Educational Research
The vision of the Educational Research program is to create an atmosphere that encourages educational research in school and therefore further enhance the quality of teaching and learning at The ISF Academy. The Academy also aims to foster scholarship and the pursuit of intellectual curiosity amongst teachers who then role model life-long learning. This program promotes The ISF Academy as a research institution in the way that it provides one-to-one support for any faculty conducting educational research, whether for graduate level theses and dissertations, requirements for obtaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), Action Research for internal purposes, or in conjunction with research projects from external institutions. Our strategic partnership with Fablearn and the Transformative Learning Technologies Lab also provides further support for educational research and publication.
All Tinkerers and Learning Technology Integrators conduct Action Research on their pilot projects that enable reflection on the added value of special programs, as well as reflection on teaching practices, learning environments, and broad school initiatives.
An internal Institutional Review Board (IRB) was established to ensure that all research involving human subjects is conducted in accordance with government, institutional, and ethical guidelines. The IRB review process is designed to protect the rights and welfare of the research participants through informed consent.
All faculty are encouraged to share their own projects during the annual Research Week that promotes a culture of scholarship within the school.
The Chinese Language Education Research Center
The ISF Academy has pioneered a unique approach to nurturing all-round and bilingual IB diploma graduates with a firm commitment to traditional Chinese culture. The Chinese Language Education Research Center of Shuyuan aims to explore the major issues related to Chinese language teaching in a bilingual environment, conduct studies under uniform planning and management, and seek solutions to problems associated with biliteracy and biculturalism. The educational research experiences and resources will also benefit the wider Chinese language education community.
The Chinese Language Education Research Center is an educational research platform that combines on-campus teaching and external research. The Center partners with top research institutes and scholars in examining education issues, publishing research outcomes and fostering academic exchange between mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Center is currently expanding a research project on early childhood literacy to the Secondary school. Research partners and participants of the Chinese Language Education Research Center include internationally-renowned research institutes, such as the Faculty of Education (TESL) of the University of Hong Kong, the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology of Hong Kong Baptist University and the Needham Research Institute.