Many studies show that teacher beliefs strongly influence their instructional decisions, which in turn affect classroom practice and curriculum implementation. Studies also reveal many curriculum reforms in the past failed because teacher beliefs had been neglected in the design and implementation process.
The new secondary Chinese language curriculum implemented in 2002 in Hong Kong is of student-centred basis, and thus teachers are required to change their beliefs. This qualitative study aims at investigating teaching beliefs of Chinese language teachers and their influence on curriculum implementation. By examining teaching beliefs of teachers, light can be shed on the problems and prospect of curriculum implementation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. Twelve teachers were selected purposefully from three different types of secondary schools, namely band 1, 2 and 3; which represent different range of students' academic competency. In each type of school, two expert teachers and two novice teachers with a variety of educational backgrounds and rankings at school were selected.
The results of this study indicate that teaching beliefs of teachers and their teaching behaviours are interrelated. It also highlights that the existing beliefs of transmission-oriented teachers are incongruent with the underlying philosophy of the new curriculum. This may hinder the implementation of the intended curriculum. But most of the beliefs held by the heuristics-oriented teachers are in line with the intended curriculum, which is likely to facilitate its successful implementation. The findings also have important implications for curriculum developers and teacher educators: curriculum implementation must be accompanied by continuous teacher development which fosters changes of beliefs and practices.
This study finds out that there are underlying commonalities in beliefs among the twelve teachers. In their opinion, the conception

In Hong Kong, extensive reading education among junior secondary students has always been overlooked. The significance of extensive reading had always been emphasized at different stages of Chinese Language Curriculum development. The revised Chinese Language Curriculum for secondary schools issued in 2001 further stipulates that the impact of extensive reading on Chinese Language acquisition with detailed elaborations on the setting of reading environment, the design of reading activities, and the criteria of selecting books for extensive reading. Despite the emphasis and effort put on extensive reading, the ranking of local junior secondary school students at the reading assessment of PISA has disappointingly descended from the 6th in 2001 to the 10th in 2003. To reverse the trend and enhance students' reading ability, not only should emphasis be placed on the teaching and learning of reading in the curriculum, but extensive reading must also be promoted to consolidate knowledge students learn so that junior secondary students can develop good attitude of extensive reading. Urgent as it is and to accomplish this task, teachers must further understand the way in which junior secondary students develop their attitude of extensive reading in order to better solve the difficulties encountered in the implementation of an extensive reading curriculum in Hong Kong.
This research is based on the theories and thoughts on extensive reading in western countries and pioneers in adopting 'engaged reading' concept in designing a school-based junior secondary extensive reading curriculum. A 3-year longitudinal action research on Form one students of an English medium secondary school aims at exploring the difficulties and effectiveness of implementing an extensive reading curriculum, the causes of difficulties that may be involved and the reasons why junior secondary students find it difficult in developing good attitude of extensive reading.
The research findings have

Teaching is divided on emphasis on teachers' creativity or students' creativity, on novelty or on appropriateness or usefulness. The emphasis shifts from teachers' creativity to students' creativity after training and their views on creative teaching were more comprehensive. Five categories of conceptions of creative teaching were revealed: daily creative teaching, creative adaptive teaching, creative innovative teaching, teaching for creativity and creative interactive teaching.
Data on student teachers' teaching performance indicated that most of the student teachers possess the attributes and attitudes necessary for implementing creative teaching. However, such creative teaching was obstructed by the influence of traditional methods of Chinese language teaching, textbooks and the school environment. Most of the student teachers could only exhibit "playfulness", a characteristic of creative teaching, in their teaching. Their performance improved in the second semester and more characteristics of creative teaching were found, especially on students' creativity.
Analysis of the overall performance of the best three student teachers found that all manifested a more comprehensive view of creative teaching. They were able to balance different aspects and different elements of creative teaching. Last but not least, they demonstrated "teaching flexibility" which enabled them to adapt or integrate existing teaching methods flexibly and thus to enhance creativity in both teacher and student.
The contribution of this study lies partly in the overview that it provides on creative teaching. It clarifies key concepts of creative teaching and shows directions for future development. In terms of implementation, the research identifies critical features of creative teaching and key elements that affect learning outcomes. It provides teachers with concrete principles to implement creative teaching. The result of the study have implications for the design of initial teacher

This dissertation consists of three studies which addressed the issue of describing creativity and enhancing creativity in Chinese writing among primary school students in Hong Kong. Although creativity is valued in the Curriculum Reform of Hong Kong, the degree to which creativity is incorporated into teaching by Chinese Language teachers was unknown. Study One addressed this issue by a survey using a tailor-designed 14-item questionnaire conducted among 449 Chinese Language teachers in primary schools to tap the respondents' perceptions of creativity, perceived ways of developing students' creativity, and their day-to-day practice of writing in classrooms. The results show that most of the teacher respondents conformed to the traditional method of teaching writing. Results suggested a detailed study to enhance teacher's skills in teaching creativity in Chinese which formed the foundation for Study Three. With Study One as the foundation, distinctions between Eastern and Western perspectives of creativity may be explored in future. Study Two was the development and validation of the Chinese Creative Writing Scale (CCWS) that was later applied as an outcome measure for creative writing in Chinese language in Study Three. The development of CCWS contributes to the measurement of creative writing in Chinese. With its good internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and construct validity, it can be used as an outcome measure for assessing the effectiveness of enhancing creativity in Chinese writing. With minor modifications, the scale can be applied in Mainland China, Taiwan, and Chinese societies elsewhere in the world. In Study Three, we first developed four learning studies using the phenomenographic approach and the Theory of Variation. To test the effect of the learning study approach, a quasi-experimental trial was then conducted in a primary school in Hong Kong. Four teachers joined the learning study for one academic year. Some 277 students were randomly allocated