Teachers are the key to any successful educational development or reform and hence teachers' education is always a major aspect to consider in any changes towards quality education. Research and experience world-wide have shown that initial teacher education, no matter how long or how comprehensive, is not sufficient for meeting the career-long needs of teachers, especially for coping with the new challenges brought about by changes and reforms. To keep teachers up-to-date, to help them achieve professional development and meet new challenges for quality education, teacher education has now been widely accepted as a career-long, continuous process, consisting of three distinct stages as depicted by the "Triple-i model". Following the first stage of initial teacher education (first "i"), teachers should be supported throughout their career, both in the first one or two years on entry by "induction" support (second "i"), and continuously thereafter by various forms of "in-service education" (third "i"). To support the systematic planning and provision of induction and in-service education for teachers, a model for an "In-service Education Ladder" has been proposed by the author earlier, based on some earlier research of the author as well as a pilot study of the views of teacher educators at the Institute. This model conceptualized the professional education needs of serving teachers into four major categories: namely, (1) induction, (2) updating and retraining, (3) extension and (4) conversion. Following "induction" needs during the first one or two years of teaching, all teachers possess different ongoing "updating and retraining" and "extension" needs at different stages of their professional career. As they are promoted or as they take up new responsibilities, teachers will have additional "conversion" needs as well. This paper reports on the author's further work on the establishment of the "In-service Education Ladder" for the new millenium, including fine-tuning

The findings of this study reveal those attributes that are considered important for teacher success as perceived by some of the teachers who received the Outstanding Teachers' Award in Hong Kong in the years 1998 to 2002. The teachers chosen had different backgrounds, with respect to their type of school, age, and category of experience. In describing the perceptions of the concept of success, the award winners reveal their understanding of the nature of teachers as professionals and their conception of professionalism. The findings shed light on the different perspectives that were held by teachers, namely moral, technical and critical. Relatively speaking, the study shows that greater importance has been attached to the moral perspective. This study can enhance policy makers' understanding of teachers' perceptions of concepts of success. More comprehensive information on teacher success will be provided if the views of other stakeholders, including students, parents, principals and supervisors are all taken into consideration.