In the 2005/2006 academic year, TWGHs Mr and Mrs Kwong Sik Kwan College received a Quality Education Fund (QEF) grant to research ways to develop the critical literacy skills of Hong Kong junior secondary students. The paper describes the programme, which was implemented across the Chinese and English key learning areas, using the Four Resources Model (Freebody and Luke, 1990) as a planning schema. The paper identifies the incidental benefits of developing the critical reader response skills in which students required in the new senior secondary English and Chinese curriculum.
東華三院鄺錫坤伉儷中學於二零零五/二零零六年度獲優質教育基金撥款，在校內推行「校本讀思維計劃」，旨在探討和發展有效的教學策略和資源，以助初中學生發展閱讀、寫作和批判性思維的能力。本文旨在報告這計劃之進度，並討論語文教師在面對課程改革時，應如何適應課程中的新元素，並指出學校需從初中開始培養學生批判思考能力，以迎接未來新高中課程的需求與改變。
[Copyright of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre at http://www.edb.org.hk/hktc]

This article reports on both writers' experiences as participants in a collaborative action research project in Hong Kong. The article draws a distinction between teachers as research consumers and teachers as research producers. The authors suggest that active teacher agency in research is a positive element in the professional development of English teachers. Teachers primarily become research producers through involvement in some form of action research project. Although action research is increasingly recognized as a teacher competency in Hong Kong, it is nevertheless difficult for teachers to initiate and conduct when research is not seen as a core professional activity by their school with subsequent limited support. The authors view collaboration with professional researchers as a positive way for teachers to be apprenticed into the research process. The article ends by suggesting possible strategies that would support and encourage teachers to undertake research.
[Copyright of English Teaching: Practice & Critique is the property of Universidad del Zulia.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/research/journal/index.php?id=1]

Addressing the needs of students with learning difficulties in the mainstream English classroom in Hong Kong is a major challenge for a range of reasons, including a lack of research into the topic. This narrative suggests that such students are likely to be experiencing difficulty in a number of subject areas, and that a collaborative approach is an effective way of designing strategies to help them. This narrative further reports on an action research project, which has begun the task of developing strategies to meet the needs of this group of students and their teachers.
[Copyright of English Teaching: Practice & Critique is the property of Universidad del Zulia.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/research/journal/index.php?id=1]