This study examines the impact of principal leadership practices on student academic outcomes in four Hong Kong primary schools. Given the increased accountability mechanisms confronting schools in Hong Kong, this study is based on the assumption that principal practices that respond directly to accountability policy or link to human resources development will be most influential. This does not necessarily contradict the assumption that principal leadership practices are generic and contextualised. This study will adopt a case study design. The data will be collected from 4 local schools with varied strategies, including online student math tests, and teacher questionnaire surveys. The student math test items will be selected from item banks of standardised tests. The questionnaires will be adapted from Walker and Ko’s (2011) and Leithwood and Jantzi’ s (2000) scales respectively, each covering extensively 7 dimensions with the number of items reduced to 33. The test scores will be aggregated and standardised, and used as student academic outcomes. The two questionnaires will be combined and used for the teacher survey. They will attempt to measure teachers’ perceptions of principal leadership practices and conditions in the schools. The individual responses of the participants will be aggregated to the person level and school level, and then subjected to descriptive, comparative, and inferential statistical analyses. Factors from both principal leadership practices and school conditions that synergistically contribute to student achievement will be indentified and verified, and effects specified. Given the limited number of schools in the sample, findings at the teacher and student levels will be triangulated and discussed as rich descriptions of cases. It is hoped that it will inform practitioners and researchers the interrelatedness between principal leadership practices, school conditions, and student achievement. The findings may also generate some indicative findings

The restructuring of the academic structure and curriculum of the senior secondary education in 2009 has witnessed the on-going drive of the Hong Kong Education Reform in 2000 for a “more flexible and diversified” curriculum (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2005, p.9). To develop students’ ability to make connections across knowledge and concepts from different disciplines and to examine issues from multiple perspectives, new interdisciplinary subjects like Liberal Studies and Integrated Science are introduced into the new senior secondary curriculum. Whilst their introduction would definitely create stress and concerns of teachers, in preparing for new but broader subject content that may require completely different teaching strategies, teachers of traditional disciplinary subjects would also face new challenges through changes in the subject curriculum, teaching and assessment. This symposium therefore aims to discuss how teachers perceive the challenges of teaching interdisciplinary subjects and discipline-based subjects. Before the actual implementation of those new curricula, we have developed and administered specific research tools (in form of interview guidelines and questionnaires) to collect qualitative and quantitative data from curriculum planners and school teachers for the aforementioned interdisciplinary subjects and a number of disciplinary subjects, including Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Geography. Interview data will be used to discuss on how teacher-practitioners’ views are compared with the curriculum planners towards the implementation of Liberal Studies and Integrated Science, whereas both interview and questionnaire survey data from teachers of disciplinary subjects of Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Geography have been analysed to reveal the teachers’ key concerns and perceived problems as arisen from the change in curriculum organization and structure, emphasis on nature of science, science, technology, society and environment, fieldwork and

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.

This study tests mediated principal leadership effects on teacher professional learning through collegial trust, communication, and collaboration in Hong Kong primary schools. It is based on a series of single mediator studies, and uses the same convenience sample of 970 teachers from 32 local primary schools. It also adopts Hayes’ (2013) regression-based macros, integrated with bootstrapping method, to examine and compare sizes and proportions of potential mediating effects of the three human relational variables. The findings affirm the role and nature trust, communication, and collaboration play in the mediated relationship. In contrast, the mediating power of collaboration is non-significantly stronger than that of communication, and is more than doubled that of trust. The conclusion is that, a school environment featuring mutual trust, effective communication, and genuine collaboration is a core condition for teacher learning and change. Provided that the forces that bind people together in schools are multiple, principals are recommended to create school culture and conditions strategically for teacher learning to thrive.

In the last two decades, teacher leadership has been extensively discussed, mainly in relation to the professional education for in-service teachers. Relatively little is known about leadership as pedagogy for the development of pre-service teachers. The study reported in this paper aims to investigate the discourses of teacher education focusing on the process of teaching practicum supervision and leadership development of pre-service teachers. Early childhood education in Hong Kong was chosen as a research site for the study. Qualitative case study was adopted in the research design. Two pre-service teachers who were studying in the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education progamme and their teaching practicum supervisor from the university were selected as research participants. Semi-structured interviews and documentation were mainly used for data collection. The findings of the study indicated that both of the teaching practicum supervisor and pre-service teachers were aware of the importance of leadership development for professional growth. The teaching practicum provided various opportunities for developing leadership skills, such as reflection, collaboration, and engagement in professional learning community. The findings also revealed that a supportive environment could be possibly built up to support pre-service teachers in the process of leadership development through the joint efforts of teaching practicum supervisors from university, placement school, and student peers. It is argued that leadership as pedagogy in the process of teaching practicum is important for developing pre-service teachers as leaders for their future career.

Currently, there is rigorous effort involved in preschool improvement in HK. A set of performance indicators (www.edb.gov.hk) was developed in 2000 to facilitate the reform process.The present mode of early childhood educational accountability in Hong Kong has been in place since 2000. In these recent educational reforms (www.edb.gov.hk), the focus has been placed on self-assessment and subsequent evaluation by an external body. However, according to the two most recently published reports by the Education Bureau Annual Report, none of the inspected kindergartens met the "excellent" standards set in the Teaching-Learning domain. In 2007, a voucher system (www.edb.gov.hk) was introduced which includes a teacher professional development scheme as an incentive. This investment can potentially be seen as the key to quality assurance in Hong Kong. The focus of this enquiry concerns the activities undertaken by 10 preschools implementing self-assessment and school improvement. The findings are used to present a theoretical framework which identify key characteristics in the implementation process which can enhance school improvement at the preschool sector.Currently, there is rigorous effort involved in preschool improvement in HK. A set of performance indicators (www.edb.gov.hk) was developed in 2000 to facilitate the reform process.The present mode of early childhood educational accountability in Hong Kong has been in place since 2000. In these recent educational reforms (www.edb.gov.hk), the focus has been placed on self-assessment and subsequent evaluation by an external body. However, according to the two most recently published reports by the Education Bureau Annual Report, none of the inspected kindergartens met the "excellent" standards set in the Teaching-Learning domain. In 2007, a voucher system (www.edb.gov.hk) was introduced which includes a teacher professional development scheme as an incentive. This investment can potentially be seen as the key to quality assurance