Development of a positive youth development subject in a university context in Hong Kong

Abstract

A survey of the literature shows that there are worrying developmental issues among university students in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, universal adolescent prevention and positive youth development programs specifi cally designed for university students are grossly lacking in Hong Kong. With reference to the positive youth development approach, it is argued that promotion of intrapersonal competencies and interpersonal relationship skills among university students is an important strategy to facilitate holistic development and well-being of young people in Hong Kong. At The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a course entitled " Tomorrow ' s Leaders " focusing on positive youth development constructs to promote student well-being will be offered on a compulsory basis starting from the 2012/13 academic year under the new undergraduate curriculum structure. This paper outlines the objectives, intended learning outcomes, syllabus, assessment and references of the subject.

Do university students change after taking a subject on leadership and intrapersonal development?

“…Findings of the present study add to the previous results by showing the beneficial effects of a leadership course on promoting the holistic development among the firstyear Hong Kong college students [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. The results of the current study showed that participants scored higher in several composite and subscale measures over the course of the semester.…”

“…This subject attempts to help students develop their intra-and interpersonal qualities through understanding the concepts and qualities of effective leadership and acquiring self-reflection skills in their daily lives. To meet the general university requirements (GURs), all full-time students admitted to the 4-year undergraduate curriculum are required to take a 3-credit course satisfying the area of leadership and intrapersonal development [16].…”

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) .…”

Evaluation of a subject on leadership and intrapersonal development: views of the students based on qualitative evaluation

“…Third, process evaluation findings showed that the implementation quality was good and program adherence was high. Fourth, different qualitative evaluation methods suggest that the subject was beneficial to the development of the students taking this subject [13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”