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• Teaching
• Research
• Knowledge Trasnfer
• Administrative Services

Individual Award
(Research Excellence Award)

Professor Kevin CHUNG Kien-hoa
鍾杰華教授
Chair Professor, Department of Special Education and Counselling
/ Head of Department of Early Childhood Education

Professor Chung Kevin Kien Hoa has wide research interests in areas concerning developmental dyslexia and other learning disabilities, literacy acquisition, assessment and instruction, cognitive development, and the cognitive neuroscience of language.

As the Principal Investigator, Professor Chung secured five General Research Fund (GRF) and other external funding for a total of HK$57.39 million from the Research Grants Council (RGC), the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR), the Simon K. Y. Lee Foundation, and the Hong Kong Jockey Club in the past three years. The purpose of the funded projects was to examine four areas: (a) understanding the heterogeneity of cognitive and language difficulties in Chinese children and adolescents with dyslexia; (b) the social-emotional development of preschool children; (c) evidence-based professional development programs to support ethnic minority preschool children in learning Chinese; and (d) an evidence-based resource package to support preschool children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds in learning to read Chinese and English. Professor Chung is also the Co-Investigator of the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF), supported by the RGC, which was the first CRF awarded to the University.

Since 2015, Professor Chung has published 23 journal articles, four of which are ranked A*, 12 of which are ranked A, and three of which are ranked B; and five book chapters, four of which are ranked A.

Since 2014, Professor Chung has beenthe Head of the Department of Early Childhood Education and led the Department to excel in grant performance by receiving HK$62 million. In 2016, Professor Chung revamped the University’s Childhood Research Centre into the Centre for Child and Family Science (CCFS), and expanded the focus of work into conventional studies on child and family dynamics for the wellbeing of children, families and society.

Professor Chung has been actively involved in research mentorship. Presently, he is mentoring four graduate students and six young researchers in different departments in EdUHK and HKU. His mentorship has contributed to the University’s grooming of doctoral students into quality academics and talented young researchers into future leaders, resulting in a sustained increase in the number of research grants/projects and articles published in top-tier journals, as well as book chapters.