This research project investigated the learning strategies of junior secondary students in Hong Kong ESL classrooms. A total of 132 Form One to Form Three students from 56 schools were studied, observed and interviewed: data were collected accordingly. Students were categorized into "successful" language learners and "unsuccessful" language learners according to their English language academic achievement. Data findings from this research showed that the "successful" language learners employ meta-cognitive strategies more frequently than the "unsuccessful" ones. They tended to plan, evaluate and reflect more on their approach to language learning and ways to improve their English. The two groups did not show a significant difference in group work mode of learning, yet, the "successful" language learners preferred to work on his / her own more. The level of father's education was found to be associated with the type of learning strategies used by students, however, gender did not seem to affect the choice of learning strategies. These findings have important implications for language teachers in helping their students develop effective language learning strategies.

This article describes the development and research process to support Hong Kong primary school pupils in constructing understanding of the motion of the Earth with integration of information technology in teaching and learning. The design of the research mainly addresses the call for further integration of information technology into the learning and teaching process as enshrined in the second Information Technology in Education strategy in Hong Kong, as well as to support teachers in the design of inquiry learning for the new General Studies lessons. A web-based learning unit is developed with consideration of inquiry learning and integrating IT in teaching and learning. Analysis of different ways of teaching with the web-based learning unit in primary classrooms is reported, and comparison of pre-lesson test and post-lesson test are conducted to study pupils' learning outcome.

The Primary English Language Curriculum Guide (CDI, 2004) promotes 'the use of a range of language arts materials such as songs, rhymes, poems, tongue twisters and plays' to provide opportunities for learners to 'give expression to real and imaginative experiences' (p. 178), develop 'cultural awareness and generic skills, in particular, critical thinking skills and creativity' and 'interest and a positive attitude towards learning a second language.' (p. 179). However, it is a long-established practice for the majority primary language teachers of Hong Kong to adopt the 'teaching the textbook' approach, which does not allow for a lot of creative or innovative teaching and hence it does not facilitate the implementation of the proposed curriculum innovations. Teachers who wish to support the innovations often find it difficult to change their existing beliefs and practices due to their lack of conceptual understanding and appropriate instructional strategies of language arts. This practical session presents the application of a few relatively 'new' and 'challenging' language arts activities such as reader's theatre and drama to develop the language competence and the instructional strategies of practicing teachers who undertook a Language Arts module of a professional development programme. Recorded performances will also be shown to supplement discussion.

Lesson Study' is an approach to improving teaching, with very good effects on learning outcomes in Japan. This systematic process, as implemented in Hong Kong, draws on Ference Marton's theory of variation in teaching/learning, and involves teacher collaboration in a cycle of 'research lessons' to continuously refine one lesson on a selected topic. The approach is potentially empowering for all participants, not only teachers, and is more 'bottom-up' than most other processes of curriculum change. This paper is a report of one Lesson Study across one year, in the English department of one English-medium secondary school. The paper describes the successes and failures of this process, with video evidence where appropriate. The paper then evaluates learning outcomes at several participant levels. Specifically, student outcomes were positive to a large extent, with one surprising deficit; and teacher/teacher educator outcomes exhibited considerable variation, posited as involving personal, cognitive and affective factors. The paper finally evaluates the suitability of the lesson study approach to language teaching, raising issues concerning alternative models of pedagogical grammar, for example, which might facilitate this potentially powerful tool for change.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Government (HKSAR) has been encouraging the teaching professionals at all levels to apply Information Technology (IT) in education. The general public usually connects IT in education with computer-assisted instruction (CAI), computer-assisted learning (CAL), and information search in the internet. In fact, IT can bring in other advantages such as developing a continuous and dynamic approach to educational testing. At present, the common practice of paper-and-pencil testing (P&P) is that all examinees are arranged to receive the same set of test questions at the same time-slot. One of the major shortcomings of this arrangement is that competent examinees may waste time to answer simple questions while low ability examinees may face challenging questions that could destroy their confidence in the subject. This practice is actually against a very basic educational principle: catering for individual needs. With the availability of powerful personal computers and the advancement of psychometric measurement, tailoring tests to individual's ability becomes much easily realized. A system that delivers tailor-made tests for individuals using computer with certain item selection program is called Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT). As CAT has many advantages over the traditional P&P, it is becoming prevalent in many advanced countries. However, CAT also has shortcomings. For example, it cannot measure certain kinds of mathematics abilities. This paper will describe the general background and the current development of CAT and particularly will discuss in more details the potentials and limits of using CAT for Mathematics assessment.

In Hong Kong, teachers usually use highly complicated software packages to do simple tasks. This phenomenon is largely due to the habitual use of pirated software and the lack of suitable software for teachers. This article investigates the proper strategies fro producing simple computer tools for local teachers, in order to make daily teaching tasks easier and student demonstrations more effective.