Concerning the issue of taking up new roles for principals in School-based Management (SBM) in Hong Kong, I used a comparative approach in document analysis in the study. Countries chosen for comparison were Australia (Victoria), England & Wales, Singapore, and Hong Kong. They were comparable because they have similar configuration of education systems and they had SBM. Based on the discussion of G. M. Crow about the role conception that determines the enactment of a social role this dissertation adopted his framework for understanding role change. Here it argued that before taking up a new role there is a new context for the role occupant for his (her) new perception of the role he (she) has to consider assuming. Thus new contexts of different countries created by the implementation of SBM at the school level are compared through the framework of role conception content as which is under the influences of the interaction of policy elements of SBM, the profession of principalship, and the organizational factors.
From the comparison the new context of SBM in Hong Kong secondary schools for veteran principals could be projected for it is similar to other places although she has her uniqueness. Based on the comparison the four-facet of principalship (strategic leadership, organizational leadership, instructional leadership, and the culture ethics and law leadership) advocated by the policy in Hong Kong for role change was evaluated. It was concluded that it would not be optimistic about taking up these dimensions of new role for the veteran principals due to the new context created by SBM, except the organizational leadership, which might be enhanced. Any success of the new four-facet role taking is circumstantial, not directly related to the implementation of SBM.

This study is concerned with aspects of decentralization of curriculum development, a complex educational phenomenon, in Japan and Hong Kong. By introducing fieldwork and the case study research method, it hopes to yield a general understanding of the above phenomenon as reflected in the contexts of selected programs in curriculum reform, namely, (1) Project Learning and SBeD in Hong Kong, and (2) Integrated Learning in Japan, at junior levels of secondary school. In its research design, the objectives are to investigate and compare the broad trends and features in the rationale, practices and processes, and implications of reform in the locations studied. Trends of decentralization of curriculum development, in recent curriculum reforms in Japan and Hong Kong, indicated a strong policy interest in promoting specific essential skills and qualities through partial devolution of curricular control to schools. Most of these programs have multiple educational aims directed at either particular policy emphases or local school conditions, or both.
The practices and processes designed to bring about this change toward decentralization of curriculum development differed in the cases of Japan and Hong Kong. At the policy and system level, the levels of government involvement and commitment were not the same. Japan, through a combination of direct measures at the initiation stage and a longer-term policy of minimalist intervention, legitimized schools' autonomy over curriculum development decisions in the reformed programs, while Hong Kong, being traditionally less centralized and less effective with the power-coercive approach in curriculum planning, adopted more indirect strategies of exhortation and inducement while allowing schools full freedom over their own approach and priorities toward the specific reformed school curricula. In terms of school support systems, Japan seemed to be less prepared with the provision of practice guidelines, professional support and

This study investigates mathematics teaching in Hong Kong and Shanghai by considering the ways of handling Pythagoras' Theorem at eighth grade from the perspective of variation. It has three aims. Firstly, it attempts to identify the characteristics of the ways of handling the same topic in the two cities. Secondly, it tries to identify patterns of handling the topic in Hong Kong and Shanghai through making a comparison between different ways of handling the same topic. Thirdly, it seeks to interpret the findings from a cultural perspective and contribute to solving the paradox of Chinese mathematics teaching.
The Hong Kong data includes the following: eight videotaped lessons with the same topic of Pythagoras' Theorem and supplementary documents such as teachers' questionnaires, samples of text pages, worksheets, and other materials used in the lessons. All of the Hong Kong data were taken from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study Repeat Video Study. The Shanghai data consists of eleven videotaped lessons from different schools in which Pythagoras' Theorem was taught, with supplementary documents, matching those used in Hong Kong. Mainly based on the videotaped lessons and supplementary documents, the inter-and intra-city comparisons were made from the perspective of variation in order to identify the characteristics of the different ways of handling the same topic.
The following similarities have been observed: (1) the focuses and structures of the lessons are quite similar; (2) The teachers tend to emphasize exploration of the theorem; (3) the teachers seein to emphasize exercises with variation; and (4) the teachers control the classrooin activities but they still encourage students to engage well in the process of learning. However, some differences have also been identified. Firstly, the approaches to encouraging discovery of the theorem vary in that, the Hong Kong teachers prefer to employ physical manipulation while their Shanghai counterparts