In the transitional period, there has been a general concern among Hong Kong people that out young citizens are not adequately prepared for the reunification of Hong Kong with China. They demanded a more effective civic education programme in both primary and secondary schools. There are different modes of implementation of civic education in the Hong Kong secondary schools. In the formal curriculum, civic education is mainly carried out through the subjects of Social Studies or Economics and Public Affairs. This paper identifies teachers' competence as a major factor which determines the effectiveness of the civic education programme and evaluates the competence of pre-service secondary Social Studies teachers in implementing civic education through the teaching of the subject of Social Studies. The research project mainly adopted a quantitative method. Through the instrument of questionnaires, student teachers were required to conduct self-evaluation of their competence in implementing civic education in secondary schools. At the same time, this instrument is supplemented by a semi-structured group interview on the student teachers' understanding and perception of civic education. The findings show that final year student teachers of Social Studies are, in general, not well equipped in both knowledge and skills in implementing civic education in secondary schools. The findings are thoroughly analyzed and their implications for teacher education discussed.

In the post-industrial phase, changes are so rapid that Alvin Toffler fore-told the phenomenon of 'future shock'. Satellite communication & computers changed the world into a global village. (Toffler, Alvin. 1970)(Naisbitt, John. 1982) Apart from experiencing the above, we, living in this international city of Hong Kong, are also experiencing political change and other subsequent changes as a result of the return of sovereignty to PRC in 1997. Amid such changes, there is the urgent need to reshape education & to restructure schools so that our education will be able ot prepare future citizens to withstand the future shock. (Sadker, Myra pollack. 1991) However, to the teachers who are in the fore-front of education, what are their value orientations like? Are they ready for the adoption of a more national & more global perspective? This research is a pilot study in which Rockeah' s questionaire on values, which had already been translated & used in previous surveys by Dr. Lau Sing, was adopted as the instrument. The questionaires were distributed to and completed by full-time and part-time students of HKIEd, full-time B. Ed. students of HKU, practising teachers of 4 primary and 4 secondary schools. Datas were analysed and implications discussed.

Physical Education (PE) has been implemented in Hong Kong as a primary as well as a secondary school subject in the past few decades. It is, thus, very natural to see student teachers of PE bearing attributes that are shaped by the existing PE system. At present, quality of PE programmes varies largely across schools. Secondary school graduates are very different in their physical fitness, sport competence, and life style. In spite of this, it makes sense to expect student teachers of PE to be active, confident, and capable in exercise and sport performance. However, this can hardly be the case, given the constraints put forth by the academic-oriented admission procedures of teacher education programmes. In this study, 213 student teachers of primary PE from the Hong Kong Institute of Education were investigated. The study assessed physical self-concepts of year 1 and year 2/3 student teachers of primary physical education. Implications of the findings were discussed and recommendations for improving existing PE teacher education programme were made.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

There has been wide recognition of the need for teacher education in environmental education (e.g. UNESCO, 1980). Recently, UNESCO has even referred to teacher education as "the priority of priorities" in environmental education (UNESCO-UNEP, 1990). This is argued on the basis that "the key to successful environmental education is the classroom teacher. If teachers do not have the knowledge, skills and commitment to environmentalize their curriculum, it is unlikely that environmentally literate students will be produced." (Wilke, 1985). In support of this, Tilbury (1992) and Fien (1993) argued that environmental education within pre-service teacher education, which aimed at improving environmental educational competencies of teachers, was critical. The present study is unique in being the first conducted with the HKIEd teacher trainees (pre-service and in-service) to gather and analyze relevant data related to environmental education. In this regard, this study aims to scrutinize (i) the environmental worldviews, (ii) the environmental dispositions, (iii) the perception on the urgency of major local and global issues, (iv) perception towards various environmental protection issues, (v) various aspects of green behavior, (vi) environmental knowledge and (vii) the related academic, gender and age background, of the teacher trainees of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The research method adopted is basically quantitative, in which a set of questionnaire is served as the measuring instrument to access the teacher trainees' environmental attitudes, environmental behavior and environmental knowledge. The major assessment tools adopted in this research include the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale (developed by Dunlap and VanLiere (1978)), the Environmental Response Inventory (ERI) scale (developed by George McKechnie(1974)) and the Urgency Index (UI) etc. After piloting, the finalized questionnaire was administered to the teacher trainees of the HKIEd in April to