In response to reform of the senior secondary school curriculum, parents, professionals and schools voiced out the significance of the learning equity and opportunities of school graduates in special schools. Different parties urged the government to clarify the academic structure, curriculum arrangement and resources for these SEN students in senior academic structure reform. This was a territory-wide study on parental views and preferences of the senior secondary curriculum among special schools for students with mental handicap, physical handicap and visual impairment in Hong Kong. In the study, it was found that at the initial stage of policy planning, the further education opportunities of children with intellectual disabilities and multiple disabilities after the 9-year basic education were not fully considered. The opportunities remained unchanged and were of limited variety. Other than the extension program in the special schools, there was no innovative policy and practice in offering further education for these students. Parents were dissatisfied the limited choice of the further education and career placement for their children after the graduation at the age of 18. They expressed their strong view on the equal opportunity in the reform of senior secondary academic structure. With regard to the scenario of development, the study further reported the views and expectations and preferences of parents. Parents expected a clear division of secondary education into junior and senior, two stages, as opposed to a six-year education without such distinction. The curriculum, arrangements and assessment of senior secondary education should be further enriched and strengthened. Education and vocational training for schools leavers were expected. The results were significant and the empirical data provided teachers, school administrators, curriculum planners, teacher educators and the authority with the insights for further actions. The teacher education in empowering

Early childhood education is the cornerstone of an education system. However, to the population of children at risk of developmental disabilities (CARDD), challenges early childhood teachers need to face are not only early identification of these children, but also development and implementations of productive interventions to reduce influences of existing deficits on their personal development and maximize these children's potential to learn. According to a statistic report by World Health Organization (2011), in a majority of countries in the world, around 14% 36 to 35% of children aged between 2 to 9 years old are at risk of developmental disorders. Seeking to provide a good understanding of teacher preparation for identifying and intervening CARDD, the present study investigated: a) the confidence level of over 3,000 teachers in a wide range of instructional activities (e.g., confidence in facilitating teaching and learning, facilitating social development, collaborating with parents and other related personnel) across 238 kindergartens, and b) the needs of early childhood teachers in supporting CARDD in Hong Kong. The role of integrated programme placing/not placing in these investigated kindergartens is also taken into account in understanding potential differences of teachers' confidence in identifying, teaching and intervening CARDD. Implications to professional development, improvements of existing facilities and resources to assist early childhood teachers in identifying and supporting children with developmental disabilities are discussed.

Perception involves the discovery, detection, impression, interpretation and comprehension of a particular event and is a kind of human mental activities. Lots of research investigate this psychological phenomenon by exploring the teachers' thinking processes and ways of construing their perception (Eibaz, 1981; Morine- Dershimer, 1009; Schon, 1983. As reflective practitioners, teachers develop schemata on how to teach or make decision effectively in their classroom teaching. They form judgments about their students' academic performance and classroom behaviors, and evaluate them to see if they are acceptable or unacceptable, typical or atypical, normal or deviant. These judgments become the basis of their decisions which lead to the subsequent responses or behavioral patterns. The ability of perceiving the nature and severity of classroom problems and making judgments is unique and crucial in the process of early identification. The schemata they use help them to identify the learning, emotional or conduct cause of a particular behavioral problem. However, teachers from different backgrounds (primary, secondary, special education, remedial teaching, pre-service or inservice teachers) will have a perceptual difference on behavioral problems. A survey investigating the teachers' perception of children with behavioral problems was conducted on 568 school teachers in Hong Kong. Teachers of different backgrounds were presented with the descriptions of some typical behavioral problems and they had to judge the learning, emotion or conduct cause of the cases. This study attempted to explore how well the teachers with distinct school backgrounds perceived the presented cases. The result revealed that most teachers perceived more learning problems but fewer conduct problems in the cases. The teachers found to be sensible to the learning and emotion causes of their children . Different groups of teachers held divergent views on perceiving the cases. More secondary and student