This paper reports a case study of four project schools in the primary school context of Hong Kong. It has investigated how teachers who were assigned subject panel head's and curriculum leader's roles perceived the student assessment reform and how they experimented with new assessment strategies in the school policy and classroom practice. The major focus of the paper lies on how these teacher leaders expressed their understanding of student assessment reform in classroom practice. The main discussion of findings shows the perception of these teacher leaders on student assessment reform, how they put their ideas of formative assessment into practice, and in addition, the challenges they faced in the reform process.
[Copyright © 2015 Illinois State University.]

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the contribution of nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) to teaching English as an international language, the privileging of native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and native-speaker competency, and concomitant marginalization of NNESTs, continues in many countries. To investigate and problematize the role the NEST-NNEST dichotomy plays in teachers' professional identity construction, this article explores the ways in which multiple discourses interact to enable and constrain opportunities for such construction through in-depth interviews with teachers in Hong Kong. It raises questions about the failure of previous investigations to adequately problematize discourses that establish and support divisions between Hong Kong teachers and also questions the assumption that such divisions are necessarily associated with perceptions of marginalization among those positioned as NNESTs. This article presents suggestions for contesting discourses that establish and support hierarchical relations between teachers and discusses the implications for future research.
[Copyright © 2016 Taylor & Francis.]

This study addressed the variations between key staff and ordinary teachers in perceiving principal leadership practices and school capacities. In a similar study on secondary schools, Walker and Ko (2011) found that in order to ensure better support for student in schools, key staff teachers found their principals' practices on strategic direction and policy environment more important initially, but its significance was superseded by his/her leadership practices on leader and teacher growth and development. In the present study, data collected in primary schools distinguished key staff teachers who held leadership roles in administration or instruction and ordinary teachers who did not have any leadership roles. Their differences in perceptions were expected to impact on the overall support for student in schools. Regression analyses were performed to test whether the two groups of teachers perceived differently the impacts of principals' leadership practices the support for student in schools, and whether the differential perceptions in the two groups would affect the overall staff perception in schools. The results showed only a minor difference in the perceptions of key staff and ordinary teachers. Both groups found a negative impact of principals' leadership practices related to strategic direction and policy environments, but a positive impact of their staff management and resources management practices on enhancing support for students in the school. The key staff tended to emphasize the importance of staff management more, while ordinary teachers treated both types of leadership practices almost equally important. Overall, the perception of key staff seemed to prevail when the views of both groups were considered. These findings seem to be less compatible with the emphasis of strategic direction and the role of principals as the goal setter of a school as suggested in transformational leadership theory or strategic leadership theory. Instead, in facing

This study examines the discrepancy between teachers' beliefs and practices in Hong Kong kindergartens and the factors that influence this discrepancy. Three kindergartens, considered by the Hong Kong Education Bureau to be of varying quality, were chosen from different areas of Hong Kong. Questionnaires about teaching beliefs were administered to 35 teachers from these kindergartens. These quantitative data were supplemented with qualitative data gathered during individual interviews with five of the teachers and the three principals. In addition, a focus group of five early childhood education specialists commented on the videotaped observations of the classroom practices of the five interviewed teachers. The findings showed that all of the teachers endorsed the advocated teaching beliefs, but there was a discrepancy between their beliefs and practices. The most significant factors contributing to the discrepancy were teachers' professional education and their attitudes towards personal teaching introspection. Teachers were also under pressure from parents' curriculum requests, demands on the children's academic abilities and expectations for a strong link to Primary One. Enhanced early childhood education training that helps teachers to be introspective about their own teaching practices and beliefs is recommended. Government support is also required to teach parents what constitutes a high-quality learning environment for young children.
[Copyright © 2016 Teacher Development.]

The use of educational technology by Hong Kong primary school teachers has been realized by the government’s long-term support to the technology infrastructure, professional training, technical support, and development of teaching resources in local primary schools. However, the high adoption rate may not reflect the willingness of teachers to accept technology for educational purposes. Presently, there is no existing research investigating in-service primary teachers’ technology acceptance in Hong Kong. The aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ acceptance of technology and the influencing factors behind their acceptance. This study takes a quantitative approach to investigate 185 primary teachers in Hong Kong using Structural Equation Modeling on a customized Technology Acceptance Model. The results suggest that contrary to common belief, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the technology have little influence on behavioral intention of use in our research context. Rather, a pragmatic consideration of facilitating conditions is found to be a strong dominating factor. A context-specific interpretation of the results is provided. Implications on school policy are also discussed to provide insights for the development of educational technology.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer US.]

智慧教室以自動感知、識別、互聯、設備便攜等特徵，充分滿足了新一代學習者對強交互的要求。智慧教室環境下的課堂互動較之傳統課堂具有高度的複雜性，已有觀察工具很難滿足其研究需要。本研究在充分調研已有互動觀察工具基礎上,結合智慧教室特點，設計開發了面向智慧教室的中小學課堂互動觀察工具，共分為基本資訊、教室類型、教室硬軟體配備、技術支援的課堂互動過程、智慧教室環境對課堂交互的支援等五個主要部分。該工具在香港、北京和深圳的中小學進行了八輪30次現場課堂和10次錄影課堂的觀察、討論和修訂，經驗證具有較高的信效度和良好的使用體驗。
[Copyright © 2015西北師範大學.]