Development and Evaluation of a Positive Youth Development Course for University Students in Hong Kong

Abstract

With higher education, university graduates are important elements of the labor force in knowledge-based economies. With reference to the mental health and developmental problems in university students, there is a need to review university's role in nurturing holistic development of students. Based on the positive youth development approach, it is argued that promoting intrapersonal competencies is an important strategy to facilitate holistic development of young people in Hong Kong. In The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a course entitled Tomorrow's Leader focusing on positive youth development constructs to promote student well-being will be offered on a compulsory basis starting from 2012/13 academic year under the new undergraduate curriculum structure. The proposed course was piloted in 2010/11 school year. Different evaluation strategies, including objective outcome evaluation, subjective outcome evaluation, process evaluation, and qualitative evaluation, are being carried out to evaluate the developed course. Preliminary evaluation findings based on the piloting experience in 2010/11 academic year are presented in this paper.

Promoting psychosocial competencies in university students: evaluation based on a one-group pre-test/post-test design

“…The present fi ndings are consistent with the evaluation fi ndings based on other evaluation strategies (28,29) . Utilizing subjective outcome evaluation fi ndings collected from 189 students taking this course, results showed that students generally had positive perceptions of the program and implementers, with over 90 % of the participants indicating that they were satisfi ed with the program and that the program was perceived as helpful to them in the domains of holistic development and leadership (30) .…”

Confucian virtues and Chinese adolescent development: a conceptual review

“…Li (18) has argued that the idea of "ren" has exerted huge influence on the interpersonal communication style in Chinese society, which emphasizes collective interests over individual efforts. This virtue is highly relevant to youth develop ment, especially since studies have shown that young people are rather egocentric nowadays (19).…”

Focus group evaluation of a positive youth development course in a university in Hong Kong

“…There are several research fi ndings suggesting that the subject can promote holistic development of the students (14,15) . First, objective outcome evaluation fi ndings based on a pre-test/post-test pre-experimental design showed that students showed improved holistic development and psychosocial competencies after taking the subject (16) .…”