Press Release

(Hong Kong – 16 January 2013) The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education (HKAGE)’s annual signature event – The Annual Hotung Lecture was presented at the Auditorium, 8/F, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Building, North Point this afternoon.

As one of the pacesetters in gifted education, the HKAGE is dedicated to serving the community and offers the highest standards of information support and appropriate learning opportunities for all stakeholders engaged in gifted education: students, teachers, parents and researchers. The HKAGE emphasises the importance of training for educators, to help themunderstand more about the needs of gifted students so that they can create a better learning environment for gifted students to maximise their potential.

Annual Hotung Lecture 2013, the education sector’s grand event, has provided a platform for a total of more than 400 school leaders, teachers and educational psychologists supporting high ability students or gifted students as well as parents to learn more from each other on best practice. The topic of this year’s lecture was “Gifted Education: East meets West in the Oriental Pearl”. Guest Speaker Dr. David Yun Dai, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Methodology at University at Albany, State University of New York, examined the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western perspectives on giftedness in terms of GE development, conceptualisation of giftedness, its definitions and identification, creativity and critical thinking skills cultivation, and the ways forward of GE. Dr. Dai’s speech provided insights into the ways to develop quality GE policy and practice in Hong Kong.

The Academy was honoured to have Mr. Eddie Ng Hak-kim, JP, SBS, Secretary for Education, to be the Guest of Honour and deliver the Opening Remarks at the Lecture. The presence of professors from universities and Board of Directors of the Academy added colour to the event. Dr. Stephen Tommis, the Executive Director of the Academy, delivered a welcome address and expressed his gratitude to all guests for their kind support. He also stressed the value of sharing information between the two hemispheres, east and west.

About Dr. David Yun Dai

Dr. David Yun Dai was a Fulbright scholar to China during 2008-2009, and the recipient of the Early Scholar Award in 2006 conferred by the National Association for Gifted Children. He is internationally known for his work on gifted education, talent development, and creativity. Dr. Dai’s most significant authored book in 2010, The Nature and Nurture of Giftedness: A New Framework for Understanding Gifted Education, helps gifted practitioners reexamine their conceptions and practice as well as serve as a standard reference in the gifted education field.

Appendix

Photo 1 Dr. Stephen Tommis, the Executive Director of the Academy, delivered a welcome address and expressed his gratitude to all guests for their support to the Lecture.	Photo 2 Dr. David Dai spoke about the history and conceptualisation of gifted education in the East and West with the educators.

Photo 3 The Academy was honoured to have Mr. Eddie Ng Hak-kim, JP, SBS, Secretary for Education, to grace the event and present a token of appreciation to Dr David Yun Dai.	Photo 4 Over 400 educators and parents joined the Annual Hotung Lecture 2013 to learn from a world-class expert.