This research studied how resource-based learning environment (RBLE) with multimedia resources facilitates students to develop understanding of "Hong Kong Economics". The study established an RBLE by creating authentic contexts, selecting appropriate resources and tools, and adopting necessary scaffolds. Three classes of students aged 11-12 were involved in learning of the different sub-topics in various approaches: a learner-centred approach with individual computer; a teacher-centred approach with one single teacher computer; and an interactive approach of group use of a computer. The analysis included video-taped lessons and interview responses, with a finding that deep learning is effected from a more learner-centred approach.

The Learning Centre (LC) Scheme is a collaborative project between the Education Manpower Bureau, a primary school, a secondary school, and the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) for facilitating the implementation of the recent education reform in various key learning areas. As a pilot stage of the LC Scheme, the primary LC works on the subject of General Studies and the secondary LC focuses on the subject of Junior Secondary Science. Both LCs achieve the aim of facilitating professional development in their respective key learning areas through a series of face-to-face teacher education workshops, school-based support service and the web-based Teacher Learning Community. The LC teachers need to take up the role of cascading good practices in curriculum and pedagogical changes through carrying out test-bed trial teaching in their own classes, facilitating other teachers' professional development in workshops and providing outreach school-based support. In carrying out these responsibilities, the LCs work with the HKIEd consultant Team which provides mentoring and consultancy services, and evaluates the project. The project is structured into three phases, to wit (I) preparation in leadership or teacher development understanding, (II) the implementation stage (including teacher professional development workshops, web-based development opportunities and school-based support) and (III) the evaluation stage. Using structured interviews, we identified the professional development that the LC teachers experienced in the first year of the project. The paper concludes with recommendations for future development of the LC Scheme in terms of ways and conditions to support LC teachers in realizing this meaningful mission.

This research project investigated the learning strategies of junior secondary students in Hong Kong ESL classrooms. A total of 132 Form One to Form Three students from 56 schools were studied, observed and interviewed: data were collected accordingly. Students were categorized into "successful" language learners and "unsuccessful" language learners according to their English language academic achievement. Data findings from this research showed that the "successful" language learners employ meta-cognitive strategies more frequently than the "unsuccessful" ones. They tended to plan, evaluate and reflect more on their approach to language learning and ways to improve their English. The two groups did not show a significant difference in group work mode of learning, yet, the "successful" language learners preferred to work on his / her own more. The level of father's education was found to be associated with the type of learning strategies used by students, however, gender did not seem to affect the choice of learning strategies. These findings have important implications for language teachers in helping their students develop effective language learning strategies.

Lesson Study' is an approach to improving teaching, with very good effects on learning outcomes in Japan. This systematic process, as implemented in Hong Kong, draws on Ference Marton's theory of variation in teaching/learning, and involves teacher collaboration in a cycle of 'research lessons' to continuously refine one lesson on a selected topic. The approach is potentially empowering for all participants, not only teachers, and is more 'bottom-up' than most other processes of curriculum change. This paper is a report of one Lesson Study across one year, in the English department of one English-medium secondary school. The paper describes the successes and failures of this process, with video evidence where appropriate. The paper then evaluates learning outcomes at several participant levels. Specifically, student outcomes were positive to a large extent, with one surprising deficit; and teacher/teacher educator outcomes exhibited considerable variation, posited as involving personal, cognitive and affective factors. The paper finally evaluates the suitability of the lesson study approach to language teaching, raising issues concerning alternative models of pedagogical grammar, for example, which might facilitate this potentially powerful tool for change.

Hong Kong children nowadays are undergoing rapid changes in their development. What they experience and encounter in their childhood has profound influence on the development of their behaviours and psychological state of the minds. In this critical period of development, school years, primary school education in particular, form a prominent portion of their childhood. According to Dewey, schools provide the formal environment for learning and for children to assimilate the ways adults think and behave. Research has shown that the school is an important agent of socialization of children (Lau, S., Siu, K.K. and Chik, P.Y., 1988). What children experience and enjoy in schools should henceforth deserve great attention in the community – the policy makers and administrators, curriculum developers, parents, school principals and teachers. Given this, the paper outlines the experience and reflection of the writer on her two week of teaching junior primary pupils. The arrangements are part of the Lecturers' Attachment Scheme jointly organized by the Hong Kong Institute of Education and its partner schools. The aim is to enhance lecturers' understanding of primary classroom teaching contexts and children learning needs. The writer attempted to find out how theory and practice work in the learning of primary children in school environment. A short questionnaire administered to the pupils she taught examines the kind of learning environment children like most. The information collected was useful to substantiate the qualitative interpretive reflection of the writer herself. Implications will also be discussed.
[Copyright © 2000 The Save the Children Fund (Hong Kong).]

The teacher's self as a crucial element for 'a more inclusive notion of professional development' has gained greater attention in the teacher education literature. Teacher development involves not only 'the nature of the knowledge of teaching' (epistemology), but also 'the nature of becoming and being a teacher (ontology) (Tickle, 2000:90). This paper attempts to seek a more coherent understanding of the notion of teacher's professional self and its relationship with professional learning. Based on the findings of 4 case studies of ESL teachers in the context of primary English classroom in Hong Kong, dispositional and affective factors are drawn to inform the notion of agency in professional learning. The paper first presents a review of the relevant literature to set the theoretical contexts. It then proceeds to report on the findings of the 4 case studies to provide empirical pictures of the issue. Based on an internal-external model of dispositions developed by Ritchhart (2002), the paper ends with a proposed framework of agency in professional learning. Implications and recommendations for teacher education to cater for various teacher agencies in learning will also be made.