Education for sustainability in primary schools in Hong Kong

This article is based on an investigation of the implementation of environmental education in Hong Kong primary schools using a questionnaire survey and case studies. It will be divided into three parts: one focusing on the gap between rhetoric and practice in environmental education in the questionnaire results; one highlighting curriculum organisation of environmental education through case studies; and one discussing the nature and content of environmental education in these case-study schools.     

The Hong Kong policy of quality education for all: a multi-level analysis of its impacts on newly arrived children

This paper attempts to argue that using market forces to raise education standards casts doubts to quality education, although this is seemingly an international trend, for such practice presents challenges to many issues such as equity. Using Hong Kong as a case, the paper analyses the practices of quality school education by focusing in particular on the difficulties that newly arrived children encounter. A multi-level framework is employed to critically examine the current government policy on quality education with reference to nine schools from five levels: individual student, institutional, government, societal and professional learning community. Discrepancies between policy goals and school practices are highlighted. The paper then addresses options for improvement and consideration if quality education is to be the hallmark of Hong Kong schooling.     

Affordability,accessibility, and accountability: Perceived impacts of the Pre-primary Education Vouchers in Hong Kong

Hong Kong launched the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) in 2007 to promote the “3A's” of early childhood education (ECE): affordability, accessibility, and accountability. The PEVS has three unique features: discriminating against profit kindergartens, promoting teacher professional development, and limiting parents’ choice to only non-profit schools. To understand the voucher scheme's perceived impacts, this study conducted stratified random sampling to include 10% of Hong Kong kindergartens and surveyed their parents, principals, and teachers. A total of 380 completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed, and the results indicated that (1) the majority of the respondents perceived positive impacts on the 3A's of ECE; (2) significant effects of stakeholders (parents, teachers and principals), school types (profit or non-profit), eligibility, and familiarity were found in between- and within-group comparisons; (3) the parents and especially those from non-profit/eligible kindergartens tended to perceive more positive impacts than others; and (4) the principals and teachers reported some implementation difficulties. Implications for voucher reform in others countries are discussed.     

Higher Education in Hong Kong

This article describes the extraordinary expansion of higher education in Hong Kong which took place from around the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. It considers the factors involved in this expansion with some reference to theories of policy development, and speculates on certain aspects of the situation after the 1997 handover to the People's Republic of China.     

Technical Education in Hong Kong

The present study explores the environmental attitudes (EA) of senior high school students in Turkey, explains which determinant factors affect these EAs, and concludes with some suggestions for curricular reform. This study includes over nine hundred students from different school types, neighbourhoods, geographical regions, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The researcher used two different questionnaires that were based on postmaterialist values: one based on the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) and the other developed by the researcher called the General Environmental Attitudes and Perceptions (GAP). The results of ANOVA and t‐tests show that EAs of students vary depending on school type, gender, parents' education levels, parents' political views, professions, and household income. Students at public high schools, females, lower middle class students, students with well educated parents in white‐collar professions, and students with liberal parents have more pro‐environmental attitudes than the others. Students from vocational schools, almost all of which are based on single‐sex education, have scored the lowest on both surveys.     

Church,State and Education: Catholic education in Hong Kong during the political transition

Roman Catholic schools represent an important sector in Hong Kong's education system, both in terms of number and historical significance. As in many colonies in other periods of history, the Roman Catholic Church, in addition to other Christian Churches, had a partnership relationship with the colonial government in the provision of education in Hong Kong. Was there any change in this relationship during the political transition to 1997? Did the prospective return of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China (PRC) affect Catholic educational policies? This article examines these two questions in relation to the experience of other places in the world and in relation to the special nature of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, namely its link with the Vatican and its relations with China where Church schools no longer exist.     

