Integration or inclusive education is a hot issue and a global trend. Different countries value the policy of integration or inclusive education through whole school approach but may be with different progress on the track. This essay intends to compare the education system of Finland and Hong Kong as any change in the general education system shapes the mechanism of and the provisions to the special education. The scholarly study of other education system will help us to get deeper understanding of our own system and so can work for its improvement (Bray, 2004). The approach of comparison will be adapted from Bereday’s Model for Undertaking Comparative Studies.
[Copyright © 2007 Canadian Center of Science and Education.]

The purpose of this study was to determine whether physical activity, percent body fat, and eating habits differ in subjects from two different regions, with different social cultural and racial background, but similar in education level. 257 Hong Kong college students (87 males and 170 females; all Chinese), and 213 Malaysian college students (101 males and 112 females; 210 Malays), aged between 18 to 25 year-old participated in this study. Physical activity and eating habits were evaluated by a self-completed questionnaire. Subjects' percent body fat was determined by a body fat monitor (Omron). It was found that Hong Kong subjects had significant (p<0.01) higher overall mean percent body fat (22.02 ± 5.23% versus 19.78 ± 6.83%, Mean ± SD), and were less active physically when compared to Malaysian students. However, Hong Kong subjects were more particular with breakfast, lunch and dinner compared to Malaysian subjects. Interestingly, Hong Kong students snacked frequently and indulged in fast food compared to Malaysian students. The data obtained suggest that both physical activity and eating habits have some influence on the percent body fat in subjects from these two different regions.
[Copyright © 2003 Verlag Karl Hofmann.]

Teacher efficacy has been shown to be an important variable predicting teachers' capacity to contribute to reform efforts. Given the role that future teachers are expected to play in educational reform, this research aimed to measure the teacher efficacy of samples of pre-service teachers in Hong Kong and Macao using the Chinese version of the 12-item Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (C-TSE). A cross-cultural perspective was important because it provided that opportunity to test the robustness of the instrument and to look at broader socio-cultural issues of teacher efficacy in two locations through the use of C-TSE. Sixty-six Hong Kong pre-service teachers and 66 Macao pre-service teachers participated in the study. In general, Hong Kong pre-service teachers were found to be more efficacious than the Macao cohort. However, the factor structures of the scale were not the same for the sub-samples. It is suggested that, on the one hand, programme characteristics and/or local cultures need to be considered when interpreting these results. On the other hand, the full 24-item scale, with more items that envisage and reflect particular classroom tasks and situations, could be useful to explore the dimensionality of pre-service teachers' sense of efficacy. This work contributes to an understanding of issues and problems relating to the measure of Chinese pre-service teachers' efficacy beliefs.
[Copyright © 2006 De La Salle University, Philippines.]

Physical activity has numerous positive and psychological benefits. Therefore, a physically active lifestyle benefits both the individual and the society. Nevertheless, many people drop out from their sport or exercise regimen. In this inquiry three motivational factors in exercise adherence, including predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors, were studied from a cross-cultural perspective. A total of 235 male (n=151) and female (n=84) volunteers (mean age=21.4 ± 2.6 years) from Hong Kong (n=112) and United Kingdom (n=123) completed an exercise habits inventory and the Physical Activity Adherence Questionnaire (PAAQ). All participants were physically active, of whom 132 have once quit a sport/exercise in the past whereas 103 never quit. Results revealed that differences exist in predisposing and enabling motivational components of exercise adherence in both cross-cultural and gender comparison studies. Participants who quit a sport or exercise report lesser reinforcing experiences than those who never abandoned an adopted sport or exercise. It is concluded that reinforcing factors play a crucial role in the long term maintenance of a sport or exercise and that both cultural and gender differences need to be taken into serious consideration in the course of facilitation of various exercise/sport behaviours.
[Copyright © 2003 Department of Physical Education, Hong Kong Baptist University.]

本文對香港與新加坡的大學服務學習課程取向特點展開比較。香港各大學之服務學習多由各大高校自主設計與發展，在服務學習課程的發展方面呈現出以下取向：與學術科目結合的學術型服務學習，培養學生道德與品格發展為主的服務學習計劃，以及通過服務活動培養學生的共通能力。新加坡地區服務學習主要由政府推動，在教育部提供指引下各個專上院校發展出多樣的服務學習課程，不過學術型服務學習較為少見，新加坡理工大學還為交換學生另設獎學金。文章繼而從解釋性視角探究這些特點如何折射出兩地政治、社會、文化、經濟等因素的影響，進而對課程比較的焦點與視角作討論。

Well aware of the growing importance of the public accountability movement, many governments in Asia have introduced different polices, strategies, and mechanisms to maintain quality in higher education. Along with the massification of higher education and the prominence of new public management among Asian nation states, evaluation, accreditation and audit have been frequently employed to determine whether educational services offered by universities have been up to certain level. In order to fulfill the responsibility of securing quality education within its jurisdiction, many Asian governments are beginning to impose relevant regulations and quality assurance measures. These moves have substantially reshaped and redefined the relationship and configuration between higher education sector and government. The emergence of quality assurance, as a regulatory instrument, are also concerned with the differentiated roles and responsibilities of all the players involved such as universities/colleges, national quality assurance systems, independent accreditation bodies, professional bodies, and regional international organizations. Moreover, the popularity of transnational higher education such as branch campuses and twining/dual program and the increasingly integrated higher education area in Asia with the facilitation of ASEAN, UMAP and AEARU not only create the needs of recognizing the qualification and degrees regionally but also pose serious governance challenges to each country domestically. It is against these wider contexts that this panel will pay special attention to the emerging issues of quality assurance in selected societies such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and China etc.. Also, it is imperative to examine the challenges that further regional integration and transnational collaboration may face in Asian countries with respect to quality assurance.