Narrative provides meaning and belonging in human lives because every human experience is a lived story, and a storied experience. Rooted in Dewey's thoughts on the past-present-future continuum of experience, Connelly and Clandinin define narrative inquiry as "the study of how humans make meaning of experience by endlessly telling and retelling stories about themselves that both refigure the past and create purpose in the future" (1988, p. 21). In the present paper, I first explore the meanings of early childhood education and depict the general background of early childhood education in Hong Kong. Then, by adopting Schwab's (1973) four commonplaces of subject matter, learner, milieu and teacher as a curriculum framework, I examine curriculum issues in kindergarten with illustrations of my experienced stories about the teaching of an in-service kindergarten teacher in Hong Kong. Finally, based on Schwab's four curriculum commonplaces, I analyze the Reform Proposals for the Education System in Hong Kong as published in September 2000 by the Hong Kong Education Commission with special emphasis on early childhood education and pre-primary teacher education in Hong Kong for the new millennium.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443022000022431 ]

This paper reports data from a study of children's experiences of transition to school in Hong Kong. Hong Kong research into transition to school has been limited to investigation of curriculum issues and teaching practices by the Education Department (1993), a comparative study of skills preschool and primary school teachers believed children needed (Chow, 1993), and a recently released study on primary one students' transition problems in the Shatin area (Chan et al., 1999). In the present study, Hong Kong parents, primary school teachers and children expressed their views on difficulties in transition to school. Two types of primary schools were chosen for the sample: two with preschools attached and two which served neighbourhood preschools. Children and primary teachers were interviewed twice, once in mid October, in the initial "settling in" phase, and again in mid June the following year, at the end of the school year, while parents were surveyed in mid-October. In general, difficulties of "settling in" were overcome at the end of the first or second month. Nearly all children preferred studying in the primary schools during the first interview. However, the second interview revealed that some children wished to go back to the kindergartens where they claimed they had no pressure for examination and study. The results showed that pedagogical discontinuity is a major issue of difficulties in school transition in Hong Kong. The findings echoed those from the Chan et al. (1999) study on the adjustment of primary one pupils in Shatin.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443022000022440 ]

This qualitative study involving 30 teachers, followed by a survey of 895 teachers, investigated Hong Kong teachers' perception of a whole-school approach to guidance and its practice. Findings revealed that teachers perceived a whole-school approach as fostering student development and as a system of management. Teacher dedication, communication, and team spirit were considered as facilitating factors for its implementation. Findings also revealed an overall mismatch between teachers' beliefs about a whole-school approach and their perceived school reality, and that a wholeschool approach was not seen as practised in the majority of schools. There was a close relationship between schools' guidance focus and their implementation of a whole-school approach. Schools implementing a whole-school approach were considered to have both a preventive and developmental guidance focus and practice. Implications for the implementation of guidance are discussed.
[Copyright of British Journal of Guidance & Counselling is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/030698880220106528]

The aim of the present study was to test the hypotheses that parents' academic expectations, their perception of children's cognitive ability, and their degree of involvement at home and school would predict children's academic achievement, and that there would be important differences in this achievement as a consequence of differences in culture. A sample of 158 parents of students from three primary schools (two Chinese and one of Anglo-Celtic origin) in Hong Kong participated in this study. The three groups of parents differed in terms of both culture and socio-economic status. Parents completed a questionnaire about their perceptions of their children's memory ability, their involvement in their children's activities, and expected and satisfactory scores for their children's achievement in mathematics and language. Unstandardised achievement scores in mathematics and language were obtained from school records. Parents' expected scores in these two subjects were found to be the consistent predictors of achievement for all children. Parental belief in children's episodic memory and involvement at school were predictors of language achievement in one school.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410601104130]

The University of Hong Kong collaborated with the Fudan University in Shanghai to offer a Master of Social Service Management (MSSM) part-time degree for students in Shanghai. While most courses of the program were taught by instructors sent from Hong Kong and other overseas countries on weekends and holidays, the "Information and Communication Technology in Social Service Organizations" course was offered online and supplemented by several face-to-face sessions. Instructors in Texas and Hong Kong collaborated and offered the course to the students in Shanghai. Teaching and learning online was a completely new experience for the students. Technical, social, cultural, and linguistic issues arose throughout the four months during which the course was offered. This paper shares the teaching experience and reflection of the instructors as well as the learning outcome and evaluation of the students.
[Copyright of Journal of Technology in Human Services is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J017v23n01_08 ]

The 'Teaching and Learning Quality Process Review' (TLQPR) recently completed in Hong Kong had an emphasis on education quality work. This paper analyses how, from the perspective of academic staff in one university in Hong Kong, the good intentions embedded in that idea are enhanced or subverted by the broader 'quality system' setting in which staff operate. A 'critical incident' survey suggested that useful changes would involve the following. First, focus on a 'lean' philosophy and an associated examination of the extent to which (essentially administrative) system requirements are 'adding value' to the fundamental aims of achieving quality in teaching and learning outcomes. Second, build adaptability into the system by giving staff the maximum flexibility to translate a minimal set of overall requirements into activities. Third, tolerate staff and groups who 'break rules' in rational and well-intended ways to optimise intended outcomes. Fourth, develop a culture of trust between staff and management.
[Copyright of Quality in Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13538320500074899]