Realizing the changing needs of Hong Kong special schools, the Department of Special Education of the Hong Kong Institute of Education included the elements of assistive technology and multimedia teaching in the module "Technology in Special Education" for in-service teachers in special education courses. Funded by a UGC Teaching Development Grant, the module teaching team started research and launched this project on using multimedia technology in special education. In the project, the Special Education Multimedia Teaching Resource Unit (SEMTRUP) was successfully set up in the Department in September, 1998. This paper will introduce the details of the project and illustrate how the teaching and learning quality is improved during the process.

As expectation on academic success is high from parents in Asian societies (Chen & Stevenson, 1989; White, 1993), moving towards inclusive practices in schools received great challenges. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study attempts to study the affective and social outcomes of students in a mainstream primary school in Hong Kong. The sample was 410 elementary students across Grade 3 to Grade 6 level. At the first stage, the academic self concept, teacher-student relationship, social integration, and negative affect were studied by the Assessment Program for Affective and Social Outcomes(APASO) (EMB, 2001). The second stage was interview with school teachers. The sample was studied according to class allocation system with which streaming was used and respective curriculum policy was applied. The findings show that the SEN (N=14) showed no significant difference from the typically developing students. However, students who were allocated in the upper bottom class who were not SEN, as well as the low academic achievers studied in the normal classes, shown to have poorer social and affective outcomes. These students revealed anxiety and tension in their academic study. The 21 low academic achievers who studied a normal curriculum in a normal class setting were identified as trouble makers who created disciplinary problems. The study informs that curriculum tailoring and small class setting (<10) worked well on students with a disability. Recommendations were made on what the school can do to assist students in their school life on both the academic study and psychological well-being.

The aim of the programme was to deliver a field-based mode of training for teachers in special schools and to set up a school cluster system for teachers to have a platform for an interactive exchange of ideas, resources, services, and expertise among different schools that mutually addressed the needs of children with special needs. During the training period, lectures, observation of demonstrations and cross-site visitations were held. From 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2009, a number of 12 school clusters were organized. Members in a school cluster included lecturers from the institute of education, specialist professionals of the supporting schools and teachers of participating schools. A total of four insittute lecturers and 26 school teachers participated in this programme as trainers. The number of trainees was 101. The responses from participants of supporting and participating schools were very positive. They believed that this mode could enhance the application of new teaching techniques into their own classroom or school settings.
[Copyright © 2010 The Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.]

In this article, the Erasmus Mundus programme in Special Education Needs, with the financial support from the European Commission, run in Europe from 2005-2010, is reported. The discussion will focus especially on the learning in the field of collaborative skills and attitudes that have occurred in the programme. With reference to the feedback of the participants, the features such as practices of internationalization, multicultural understanding, collaboration in learning and reflection in professional practice are significantly noted. In comparison, these insights may exert far-reaching impact to course planning of professional development in special needs at different levels in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2011 The Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.]

在香港的課室中， 有特殊學習需要的學生日見增多，照顧學生多樣性已成為教育界的重大挑戰。據家長及教師反映，不少有特殊學習需要的學生，學習數學時都遇上困難，其中包括混淆數學概念、不能準確執行計算程序等等。然而，目前一般學校均未能為這些學生提供適當的支援。在過去的十個月，筆者等嘗試從學校課堂、單獨面談及課後支援班三方面探討這些學生的需要，期望從數學專科的角度，解讀他們數學學習困難的成因，及尋找幫助他們的方法。本文總結觀察所得，大膽提出從教學、課程及行政三方面入手，幫助這些學生面對數學學習的方法。

Regular schools in Hong Kong are concerned about the growing enrolments of students with special educational needs (SEN) and how these students could be included in school guidance. Based upon the author’s nine-year personal experience of conducting courses on school guidance in the context of inclusive education at a key training institution in Hong Kong and research findings of a case study into teacher’s constructs of the inclusivity of school guidance (Hue ,2010) , three dimensions of teacher professional training for the inclusivity of school guidance are identified: developing inclusive counselling practices; developing inclusive strategies of behaviour management ; and dealing with the impacts of wider systems. This chapter gives insights into the professional needs of guidance teach-ers from regular schools and the promotion of the inclusivity of school guidance through teacher education.

The principle of educating students with special educational needs in the least restrictive settings renders a rapid growth of the population of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in ordinary schools in the last decade. This change has caused a concern to teachers in ordinary schools. To equip teachers in ordinary schools with the knowledge and skills in dealing with special edu-cational needs, different tiers of professional development programs have been developed. The problem is that these programs are mainly short-term and direct top-down transmission in nature. The lack of opportunity to try out the newly acquired knowledge and skills in real environments cannot give sufficient confi-dence to teachers to work with students with ASD independently. This chapter discusses the effectiveness of a current professional development (PD) program for teachers of students with ASD in Hong Kong SAR. A collaborative mode of PD is recommended that can assist teachers to gain hands-on experience in a field-based training program.