Following the world trend of inclusion in education, many schools in Hong Kong have started including students with special needs in the regular classrooms. Given the unique educational context of Hong Kong as 'East meets West', and given that inclusion is essentially a concept from the West, this paper argues that Hong Kong's integration has its unique hybrid features. This paper reports the experience of one primary school in the process of change in areas of stages of integration, leadership and whole school approach, during a two-year implementation period. Change processes at the school, classroom and individual levels are discussed. A case study methodology is used so that unique characteristics of the school in its naturalistic settings can be captured. Data were obtained from observation, documentary analysis, individual and group interviews of different school stakeholders: the principals, parents, teachers, resource teachers, and guidance personnel. Implications of findings to schools in Hong Kong and other countries facing similar issue in parallel and mixed cultural settings are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Inclusive Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1360311042000299766]

This case study aims to discover how journal writing promotes critical reflectivity over time. Six non-native pre-service teachers of English as a Second Language (TESL) in an undergraduate program in Hong Kong took part in a 12-month study from the time they took Internship, which entailed a 2-week placement, to the time they completed Practice Teaching, which entailed a 3-week placement. Before the commencement of the Internship program and after the completion of the Practice Teaching course, the teachers were assigned to write about successful English teachers, understanding and expectations of teaching English in the context of local secondary schools. During the five weeks of teaching practicum, the teachers made daily journal entries freely on any topics they wanted. All entries were coded for topics and reflective traits, and further analyzed for changes in content. Results show that while most reflective traits in the free journal entries were located in the area of evaluating teaching, those in the assigned entries concentrated on theories of teaching. Post-coding interviews were held to allow the teachers to verify the codings and interpretations. Discussion in the interviews cross-validated the findings that the six teachers wrote reflectively and that they became more reflective towards the end of the courses, indicating less simplicity in their understanding of the multitude of issues of teaching. Such findings suggest that journal writing as a coursework assignment in pre-service teacher education program fosters teachers' critical reflectivity over time and promotes understanding of the nature, theories, and praxis of teaching.
[Copyright of Reflective Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1462394032000082268]

Noting that the advancement of computer and information technology has generated tremendous impacts on school education, the author tries to examine the curriculum on "learning about computer" and on "learning through computer" through a comprehensive framework.

The name "CRUCIAL" refers to the Center for Resources and Understanding of Cross-curricular Instruction and Learning. The authors report that the project was launched because it was thought that Cross-curricular Education was urgently needed for present-day education in Hong Kong. It was found that school teachers' perception of CRUCIAL and the use of learning technologies in classrooms were very positive.

In this paper, the feedback about teachers' perception of the "Center for Resources and Understanding of Cross-curricular Instruction and Learning" (CRUCIAL) from about 150 students was analyzed and described by the authors, who point out that the principle was to use computer networking to support curriculum enhancement, resource sharing, and access to remote databases and to improve local education from primary to secondary level.