The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used to explore the Hong Kong teachers' intentions to implement school-based assessment (SBA) and the predictors of those intentions. A total of 280 teachers from Hong Kong secondary schools who had been involved in SBA were surveyed. Rasch-calibrated teacher measures were calculated for each of the 6 variables – affective and instrumental attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy, knowledge, and intention – regarding SBA. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that instrumental attitude and self-efficacy made significant contributions to predicting intentions to implement SBA. These 2 predictors explained 55.2% of the variance in intentions. The other 3 variables, that is, affective attitude, subject norm, and knowledge, did not have significant predictive power on the formation of intentions to implement SBA. Possible explanations and implications of the findings are discussed.
[Copyright © Routledge].

In Hong Kong, despite the officials' efforts to reform the school curriculum, studies have found that implementation of the proposed changes has been superficial (Yeung, 2006, 2009). Recently, evidence-based school self-evaluation has become a global trend in the school improvement movement. The Education Bureau in Hong Kong has followed this trend and launched a school evaluation policy — School Self Evaluation (SSE) and External School Review (ESR). The pair of evaluation measures was initiated to help schools to evaluate their own effectiveness, to ensure public accountability and to achieve self development (Quality Assurance Division, 2006). This paper shares the findings from a local research, which looks into the perception of the policy by school curriculum leaders and its possible impact on the school curriculum and teachers. The curriculum leaders described both positive and negative effects, potential threats and weaknesses of the school evaluation policy. Specific attention was given to how effective school evaluation in effect makes curriculum reform mandatory. Findings show how the local school curriculum can be controlled by bureaucratic preferences through SSE and ESR, and ultimately lost its ability to deal with diversity. It also shows how such forces impede teachers' professional autonomy and liberty.
[Copyright © Hong Kong Educational Research Association ].

School-based Assessment (SBA) in English Language is a new core component recently included in the Hong Kong university entrance public examination. It goes together with the promotion of an assessment for learning culture, in which enhancing students' learning is the major concern. This initiative marks an important and ambitious change in examination policy and school practice. Besides its assessment function, feedback forms a prominent tool in facilitating student progress in learning. It is important to understand students' perspectives towards feedback as students' ability to learn from feedback relates to their capacity to make sense of and apply feedback to further their learning. This study looks at students' perceptions of feedback in SBA and whether students react to feedback as a means to 'feed-forward'. The data were gathered from forty-five Form 5 (Grade 11) students in 3 schools through student focus groups and semi-structured interview with teachers. Findings suggest that students did not react in the same way to assessment feedback. Not all students had the strategies to effectively collect, organize and use feedback. The findings suggest that it is through mutual construction of achievement and improvement that students can become active participants in the process of classroom assessment and feedback.
[Copyright © Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA)].

Reform initiative towards assessment for learning is a response to a number of developments both in the region and internationally. Teachers play a critical role in the success of its implementation. This study aimed to explore teachers’ attitudes towards the costs and benefits of using reports generated from Rasch measurement to support assessment for learning. The participants were 25 primary school teachers and 24 secondary school teachers. Focus-group interviews were used to collect data on their attitudes towards Rasch measurement. ‘Big ideas’ (Krueger, Analyzing & reporting focus group results. Focus group kit 6. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1998) were identified from the transcripts as a whole. They were then encoded with key phrases and sorted into categories. This study found that Hong Kong teachers in general welcomed Rasch measurement as a powerful alternative to traditional total score method for providing useful and detailed feedback to support and improve student learning, although some of them might be deterred by the contextual and technical problems.

自2001年香港實施大規模的課程改革後，學校評估也相應地改革以配合課改的需要，「促進學習的評估」是其中的改革重點，它對傳統上以考試為主導的評估來說，是重要的改革和挑戰。在意念上，「促進學習的評估」重視評估和學習的關係，側重提升評估的質素，對學校和教師在改善課堂評估方面尤為重要。本文的目的是透過香港六所學校的實施個案，探討有關的評估改革實施，以及學校所面對的挑戰。研究結果顯示，學校在總體發展計畫、具體措施、課堂教學及評估方面，對中央文件所提的「促進學習的評估」都有不同程度的理解和實施。總體上，學校對評估的革新取向，採取由上而下的實施措施，反映學校對評估改革的概念和取向，並未有深入的認識和發展策略，而學校教師在課堂實施方面，仍然以總結性評估為主要的考慮，對知識為主的課堂傳授及測考較為重視，顯示「促進學習的評估」其實施過程遇到不少的困難和挑戰，包括學校實施者對有關理念的重視和理解、學校發展的環境脈絡和困難，以及社會的價值和文化取向等，都不能掉以輕心。
[Copyright © 2010 高等教育文化事業有限公司.]

實行校本評核是香港新高中學制改革的重要一環。雖然數學科校本評核的時間表至今還未落實，但已有不少本地研究結果顯示，數學科教師對校本評核的擬題及建議評核模式甚感徬徨和憂慮，亦懷疑其成效及公平性。在推行數學校本評核方面，英國和澳洲均有豐富經驗。香港建議的評估模式與英國曾使用的方式相近，而澳洲昆士蘭州的校本評核則建基於校本課程的推行，甚具特色。本文將透過分析英國 GCSE 數學科的學科作業和澳洲昆士蘭州校本評核的經驗得失，探討香港數學科校本評核未來的發展方向，以期為有關當局構想的校本評核模式提供改進建議。
[Copyright © 香港中文大學，2012.]