tin Shui Wai and the AFCD Lions Nature Education Centre in Sai Kung. She presented research into learning through play in a natural environment in Hong Kong at the Natural Start Alliance’s Nature-Based Early Learning Conference in 2019. The Natural Start Alliance conference is the United States’ largest annual gathering of nature-based early learning educators, researchers and advocates for bringing nature into young children’s care and education.

In 2020, Dr Lee co-authored a research report funded by the Quality Education Fund on Chinese traditional culture in early childhood education. In autumn 2020 she is organising and will chair a conference with the theme of meeting 21st century challenges and capacity building for early childhood researchers and practitioners.  The conference will have a strong focus on nature-based education. In addition, she is leading research on the self-perception of gifted students on their creative works. The research is a collaboration between ECEED and the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education. 

Achievements

Research Outputs

• Lee, Amelia & Carl Bagley. “School choice with education vouchers: an empirical case study from Hong Kong.” International Studies in Sociology of Education. 26 (1) (2016): 3-18. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/f7uGfCQsxuUU5KKgdGyb/full
• Task Force on Home School Co-operation and Parent Educationhttps://www.e-c.edu.hk/doc/en/publications_and_related_documents/education_reports/Report_TF%20on%20HSC_en.pdf
• Nature-Based Early Learning Conferencehttps://naturalstart.org/sites/default/files/staff/natural_start_program_2019.pdf
• Kindergarten Education Resource Centres https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/preprimary-kindergarten/free-quality-kg-edu/resourcecentres.htm
• Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guidehttps://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/major-level-of-edu/preprimary/ENG_KGECG_2017.pdf