The influx of new immigrant children accentuated the need of immediate attention to the immigrant education. It was necessary for educators to think about modifying our curriculum to make adaptation for newly arrived children and preparing our teachers to meet this challenge. This research was intended to find out about teachers' perception of new immigrant children and their perception of programs offered to these children. None of the teachers have any pre-service and in-service training in teaching newly arrived children. A total of 145 questionnaires from primary schools in five regions were sent and 99 questionnaires were returned. A quantitative approach was used in the data analysis. Most of the respondents agreed that newly arrived children had adaptation problems and tended to regard 'low English proficiency" as the greatest obstacle to newly arrived children. Consequently, about 99% of the respondents thought that newly arrived children needed the service of "English language course". The general impression was that the present adaptation services for newly arrived children were unsatisfactory.
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This article explores what is currently known about the most effective teaching methods or approaches to be used with students who have special educational needs. Drawing first on the recent meta-analyses of Swanson, Kavale and Forness, the writer highlights methods producing the most impressive improvements. In general, the evidence shows that carefully structured approaches in which students are taught how to learn,combined with high quality direct teaching of curriculum content, have the greatest impact. The article then describes in detail the key characteristics of such approaches, as used in intervention programs and in mainstream teaching.
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The first institution ever set up in Hong Kong to look after children with special needs was a home for the blind in 1863. It was not until 1935 when the first school for deaf children was formally opened. Both establishments were initiated by the missionary organisations operating in Hong Kong. The Key milestone to earmark the beginning of special education services in Hong Kong was the start up of a Special Schools Section within the Government in 1960. The Section was later responsible for the rapid development of special education services in special and mainstream schools. The speedy growth of special education services was a result of other major changes taking place within the local education system. One of these changes was the enactment of 9 years of compulsory education in 1978. This pattern of development of special education services in Hong Kong beginning with services for the sensory impaired children through to other services in mainstream schools after compulsory education is introduced matches well with the framework suggested by Putnam(1979). One can witness these developments by looking further at the categorical changes in classifying children with learning difficulties and the increasing number of students identified to be with special educational needs in Hong Kong over the years since 1960. While the idealism for integrating students with special needs into mainstream schools has been stressed by various policy documents in Hong Kong, yet more categories of schools are created to cater for the specific needs of these students. Amongst these creations is the establishment of Practical Schools with strong practically oriented curriculum to support ummotivated students. This was a recommendation made by the Education commission in their Report No.4 (Education Commission, 1990) to deal with curriculum and behaviour problems in Hong Kong. In 1960, the same year when the Special Schools Section was established, a new type of school called 'Practical

What will go to teachers? Cheers or blame? Glory or Shame? Besides the availability of hardware, the crucial factor that might contribute to the success (or disaster!) of implementing information Technology (IT) policy in Hong Kong's schools rests on frontline workers — teachers. It is supposed that the Government will have plans to train enough competent teachers for the mission. This paper tries to point out that training from external parties is not an ultimate solution to the problem. What keeps the IT training in momentum is from within, that is, from schools' own continuous staff development program. From this perspective, an agenda for staff development program is proposed. A conscious reader may find that there is a hidden agenda in this paper, an agenda to foster partnership, collaborative effort and ambitiously, a learning culture in the school. IT learning is just like any other kind of learning which could be much easier when a learning culture is developed.
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Integrating students with disabilities in ordinary schools has been a topic of debate in the Iast two decades. Inclusive education, in its broader sense, is still in its infancy in Hong Kong. Educational reforms, such as inclusive schooling, depends on teachers' support in implementing the change. Teachers' attitude towards integration and the changes required in schools and classrooms are crucial to the accomplishment of educational reforms. The purpose of this study was to survey classroom teachers' views toward integrating students with disabilities in Hong Kong. Results indicated that the availability of necessary resources, training of teachers, and the suitability of instruction and services were prime concerns for classroom teachers in providing education for students with disabilities. Recommendations for Hong Kong are proposed on considerations given to the above concerns and on legal mandates in providing education for students with disabilities.
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This paper provides a background to the 2 year Pilot Project on Integration completed by the Hong Kong Government in 1999. It considers the implementation of the Project, the difficulties faced by the Government in recruiting schools and the preparation of the participating schools. The paper describes the aims of the Pilot Project in integrating students with disabilities in primary and secondary schools and outlines the methods used by the research team to evaluate the Project. The paper discusses some of the main findings of the evaluation study and considers the central issues and challenges for Hong Kong set against a back cloth of the political changes surrounding the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. A number of recommendations for successful integration strategies for Hong Kong are indicated.
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This study involved 34 female adolescent students attending mathematics classes in a girls' hostel in Hong Kong. The subjects' ages ranged from 12 to 18 years. All students exhibited varying degrees of emotional and behavioural problems, and all experienced learning difficulties in mathematics. The study aimed to discover whether the use of a simple token reward system would increase the students' work output, participation rate, accuracy, and neatness of bookwork during mathematics lessons, and whether the system would also have a positive influence on the girls' attitude toward mathematics. The four-week intervention programme involved the provision of token rewards during lesson time to every girl who showed any improvement in any of the four aspects of learning. Baseline measures were taken over a two-week period before the intervention commenced, and regular measurements were taken during and immediately after the programme. The same measures were taken again four weeks after the reinforcement programme had ended to check for maintenance. The results showed that the use of tokens did lead to significant improvements (in most cases p <.01 or better) in work output, participation rate, accuracy and neatness while the programme was in operation. Performance declined, however, in all but neatness once the tokens were no longer in use. The decline in scores did not regress to the baseline level, but most differences were no longer statistically significant. Very minor attitudinal changes in a positive direction were noted; but only in one case did these reach statistical significance.
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Education is increasingly driven by the concept of quality assurance. Early indications from a Hong Kong project to integrate children with learning difficulties and disabilities into mainstream schools suggest that integration can have a positive impact, both on pedagogy and on the organizational thinking of mainstream schools, offering opportunities for school improvement and quality development.
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This article, while supporting the notion of inclusive education, urges caution in the rate at which the necessary changes take place. The writer acknowledges the important role played by special schools in meeting the needs of students with moderate to severe disabilities, and suggests that special schools must continue to exist in order to provide the full range of placement options. Some of the difficulties involved in implementing inclusive education are discussed, including the demands made upon the regular class teacher, the problem of class sizes in ordinary schools in Hong Kong, and the need for additional professional training with a focus on mixed-ability teaching.
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