Ever since Physical Education (PE) became one of electives in the Teacher Education (TE) programme in 1947, it has gradually developed from a practical and professional oriented subject to a theoretical and academic based discipline in the tertiary institutes in Hong Kong. This paper described the 'selected' historical incidents of the development of PETE in Hong Kong. PETE becomes hegemonic towards scientific bias, health-dominated, technocratic and utilitarian-oriented nowadays. It creates tensions of dichotomised issues between PE and sports science; PE and medical science; theoretical and pedagogical orientation; research and practical basis; scholarly and professional discipline; and technocratic and inquiry focus etc. Its development illustrates the differences in directions, status, functions and practices. It intents to identify problems of the present practices and initiate discussion on alternative directions of the PETE in the coming future.
[Copyright of Journal of Physical Education & Recreation (Hong Kong) is the property of Hong Kong Baptist University.]

At the turn of the 21st century, the governments of Hong Kong and Taiwan initiated curriculum reforms, which aimed to expand children's arts experience, develop their generic skills and connect their knowledge in and through the arts. In Taiwan, the arts curriculum adopts an integrated design while in Hong Kong, it adopts an integrative learning approach that connects not only the arts, but also other Key Learning Areas. Working with tertiary institutions, the Taiwanese Government has provided an advisory group and other resources to prepare teachers for an integrated arts curriculum. Although the Hong Kong Government co-organised projects with tertiary institutions and the community, and commissioned a professional development course for primary school teachers, secondary school teachers seemed to be neglected. This paper compares official curriculum frameworks and their implementation, primary textbooks and teacher preparation among the two programmes. Many challenges are identified, and recommendations, such as increased collaboration among stakeholders and research on various integration approaches, are offered. It is hoped that these recommendations will help the successful implementation of the integrative /integrated arts curriculum in both places, as well as other parts of the world.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal for Arts Education is the property of Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

This study modeled the associations between extrinsic demographic factors and children's speech acquisition in Hong Kong Cantonese. The speech of 937 Cantonese-speaking children aged 2; 4 to 6; 7 in Hong Kong was assessed using a standardized speech test. Demographic information regarding household income, paternal education, maternal education, presence of siblings and having a domestic helper as the main caregiver was collected via parent questionnaires. After controlling for age and sex, higher maternal education and higher household income were significantly associated with better speech skills; however, these variables explained a negligible amount of variance. Paternal education, number of siblings and having a foreign domestic helper did not associate with a child's speech acquisition. Extrinsic factors only exerted minimal influence on children's speech acquisition. A large amount of unexplained variance in speech ability still warrants further research.
[Copyright of Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics is the property of Informa Healthcare. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/02699206.2013.763385]

Background: Schools present venues for physical activity promotion among youth, with physical education (PE) considered the primary vehicle responsible for increasing activity levels. Yet students are not very physically active during typical school PE classes. With the aim to engage Hong Kong students in more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during PE, a fitness infusion intervention using rope skipping was designed, and its effectiveness will be examined. Rope skipping was chosen because a) it provides moderate-to-high intensity physical activity; b) is inexpensive; c) students find it enjoyable; and d) is feasible in typical environments in Hong Kong, where PE classes are large in size (up to 40 students) and space available for physical activity is usually limited. Methods/Design: A matched-pair cluster randomized controlled trial was designed. Secondary school students from 24 classes (from 12 schools) will be recruited to participate in the trial. Students' baseline MVPA will be measured during school PE. Classes will be matched according to baseline variables and one class from each pair will be randomized into the experimental group. Teachers in the experimental group will be invited to attend a teacher workshop, and will insert a 15-minute rope skipping activity in four consecutive PE lessons. Motivational factors based on self-determination theory will also be measured as secondary outcomes. The effectiveness of the intervention will be evaluated by comparing changes in the proportion of lesson time spent in MVPA from baseline to follow-up across the experimental and control groups. Discussion: Physical activity levels in PE are often very low and there is a need to identify feasible low-cost interventions that can be easily disseminated. If the results of the study suggest the intervention to be effective, it could be implemented to schools throughout Hong Kong and other cities where space is limited.
[Copyright of Bmc Public Health is the