Background: Teachers' subjective well-being (SWB) has received much attention, in the light of the major increase in sick leave as well as job quitting among teachers across different cultures and countries. Studies on SWB of kindergarten teachers are still scarce, since most of the academic literature is focused on teachers of primary and secondary schools.Aims: The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare kindergarten teachers' SWB in Hong Kong and Italy.Methods: 367 Hong Kong and 243 Italian kindergarten teachers completed a self-report questionnaire containing: the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the General Health Questionnaires-12 (GHQ-12). The questionnaire collected also socio-demographics data.Results: Hierarchical regression analysis showed that country belonging plays the strongest predictive role on self-esteem and mental health. Moreover, the independent t-test showed higher levels of job satisfaction among Italian teachers, while Hong Kong teachers were more satisfied in pay and promotion, but less in supervision, operating condition, co-worker relationship, nature of work, and communication.Conclusion: Results are interpreted in the light of the differences between the two contexts considered, in terms of cultural values and educational systems. Copyright © 2018 Benevene, Wong, Fiorilli and De Stasio.

Under-examination of the notion of competition between schools has created a considerable asymmetry between the reality and the literature of schooling. Therefore, this study investigates the validity of school competition and verifies the propositions regarding the effects of school marketing practices in literature, particularly DSS and aided schools in Hong Kong. It tests the relationships between student intake and school academic performance and school marketing practices. It also compares the pattern of the relationships between the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) and aided secondary schools. Secondary data from 441 secondary schools were retrieved from a popular secondary school admission magazine in Hong Kong and from the schools’ websites. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the school’s academic performance was positively related to discretionary student intake. In addition, marketing school academic performance, but not marketing school features, was positively related to student intake. Lastly, it was found that marketing school academic performance intensified the relationship between the school’s academic performance and student intake in aided schools but not in DSS schools. The results were interpreted as demonstrating that school competition in Hong Kong is a battle of lifting academic performance. Copyright © 2019 Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

This paper discerns hybridity in higher education in Hong Kong taking the socio-political approach. The socio-political approach holds that higher education is a system essentially located within the social, political, and economic environment. On this basis, the discourse of the hybridity is divided in two stages: colonial era and post-colonial era. The former embeds this discourse in Hong Kong’s colonial history (1842-1997). Though the university was imported to Hong Kong by the British colonial government as an imperialist project that institutionalized Western civilisation in China, it was simultaneously connected to Chinese nationalism. This blend of colonialism and nationalism denotes a collaborative colonial governmentality and illustrates a paradigm of hybridity in the colonial era. The later draws heavily on the social, political and economic changes in post-colonial Hong Kong. Several incidents involving individual academic freedom and institutional autonomy of universities that occurred in Hong Kong after 1997 are studied. These controversial incidents and associated confrontations in the university sector are regarded as signals of an ongoing hybridization process in the city. Copyright © 2018 CIES. All Rights Reserved.

This chapter provides the reader with an introduction to the Hong Kong education system and the development of teacher education in Hong Kong. It should be noted that descriptions of the Hong Kong education system have been provided in other articles by Coniam and Falvey (see Coniam and Falvey in Validating technological innovation: The introduction and implementation of onscreen marking in Hong Kong. Springer, Singapore, pp. 1–7, 2016; Coniam & Falvey, 2013, vi; Adamson and Li in Education and society in Hong Kong and Macao: Comparative perspectives on continuity and change, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, pp. 35–60, 2004). Readers should not, therefore, be surprised to come across similar descriptions in the current chapter. The authoritative work on the Hong Kong education system pre-1841 to 1941 is Sweeting (Education in Hong Kong pre-1841 to 1941. Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 1990; A phoenix transformed: The reconstruction of education in post-war Hong Kong. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1993). (See also Tang and Bray in Journal of Educational Administration 38(5):468–485, 2000). Copyright © 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

This chapter examined the implementation quality of the Tier 1 Program (Secondary 3 Curriculum) delivered in the Experimental Implementation Phase of the Project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes). Process evaluation was conducted in the form of systematic observations of curriculum units in four randomly selected schools. Results indicated that the overall level of program adherence was high, ranging from 80% to 100%, with an average of 90%. The mean ratings of the program implementation quality were high, and the inter-rater reliability on these ratings across the observers was highly reliable. Despite limitations, the findings of this study suggest that the implementation of the Secondary 3 Program (Tier 1 Program) of the Experimental Implementation Phase was of very high quality. This provides strong evidence to account for the successful and encouraging outcomes of a major positive youth development program in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2011 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

