Qualitative evaluation of a positive youth development course in a university setting in Hong Kong

Abstract

Qualitative evaluation was carried out to understand the perceptions of the students taking a course entitled “Tomorrow’s Leaders” at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Based on the reflections of 189 students, results showed that most informants used positive descriptors to describe the course. When the informants were invited to name a metaphor that could stand for the course, the related metaphors were basically positive in nature. Intra- and inter-rater reliability analyses revealed that the coding of the positive or negative nature of the responses was reliable. The present study provides qualitative evaluation findings supporting the effectiveness of this course in promoting holistic development in Chinese university students in Hong Kong.