The assumption that increased autonomy and responsibility at the school site-level will result in enhanced performance of schools is often problematic. Cheung and Cheng (1996) suggested that in order to ensure school effectiveness, self-management practices at the individual teacher, group, and school levels are necessary. This article reports the findings of a case study of multilevel self-management in 3 Hong Kong primary schools. It revealed that the practices of multilevel self-management were associated with enhanced school performance at multilevels. Further, teachers' self-management practices determined largely the success of the school's self-management and demonstrated significant influence on the practices of work groups and the school.
[Copyright of School Effectiveness and School Improvement is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/sesi.13.3.253.3428 ]

The present study investigates the views of Hong Kong parents on kindergarten education. A questionnaire was designed to examine the reasons for parents to send their children to kindergartens, their concept of kindergarten education, their views on kindergarten teachers' work and training. There were 14,328 returned questionnaires. The findings indicate that parents had positive attitudes towards kindergarten education; they thought that kindergarten education was important for their children and that well qualified teachers were necessary for kindergarten education.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443991590103 ]

This paper reports data from a study of children's experiences of transition to school in Hong Kong. Hong Kong research into transition to school has been limited to investigation of curriculum issues and teaching practices by the Education Department (1993), a comparative study of skills preschool and primary school teachers believed children needed (Chow, 1993), and a recently released study on primary one students' transition problems in the Shatin area (Chan et al., 1999). In the present study, Hong Kong parents, primary school teachers and children expressed their views on difficulties in transition to school. Two types of primary schools were chosen for the sample: two with preschools attached and two which served neighbourhood preschools. Children and primary teachers were interviewed twice, once in mid October, in the initial "settling in" phase, and again in mid June the following year, at the end of the school year, while parents were surveyed in mid-October. In general, difficulties of "settling in" were overcome at the end of the first or second month. Nearly all children preferred studying in the primary schools during the first interview. However, the second interview revealed that some children wished to go back to the kindergartens where they claimed they had no pressure for examination and study. The results showed that pedagogical discontinuity is a major issue of difficulties in school transition in Hong Kong. The findings echoed those from the Chan et al. (1999) study on the adjustment of primary one pupils in Shatin.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443022000022440 ]