In the transitional period, there has been a general concern among Hong Kong people that out young citizens are not adequately prepared for the reunification of Hong Kong with China. They demanded a more effective civic education programme in both primary and secondary schools. There are different modes of implementation of civic education in the Hong Kong secondary schools. In the formal curriculum, civic education is mainly carried out through the subjects of Social Studies or Economics and Public Affairs. This paper identifies teachers' competence as a major factor which determines the effectiveness of the civic education programme and evaluates the competence of pre-service secondary Social Studies teachers in implementing civic education through the teaching of the subject of Social Studies. The research project mainly adopted a quantitative method. Through the instrument of questionnaires, student teachers were required to conduct self-evaluation of their competence in implementing civic education in secondary schools. At the same time, this instrument is supplemented by a semi-structured group interview on the student teachers' understanding and perception of civic education. The findings show that final year student teachers of Social Studies are, in general, not well equipped in both knowledge and skills in implementing civic education in secondary schools. The findings are thoroughly analyzed and their implications for teacher education discussed.

On June 30, 1997, the handover ceremony ended 155 years' of British colonial rule and marked the beginning of resumption of China's sovereignty over Hong Kong. However, did allegiance and sense of belonging of the people of Hong Kong drastically readjust to match the political transfer? What did the identity of 'citizen under "one country, two systems'" mean to the people of Hong Kong, especially the student-teachers sculptors of the mind of to-morrow? To match the political transition, Civic Education has been promoted in Hong Kong since the issuing of the First Guideline in 1986. Since that time, in the process of curriculum development in Civic Education, there has been a hot debate on whether the focus of Civic Education should be placed on democratic education or nationalistic education. This debate is bound to continue in the upcoming curriculum development and teaching in Civic Education. In this debate, what position did student-teachers take? In late 1996, it was decided that Civic Education should become an independent subject of study in Junior forms. The syllabus was compiled and drafts issued for public consultations. The finalized version is to be implemented in late 1998. To what extent were aims and objectives, and contents of the new guideline endorsed by student-teachers? This study included a survey by questionnaires of Social Sciences elective student-teachers in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. It was conducted in December, 1997. The questions in the questionnaire were developed basing on the aims, objectives and contents of the draft of the 1998 Civic Education Guideline and other policy papers related to Civic Education. It intended to find out student-teachers' conceptions of citizenship and citizenship education under "one country, two systems", focussing on the 2 key issues of democratic education and nationalistic education. It explored the extent to which the aims, objectives and contents of the 1998 Civic Education Guideline were endorsed

Home economics has been a school subject in Hong Kong for over fifty years. It stayed mainly as a female subject until 1999 when a survey on Equal Opportunity in Education was carried out by the Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission. The report of that survey revealed that boys were generally deprived of the opportunity in learning home economics in the curriculum. Schools were alert to the situation and home economics has subsequently been offered to both boys and girls in a co-educational environment in most schools in recent years. However, the participation of boys in home economics has caused some concerns in the field. Teachers are particularly anxious of their interaction with boys in a once female-dominated learning environment. Despite they understand that gender bias can be a serious detriment to learning, many are aware that they lack the ability to foster a more equitable teacher-student interaction in the classroom in order to meet the learning needs of both genders. Studies which looked at teacher interactions with boys and girls in different subject areas are abundant, such as Mathematics and Science. However, published studies on interaction in home economics classes are rare particularly in Hong Kong context. This may due to the fact that its history in co-educational learning environment is still short in Hong Kong. This study is a pioneer work which aims to find out whether home economics in Hong Kong co-educational classes supports patriarchal patterns of domination by males as researched in many studies. It also examines whether classroom processes in home economics lessons sustain or break down barriers between the sexes. It is hoped that useful strategies can be generated from this study to help all students participate equally in the classrooms in general, and within home economics lessons in particular.

The changeover of sovereignty in Hong Kong in 1997 has aroused people's increasing concern about the identity crisis of the youths as some recent surveys conducted by academics and journalists have shown that a majority of them tended to identify themselves as "Hongkongers" rather than nationals of the People's Republic of China. Some educators, government officials and local notables have begun to question of effectiveness of the civic education programme in Hong Kong. In response to such socio-political changes, I, as a member of the research team of the Department of Social Science, HKIEd, have adopted a quantitative method to conduct a survey on the teaching competence of the pre-service primary teachers in implementing civic education through the subject of General Studies. This instrument is also reinforced and supplemented by a semi-structured group interview to find out pre-service primary teachers' perceptions and understanding of civic education. The findings will be analyzed in order to evaluate the student teachers' competence in implementing civic education and identify their problems in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes.