Secondary vocational education performs an initiative role in meeting socio-political and economic demands. Tsui's (1997) Review Report of Prevocational and Secondary Technical Education suggests a new curriculum pattern in the light of Hong Kong's structural changes in economy and its technological advancement. The new curricula emphasize on language, business and technological subjects that comply with the generic, fundamental and transferable requirements (para 3.18). The major new subjects named as Business Fundamentals, Technology Fundamentals, Design Fundamentals, Word Processing & Business Communications, Graphical Communication and Technological Studies will be implemented in year 2000 and ultimately introduced into secondary grammar schools (para 4.15). To enhance the quality of teaching, the report also suggests that updated and relevant training should be given to vocational teachers to keep them close to the real trend (para 4.21). The ratio of graduate teachers to non-graduate teachers in prevocational schools changes from 1:1 to 7:3 within 5 years. However, there is no further concrete strategy to support the corresponding teacher training. Currently, around sixty percent of graduate business teachers are untrained and eighty percent of the business teacher samples from secondary schools perceived that insufficient teacher training was provided for them (Velde, 1997c). In facing the great challenges in new curricular and professional upgrading within such a short time frame, challenge appears in teachers' capability and adaptability. Further development of vocational teacher education is urgently required. By defining competencies for secondary vocational teachers is a powerful means in providing information to help them to be successful in their job (Esque and Gilbert, 1995; Hager, 1995). According to Marrelli (1998), competencies are measurable human capabilities that are required for effective work performance demands. The competency model

The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) largely provides training to students who wish to pursue their career in teaching in compulsory education. The authors, computer literacy lecturers, were interested to find out if there was any difference between the perceptions of computer student teachers when they were at year one and at year two regarding the importance of computer knowledge they should possess as competent computer teachers. A questionnaire was distributed to student teachers of Northcote Campus after teaching practice in 1996 and again in 1997. The content of the questionnaire was based on the computer literacy curriculum for lower secondary students. The computer topics were grouped under basic computer knowledge, Logo programming, computer applications and others. Student teachers perceived all the computer knowledge were important. Student teachers gave highest regards to computer applications category, followed by Logo programming category, basic computer knowledge category and others category when they were in year one. However, the rankings of basic computer knowledge and Logo programming category were reversed in 1997. The rankings for computer applications category and others category remained the same even though the average mean scores for computer applications category had increased and others category had decreased in 1997. The means for the first three categories actually were very close for both years. When we looked into details we found that five out of seven topics of computer applications category had increased their importance. It was not surprising to find out the largest increase was the social implications of computers on society as there were successful charges for computer hackers recently for the first time. For the basic computer knowledge category, the increase was mainly caused by the large increase of importance of limitations of computers which was also the greatest among all topics. For Logo programming, all the sub-categories

The literature on the scoiocultural view of learning, and teacher development framed the present study. Five beginning teachers teaching science in Hong Kong elementary schools were interviewed three months after they started their first teaching assignment. Support was then provided in the form of a resource pack, an introductory workshop and personal support from the researcher. During the implementation of the resource pack, lesson observations and interviews were conducted. Findings suggest the science teaching was more consistent with a constructivist view of learning and some were even able to influence their colleagues to give more thought to their science lessons. Teacher development is anaylsed with a sociocultural view of learning and recommendations for teacher education were made.

This paper describes the learning experience of the student-teachers in an initial teacher education programme run by the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The focus is on the teaching practice period of the programme and the report is made through the eyes of the student-teachers as regards the support they received from their co-operating teachers. In order to enhance the quality of support provided by the co-operating teachers, the first phase of the study is an intervention in which training sessions for the co-operating teachers are provided prior to the teaching practice period. In the sessions, an introduction to recent educational theories; classroom observation skills and basic counseling skills are discussed. This study also includes an evaluation of the intervention through an examination of the quality of guidance provided by the co-operating teachers. The data collected include interviews with the student-teachers, conversation records between the co-operating teachers and the student-teachers, and journals written by the student-teachers during the teaching practice period. The findings contrast the support provided by the trained and untrained co-operating teachers as well as the experience of the student-teachers under their guidance. This paper concludes with different modes of support perceived and discusses implications on the design of field experience for initial teacher education programmes.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

There have been rapid changes in the economic, social and technological situations of Hong Kong in the last two decades. Because of these, the education systems and policies have changed accordingly. Have these changes affected the primary mathematics education? The official curricula for primary mathematics at different time spans may give us some hints to the answers for this question. The present study is based on the comparison of three official curricula for primary mathematics set in 1973, 1983 and 1995 respectively and one officially drafted version of primary mathematics curriculum disclosed in 1997. It is found that the 1973 curriculum just served as guidelines for mathematical contents of the public examination for Primary Six students. There are five overall objectives clearly stated in the official curriculum of Primary Mathematics printed in 1983. Compared to the one in 1973, it is much more student-centered. This syllabus is now still the main one used by mathematics teachers and book publishers, though a new curriculum initiative named "Target Oriented Curriculum" has been introduced since 1993. This new initiative emphasizes clearly defined learning objectives and outcomes. In the drafted curriculum for 2001, the new topic of "Probability" and the uses of calculators and computers are introduced. This paper elaborates the changes and discusses their implications for pre-service and in-service mathematics teacher education.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) provides training to students who wish to pursue their career in teaching. The authors, computer literacy lecturers, would like to find out if there is any difference between the expectation and perception of the computer knowledge students should possess in order to be competent junior secondary computer subject teacher. The authors would also compare the computer knowledge required with the present Computer Literacy curriculum and suggest amendment if necessary. A questionnaire was distributed to student teachers of Northcote Campus before and after teaching practice in 1996. The questions were grouped under basic computer knowledge, Logo programming, computer applications and others. Student teachers regarded all the computer knowledge as important. They gave highest regards to Logo programming, followed by computer applications, basic computer knowledge and others before teaching practice. However, after teaching practice, student teachers gave lower regards to all categories of computer knowledge except for the topics included in the"others" categories. It might be due to the anxiety they had before teaching practice and they found the reality was not so demanding. Student teachers found that computer applications were more important than the knowledge of Logo programming after teaching practice. The importance of other computer knowledge remained unchanged. It could be due to the fact that not all schools required student teachers to teach Logo programming to their junior form secondary school students. Although the importance for most topics in the"others" category had decreased, there was a slight increase of importance in the topic of artificial intelligence, computer organization, database programming, objected oriented programming language, operating systems and systems analysis and design. The present HKIEd curriculum has covered all the topics in basic computer knowledge, Logo programming and computer applications