Factors affecting planning effectiveness in Hong Kong self-managing schools are investigated. Questionnaire survey data from teachers, gathered in late 1994 from schools participating in the Phases I & II of the School Management Initiative scheme, are analyzed by principal-components analysis and multiple regression. Flexible planning, teachers’ participation in planning, principal’s support and resource support are found to be significant factors in predicting positive outcomes of planning. The concept of flexible planning is explored and conceptualized in terms of built-in flexibility and flexibility through evaluation. As interactive model, “A self-Managing School Planning Model”, which is responsive, recurrent and flexible in nature, is proposed.

Two teaching departments of a Sixth Form College in Hong Kong with teaching effectiveness are identified by the criteria of students consistently achieving value-added results for the past three years in the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examinations and relatively high students’ satisfaction with the teaching of the departments. Research was conducted to look at possible factors contributing to the teaching effectiveness of the departments. Strong leadership of department heads, outstanding management and good department climate such as high morale, professional interaction and good team work were found to be important factors leading to teaching effectiveness of the departments. Schools should attach importance to the above factors in order to improve teaching effectiveness at the teaching department level and teacher educators should develop skills of potential and serving teachers on leadership, management, and building good working relationship among colleagues.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education]

INTRODUCTION: In Hong Kong, almost all secondary schools adopt the "Class System" to allocate students into different classes. A teacher is assigned to each class as a form teacher of the class. He is responsible for the moral and social life training of the students in the class (Yau and Luk,1986). There are some assigned duties for form teachers and also there are some unofficial duties that are assumed to be taken up by them. Since 1979, the nine-year free-education has initiated a problem in secondary schools. Under this compulsory education system, no matter a student is interested in studying or not, he has to stay in a school until he is 15 years old. That is why there are more and more juvenile delinquency problems happen in secondary schools. The role of a form teacher became more important and his work- load was tremendously increased since then. Besides being a counselor, a form teacher is also vital in the development of the class spirit. Sometimes, a form teacher even takes up the role of parents in caring for the students (Yau and Luk, 1986). From the aspect of the school, a form teacher is expected to act as a bridge between the school, the parents and the class. He is to twin together the strength of the school, the home and the society's education. Besides, as schools nowadays tend to be more administratively individualized, the multi- functional effects of a form teacher must augment his role as a moderator in different functional groups of the school. Thus, a Form Master System is very important in secondary schools education because a form teacher can act as a twist-tie that binds together the community, the home and various departments of the school. He is a moderator in school administration. He is also a front line educator because he can approach the students right away easily. In China, there is a much greater expectation on a form teacher that it may even have a study mainly on "Form Teachers" and a Form teachers' handbook describing their

In Hong Kong, as a result of an education reform, the School Management Initiative (SMI), which started in 1991, formally introduced a teacher appraisal system to the schools. Whereas some criteria for teacher appraisal have been set up, there has not been any clear guideline as to who is going to use them to appraise whom. Addressing this issue, this chapter is based on two recent studies on the purpose of teacher appraisal and approaches for formative and summative appraisal. The chapter concludes with some suggestions for implementing a teacher appraisal system for achieving formative and summative purposes, paying special attention to the roles of appraisers and appraisees as well as relationship between appraisal and professional development.
[Copyright © 2005 Nova Science Publishers.]