Enhancing teacher quality and reforming teacher education has attracted international attention. This chapter provides an overview of the book. It examines some of the international trends of teacher education and issues related to quality and change in teacher education. The book consists of three parts. The first part touches upon the contexts, status, and issues of quality in teacher education in the US, England, Australia and the Greater China region (China, Taiwan and Hong Kong SAR). The second part focuses on innovative and effective curriculum, teaching and assessment practices of teacher education. The final part discusses issues of managing change in teacher education.

In the Greater China region, there were unprecedented curriculum and teaching reforms around the early years of the new century which have stimulated teacher education institutions to echo changes. This chapter first examines the notion of “quality” of curriculum reforms and teacher education and their contexts of change in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan. Then innovative curriculum, teaching and assessment practices of teacher education are highlighted. Finally, several directions for the future development of pre-service and in-service teacher education in the Greater China region are proposed.

Teaching professionals are crucial for the successful realization of e-Learning in school education. Major Asian cities/regions such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Beijing continuously invest in teacher development on e-Learning to empower frontline teachers and school leaders to advance school education in the digital era. This article aims to review and discuss the activity contents, delivery approaches, and scaling-up methods of teacher development on e-Learning in these four major Asian cities/regions. There is a unique trend identified in each of the four major Asian cities/regions. Singapore focuses on professional peer-learning communities for supporting practice-based teacher development on the effective use of ICT for learning and teaching in the classroom. Hong Kong focuses on building teacher communities for observing, engaging, and reflecting and succeeding school-based e-Learning initiatives for student-centered learning. Taiwan focuses on offering university-supported teacher development on the effective integration of e-Learning into students' learning, especially for learning twenty-first century skills. Beijing focuses on promoting self-directed teacher development on the advancement of ICT infusion in classroom teaching, especially the ICT-supported innovative pedagogies for K-12. Implications are drawn in order to provide a point of reference for other cities/regions in tailoring the future provision of teacher development for e-Learning in the twenty-first century.
[Copyright © 2016 Beijing Normal University.]

This paper explores the changes in the higher education systems of Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China in terms of their ‘Chineseness' as a potentially unifying regional identity that can be counterposed to Westernisation. The recent and polyvalent theme of ‘Greater China' is invoked in this paper to describe and interpret the institutional frameworks, within which higher education is developing in this imaginary region, as well as to establish possible discursive linkages in the continuing transformation and strategic reorientation of higher education and its role in the recent economic, political and socio-cultural developments. In this regard, the interrelated discourses of Chineseness and Greater China have the following functions: they imply regionalism; they enable a break with their imperial and colonial past; and they provide the basis for different kinds of hybridisation between Chinese and Western intellectual, educational and cultural traditions and values.

This paper provides an overview of government policies and major challenges of refugee education in selected Western European and Asia-Pacific countries. The findings show that refugee education in Western European and Oceanic countries is in general better than East and Southeast Asian countries although many problems and challenges remain. Lastly, this paper also discusses the policy and practical implications of the findings on the improvement of education provision for refugee children in Hong Kong, an Asian international city and a special administrative region of China hosting to more than 10,000 asylum seekers, of which about 500 are school age children.

Sustainability is a world issue. Sustainability Education needs not be monopolized by the paradigm posited or tacitly assumed by the rational scientific approach to the environment. This Chapter aims to outline the logic and relevance of how sustainability could better be taught in school curriculums with the inclusion of principles from Laozi (The Book of Logo and Virtues), an influential ancient Chinese classic. We will first set in proper historical and philosophical perspective what teachings there are in Laozi. Its curriculum data and pedagogical coverage in the contemporary tertiary educational setting in Hong Kong will be examined. The authorial aim is to underpin the Logoist holistic and coherent perspective of Nature and Humanity. On the basis of these observations, advice on the use of Laozi for future Sustainability Education will be made. In a nutshell, Laozi - the philosopher - is not a national thinker. His thoughts have logic and values that transcend time and boundaries. His Logoist perspective, at the very least, provides a cogent and holistic counter-framework for the educational purposes of Value Clarification and of challenging the misconceived Human-Nature relations. This alone will be a great service to the world's tertiary education, facilitating mutual understanding across cultures.

本文闡述香港時下的幼兒教育所推行的兩種隸屬南轅北轍哲理的品德教育及其推行目的。香港自 2006 年推行教育改革以來，便以統整、非正規形式的品德教育配合以兒童為中心的課程而行。這種品德教育模式源於十六世紀往後的西方社會，它強調人際關係 道德的感覺、心理的需要、對道德的判斷及公民主義等﹔有別於這種教養孩童的品德教育模式，是東方社會建基於孔子及/或基督宗教的品德教育。本文會透過所搜集到的事例介紹本地幼教老師在推行品德教育時，如何將東方的哲理價值觀混入西方的理念而衍生在幼兒品德學習上的果效。

In recent years, the relationship between public housing and children's educational attainment has been a hotly debated topic in urban housing and education policy studies. Most studies on the subject have been based on experiences in western cities characterized by a diminishing and residualized public housing sector. It remains unknown whether the same mechanisms identified in the extant literature can be applied to make sense of the situation in alternative social and housing contexts. This study assesses the impact of public housing residence on the educational achievement of children in Hong Kong within a stable and resilient public housing sector. A propensity score matching estimation reveals that children aged 19–22 living in public housing are less likely to study for a degree in a local university and more likely to be not in employment, education or training than their private housing counterparts. Given the favorable physical and neighborhood environment characterizing public housing in Hong Kong, this negative relationship tends to suggest an account in connection with the restricted access to high-performing schools for public housing children. The paper challenges the perceived notion about the unambiguously positive social impact of public housing scheme in the context of Hong Kong. The case study points to the need for a place-specific analysis of the variegated mechanisms linking public housing with children's education. It highlights the practical implications for a closer integration of public housing and public school policies in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2016 The Author(s).]