Education is a caring enterprise. As human beings we want to care and to be cared for. Caring is important in itself (Nodding, 2000, p7). When we discuss teaching and teacher-learner relationship, it is important to see that teachers not only have to create caring relations in which they are the carer, but that they have a responsibility to help their students develop the capacity to care (Nodding,1992, p.18). Teaching is a caring profession, children are likely to achieve more of they are valued and cared for. In school, children create discipline problems that can be solved by a caring teacher. In a caring classroom, children learn more and response to group more. The overview of the Generic Teacher Competencies Framework of the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications (2003) pointed out that pastoral care for Students as one of key dimensions in the Student Development Domain. In light of the recommendations of the report, this small-scale research examined the views of caring on student teachers at the Hong Kong Institute of Education through questionnaire survey. Major findings indicate that about 90% of student-teachers considered the following characteristics are essential for caring teachers: keen understanding of child development, having good communication skills, guiding children in social problem solving, fond of school children, and enjoy participation of activities with children. Moreover, within the twenty-four response items in the questionnaire on caring teachers, the following five are rated as more important than others in the teaching process: respect every pupil, care about needs and safety of pupils, teach pupils to be responsible for their own behavior, earn the trust of pupils, and develop a good teacher-pupil relationship. In addition, a case-study was used to ascertain the notion of caring of a student-teacher before, during and after her teaching practice. In her narratives and in-depth reflection, the student-teacher showed

The twenty-first century is a period of educational reform, of which school improvement has been one of the strategies for successful change stressed by various entities. Under the foremost notion of schools’ quality assurance and improvement, different places in the world have marked the significance of performance assessment on early childhood education. In Hong Kong, the previous Education and Manpower Bureau launched a “Voucher Scheme” for early childhood education in 2007. The Scheme requires participating kindergartens to undertake a self- and external- evaluation in order to strengthen their quality assurance mechanism, and to make the education more accountable to parents and society. Making use of a local school as an illustration, this paper presents and discusses the case under the “School-based Quality Improvement Scheme” organized by the Centre for Early Childhood Research and Development of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The main support depicted in the case will adopt the “Performance Indicators Framework of the Hong Kong Early Childhood Education” as a theoretical and practice reference on discussions. The plan, process and outcomes of the Improvement Scheme on the case under studied will also be briefly introduced.