香港学前教育学券计划的理念、实施及作用

2006年，香港政府引入“教育学券制度”，加大对学前教育的投入，让香港地区符合条件的学龄前儿童都能够接受学前教育资助。本文介绍了香港“学前教育学券”计划，并对此计划中体现的教育公平、实施的管理规范、推进过程中对学前教育机构和教师的促进等进行了评析。     

Brief of Language education in Hong Kong

This paper discusses the current language education and issues in Hong Kong,The language apply maintain successfully the international and local identity needs in Hong Kong,both English and Cantonese are mainly in the different areas,meeting the different needs of various aspects of the mainstream language.Hong Kong was a multi-lingual region.English was the official language in more than one hundred years before Return;English enjoyed a dominant position in Hong Kong,where expression under the influence of English,Chinese and English code-switching is also very common.The Return of Hong Kong has a considerable influence to language phenomenon;greatly strengthen the importance of Mandarin.In this paper,from the Angle of social linguistics,this paper discusses the English position before and after Hong Kong's return to China,discussing economic,business,education,and other areas of the social development and changes of English status,and analyzes the Hong Kong residents for English,Cantonese and Mandarin language attitude.     

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。     

新加坡与香港地区教师教育比较

1970年,新加坡总理李光耀在香港大学年会上以"双城记"为题做了一场发人深省的演讲,除了讲述新加坡和香港地区所取得的相似成就与优势以外,还进一步做出预测,表示两地在未来将会取得更大的成功.在此基础上,笔者试图从一个更为广泛和更具批判性的视角进行深入分析,首先梳理出二者基本差异,进而再讨论是哪些特定的政治、文化和教育因素最终导致了二者的不同发展路径和成果.国际研究学者围绕同一主题共同创作了一篇具有独到见解的文章,这使得1970年发表的这篇文章在35年后又被重新提起.     

香港职业教育的特点及启示

香港职业教育具有和人才市场紧密相联、市场化的经营理念、行业化的资格确认体系、科学实际的教学方法和多样化的教育管理模式等特点,在政府角色定位、职业教育目标确定、资源配置方式、办学层次和教学内容等方面能给内地的职业教育发展以启示。     

Accelerated Schools for Quality Education: A Hong Kong Perspective

This article addresses the application of the Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) model in Hong Kong, as well as specific aspects of implementation in two schools. One lesson from the localized project, the Accelerated Schools for Quality Education (ASPQE), is that change is slow. This suggests that time should be given for both cultural change and building communities of inquiry, especially in cases where the staff may not be initially receptive of school reform models such as the Accelerated Schools Project. A second important lesson is that the commitment of the principal and a core group is critical for change.     

Nationalistic education as the focus for civics and citizenship education : The case of Hong Kong

Civic education has been assigned the mission of preparing critical thinking, responsible, participating, multidimensional citizens and is also used to serve the function of instilling a sense of national identity, loyalty to the nation state and patriotism In 1996, before the return of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, the Hong Kong Education Department published theGuidelines in Civic Education for School (1996), which includes education for democracy, human rights education, global education and nationalistic education This survey adopted an amalgamate framework of five types of nationalistic education to study the understanding of nationalistic education of civic educators in secondary schools in Hong Kong The initial findings showed that the civic educators were basically strongly eclectic in terms of education for cosmopolitan, civic, and cultural nationalism and moderately eclectic in terms of anti colonial nationalism but rejected education for totalitarian nationalism This eclectic understanding can be said to be heading towards a more liberal, rational, open and inclusive type of nationalistic education, which is compatible with a cosmopolitan and pluralistic society such as Hong Kong     

Distance Language Teacher Education: New challenges for Hong Kong

An urgent need for a relatively large number of qualified Putonghua language teachers in Hong Kong has led the Open University of Hong Kong to establish a distance education programme for in-service language teachers, most of whom are non-native speakers. The programme designed by the university involves distance study coupled with regular face-to-face tutorials, and is designed to enable the in-service teachers to apply their learned knowledge directly in their daily teaching. The article explains how evaluation of the first presentation of the course in 1996 showed that the course alone could not fully address the actual deficiencies in the teachers' Putonghua listening and speaking skills while, additionally, there was also a need to restructure the teaching methodology component of the course. The basis upon which these judgements were made is explained, and the steps taken to strengthen the course to meet these perceived deficiencies, while not adding to the students' workload, are outlined.     

