Hong Kong has long been using high stakes examinations in the education system. High stakes tests are product-oriented which is less helpful for learning. In recent years in particular, Hong Kong would like to make a change to its examination system. The government sees that school-based assessment (SBA) can bring about many educational benefits. It can help reduce examination pressure and helps improve teaching and learning. Subsequently, a much wider use of SBA has recently been added to the assessment system as one important aspect of the assessment reform. The new initiatives have been received by the education sector in different ways. A study was thus conducted to understand how teachers responded to the new initiatives. About a hundred secondary school teachers were invited to complete a questionnaire. Analysis of the quantitative data revealed that teachers generally felt that SBA was beneficial to teaching and learning. However, the qualitative data showed that teachers perceived a lot of difficulties associated with SBA. To make SBA in Hong Kong a success, a lot of issues will need to be addressed. These will be reported and discussed during the presentation.

As part of a package of measures designed to enrich the English language learning environment in Hong Kong schools, the government has recruited up to 700 native-speaking teachers of English (NETs) to join the predominantly non-native speaking Chinese staff teaching English in the local secondary schools. To get an accurate assessment of the operation of the NET scheme, an evaluation project entitled The Monitoring and Evaluation of the Native-speaking English Teacher Scheme (MENETS) was commissioned by a language and research funding body of the government. This large scale research project, involving some 100 schools, employs three major methods to achieve its investigative purposes: assessments, questionnaires, and case studies. In this paper, the presenter will focus on the quantitative measurement of the ESL learners' spoken & written language production before and after increased exposure to a native speaker model.

In recent years, educators in Hong Kong have raised concerns about the examination culture that pervades the school system. Their arguments have focused on the detrimental effect that examination preparation has on student learning, and they advocate the introduction of less formal alternative practices that promote assessment for learning. The government, prompted by the impact of globalization and new technology on the economy that demand a more sophisticated workforce, has encouraged schools to adopt these new approaches to assessment. However, early indications suggest that there is considerable resistance to these moves from teachers and parents. Teachers tend to have difficulty in assimilated the new philosophy of assessment into their pedagogical beliefs and practices, while parents are concerned that informal assessment will undermine the value of standard, formal testing as a fair and objective means for determining social advancement. This paper discusses these tensions and presents a small-scale study that provides insights into current assessment practices in the classroom. It concludes that, given the tensions, informal assessment for learning needs to be implemented gradually in Hong Kong to ensure acceptance and sustainability.
[Copyright © 2012 North-West University.]

This symposium presents four case reports of an action research project conducted by teacher educators to investigate the relationship between teaching within the Hong Kong Institute of Education and the practical context in school classrooms in Hong Kong. Each presenter shares the background, rationale, theoretical framework, research design, modes of inquiry and findings based on data collected from teaching a selected teacher preparation course or in authentic classroom situations. The interactions and reflective dialogue among team members and student-teachers of diversified background have established a collaborative culture in developing effective means of linking theories and beliefs into the practical context of schools. These best practices through action research have formed a sustainable process of inquiry transferable and adaptable to other teacher educators aspired to advance in their professional career.

Classrooms nowadays are exemplified by student diversity. Students may differ in, for example, motivation, learning style, aptitude, cultural background, social economic states, and past learning experience. As students’ learning needs are becoming increasingly diverse, a new challenge is to look for ways that address their needs. Assessment is one useful way to help teachers deal with classroom diversity. Teachers can use assessment strategies to identify different learning needs and to improve teaching and learning. This subsequently leads to a consideration of two critical issues with the first one being how teachers can plausibly identify classroom diversity and the second being how useful are the assessment strategies they use to cater for the identified diversity. This paper presents and discusses the findings of an investigation into the assessment strategies that teachers used to identify classroom diversity and the assessment strategies teachers used to deal with the identified diversity. About one hundred Hong Kong teachers were interviewed, revealing that the teachers used a number of assessment strategies to assist them in understanding students’ diverse needs and that the teachers seemed to be more interested in identifying those students who needed help academically rather than in their needs in the social and affective domains.

School-based assessment (SBA) can bring about many educational benefits. Ideally, it helps reduce examination pressure and helps improve teaching and learning. In Hong Kong, a much wider use of SBA has recently been added to the assessment system as one important aspect of the assessment reform. This paper will first give an overview of different SBA practices. It will then look at SBA in Hong Kong at policy level and discuss the challenges for its successful implementation.