Background: Brainstem death (BSD), defined as the irreversible loss of consciousness, brainstem reflexes and the capacity to breathe, is not an uncommon scenario seen in the day to day practice of medical personnel. Upon the diagnosis of BSD, controversial issues of withdrawing life-supporting treatments and organ procuring for transplantation inevitably arise. This study evaluated the knowledge, acceptance and perception of BSD amongst medical students in Hong Kong.
Methods: A total of 126 medical students completed a self-administered questionnaire. Ten questions were used to assess their knowledge of BSD and this was correlated with their responses in three hypothetical vignettes.
Results: The mean score of the subjects' knowledge was 6.03 out of 10. Less than half (48.8%) of the subjects' knew that BSD is different from persistent vegetative state while 49.2% and 36.3% knew that BSD is accepted as death medically and legally in Hong Kong, respectively. When 'diagnosed' with BSD, 63.7%, 46.8% and 52.4% of the subjects would agree to the withdrawal of life-support from themselves, their most-loved one/family member and a stranger, respectively. Subjects with better knowledge and those who thought that doctors may tend to diagnose BSD to save resources or procure organs for transplantation were more ready to accept the withdrawal of life-support.
Conclusions: We concluded that knowledge of BSD amongst medical students was unsatisfactory and that urgent actions should be taken to remedy the situation. A better knowledge of BSD positively influenced the decision-making on withdrawing life-support and that adequate information regarding the outcome of BSD should be provided. On the other hand, the perception of doctors' intentions behind diagnosing BSD has no direct influence on the decision-making. More emphasis is required on medical education, including a specific emphasis in the undergraduate lecture curriculum and bedside exposure to BSD diagnosis

This article explores how Hong Kong Chinese engineering students with low English language proficiency manage to cope with their lectures given in English. An ethnographic case study approach was used with multiple sources of data triangulated to provide a picture of the lecture event from both the students' and the lecturer's perspectives. One of the outcomes of the study, as described in this article, is that lectures have specific genres and that these genres need to be seen as more than linguistic events. By way of a case study into lecturer behaviour/intention and students' perceptions, lectures can be viewed within the wider, socially constructed context.
[Copyright of Studies in Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070701685163]

Teachers' implicit theories of creativity were elicited by requesting 204 Hong Kong primary and secondary school teachers to list the characteristics of either creative or uncreative students. Their responses, an average of about 4 to 5 creative or uncreative characteristics by each teacher, were categorized into 42 creative and 33 uncreative attributes, traits, or trait adjectives. The most frequently mentioned creative attributes were "imaginative," "always questioning," "quick in responding." "active," and "high intellectual ability," whereas the most frequently mentioned uncreative attributes were "conventional," "timid," "lack of confidence," and "conforming." Unlike results of U.S. studies, this study yielded findings that suggested that Chinese teachers regarded some characteristics of creative students as socially undesirable and other characteristics as associating highly with intellectual functioning. Cultural differences on the perception of creativity in students are discussed.
[Copyright of Creativity Research Journal is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1203_3]

This paper reports the findings of a study that aims to enhance a better understanding of the Hong Kong Institute of Education teacher trainees' attitudes and

The paper reports a study that aims to reveal a more accurate picture of the strength and weakness of the primary school learners in selected topics in science. Reportedly, primary 3 and 6 pupils were interviewed with questions on the topics of reproduction, electricity, and light. This paper concludes with implications of pupils' performance on teaching and learning.

The paper reports a study that aims to compare Hong Kong student teachers' perceptions of the aims and objectives of their teacher education courses with the aims and objectives stated in the official course prescriptions. The results suggest that the two do not align because the students view education as a product and fail to recognize the importance of the overall education process.