本文為一校本教職員專業發展問卷調查報告，受訪者為一間嚴重弱智兒童學校的教職員，共36人。結果顯示受訪者一致肯定多感官室的功能，認為學生進行感官刺激活動後，在很多方面，皆有進步的表現。多感官室能提供學生訓練及學習機會，學校實應推廣這方面的工作。受訪者認為教師應依「史露西倫」的原意，為學生多提供探索及體驗多感官刺激的機會。然而，教師亦可因應學生的學習能力，設計有創意及以學生為中心的學習活動，增加學生在多感官室的認知活動、技能與概念學習。在協助學校教職員建立共識、確立多感官室發展方向及制訂課程發展計劃內容各方面，受訪者亦提出了不少建議。
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香港的教育及課程改革要求學校進行各層面的變化去配合社會需要，主流及特殊學校都積極在主流的基礎課程上進行學校本位課程發展的工作，校本課程發展無可避免為學校執行「個別化教育計劃」帶來了有系統的改變；學校亦要進行有步驟的教師培訓去提升教師的專業能力及賦權教師推動校本課程及對特殊教育需要的支援。本文描述兩間收取中度智障學生的特殊學校，如何按部就班地重整課程及發展學習階段性課程為本的基線評估去匡監察學生進度。其中並討論所涉及以行動取向研究歷程的各種改變元素，從而確立了一整個實施課程及「個別化教育計劃」的行政體系，使未來的檢視及發展工作有一個清晰的流程及行政管理系統去跟進，是值得持續推動及推廣的一個特殊學校發展系統，並提出對校本及中央課程發展政策的一些反思及啟示。 With the urge for school changes to meet the new societal demands by both the education and curriculum reform in Hong Kong, both mainstream and special schools are active in adopting the mainstream curriculum as the basis for their school-based development. School-based curriculum development will inevitably call for systemic changes on the implementation of the Individualised Education Program (IEP) of the students with special educational needs within these schools. Coupled with these changes will be the need for stepwise professional development to empower teachers with the professional competence to implement both the school-based curriculum and support measures for special needs. The paper provides an account of the process through which two special schools for moderately mentally handicapped children restructured their school curriculun and developed key stage wise and curriculum-based baseline assessment procedures for monitoring the progress of learning of their students. The various elements being involved with the school-based curriculum development process using action-oriented research as the guiding approach for its development were discussed. The project generated a clear flow process for implementing IEP and a comprehensive administrative system for further follow up and evaluation of the curriculum development process. Implications for further development work on school-based curriculum and the policy for central curriculum framework to support special needs were discussed.
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明愛特殊教育服務於2005年成立「個別化教育計劃」聯校工作小組,旨在探討服務轄下六所特殊學校執行「個別化教育計劃」的實況,從而確立執行「個別化教育計劃」的基本原則。工作小組經歷近兩年的培訓、研習及互訪討論,並探討台灣方面的實踐現況。經多番討論後取得結論,認為香港的特殊教育服務在「個別化教育計劃」的整體定義及執行上仍未有一致的共識;然而,六所特殊學校實踐中卻確定了執行「個別化教育計劃」的十二項基本原則,包括:學生為本、課程為本、基線評估、學習目標選取、個案管理、團隊協作、課堂教學、進度匯報、學生學習歷程檔案、家長參與、檢討及跟進、轉銜處理及教師專業發展,值得工作小組作出深入探討,並將討論內容撮成摘要,以供明愛特殊教育服務同工參考。Caritas Special Education Service formed a Joint Working Group in 2005 to explore the practices of its 6 special schools in delivering Individualised Education Programmes (IEP) and to establish the basic elements in executing IEP. After almost 2 years of in-depth deliberation including staff training, professional consultation, inter-school visits and study of IEP implementation in Taiwan, the Joint Working Group came to a conclusion that there were great variations on the interpretation of the definitions and practices on IEP implementation in Hong Kong. The Joint Working Group isolated 12 basic common elements in executing IEP. They are student-centered approach, curriculum-based approach, baseline assessment, learning targets selection, case management, intra-disciplinary collaboration, classroom teaching, progress report, student portfolio, parental participation, evaluation and follow-up, transitional preparation and teacher professional development. The discussions of the Joint Working Group were summarized and documented for reference by colleagues under Caritas Special Education Service.
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