Globalization or re-colonization: higher education reforms in Hong Kong

Over the past few decades, the process of globalization had unquestionably caused a paradigm shift in the philosophy of governance. The shift from the welfare state to competitive state has enabled the government to rollback as a service provider and to control the services rendered by various service providers by “steering at a distance”. With the emphasis given to accountability, effectiveness, efficiency and economy, the core elements of “New Public Management” or “corporate managerialism”, the public sector is now managed in line with such notions. Higher education, similar to other major public policies, is now governed by market ideologies and the corporate discourse of efficiency and effectiveness. This paper discusses the theme of “globalization or re-colonization” by examining how three major areas of higher education reforms in Hong Kong, namely, teaching, research and management, have been affected by the global tide of managerialism. It is argued that instead of being “hollowed out”, states will continue to respond to globalization in different ways that ensure their ability to govern the public service sectors like higher education. The authors believe that if we solely follow the global practices and ideologies without developing our own unique systems, we would be entering an era of “re-colonization”.     

Implementing media education in the Hong Kong secondary curriculum

The tremendous influence of today's mass media can hardly be matched by the sum of its works from the past. There are more sources of media, more types of information and entertainment, more interactive modes for consuming these messages of the mass media in a more interconnected global village available than ever before. Since many pupils spend much of their time on the media, the call for media education is urgent. This article first describes the aims and objectives of media education, then portrays the power of the media and how the education sectors have responded. Finally, it argues for the need to implement media education into the secondary curriculum in response to proposed curriculum reform in Hong Kong.     

Authentic school partnerships for enabling inclusive education in Hong Kong

Education reform towards a whole school approach to catering for diversity within Hong Kong government schools has seen the initiation of several strategies to support mainstream schools in this transition. One of these approaches is the use of a resource school model. Special and mainstream schools in Hong Kong are being invited to establish themselves as resource support hubs for partner mainstream schools. This paper investigates how this model is being implemented by considering one of each type of resource school. Three broad themes have emerged that relate to the type of support being offered and sought: the school ethos and culture of the partner schools; and management issues. The effectiveness of a resource model is evaluated for its use in Hong Kong.     

Student mentoring in higher education: Hong Kong Baptist University

There is a developing interest in mentoring in the educational system in Hong Kong, especially in higher education. Mentoring is looked at as a retention and enhancement strategy for undergraduate education. With the setting up of a mentoring system during the freshmen year, it is hoped that student retention can be increased and academic achievement can be promoted. The study aims to find out the current mentoring practices carried out at the Hong Kong Baptist University. Results are based upon quantitative data collected from 456 students and 79 faculty members engaging in the mentoring programme of the University Life Programme at the university in 1998. The author also conducted insight interviews into the student–mentor relationship and the problems encountered by mentors. The study focuses upon students' perspectives of an ‘effective’ mentor. The implications for resources are discussed as part of a review of the mentoring programme at the university.     

Media education in Hong Kong schools: possibilities and challenges

In Hong Kong, media education is not a new initiative. With the recent education reform, curricular space will undergo significant changes. Instead of having fixed subject boundaries, key learning areas will be introduced. As such, media education will find much more space for negotiating a place in the reformed curriculum. This study aims to look at how media education is implemented in schools in Hong Kong and the content and pedagogy of the media education curriculum against the background of education reforms.     

香港问题青少年教育的特色

2004年7月19至25日,应香港扶幼会的邀请,作者有机会参加“华南师范大学香港教育及文化考察团”赴香港对问题青少年教育情况进行实地考察和调查研究。作者在香港的7天考察和调研中,先后参观了香港扶幼会属下的则仁中心学校、许仲绳纪念学校、则仁中心和元洲宿舍等问题青少年教育机构。本文所说的问题青少年在香港则称为“适应有困难儿童”,是指与同龄儿童相比,常在家庭、学校或其它公众场合表现出不能适应、产生情绪困扰或行为问题的儿童。现对香港问题青少年教育的主要特色作一简要述评