This article discusses how a newly established senior secondary school in Hong Kong tried to actively engage students in the school decision-making process. It first explains how democratization could come about, the actual measures adopted, and the initial success achieved. Then the article proceeds to explain how challenges, such as conflicting interests of the students and tension between students and the administration, surfaced when the school became more established, grew in size, took in more students, moved into a bigger campus, and subsequently needed to face the public examinations. In conclusion, the article discusses changes in school governance that could be helpful in meeting the challenges. Institutionalising student participation, such as forming a student council, is discussed together with other useful changes. It is hoped that this article can be useful to people interested in the democratization of school governance, and the impact on school democratization of such factors as institutionalisation and increasing school size.
[Copyright © 2010 Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration & Management (CCEAM).]

In Hong Kong, the new Senior Secondary curriculum was introduced at Secondary 4 level in September 2009. The curriculum documents emphasize that textbooks not only provide the core elements of learning in the subjects but should also be designed to develop students’ critical and creative thinking and other generic skills through the information and activities they provide. In addition, textbooks should provide a ‘one-stop shop’ of teaching materials so as to help teachers plan the scope and sequence of their lessons. As teachers still rely on textbooks as an important source of information to support their teaching, all textbooks for Senior Secondary Education have been rewritten for the new curriculum. In this paper, the author presents a case study which aimed to develop a framework for designing a new set of Senior Secondary Information and Communication Technology (ICT) textbooks for use by Hong Kong students. In the study, the author conducted a documentary analysis of textbooks pertaining to the previous version of the curriculum, and interviewed experienced teachers, both in order to examine the design strategies for the new textbooks. The paper also discusses how supplementary teaching materials can be used to support learning, teaching and assessment.
[Copyright © 2011 Common Ground, Yiu Chi Lai, All Rights Reserved.]

The view that autonomy is a multidimensional construct which may change depending on contexts and time calls for more empirical studies to understand its long term development across contexts (Benson, 2001, 2007). This paper presents the results of a longitudinal study documenting the autonomous development of four student-teachers' long journey of learning English and learning to teach English as a foreign language in Hong Kong. Data collected from lesson observations, reflective journals, informal chats, portfolios and semi-structured interviews were analysed. A theoretical model of studentteachers' autonomous development was suggested. Implications were also made for teacher educators who are promoting teacher autonomy in their student-teachers. First of all, as learner autonomy and teacher autonomy are interdependent, teacher education programs should incorporate practices that promote autonomy in the learners. Secondly, as contextual factors are important in facilitating the success of field experience, collaborative forms of institute-school partnership should be established because it helps set a platform where various parties have clearly defined roles and responsibilities in structuring challenge and support to meet student-teachers' needs. In conclusion, if teacher autonomy is seen as a desirable goal to be achieved, student-teachers should be provided certain kinds of support in order to succeed.

The consultation document,"Quality School Education: Ways to Improve Performance," issued in 1996 by the Task Group on School Quality and School Funding, reveals certain assumptions about school quality that merit further analysis. The document is analyzed by identifying these assumptions and comparing them to the recommendations of W. Edwards Deming, a seminal figure in the global quality movement. The report is underpinned by ideas about goals and targets, the association of school funding with performance, competition, and recasting roles and redrawing relationships among various figures and elements found in Hong Kong schools and related organizations. From the Deming perspective, implementation of the ideas in the Task Group document will fail to improve the quality of education in Hong Kong. It is more likely, rather, that their implementation will result in a lower level of quality.

Mentoring dates back to Greek mythology with reference to the sharing of wisdom of knowledge and experience. In Hong Kong, mentorship has been a hallmark of the professional development of the teacher-librarians. Following a literature review on mentoring in librarianship, this paper provides an overview highlighting the mentorship development among teacher-librarians in Hong Kong. A discussion on how mentorship shaped the preparation of teacher-librarians leads to an analysis of four issues: (1) a formalized mentoring framework; (2) a systematical approach to observe and assess the impact; (3) training to enhance the competency of teacher-librarians; and (4) re-thinking the commitment to evidence-based practice. While there are complex issues facing the teacher-librarian profession, the author invites the teacher-training institutes to explore their role and participation in facilitating the advancement of teacher-librarianship in Hong Kong which is a pivotal component to nurture information-literate learners for the purpose of knowledge building.

Currently, there are rigorous school-improvement interventions which have one goal in commonVthe improvement of instruction and student learning in schools. New system of accountability expects schools to produce specific improvements in a self-assessment and evaluation basis. A mechanism of school planning prioritizing and reporting is in place to ensure that the focus is on activities directly related to student achievement and improvement strategies. However, normative structures inside schools, such as the privacy of classroom practice and the culture of teaching are often determining factors not only in the implementation of policy, but, more importantly, in the school's overall effectiveness in fostering children's learning. It will be of concern to develop teachers to generate and focus attention on information relevant to teaching and learning, motivate individuals and schools to use that information and expend effort to improve practice, and build the knowledge base necessary for interpreting and applying new information to improve practice. This study aims to explore the views and practices of school improvement among pre-school teachers in Hong Kong, and to examine emergent visions and innovations adopted in practices in the process of school-based self-assessment. Of particular interest is a close-up study of the context in which teachers are expected to learn, and the impact of school support incentives on teachers' work in delivering high quality ECE. A combined quantitative and qualitative methodology will be applied, and the researchers and participants will work collaboratively over 30 months to collect data on school improvement. This action research process will involve 4 cycles of data collection and analysis; the focus of the enquiry will be the strategic plans and activities undertaken by ten schools in implementing self-assessment and school improvement plans.

學校文化，簡而言之，是指學校的信念、價值觀、辦事的方式和同事間相處的形態。校長作為領導，自然有需要掌握或營造有利於教學素質提升的學校文化。學校文化的塑造，除關乎學校本身之外，外在的環境和教育政策對學校文化的建立也很重要，本文藉介紹香港學校文化與校長角色的互動和轉變，希望加深翁源縣校長對領導和學校文化的掌握和了解。
[Copyright © 2009 翁源縣科技教育局.]