Teachers may be one major agent in shaping students’ gender identities construction through schooling. This paper reports the rationale, development and evaluation of a “women studies modules” at the Hong Kong Institute of Education which uses teachers’ subjectivities and lived gender experiences in its conceptualization. Post-structural theory of fluid gender identity is used as conceptual framework. Evaluation of the module draws particularly on two cohorts (the 2004 and 2004 year groups). Data were obtained from student teachers’ personal reflections in their end-of-term paper as well as end-of-module open ended evaluation questions. Student teachers reported awareness of gender lived gender practices. Implications of this module to teaching education and gender equity education are discussed.
[Copyright © 2008 Nova Science Publishers.]

This study aimed to identify the four key dimensions of epistemic beliefs that concern the nature of knowledge and knowing and examine their relationship with cognitive constructs, study approaches, and academic performance among Hong Kong college students. A 14-item scale was developed in three studies with independent samples of Hong Kong college students (n = 250, 466, and 373, respectively). Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the hypothesized four-factor model of epistemic beliefs consisting of Certainty, Complexity, Source, and Justification. Results indicated that all four dimensions of epistemic beliefs were associated with Effort Regulation; students with more sophisticated epistemic beliefs were less likely to employ the Surface Approach; and epistemic beliefs predicted both coursework and examination performance, whereas both Surface and Deep Approaches did not. The present study supported a model of epistemic beliefs focusing on the nature of knowledge and knowing that pertains to Certainty, Complexity, Source, and Justification. Implications of the findings in relation to understanding epistemic beliefs in cross-cultural contexts are discussed.
[Copyright © 2014 De La Salle University.]

The formation of attitude towards gender roles begins at an early age and it is important for the education system to address the factors involved. Textbooks play an important role in local early childhood education settings. It is uncertain that the extent to which this issue has been addressed sufficiently. This paper discusses the depiction of gender roles in the thematic subject – Integrated Curriculum from Kindergartens 1 to 3. a questionnaire was distributed to 224 serving Kindergarten teachers attending the Certificate in Kindergarten Education Programme at the Hong Kong Institute of Education to determine the most commonly used publisher. A case study was employed to review the thematic textbooks published by the chosen publishers. Data collection methods included textbook content analysis and focused group teacher interviews. Implications and recommendations were made for kindergarten teachers, curriculum developers and teacher educators.

This paper attempts to describe recent development of home-school relations in Hong Kong. It is stressed in the Education Commission Report No. 7 that school authority should be in partners with parents to manage the schools. However, findings of the Study on Home-School Cooperation (ED, 1994) demonstrate that there are a lot of barriers in promoting parental involvement in schools. Thus, this paper also serves to introduce a school-based strategy for promoting home-school cooperation. Through examining and analysing the degree of parental involvement at each level in a school, suitable strategies will be developed to strengthen means of facilitating teachers to involve parents in the schooling process of the students.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Gender issues are some of the core concerns of policy, practice and provision in relation to education. There is a popular notion that boys are naughty while girls are good mannered in primary schools. In many studies, boys were found to engage in more rough-and tumble play and physical fighting than do girls (Thorne, 2002). It seems that it is more difficult for teachers to deal with boys than with girls. However, in the emerging literature, within girls, there are different types of emotional and behavioral problems, such as aggression, which is not unusual that teachers may face with. Research with empirical data on how teachers help girls with emotional and behavioral problems is spare. In order to understand more how teachers in training deal with the gender and the nature of students' problem, this study investigates the responses of pre-service teachers in helping students in a guidance training programme, which is a part of a pre-service new B.Ed. module. The study aims to make some suggestions for effective preparation of the pre-service teachers to play their guidance role in Hong Kong primary schools. In an attempt to explore how pre-service teachers developed their capacity in helping students with different gender and nature of problems, two scenarios were used. Case 1 was a by in a helpless situation (with emotional difficulties) while case 2 was an angry girl with aggressive behavior (with emotional and behavioural difficulties). Qualitative research approach in form of case study was used. The sample, 16 student teachers with some seemed to be very aware of, others largely ignorant about the guidance role of teacher were selected for in-depth interviews to chart their development in the training programme. Their responses for handling of two different cases of pupils' problems in the interview schedule were analyzed. The results of the study show that student teachers had developed their abilities in handling pupils' problems in terms of attitude towards