Goal orientations and achievement among Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong

This study examined four goal orientations and their relationships to achievement among 1041 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. These students endorsed learning and social goals over performance‐approach and performance‐avoidance goals. The endorsement of learning goals emerged consistently as the significant predictor predicting achievement in academic, non‐academic, and social/leadership areas. Implications of the findings for coordinating different goal orientations for enhancing achievement in different areas are discussed.     

Depth psychology and giftedness: Bringing soul to the field of talent development and giftedness

While the field of gifted education has relied on educational, cognitive, counseling, behavioral, developmental, and social psychology, the domain of depth psychology offers special insights into giftedness, especially with regard to individuation. The notion of passion, or the thorn (J. S. Piirto, 1999, 2002), the incurable mad spot (F. C. Reynolds 1997, 2001), the acorn (J. Hillman, 1996, 1999), the daimon (C. G. Jung, 1965); the importance of integration through the arts and through dreams; the existence of the collective unconscious; the presence of archetypes; and the transcendent psyche—all have resonance with the binary etymological idea of “gift” as both blessing and poison. Depth psychology offers a way of understanding that is physical, psychological, and spiritual.     

Assessing and accessing high human potential: A brief history of giftedness and what it means to school psychologists

The history of giftedness pertains to historical changes regarding how giftedness is conceptualized and defined, and how it serves the practical purpose of identifying gifted children and providing them an appropriate education. The past century has witnessed debates and controversies about what constitutes this elusive human quality we deem “gifted.” Overall, it has undergone significant changes from monolithic, static to more pluralistic, dynamic conceptions. The first part of this article delineates historical changes in the past 100 years in our understanding of the nature and development of giftedness, followed by the second part on the changing ways we define, assess, and identify gifted children or gifted potential for intervention purposes. The final part of this article depicts a broad trend toward expanding gifted education to a wider range of students, with the understanding that gifts and talents are widely distributed in student populations, and the deliberate cultivation of human potential should not be confined to a selected few.     

新加坡、香港地区的比较教育与教师教育:基于时空转换的比较

本文评述杜祖贻教授1970年在首届世界比较教育大会论文集发表的论文.在加拿大渥太华举行的这次大会标志着目前拥有 42 个成员协会的世界比较教育学会联合会(WCCES)的诞生.第16届世界比较教育大会将于2016年8月在北京主办,由中国教育学会比较教育分会(CCES)承办.因此,这篇原载于香港比较教育学会(CESHK)2005年《比较教育简报》的论文得以重刊,可谓适逢其时.本文从时间和地域两个维度对新加坡与香港地区的比较教育及教师教育进行比较,力图解释对这两个地方不同时期教师教育进行比较研究带来的悖论.这些分析也许会激发包括中国大陆在内的世界其他国家和地区的有关讨论.     

Chance and talent development

The role of chance in talent development appears in the gifted education literature and also in lay discussions of high ability. Nevertheless, chance as a factor in talent development is frequently misunderstood. This analysis scrutinizes some common beliefs and scholarly perspectives on the effects of chance in the development of high ability, and reveals some shortcomings of these conceptions. In addition various research initiatives are proposed that can redress the current lack of empirical evidence to support or refute particular actions and theories of chance. These initiatives should include the development of a taxonomy of chance events and of quantitative measures of the impact of chance on talent development processes. Overall, such work should generate more accurate conceptions of this fascinating causal factor.     

Cultural identity in teaching across borders: mainland Chinese pre-service teachers in Hong Kong

This study explores transformations in the cultural identities of a group of pre-service teachers from mainland China during their educational experiences in Hong Kong, and how these transformations subsequently impact their professional identity. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted with 16 cross-border pre-service teachers from a teacher education institution. Findings demonstrate that 1) the participants recast their extant ideologies and cultural beliefs in response to multiple influences in their new context, enabling them to move beyond pre-established teaching values to re-construct their teaching identity; and 2) some participants constructed a bicultural and multilingual identity to gain legitimacy in the host context. The findings indicate that a more supportive context that provides more room for cultural awareness should be co-constructed by local and non-local pre-service teachers, institutions and policy makers. The study extends understanding of the interconnected relations between teacher identity and historical and social discourses.     

Choosing teaching in Hong Kong: a strategy to survive the financial crisis?

Background:?Hong Kong is currently a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. It has autonomy over many policy areas, including finance and education. It is a community of seven million people, which has changed its focus and identity significantly over the last 25 years, from predominantly manufacturing to a service and knowledge economy with particular strengths in financial services.

