On July 1, 1997, the hand-over ceremony ended 155 years' British colonial rule and marked the beginning of resumption of China's sovereignty over Hong Kong. The implementation of the "one country, two systems" began. Did allegiance and sense of belonging of the people of Hong Kong readjust to match the political transfer ? What does the identity of 'citizen under "one country, two systems'" mean to the people of Hong Kong, especially the student teachers珦culptors of the mind of tomorrow ? This paper is the report of a two-year longitudinal study of student teachers' conceptions of citizenship under the "one country, two systems". Two surveys were conducted in the Hong Kong Institute of Education, one in Dec. 1997 and another in Nov. 1998. The samples were the Certificate of Education (secondary) student teachers who had at least one Social Science subject as their elective subjects. The instruments were two more or less identical questionnaires. In this report, comparison between the 1997 and the 1998 surveys was made. It aimed at revealing the evolution of student teachers' conceptions of citizenship after the transfer of sovereignty; agents that helped to shape such conceptions and student teachers' opinions related to Civic Education curriculum development. Implication on the development of Civic Education in Hong Kong was discussed and suggestion made.

This study is an investigation in using action research and the VMS (Valuable-MuddiestSuggestion) method to improve the teaching and learning of a new General Education course for Early Childhood Education student-teachers. According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1992), to do action research is to plan, act, observe and reflect in continuous cycles with more careful, more systematic, and more rigorous way. Based on research evidence, self-assessment is asserted by some to be an essential skill for effective learning and lifelong learning, and this skill should be developed in university courses (Black & William, 1998; Boud, 1995; Cowan, 1998). VMS method is used to engender dual self-assessment of students and teachers in the course. Participants were undergraduate students enrolling in a Bachelor programme at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The VMS method is designed to record students’ responses in each lesson on their “valuable (V) learning experience in the lesson”, “the muddiest (M) point in the lesson” as well as “suggestions (S) for improvement”. Records of their valuable learning (V), their muddiest point (M), and their suggestions (S) can be assessed and analyzed by the students themselves and the teacher to explore the learning experience of the students as well as the content and pedagogy of the lesson. The results of the study is encouraging. The action research cycles with dual self-assessment give valuable hints and insights to the students for self-directed learning to clarify their muddiest point and to the teacher for self-assessment and reflection on content and pedagogy of teaching.

Understanding student teachers’ development of conceptions of teaching and learning is critical for teacher educators. Drawing from the findings of a four-year longitudinal study in Hong Kong, this paper examines the trajectories of the student teachers’ changing conceptions of teaching and learning approaches throughout their undergraduate programme. Three types of trajectories: guided touring, experiential detouring and self-guided touring, as the changes in both conceptions of teaching and learning approaches, are presented. The results suggest that three factors: faculty, learners’ attitudes towards learning and ability to integrate different learning resources, influenced the development of the student teachers’ trajectories. This study adds to the international body of knowledge on the interconnected development of conceptions of teaching and learning approaches. The paper concludes with the implications for teacher education.
[Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis.]

This study examines the relationship between affective, normative, and continuance commitment of teachers to their profession and their organization, and turnover intentions. Hong Kong teachers (N = 1060) from religious and non-religious, English medium and Chinese medium of instruction, and band 1 and band 2 schools participated. Teachers from religious schools were higher in affective commitment to organization while teachers from non-religious schools were higher in normative commitment to profession. Teachers from EMI and band 1 schools were higher in affective and normative commitments while teachers from CMI and band 2 schools were higher in turnover intentions.
[Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.]

This study tested how collaboration, as a component of school capacity and a potential mediator, affect the relationship between principal leadership and teacher professional learning in Hong Kong primary schools. To investigate teacher perceptions of principal leadership and school capacity, two questionnaires were combined to use. The online survey was administered with a sample of 970 teachers from 32 primary schools. The orthodox regression based dour-step causal approach (Baron & Kenny, 1986) integrated with the bootstrapping method, was adopted for mediating analysis, with the composite score of principal leadership as the predictor. Upon the affirmation of the presence of the mediating effects, significance and strength were further assessed. This study stepped further to test the overall effect of the seven core areas of principal leadership, as independent predictors, on teacher professional leaning via the possible mediating effects of collaboration. The findings affirmed that, collaboration did play a mediating role between the relationship of principal leadership and teacher professional learning in Hong Kong primary schools.

The pre-school sector in Singapore and Hong Kong (both British colonies in the past) have traditionally been regulated by two different government organizations : kindergartens come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education(MOE)/Education Bureau (EB) while child care centres are regulated by Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS)/Social Welfare Department (SWD) respectively. Such a system is not unusual in the international landscape of early child care and education (ECCE) where "education" and "care" are seen as separate and hence, regulated by different government agencies. This paper will trace the historical development of teacher education and development in both the former British colonies. However, the focus of the paper will be on recent initiatives which will be discussed within the context of recent policy changes spearheaded by a Steering Committee on Preschool Education (SCPE) in the late 1990s in Singapore, resulting in outcomes such as the establishment of a Preschool Qualification Accreditation Committee (PQAC) and the development of a recommended curriculum framework Nurturing Early Learners (2003). Parallel developments in Hong Kong could be traced within the context of developments leading to a comprehensive education reform that has impacted on early childhood education as well, with similar outcomes, such as the development of A Guide to Pre-primary Curriculum (1996), subsequently revised in 2006. Another important Hong Kong initiative - the Preschool Education Voucher Scheme - deserves mention. These recent initiatives have resulted in a movement towards enhancing teacher quality and professional development. The question remains: Are these initiatives sustainable?

This paper examines teachers' quality teaching in the dynamic and contingent classroom setting through classroom anecdotes obtained during the author's most recent research project in Hong Kong. It raises the research question of how we should interpret the meaning of 'quality teacher'. Experiential stories of unexpected/contingent classroom moments have been obtained through teacher/student interviews and writing exercises (three schools with 20 teachers and 200 students participated), and interpreted using the technique of hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry. Emerged themes from the analysis show that quality teaching is creative and risk-taking; it is relational, embodied and normative, and culturally constructed. Quality should not be confused with qualifications. While people tend to understand quality teaching in the language of management and technology, this paper reminds us that we need to seek a broader understanding. Nonetheless, rather than finding new answers or solutions, this paper intends to raise more questions and allow reader to reflect further on this lasting topic of quality teaching and teacher qualities.