This article addresses the cross-cultural generalization of the pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness (Sternberg & Zhang, 1995) as well as differential expectations regarding excellence for girls versus boys. First, we used an instrument based on the pentagonal theory with a sample of in-service and pre-service teachers at the University of Hong Kong. Second, we administered a questionnaire designed to assess conceptions of “excellence,” one of the attributes for giftedness described in the pentagonal model, to a different sample of in-service and pre-service teachers at the same university. We found a good fit of the pentagonal model to the data collected, paralleling results obtained in the U.S. We also found, however, that in Hong Kong, however, unlike in the U.S., participants had higher expectations of excellence for boys than for girls. These outcomes have implications for identification, instruction, and programming for the gifted.
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This article details a large-scale study of vice-principals in Hong Kong secondary schools. The study aimed to examine the core competency areas that pertain to the work of vice-principals and the way in which vice-principals perceive these areas to relate to school success. It also examined the factors that affect their level of job satisfaction, and differentiated these factors according to whether they did or did not aspire to principalship. The findings indicate that competency gaps, if large enough, can affect the level of job satisfaction of vice-principals and that the impact of these gaps varies according to career orientation. The results show that vice-principals who aspire to be a principal are more satisfied in their jobs than their less ambitious colleagues; and that the effect of these gaps on job satisfaction differs between the two groups. The implications of the findings for the future supply of principals and leader development are expounded.
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This study had two goals. The first was to validate further Sternberg's theory of mental self-government in a cross-cultural setting. The second was to investigate the relationship between thinking styles and teachers' characteristics. Research participants were one hundred ninety-three (65 male and 128 female) in-service teachers studying in the Bachelor of Education degree program and the Postgraduate Certificate in Education program at the University of Hong Kong. The participants responded to the Chinese version of the Thinking Styles Questionnaire for Teachers (TSQT) that has its theoretical foundation in Sternberg's theory of mental self-government. They also provided a range of demographic information such as age, gender, family income, and duration of their teaching experience. Furthermore, they rated themselves on a 5-point Likert scale about their teaching practices and about their perceptions of their school environment. The results of the study showed that the TSQT is a reliable and valid inventory for assessing the thinking styles of primary and secondary school in-service teachers in Hong Kong. Cronbach's alphas ranged from .58 to .75, with a mean of .68 and a median of .66. A principal-axis factor analysis followed by an oblique rotation resulted in two factors that accounted for 73.8% of the variance in the data. Moreover, results from stepwise multiple-regression procedures indicated that six characteristics of teachers were significantly correlated with the thinking styles specified by the theory of mental self-government. These teacher characteristics are gender, professional work experience outside school settings, the degree of enjoying adopting new teaching materials, a tendency for using group projects in assessing student achievement, perceived autonomy for determining their teaching contents, and their rating of the quality of their students. We discussed seven possibilities for using the knowledge about thinking styles to facilitate an enhancement

This study represents an initial attempt to determine and compare the levels of the intercultural sensitivity of three samples of student teachers in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). A total of 317 student teachers participated in the study. Across the three samples, the majority of participants tended to see the world from an ethnocentric perspective and tended to simplify or polarize cultural differences. They also had a tendency to emphasize commonality and universal norms, and showed difficulties in comprehending and accommodating complex cultural differences. Based on the results, the study offers recommendations for the development of a suitable intercultural training programme to achieve greater intercultural sensitivity for future teachers in each of the three cities.
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The present study was aimed at investigating the perception of teaching and learning of kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. Despite the philosophical vision of early childhood education, a firm traditional kind of instruction, with emphasis on planning, preparation and external judgment, was perceived as an important indicator for good teaching. Moreover, teachers tended to focus on and describe their own actions as teachers rather than the actions of pupils. There was a shift from children's agenda to the teacher's agenda. A very different role of the teacher, in contrast to the philosophy of early childhood education, was recorded. The vision of developmentally appropriate early childhood education has not been well acknowledged by kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. It is argued that challenge to their prior beliefs on teaching and learning will facilitate their future professional development.
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This paper describes the development of an improved scale for measuring sentiments, attitudes and concerns about inclusive education in pre-service teachers based on an examination of data gathered from 996 pre-service teachers from five tertiary institutions using a modified version of the Interactions with People with Disabilities scale (Forlin, Jobling & Carroll, 2001; Gething, 1991, 1994), the Concerns about Inclusive Education Scale (Sharma & Desai, 2002), and the Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education Scale (Wilczenski, 1992, 1995). Based on the results of principal component analyses, conceptual judgments made by the research team, and a critique of content and format from an "expert group", a new scale, the Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education scale (SACIE), is developed. The rationale behind the development of the scale is discussed.
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The field experience component in a teacher education programme serves both a gate-keeping function and a formative purpose that supports student teacher development. The authors were members of a research team which took care of the re-design of the assessment instrument for the field experience component of a teacher education programme, as well as conducting a pilot implementation test. The new assessment instrument, referred to as a Professional Development Progress Map, was developed with reference to the professional standards formulated by an official teacher education policy advisory body. This paper looks into the comments of the users, that is the supervisors and the student teachers (or participants, as in-service teachers were involved in the pilot implementation test) after the pilot implementation test. Findings suggest difficulties in using the Progress Map as a summative assessment instrument regarding the determination of grades and levels, making judgements based on observable performance and collection of evidence, and difficulty in assessing the domain 'Involvement in Education Community'. The discussion highlights the dilemma related to the use of professional standards as summative assessment instruments, and how users may be re-orientated to enhance the formative purpose. The paper concludes with suggestions on prudent use of the Progress Map.
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This paper poses a modified Rogers (1995) model for the Innovation-Decision Process for designing in-service programmes for educational innovation. The proposal emerges from a study of eight in-service teachers struggling to implement an innovation - the process approach to teaching English writing in Hong Kong secondary schools over the course of a year. The findings appear to (1) substantiate the five stages described in the Rogers Model - Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation and Confirmation - and (2) reveal complexities in an Implementation Stage when it is applied in the educational context which were not defined in the Rogers Model. The Implementation Stage is classified into four phases - Experiment, Adjustment, Mastery and Personalisation. Each phase is characterised by its own emerging phenomena and copying strategies. These findings provide a theoretical framework and principles for designing in-service programmes to address a process for change which would deepen teaching skills as will as the successful implementation of innovation.
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In higher education, student evaluation of teaching is widely used as a measure of an academic's teaching performance despite considerable disagreement as to its value. This paper begins by examining the merit of teaching evaluations with reference to the factors influencing the accuracy of the teaching evaluation process. One of the central assumptions on which student evaluation of teaching is based is that there is a relationship between student achievement and student rating of teachers. However, the findings of the majority of studies do not support this assumption. The absence of a strong link between student achievement and teaching evaluations suggests that there is scope for examining other approaches to measuring effective classroom dynamics. This paper presents such an approach based on the notion of transformational classroom leadership.
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This article provides two 'portraits' of headteachers in primary schools in England and Hong Kong, derived from semi-structured interviews with these individuals. Contrary to some claims that such a small sample is worthless, this article argues that what is most meaningful is sometimes derived from the singular and unique; that generalisations in education are as likely to be useful if they are 'fuzzy' generalisations as if they are from scientific or statistical generalisations; and that the individual case can strip away the clutter of large contexts and allow recognition of a common shared humanity. What these portraits also show is that responses to larger contexts are heavily dependent on personality and local context, and that if policy implementation and professional development are to have impact, then an attention to the personal and the local are going to be critical factors in any success in these areas
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