Transition from home to kindergarten is the first and major ecological transition in children's educational lives in Hong Kong. In this transition, children cross a cultural boundary from home to kindergarten and start to learn about 'school' as a place to learn and about themselves as 'pupils' in kindergarten. The conceptual framework of this paper is developed from sociocultural theory and select literature on rites of passage and pupil career. Descriptive data were mainly collected from participant observations, semi-structured interviews, photovoice and review of documents. Utilising the conceptual framework, this paper describes and analyses the story of a three-year-old girl's playing and learning experiences, strategic actions and adaptation outcomes during the transition from home to kindergarten in Hong Kong. Her pattern of strategic actions fell into the dimensions of non-conformity, redefinition and adaptation, but most often fell into the dimension of non-conformity, that is, being independent with respect to formal school expectations. Her preferred strategic actions included watching, being slow to respond, ignoring, withdrawal, gentle refusal, operating in alternative ways, negotiating and following the practice and expectation of the class.
[Copyright of European Early Childhood Education Research Journal is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13502930802689095]

While assessment and its effects on learning such as 'washback' have been the subject of much debate (e.g. Alderson & Wall, 1993; Bachman, 1995: 356; Alderson & Hamp Lyons, 1996; Shohamy et al, 1996; Andrews et al, 2002), assessment as a tool for developmental, not merely evaluative, purposes has probably not received sufficient attention (e.g. Dickinson, 1996: 101; Gardner, 1999). Of interest to this study is a project by Dickinson (1996: 106) in which participants (tutors and learners) are shown to have benefited from a scheme of collaborative assessment.
[Copyright of Language Learning Journal is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09571730585200161]

Confronted with the rise of a new group within its organization, Small World, an international Christian kindergarten in Hong Kong, is being forced to reconsider its boundaries. The trend towards more applications to international schools by Hong Kong Chinese, adds an extra dimension to the already extensive cultural diversity among the kindergarten's staff, students and their parents. Describing the appreciation for cultural diversity amongst staff and parents, the strategies that are used to maintain harmony and the motives that (Hong Kong Chinese) parents have for participation in the school, it is argued that only one effect of globalization on the macro level can be identified on the micro and meso level, namely indigenization. The article shows how parents, staff and the organization all try to adopt attractive or useful elements of foreign cultures without giving up their own culture, and subsequently foster multiculturalism in an attempt to reach their goals, these being the cultural competence of their children for Hong Kong Chinese parents and success for the organization. The resulting demand for the incorporation of extra foreign elements in the curriculum is forcing Small World to reconsider its boundaries.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Business Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13602380500135901]

Hong Kong's 150 years of colonisation by the British is a classic example of how globalisation comes into direct contact with a local Chinese culture and creates cultural hybridities. The paper presents a framework for developing a hybrid guidance curriculum, drawing together western traditions of developmental contextualism in guidance and Chinese traditions of Confucian humanism in moral education. The core of the framework is a hybrid self, integrating the individualist and the embedded self. The paper highlights the importance of culture and context in considering school guidance and the 'fluid' and dynamic nature of 'glocalisation' working towards integration.
[Copyright of Globalisation, Societies & Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14767720500046344]

In most EFL settings, reading is seen as related to language subjects only. Students rarely read for pleasure; they think that reading is part of the textbook-related activity. With the implementation of an extensive reading scheme and school-based assessment, students in Hong Kong begin to see reading a little differently. This paper investigates the effectiveness of a new whole-school approach reading scheme in a Chinese school in Hong Kong. Students read at least 15 minutes every school day in either Chinese or English. Results of the questionnaires and the interviews, conducted for teachers and students, indicate that teachers and students see the role of reading differently. It concludes that junior level students who have less public examination pressure enjoy reading better than the senior students. The paper informs educators in non-Asian countries as well; they will know why students from Asia are reluctant to read. The implication is that when reading has not been formed as a habit, holding up a book will be considered just part of school work.
[Copyright of Asian EFL Journal is the property of Nanzan University.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/]

In student-evaluation research, there has been considerable debate on the number of higher order factors in student ratings of university teaching. Using a distance learning program as the context for research, the study described in this article applied structural equation modeling to investigate the 2nd-order factor structure in student ratings of teaching effectiveness. An a priori model was hypothesized, which consisted of four 1st-order factors and one 2nd-order factor. Data were collected from 2,021 distance students using a multifactor questionnaire. In contrast to all past studies, the presence of a single 2nd-order factor in student ratings was empirically demonstrated through hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis. Implications for future research on the higher order factor structure in student ratings of conventional on-campus courses are also discussed.
[Copyright of Structural Equation Modeling is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0703_5]

This paper focuses on the case discussion leadership of expatriate lecturers in two sections of an English-medium international business course in Hong Kong. As well as reviewing the videotapes, transcripts, and field notes of the discussions, interviews were held with the case leaders and a sampling of students to better understand the cross-cultural learning situation. Using a typology of questions adapted from Christensen (1991) and Long and Sato (1983), the lecturers' questions and student responses in the "Panda Furniture" and "Swatch" case discussions were coded and analyzed. The findings suggest certain strategies that case leaders can use to encourage active student participation (the "nails to stick up") in second language discussions involving a large number of Asian students.
[Copyright of Journal of Teaching in International Business is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J066v13n01_05]

Since the early 1990s, the pace of educational reform in Hong Kong has accelerated and broadened to incorporate almost all areas of schooling. The reforms introduced during this period can be subsumed under what has generally been labelled the quality movement. In this paper, we review and comment on a number of policy reform initiatives in the four areas of "Quality Education," English Language Benchmarking, Initial Teacher Training and the Integration of Pupils with Special Needs into Ordinary Classrooms. Following a brief description of each policy initiative, the reforms are discussed in terms of their consistency, coherence and cultural fit.
[Copyright of Education Policy Analysis Archives is the property of College of Education, Arizona State University.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/]

Previous research on the development of children's concept of distributive justice has shed little light on the child's ability to consider the characteristics of the recipients when making judgement of fair sharing. Previous research has shown that preschool children generally apply principles of equality when making decisions for fair sharing of materials, regardless of the characteristics of the recipients. The idea of equality refers to equal sharing of each individual person. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether preschool children would share toys equally across situations or on the basis of the characteristics of the recipients. The study also observed whether each member in a group would be counted as one unit for allocation across situations. A crucial piece of evidence for understanding children's concept of distributive justice is demonstrated by children's ability to view situations differently based on the characteristics of the recipients. These findings serve as a starting point to support the hypothesis that preschool children do take contextual information into account when making distributive justice decisions.
[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/10.1080/0300443022000022477]

The present study is an analysis of curriculum-related papers in primary education published by the education departments of New South Wales, Australia, and Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. The aim is to unravel and contrast the ideological positions adopted by the two communities in their approaches to first language education so that common-sense beliefs and practices may be challenged. Analysis shows that the Australian school discourse system exhibits characteristics of progressivism, utilitarianism and reconstructionism whereas the Chinese system in Hong Kong displays combined elements of European classical humanism and Confucianism. It appears that the Australian system prefers flexibility, free choice, individual autonomy, student-centredness, and exploratory spirit, whereas the latter inclines towards uniformity, orderliness, harmony, language-centredness and discipline. The Australian emphasis in language education is social, functional and communicative, while the Chinese focus is on formal correctness and integration of language, morality and aesthetics. These different ideological inclinations are suggestive of similar orientations at the societal level and affect the discourse practices at the situational level of the classroom.
[Copyright of Language and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500780208666832]