This study attempted to identify communication as a human relational 'path' through which principal leadership influenced teacher professional learning. The data was collected from a sample of 970 teachers from 32 Hong Kong primary schools. Online survey was administered, with two questionnaires to measure teacher perceptions of principal leadership and school capacity. Baron and Kenny' s (1986) four-step causal process for mediation analysis was employed and integrated with bootstrapping method. Further significance of the mediating effects of communication was tested, and the sizes for both the direct and indirect effects in the relationship were made explicit. The findings affirmed the role of communication as a mediator in the relationship between principal leadership and teacher learning.
[Copyright © 2016 Rowman & Littlefield.]

自從施政報告於 2014 提倡全面推行生涯規劃教育，生涯規劃教育成為高中教育的一個嶄新領域。政府建議生涯規劃教育應以全校參與模式推行，老師則可以由升學及就業輔導老師逐步過渡至生涯規劃教育老師，扮演協調者、指導者和輔導者的角色。本文嘗試引用一項香港國際比較研究的部份數據，探討老師在生涯規劃教育的角色，以及未來香港生涯規劃教育的發展方向。
[Copyright © 2016 香港教師中心.]

Following Grandey's integrative model of emotional labor, this study examined the relationships between teachers' emotional labor strategies, the emotional job demands of teaching, trust in colleagues, and teacher efficacy. The results from a sample of 1115 Hong Kong primary school teachers showed that surface acting played a dysfunctional role, but deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotion facilitated teacher efficacy. Trust in colleagues was found to be an organizational resource for teachers that helped them to cope with the challenges brought about by the emotional demands of teaching. The results indicate that teachers should perform emotional labor wisely.
[Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.]

有效的校長領導，有助學校提升。香港現時的校長支援系統鮮有從個人出發，未盡滿足個別校長所需。「剪影法」乃支援校長領導的新方向，本文檢視其背景、緣起、設計、發展、實踐，並對校長專業產生的影響。訪談的過程中，採用「個人」、「朋輩」、「私隱」三原則，訪者和受訪者在暢所欲言後，整理出個人的「剪影」以作參照。這可補充現時香港校長培訓課程的不足，有助解決校長人才短缺、繼承等問題，值得進一步探究。
[Copyright © 2016 香港教師中心.]

本研究旨在分享兩位小學教師試行「浸入式」教學策略的經驗，探討他們運用「浸入式」教學策略對非華語學生學習中文的成效，並了解教師和學生對「浸入式」教學的意見。這是個案研究，研究對象是香港一所小學兩班小學一年級（共四十七位）非華語學生和兩位中文科教師。本研究採用「定質」和「定量」的研究方法，包括：問卷、訪談、前測和後測。研究發現教師運用了「浸入式」教學策略有助提升學生的中文的成績。教師認為有效的浸入式教學策略是：「善用實用的主題單元」、「教師語言的妙用」及「浸入式的閱讀」。學生則喜愛實用的主題、從遊戲中學習中文和組織學習檔案等學生活動。
[Copyright © 2016 香港教師中心.]

School-based physical activity (PA), including activity during physical education (PE) lessons and after-school hours, is a possible opportunity for increasing children' s daily PA. The purposes of this study were (a) to compare children' s school-based PA levels during PE lessons and after-school hours and (b) to examine whether there is a difference in children' s PA behaviour (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)) and sedentary behaviour on a day which includes school-based PA (i.e. PE class or after-school sports class). The participants were 242 children (mean age = 8.7, SD = 1.6) from five primary schools in Hong Kong. Children' s PA levels were measured using an accelerometer (ActiGraph GT3X) for four school days, and the data were used to derive the duration (min) of MVPA and sedentary behaviour using age-specific criteria. The PA data were grouped according to the school-based PA opportunities, i.e. (a) with a PE lesson (PE day); (b) with an after-school sport class (AFS day); or (c) without school-based PA (N-Act day). The results indicated that the groups differed significantly in daily MVPA [F (2,108) = 16.62, p < .00] and MVPA during school hours [F (2,108) = 36.22, p < .00]. There was no significant difference in children' s sedentary behaviour with school-based PA participation. The present study confirmed the contribution of school-based PA opportunities to children' s MVPA in the school day, while sedentary behaviour may not necessarily be reduced.
[Copyright © 2017 The Author(s).]

Classroom discipline is a topic of international interest and teachers are bombarded with advice regarding how to and why they should manage children' s behaviour in their classrooms. This paper draws on data related to classroom discipline gathered from a detailed classroom observation schedule, teacher interviews, and field notes with four purposively selected kindergarten teachers working in Hong Kong with children aged 5–6 years. The findings of this qualitative case study show that the teachers were concerned about disciplining children to ensure good behaviour. They expected all children to follow the rules and used characteristic discipline strategies such as stating expectations and ‘praising the opposite' to maintain good behaviour. The paper discusses these findings in light of the Westernisation of kindergarten teaching practices in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.]

This study investigates the perceptions of stakeholders on the impact of a high-stakes assessment of English language teachers' proficiency – the minimum language standards Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers (English) [LPATE], which was introduced in 2000. Given that the test has now been in place for 17 years, the study investigates the extent to which the LPATE assessment has contributed to English language teacher standards in Hong Kong. Interview data from 24 participants in primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong, reveal a number of positive links between the LPATE test and English language teaching as a profession. The introduction of the LPATE was deemed to be necessary in terms of setting, raising and maintaining language proficiency standards; stakeholders' awareness that English teachers need to have high language standards, subject-matter knowledge and pedagogical skills related to English language teaching; and that now an increasing number of English teachers are exempt from the LPATE through having opted for relevant degrees and teacher training, questions should be asked about how and whether the LPATE should be used in more relevant and meaningful ways.
[Copyright © 2017 The Author(s).]

This paper reports on a hermeneutic phenomenological study on the experiences of visual arts teachers teaching students with intellectual disabilities in Hong Kong. Themes which emerged from the interviews were examined in conjunction with the lived experiences of the teachers. Special school visual arts teachers who participated in this study have strong emotional and personal connections with their students. The teachers had experienced difficulties when teaching their students and many of the problems were unique to the special school settings. In an effort to tackle these problems and improve their teaching, these teachers engaged in reflection and explored a variety of ways to enhance their students' learning. In spite of the practical learning problems their students face, the teachers maintained that studying visual arts is beneficial to their students 'whole-person development. The paper concludes with a critical reflection on the nature of teaching visual arts to students with intellectual disabilities.
[Copyright © 2015 Australian Association of Special Education Inc.]

Reduced class sizes have a positive impact on pupil achievement and classroom processes. Pupils receive more individual attention and are better behaved and more on-task in small classes. In Hong Kong, small-class teaching has become a major government policy in primary schools. It is being implemented in phases, beginning in the 2009–2010 school year in Primary 1. Research shows that the benefits of a small-class environment are not automatic if teachers do not make changes to their teaching practice; hence, various types of campus-based professional development programmes have been organised for teachers to adapt their teaching in the small-class environments for the purposes of optimising the student learning. However, teachers tend to revert to their usual teaching practice soon after undertaking the relevant professional development training. School support is essential to provide encouragement for continuous improvement in order to sustain the effect of the campus-based professional development programmes. This article begins with an overview of the research on class size, then describes the implementation of small-class teaching policy in Hong Kong, compares the campus-based with school-based professional development programmes in small-class teaching, analyses the weakness of the existing school-based professional development programmes and finally argues that a self-owned model of school-based teacher development can be effective in sustaining the effect of the professional development programmes that teachers have undertaken.