Supervision is a powerful intervention into student teachers' learning in the field experience of initial teacher education. This paper presents a study on the supervision of seven student teachers in an initial teacher education programme for secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. Data related to the supervision of the seven student teachers include 16 tape-recorded post-observation conferences, interviews conducted with the 7 student teachers and the 21 tertiary supervisors. The research addresses four issues related to supervision. First, tertiary supervisors' supervisory behaviour in post- observation conferences is examined. Second, the supervisory discourses in the post-observation conferences are situated in the theory-practice continuum. Third, student teachers' and supervisors' perception towards the supervision occasions is explored. Finally, on the basis of the insights gained from the examination of these post-observation conferences and the two parties' perception, attempt is made to draw implications on the role of supervision in the field experience of initial teacher education.

This paper examines the role of government in promoting information and communication technologies in teacher education, including pre-service and in-service teachers on the one hand, and analyzes the professional development of teacher educators at the Hong Kong Institution of Education on the other.

Gender issues are some of the core concerns of policy, practice and provision in relation to education. There is a popular notion that boys are naughty while girls are good mannered in primary schools. In many studies, boys were found to engage in more rough-and tumble play and physical fighting than do girls (Thorne, 2002). It seems that it is more difficult for teachers to deal with boys than with girls. However, in the emerging literature, within girls, there are different types of emotional and behavioral problems, such as aggression, which is not unusual that teachers may face with. Research with empirical data on how teachers help girls with emotional and behavioral problems is spare. In order to understand more how teachers in training deal with the gender and the nature of students' problem, this study investigates the responses of pre-service teachers in helping students in a guidance training programme, which is a part of a pre-service new B.Ed. module. The study aims to make some suggestions for effective preparation of the pre-service teachers to play their guidance role in Hong Kong primary schools. In an attempt to explore how pre-service teachers developed their capacity in helping students with different gender and nature of problems, two scenarios were used. Case 1 was a by in a helpless situation (with emotional difficulties) while case 2 was an angry girl with aggressive behavior (with emotional and behavioural difficulties). Qualitative research approach in form of case study was used. The sample, 16 student teachers with some seemed to be very aware of, others largely ignorant about the guidance role of teacher were selected for in-depth interviews to chart their development in the training programme. Their responses for handling of two different cases of pupils' problems in the interview schedule were analyzed. The results of the study show that student teachers had developed their abilities in handling pupils' problems in terms of attitude towards

On teacher preparation, Forlin, Chong and Au conducted a survey on a group of postgraduate students taking a module on catering for diversity in September 2005. A four-part likert instrument was used to obtain pre- and post-data. The survey aimed to find out whether there were changes in teachers' attitudes, beliefs, and concerns following participation in a course of study.

Education values and beliefs in whole child development underpin the aims of education in the 21st century. Literature shows that teacher's belief in humanistic approach in bringing out the holistic development of a child plays a significant part in fulfilling the education ideology. The study of a group of 35 in-service primary school teachers in Hong Kong in 1999/2000 revealed that although a considerable number of them believed in the affective approach, they had technical difficulties in the implementation owing to the constraint of time and resources, whilst teacher development in understanding humanistic education is essential to facilitate the change.

Two achievement goals and three perceived parenting styles were identified in a sample of Hong Kong teacher education students. Significant correlations exist within the parenting styles and the achievement goals. Parental authoritativeness was significantly and positively related to learning goal and parental authoritarianism was significantly and negatively related to performance goal. Analysis of paternal and maternal influence showed there was no significant relation between paternal parenting styles and goal orientations but maternal authoritativeness was significantly related to learning goal. Further investigation with a larger sample, more male students and paternal influence would help confirm the paternal versus maternal influence on students ’ goal orientations.