香港教育政策的擬訂及執行，長久以來都是由政府主導、學校執行。從行政的角度來說，這是追求效率的一個做法；但從另一個角度來看，政策制訂的過程却忽略了基層﹝或可說是學校層面﹞的參與，甚至一俟政策制成，便匆匆按既定的時間表推出，導致政策的執行遇上不少的障礙，罔顧政策執行結果的質素和實際執行的效能。本文就上述問題作了一個綜合分析，並引用英國一些教育改革運動的經驗，與香港現行教育政策推行的成效作出比較，從而對如何有效執行教育改革提出一些啟示。
[Copyright © 1998 Hong Kong Policy Research Institute.]

In the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Co-operating Teacher Scheme (CTS) is an important element of the School Experience. Its aims are to let students obtain various forms of support as they first enter the school, progressively learn about a teacher's work and progressively develop professional ability and reflective skills and habits. It was implemented in the initial primary teacher education programmes in 1994. The focus of the present study is to view from the perspective of student-teachers and study what they have really learned from the CTS; how they perceived the relative effectiveness or importance of different phases of the scheme; how they perceived the difference between the roles of the co-operating teacher and the practicum tutor. In the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Co-operating Teacher Scheme (CTS) is an important element of the School Experience. Its aims are to let student teachers obtain various forms of support as they first enter the school; progressively learn about a teacher's work and progressively develop professional ability and reflective skills and habits. The study was conducted within a month after the completion of the CTS. There are quantitative and qualitative components. From the list of 130 schools participating in the Scheme in 95-96, eighty schools were selected randomly. School heads and co-operating teachers were invited to complete a questionnaire. At the same time, in the Institute 71 practicum tutors and 707 student teachers also completed a questionnaire. Futermore, 6 school heads, 12 co-operating teachers, 10 practicum tutors and 10 student teachers were interviewed in order to collect information in addition to that obtained from the questionnaire. The present paper only focuses on the data obtained from the student teachers in order to study the CTS as a learning experience from the perspective of student teachers. From the data of the questionnaire, on the whole, the student teachers supported the implementation

It is noticed that up till 1997-98 academic year, there are only 200 primary schools which is approximately 23% of the total number of primary schools of Hong Kong, joining the School Management Initiative (SMI) Scheme since its first initiation in 1992. Referring to the SMI handbooks and other related reports, a well organized staff development and appraisal system is very significant in the effective management of schools. However, the main concern of this paper is not focussing on why not many schools join SMI scheme. Instead, this paper describes a qualitative case study of three Hong Kong primary schools, aiming at revealing the present situation of staff development and appraisal practices implementing in HK primary schools. Researchers also want to study how school practitioners, especially from the views of the people in the frontier, i.e. the heads (the manager), the senior teachers (the middle manager) and the teachers (the staff) value and act in the whole staff development and appraisal programmes. In the study, researchers have interviewed 3 school heads, 9 senior teachers and 12 teachers. The three sample schools are chosen by convenience but the interviewees are selected by ramdom sampling. The experience explored in the study is hoped to have some important implications to the effective management, especially in the areas of staff development and appraisal practices in primary schools of Hong Kong.

School-based Management (SBM) is regarded as the centrepiece of the current educational reforms which aims to enhance quality of education since 1980s (Caldwell & Spinks, 1992; Cheng, 1996b; Gamage, 1996; Wong, 1995). To enhance quality culture, flexibility, transparency and accountability, the policy-makers introduce a new school management reform policy, entitled “The School Management Initiative (SMI)”, to Hong Kong schools in 1991. Mr. Tung Chee-hwa, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), even announced in his policy address (Tung, 1998) that all schools should practise SBM by 2000. With reference to the latest SMI report, there are altogether 43% secondary schools and 23.3% primary schools practising SBM in 1997-98 academic year. The implication shows that many schools need to join the new initiative within two years time. Why is there a huge gap in between the policy and the front line? In order to have a closer look at how people interact and how these effects affect the promotion of school improvement in the change process, a small scale research with a stratified sample of nine aided primary schools was conducted in May, 1998. The result of the findings demonstrated some important implications that effective leadership, collegiality, healthy interpersonal relations are essential to accelerate the effectiveness of the school management scheme which can enhance the quality of school education of Hong Kong as a whole.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education]

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.]