Purpose:?This paper will consider the market for teacher education places and the market for teachers, and explore the career intention and commitment implications of high numbers of well qualified applicants applying for teaching in the context of reduced work opportunities elsewhere, an increasing higher education focus on intake scores and the challenge, for the teaching profession and the education system, of teaching becoming less secure work.

Sources of evidence:?Governmental and institutional publications and data, along with research and survey findings, together with comparative literature underpin the reactions to past, present and possible future effects on teacher education in Hong Kong.

Main argument:?Given its financial focus, Hong Kong would be expected to suffer significantly during the recent financial crisis and that this would impact across all its sectors including Education and Teacher Education. In addition to the financial crisis, other changes have affected teacher education in Hong Kong, including major reforms in curriculum and school and higher education structure and a significantly diminished birth rate reducing posts in teaching, and raising concerns about job security.

Conclusions:?Hong Kong is a very prudently managed economy with substantial reserves and a commitment to ‘small government’ and the impact has been different from many other systems. Places on teacher education programmes remained unchanged. Applications for teacher education programmes however increased significantly during the crisis.     

Dimensions of teacher self‐efficacy among Chinese secondary school teachers in Hong Kong

This article reports the development of a teacher self‐efficacy scale that aims to accommodate the complexity of teacher functioning in secondary schools in times of education reforms in Hong Kong. The scale was designed to assess six domains of teacher self‐efficacy: teaching highly able learners, classroom management, guidance and counselling, student engagement, teaching to accommodate diversity, and teaching for enriched learning. The total scale and the six subscales were evaluated based on the responses of 159 Hong Kong Chinese prospective and in‐service teachers for internal consistency and construct validity, and for convergent and discriminant validation with external measures.     

Cultural challenges in Hong Kong to the implementation of effective general education

Hong Kong's higher education system is undergoing an enormous change. At great cost, higher education and the school systems that feed into it are moving from a three-year university system that favored early specialization within a discipline and very few conversations across disciplines to a four-year university system to be fully implemented with the beginning class of 2012. This move will provide a framework in which disciplinary study is grounded in broader knowledge that encourages self-directed learning, critical thinking, and an understanding of the role of individual in society. So what are the cultural challenges to attaining these far-reaching goals? This essay attempts to delineate some of them, make some comparisons to the US, and also present some suggestions for meeting the challenges.     

香港中文教育政策述评

香港特区政府以“两文三语”为目标的中文教育政策,是香港总体语言政策的构成部分,文章从推广普通话、推行母语教学、以普通话教授中文及推行简化字等方面对此进行了述评。     

Patterns of giftedness: A triarchic analysis

This article presents an analysis of patterns of giftedness based on the triarchic theory of intelligence. The analysis distinguishes among seven different patterns of giftedness, each involving a different combination of analytical, creative, and practical abilities. The seven patterns are the Analyzer, the Creator, the Practitioner, the Analytical Creator, the Analytical Practitioner, the Creative Practitioner, and the Consummate Balancer. Examples are given of each pattern and the strengths and weaknesses of each pattern are discussed.     

赖际熙与早期香港中文教育的发展

1912年9月香港大学成立,作为香港地区的最高学府,如何承担起发展中文教育的重任就成了摆在有识之士面前的严峻问题。恰当此时,身为前清进士的赖际熙受聘担任港大中文讲师,协助创办中文教学单位,并担任负责人直至1932年底退休。赖际熙任教20年间对港大及香港的中文教育发展作出了重要贡献。港大中文教学单位从无到有,由小组升格为学系,直至得到港商捐助兴建中文图书馆和教学办公大楼,师资队伍逐渐增强,都与赖氏的努力有直接的关系。许地山加盟港大后确定的港大中文系文、史、哲、翻译四大教学板块的结构,也是赖际熙主政期间创立的由文、史、哲、经学、翻译所组成的课程的进一步发展。赖际熙所推动的中文教育,尽管存在着偏重文言文和轻视新文化等种种不足,但开拓性贡献应予充分肯定。     

香港中学语文教学的成功元素探析

香港教育体系在中西文化的熏陶之下,已经形成了一个独特的颇具活力的体系。香港语文教育有以下几个方面的特点:包容性——博纳古今,中西交融;实用性——立足当下,放眼未来;生活化——创设情境,激趣启智;批判性——养学于思,意寓创新。这些都是值得内地学习、借鉴的地方。     

Community support programme: support for Chinese trans* students experiencing genderism

Abstract

Previous research on school experiences has often focused on lesbian and gay students. Far fewer studies have examined trans* students’ experiences, especially with respect to community support. And none of this work has addressed relevant issues in an East Asian Chinese cultural context, where transgender equality has been a hotly debated issue in recent years, and prejudice towards members of this ‘invisible’ population still persists. This paper highlights the school experiences of trans* students based on a literature review of international, regional and Hong Kong publications. A case study analysis of one Hong Kong community support programme is used as an example to highlight the important role that this kind of work can play in filling a gap left by the formal education sector. Findings suggest that, given the influence of genderism and deficiencies of in school environments, community support services provided by non-government organisations can play a significant role not only in raising public awareness, but also in filling education and service gaps for sexual and gender minority students.     

