The teaching practice is a crucial part of the teacher education program. During the field experience program, student-teachers put the theory learnt into practice, and acquire teaching experience in actual school settings. The quality of learning acquired largely depends on the quality of support provided by the Institute and the schools before and during the practice period. Dispoto's study stated that student-teachers experienced conflict and stress during their field experience. The strain to learn to teach may result in feelings of incompetence and lack of confidence, and may affect the attitude, behaviour and performance of the student-teachers. Besides support from the Institute, student-teachers also receive support from teachers (mentors) in the schools where they perform their practice. With reference to the expectations for mentors concluded by Grimmentt and Ratzlaff, mentors need some pre-requisite knowledge and skills, e.g. observation skills, up-dated knowledge on education theories, ability to undertake critical analysis of one's and other people' lesson in order to involving student-teachers in planing and evaluating learning experience, conferring and evaluating their development through regular observation and feedback. Since the establishment of the Hong Kong Institute of Education in 1994, a new form of teaching practice has been introduced in the 2-year full time primary teacher education program, namely the Co-operating Teacher Scheme (CTS). Co- operating teachers from schools are assigned to student-teachers and perform the functions of the mentors. In a local study student-teachers were found to have lowered the perception of their competence after the teaching practice. Our previous researches revealed that the co-operating teachers (CTs) would like to have more updated knowledge of education theories, teaching strategies, observation and communication skills so as to enhance the learning of the student-teachers. In order to improve the quality

This article describes the development and research process to support Hong Kong primary school pupils in constructing understanding of the motion of the Earth with integration of information technology in teaching and learning. The design of the research mainly addresses the call for further integration of information technology into the learning and teaching process as enshrined in the second Information Technology in Education strategy in Hong Kong, as well as to support teachers in the design of inquiry learning for the new General Studies lessons. A web-based learning unit is developed with consideration of inquiry learning and integrating IT in teaching and learning. Analysis of different ways of teaching with the web-based learning unit in primary classrooms is reported, and comparison of pre-lesson test and post-lesson test are conducted to study pupils' learning outcome.

The Education and Manpower Bureau of the Hong Kong Government has promoted 'Learning to Learn' as a crucial feature of student-centred curriculum and the educational reforms over the passed decade have been directed towards this goal. Recently, information literacy, described as: the ability to master the processes of becoming informed, was identified as the missing ingredient in the reform. Interest in information literacy grew out of a realization that the application of modern information and communication technology and related shifts in curriculum integration and a shift away from textbooks and examinations, was not sufficient to deliver learning to learn.

Interactive whiteboard (IWB) has been widely used as a learning tool in the western classrooms since 1991. Many researchers reported that the technology benefits students by increasing their engagement in classroom activities, arousing learners’ motivation and helping with their knowledge retention. Hong Kong, as a Chinese society has its unique learning culture and environment, what benefits western students may not apply there. It is therefore worthwhile to explore the usefulness of IWB in Hong Kong schools. This paper reports on the research of what benefits can bring to Hong Kong students through the teaching with IWB. Result of this study shows that in general teachers and students in Hong Kong welcome the use of IWB in their classrooms.
[Copyright © 2006 IOS Press.]

The Hong Kong Special Administration Region Government is promoting the use of Information Technology (IT) in education. A two-year IT-pilot scheme was launched among 10 primary and 10 secondary schools. This project aimed to study the planning and implementation of the pilot schools by adopting a case-study approach. Nine primary schools were studied. Data were collected via interviews, observations, and examinations of artefacts such as teaching plans, school web sites, and samples of students' work. A typical primary pilot school had two multimedia computer rooms, computer(s) in each classroom, and computers for teachers. All computers were connected to a LAN and the Internet. The findings of the study indicated that some formal school policies were emerging while the others were articulating. Some teachers accessed regularly to the IT facilities in their work especially for those schools provide individual portable computer and ceiling-mount digital projector in each classroom. Most students used computer once a week in computer awareness lessons. Most schools were planning to integrate IT to all primary curricular areas by developing or selecting courseware materials. Most schools were organising school-based training of developing teachers' competencies in using technology for teaching. Implications of these findings were discussed.

Though the notion of a mentor or cooperating teacher in initial teacher education has been implemented in other countries for many years (Haberman, 1971; Spillane & Levenson, 1976), it was first attempted in initial primary teacher education in Hong Kong only in 1994. The present study aims to investigate this new attempt by the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) to foster supporting relationships in teacher education. The paper focuses on the Cooperating Teacher Scheme (CTS) as a learning experience for student-teachers and the different roles of the school, cooperating teachers, and HKIEd lecturers. The study includes a quantitative component and a qualitative component. Eighty schools were selected randomly from a list of 130 schools participating in the Scheme in 1995-96. Four agents, viz. school heads, co-operating teachers, lecturers and student-teachers involved in the CTS were invited to complete a questionnaire and representatives from each category were interviewed. The findings consider student-teachers' learning as well as varying perceptions of the roles of the four agents in the scheme. Based on the findings, implications of the CTS in initial and further teacher education as well as the collaboration between schools and the Institute are drawn.
[Copyright © 1998 Routledge.]