Adopting a case study approach with multiple data sources, this paper explores the ways in which rapport is built, and its impact on the learning process based on five successive writing support consultations between a native English-speaking (NES) tutor and her second language (L2) tutee in a Hong Kong university. With reference to the prepared coding categories, six strategies that realize the four key elements of rapport management were identified, namely greetings, small talk, the use of qualifiers and mitigation devices, first-person plural pronouns, praises and expressions of empathy, and open-ended questions. These strategies symbolized association, addressed face work and emotional reactions, and encouraged equity in the directive and tutor dominance writing consultations. Motivated by the harmonious relationship, the tutee gradually took a more active role in learning in different ways by asking questions, expressing an opposite view, admitting inadequate knowledge, reflecting on cognitive processes, and initiating small talk. The implicit impact was further reflected in her improved self-rating and the completion of the five consultations. Pedagogical recommendations for tutor training are made.
[Copyright of Language and Education is the property of Taylor & Francis. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2015.1038275]

Despite its rapid expansion in many countries around the world, private tutoring has attracted only limited attention from policy makers and researchers. This is especially surprising in the case of Asia, where high rates of private tuition have been reported. In particular, comparatively few studies have considered the views of the individual stakeholders in private tuition; students, parents, teachers, and tutors. This study addresses this research gap by using in-depth interviews to provide detailed descriptions of the challenges one group of private tutors in Hong Kong confronted as they positioned themselves within the teaching profession. The findings expose and problematize discourses which establish a rigid division between educators providing private tutoring and those in mainstream schools and constrain the capacity of the former to construct their preferred professional identities. It is argued that educational authorities should respond to the growth in private tutoring in ways that overcome the antagonisms that such division can imply for professional relations between educators in private tutoring and those in mainstream schools.
[Copyright © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.]

本文藉著一項「創意教師獎勵計劃」來描述及探討香港小學教師在「創意教學」上的教學理念。作者參照Kainan (1995) 的敘事報告分析法與及Cropley (1997) 的六層創造階段，發現香港小學創意教師的表現，跟高效能教師的特質吻合。他們的創造過程符合Cropley 的理論架構，其等勇於創新的態度亦令人欽佩；可是這些被推薦的創意作品袛一面倒地偏向「兒童為本」的取向。此外，這些老師均認為整個創造過程都需要教師的自願及積極參與；本自工作環境的推動力，只可稍作幫忙而未足以成事。本文末部提出偏頗的教學取向，淺薄的教師資歷及欠理想的工作情境是妨礙香港小學創意教學的主要原因。幸好近年在香港的教育改革已開始為創意教學帶來新的希望和路向。以下是本文的行文大網：1. 引言；2. 「創意教學」之創造過程；3. 討論；4. 前景和希望；5. 結語；6. 參考文獻。

This study compares the development and placement of teacher education within the tertiary education in Japan and Hong Kong. Historically both places initiated formal teacher education separate from university training as part of binary systems, and later moved teacher training into the university secotr. Both places retain mono-technical teacher training institutions along side teacher training within comprehensive universities. Both societies are involved in major educational reforms in order to respond to the economic challenges of globalization and current social ills attributed to shortcomings in the educational system. These reforms are closely linked to improving the quality (knowledge, skills and attitudes) of teachers. At the same time, demographic realities have significantly lowered the demand for teachers in both societies, and both governments are under pressure to reduce the scope of teacher education programs, primarily through institutional consolidation. Research on mergers indicates that these processes are more costly than usually expected, and may not result in the economy and efficiency that often drives the process to begin with. This paper concludes that is important to initiate merger processes with care, and not to sacrifice other important goals (such as innovative approaches to the production of high quality teachers) in the course of consolidation.

The findings presented here are derived from a subset of data from a larger study, the Global Concerns Study (GCS). GCS was a two-year study (1999-2001) that addressed the following question: What do pre-servi ce and in -service social studies teachers in Hong Kong, southern China, and Minnesota consider to be the most important citizenship and environmental issues that need to be addressed in the 21st century? This paper reports and compares survey results from the two Chinese samples., reporting on what a sample of educators in the nearby but politically and economically separate cities of Hong Kong and Guangzhou think are the ideal characteristics of future citizens. With the historical events that divide the two cities, the author finds different emphases, but also a common tendency in both places to emphasizes the less political and controversial elements of citizenship education. Despite some ambiguities, the findings of this study are consistent with other findings of a tendency in both Hong Kong and China to prioritise the non-political dimensions of citizenship education. There is enough congruence in the findings for the two samples to suggest that there are strong common cultural themes that overcome radically different historical experience in the past 150 years. At the same time there is enough evidence of difference in emphasis to suggest that even with cities in such close proximity these historical and social forces have had some impact. Whether this evidence of future divergence or convergence, or perhaps a combination of both, it is too early to say.