This longitudinal study (2001-09) of two Hong Kong secondary schools highlights six issues with an integrated arts curriculum: first, integration of knowledge and skills negatively precedes the integration of learners' construction of meaning; second, integration is perceived as challenging the profession's status; third, teachers are unaccustomed to co-teaching; fourth, teachers have little prior experience conceptualizing cross-discipline teaching and learning; fifth, Hong Kong's current systemwide education reform places arts integration as a relatively low priority; and sixth, because integrated arts curriculum implementation is not mandatory, the vagaries of individual school management create a plethora of integration approaches that confound the task of forging a common definition. Remedial recommendations include cascading "seed projects" to broaden teachers' views of integrated arts and teaching, facilitating supportive school timetabling, and sharing integrated learning outcomes in the individual schools.
[Copyright of Arts Education Policy Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2012.687339 ]

This study developed and validated an instrument, the Chinese Early Parental Involvement Scale (CEPIS), that can be widely used in both local and international contexts to assess Chinese parental involvement in early childhood education. The study was carried out in two stages: (1) focus group interviews were conducted with 41 teachers and 35 parents in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Teachers and parents were found to hold different perceptions of parental involvement. Responses further revealed that Chinese parents practiced more home-based involvement than preschool-based involvement, and that Chinese parents also have layers of responsibilities that limit their level of involvement in children's early development; (2) items of the CEPIS were developed using focus group responses. To validate the scale, 319 parents were asked to complete the new CEPIS. Results from principal-components factor analyses established that the resultant 26-item CEPIS consists of six parental involvement dimensions. Further analyses revealed that parental involvement differed as a function of parents' marital status and employment status. The major findings, implications and limitations of this research are discussed, together with directions for future research.
[Copyright of International Journal of Early Years Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2012.743099]

This study investigates the learning outcomes of 25 student teachers in an online video-based learning community (VBLC). The students were participants in the teaching method course of a core primary subject in the two-year part-time Postgraduate Diploma in Education at a teacher education institution in Hong Kong. During the study, the student teachers served as both video producers and community members. Data were drawn from the student teachers' written comments and feedback recorded in the VBLC and the post-course interviews. Based on Biggs and Collis's Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy, the majority of comments and feedback were classified as uni-structural, but more sophisticated responses could also be found. The interviews revealed that the student teachers benefited from the opportunities of peer interaction and self-reflection. The study thus makes suggestions for further improvement of the operation of the VBLC.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2012.669828]