The Positive Education Laboratory of the Department of Applied Social Sciences and the HK Character City Movement, a Hong Kong non-profit organisation, co-organised a forum on character education on 7 January, 2017. The opening of the forum, entitled ‘Edu Talk Positive Forum: Character Education and Way Ahead’, was officiated by Professor Xiaowei ZANG, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Professor LO Tit-wing, Head of the Department of Applied Social Sciences (SS) and Mrs Josephine LING, Director of HK Character City Movement.

The forum consisted of two sessions. The morning session was conducted by five speakers ranging from principals of primary schools and occupational therapists to an ex-professional basketball player-turned-coach, who shared their experiences in their respective fields and explained how these related to character education. In the afternoon session, a head coach and a founder of a kindergarten shared their experiences of character education. Three other speakers, Dr Sylvia KWOK, Associate Professor in SS, Dr Jimmy WONG, Director of the HK New Generation Cultural Association Science Innovation Centre and Mrs Gloria Chan, Principal of Kau Yan School, acted as panellists and discussed the trends and issues related to character education in a local context.

The programme was attended by an audience of around 300, the majority of whom were teachers and parents. The participants commented that they had gained invaluable insights and an understanding of character education, and they would try to apply the knowledge to their own, their students and their children’s lives.