A Proposed Procedure for Suspension of Pupils

It is a reality of schools today that most teachers are overwhelmed by daily demands on their time and energy. In particular, they find it difficult to allocate enough extra time for purposes of counselling individual pupils with problems. Any arrangement that enables them to fulfil this counselling role quickly and effectively – and with positive results – would therefore be welcome. This paper reports a teacher’s application of a brief form of solution‐focused counselling with pupils attending a primary school in Hong Kong. The teacher’s personal reflections after using the approach support the view that this form of counselling can be effective with children of this age. The authors believe that teachers who use solution focused counselling in helping their students would benefit from clinical supervision of a reflecting team.     

内地香港语文教学之比较

香港因殖民地统治,形成了与内地完全不同的文化背景,"港式中文"就是这种文化背景的的产物。与内地相比,香港语文教学的理念不同,重工具性,轻人文性,强调创造性;语文课堂教学语言、教学文字不同,香港的课堂语言是粤语,使用繁体字;语文教学的课程目标不同,重在培养学生阅读、写作、聆听、说话和思维等语文能力,重在对学生自学能力的培养、对文化的认识。香港所使用的教材、采用的教学方法、考试范围等也与内地不同。香港的教师和学生与内地相比也表现出不同的特点。     

从“平等”的概念分析香港融合教育发展中的利与弊

在香港,无论是融合教育的前线工作人员,还是社会人士,对融合教育的发展情况都是褒贬不一。在此背景下,结合教育机会平等和个别差异认同中的平等概念,总结香港融合教育发展过程中的利与弊,无论是对香港融合教育的发展,或是其它地区融合教育的发展,都具有启迪意义。     

Is teacher education at risk? A tale of two cities – Hong Kong and Macau

Consequences of competition for global university rankings, such as changes in funding modes, have been extensively discussed in the field of higher education. However, few studies have reviewed its implications on knowledge production. This study provides a contextualised method for theorising the implications of this competition on the development of East Asian higher education, specifically teacher education. It identifies the new forms of knowledge being produced in two teacher education institutions in Hong Kong and Macau by reviewing the publications of new recruits in a five-year period. The study considers the following variables: author(s), date and form of publication, abstract, title, keywords, journal name, language, data source, research context and methods. The findings show that the dominant publication trends are towards quantitative research and multiple authors. Psychological research is the most popular area and studies of other long-term issues in teacher education are being marginalised.     

Training educators to support sexual minority students: views of Chinese teachers

Good quality teacher education and training has been acknowledged as an effective strategy to reduce sexual prejudice against sexual minority (lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning/queer [LGBQ]) students. However, no mandated programmes have been developed to include LGBQ-related content in teacher training in Hong Kong, a Chinese society in which heterosexism prevails. Based on the concepts of sexual prejudice, minority stress and contact theory, this paper explores the international and regional literature on LGBQ students’ school experiences, highlighting the significant role teachers play in supporting these students to transgress sexual prejudice, and presenting suggested themes and strategies for teacher training programmes, drawn from qualitative interviews with eleven Chinese teacher allies. Data analysis led to the identification of the following themes: 1) starting sexual diversity training officially; 2) reconsidering assumptions; 3) engaging with relevant cultural knowledge and skills; and 4) using dialogue as a training strategy. This paper argues that accurate content about sexual diversity should be incorporated into the professional teacher training curriculum, with updated sexuality concepts and prejudice-free, LGBQ-inclusive language relevant to the Chinese cultural context. Teachers need to become more aware of how sexual prejudice is manifested through cultural forces. Intergroup contact can be included as a useful training strategy.     

香港中小学教育公平的实践

入学机会在香港虽早已普及,但这并不代表香港中小学教育是公平的。为了检视香港教育公平的实践,本文回顾了香港回归后与教育公平有关的教育政策争议,从学童的性别、贫穷家庭子女、特殊学习需要学童、少数族裔学童、新来港与跨境学童等几方面剖析了香港中小学在教育公平方面的实施情况,并就探讨香港教育公平课题提出了进一步的建议。