This paper reports on a study that explored how teachers interacted with groups of university students in learning the target form in a second language. Adopting a sociocultural approach, the data were based on microgenetic analysis of teacher and student discourse in a English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom at a university in Hong Kong, in which undergraduate students were given a rewriting task in teacher–student interaction. The analysis shows that scaffolding is supportive for language learning as appropriate assistance by both the teacher and peers at the right time with the proper focus can mediate learning. The teacher is reported to maintain student involvement in the task by trying to reinforce the comprehension of task demands, contextual meaning, and linguistic features in texts. The study addresses the teacher's and learners' indispensable roles in leading students to focus on the appropriate form and ensure correctness in linguistic production. The combination of appropriate expert and peer involvement in the discourse seems to provide the optimum form of interaction and, therefore, ensure the high quality of mediation in second language classroom.
[Copyright of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2011.626858]

The authors report on the development of a brief dyslexia screening measure based on revising the 65-item Hong Kong Behaviour Checklist of Specific Learning Difficulties in Reading and Writing. Teachers' ratings of 1063 primary students aged 614 years on the behaviour checklist provided data for its psychometric evaluation using traditional measurement and Rasch measurement model analyses. Rasch scaling suggested that the revised 36-item checklist could be regarded as a unidimensional scale that assesses global dyslexic dysfunction, and receiver operating characteristics analysis suggested that a score of 18 could be an optimal cut-off score when it is used as a dyslexia screening measure. The validity of this revised checklist was supported by its substantial and significant correlations with external measures of literacy and cognitive skills. Implications of the findings for the use of adaptive testing to provide an effective procedure for screening are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Disability, Development and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1034912X.2012.676437 ]

Research Findings: Western ideas and progressive pedagogies have been introduced to China (including Shenzhen), Hong Kong, and Singapore to replace traditional Chinese pedagogy. But these imported ideas are not congruent with traditional Chinese culture and thus have encountered resistance from Chinese teachers. The present study observed and analyzed 18 early childhood classrooms in the 3 localities and questioned the class teachers about their respective teaching practices to see how those ideas were actually turned into practice. Whole-class direct instruction was found to be the predominant Chinese pedagogical mode. This indicates that Chinese traditional pedagogy still dominated those Chinese preschool classrooms. Slight societal differences in classroom practice were also found, reflecting the spectrum of openness and Westernization of the 3 cities.
Practice or Policy: The findings suggest that people should adapt rather than adopt those pedagogical innovations developed in other sociocultural milieu, as different societies have different social, cultural, and educational traditions. Cultural appropriateness should be seriously considered when choosing the pedagogies to be adapted. Moreover, influences from the culture, language, teachers, parents, resources available, and the prevailing education system should also be taken into consideration when planning for pedagogical reforms.
[Copyright of Early Education & Development is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2010.536441]

Cross-cultural changes were accompanied by the sovereignty transition of Hong Kong during the TIMSS data collection, which triggered migration of intellectual families between Hong Kong and other places. To enhance comparability of the urban setting, this investigation focuses on Singapore and Hong Kong for having similar Chinese majority and colonial history. As both cities were reported having high student performance in science, student self-concept is articulated to examine its reciprocal relationship with science achievement under the context of non-monotonic population transition. The perspectives of comparative education have been gained through the cross-cultural understanding of empirical findings from the trend data analysis.
[Copyright of International Education Studies is the property of Canadian Center of Science and Education.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ies]

Background: Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore are the top five cities/countries with the cheapest fixed line broadband as proportion of monthly income. It is interesting to know that several decades ago, they were still among the list of developing nations, struggling for survival and relief. However, they are climbing to the top in ICT development now.
Aims: This paper reviews the ICT development in school education of Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore with respect to their social, geographical, and economic backgrounds. Johannessen's three orders of benchmarks are proposed for the comparison.
Method: Literature reviews on recent reports, research articles, books and internet data were used to understand the current situation of the ICT development in education for Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore.
Conclusion: It is clear that these three cities' determination and relative amount that had invested in the development of ICT in education were enormous when compared with the US investment. Among these three cities, the investment of Singapore has been much larger than the other two. Singapore's apparent leading in the development of ICT in education is not an accident, especially for the first benchmarks. For the second and third benchmarks, Macau lags behind Hong Kong and Singapore, this is partially due to Macau education system is comparatively much liberal than the other two.
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Association is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

This article mobilises story-telling to narrate the authors lived experience of teaching English as a minority academic in one Australian university. Positioning himself as living 'in- between' two cultures and as an 'Other', the author tells his story of how he has been 'racialised' and 'Othered' because he does not look White, and his spoken English is distinctly accented; hence, his legitimacy of teaching English is held suspect. The author's story contributes to the theorising of the sociology of the in-between with the argument that while living in-between culture can be a space of negativity, it can also be a space of empowerment if one exercises choice and agency by forging new spaces. The authors ends his story-telling with a happy ending by presenting a contrasting story of how his run-away from Australia to (a new space in) Hong Kong to teach English has reaffirmed his cultural capital as he morphed into a different 'Other'.
[Copyright of Discourse is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2012.666073]