This article briefly examined the development and reforms of education for students with disabilities worldwide in the last 50 years and that of Hong Kong in the last 3 decades. It addressed the significant progress seen in Hong Kong and called for the need to install systems of transition planning and post-secondary support services that are currently absent in Hong Kong. Benefits of having these systems were discussed, drawing overseas examples in countries such as the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia where students with disabilities participate in and are accommodated at all levels of education. It was emphasized that the massive education reforms aiming at transforming the entire education system into a flexible system to accommodate diverse learners and promote lifelong learning for all would have been a perfect platform to address such gaps and issues. The conclusion of the paper calls for discourse and collaboration among relevant stakeholders toward a more inclusive and holistic reform.
[Copyright © 2009 The Hong Kong Special Education Society.]

A principal consideration in recent cross-sector educational reforms in Hong Kong is ensuring that undergraduate programmes prepare students for the future workplace, a factor that has made the capstone a central feature of the new four-year curriculum. This paper discusses a study that explored the final-year student experience based on a final-year project (FYP). Both recent graduate and final-year student feedbacks reveal some uncertainty and a lack of confidence over successful transition that graduates attribute to an overtly research focus in the current design of FYPs. Inviting comment from senior academics allows a fuller picture of the rationale behind, and administrative considerations in, conducting a capstone experience. This formative study highlights specific features in designing a capstone experience and the need for academic engagement in order to support the desired outcome of graduate employability.
[Copyright of Higher Education Research & Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2013.841646]

Research on school improvement tends to assume that school improvement is a school-wide process. Nonetheless, some researchers have also proposed that secondary schools are comprised of subcultures centered on subject area departments. It has further been suggested that variations in the sociocultural organization of subject departments could produce differential results in the learning outcomes of students. To date, however, few empirical studies have examined the leverage offered by this perspective. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing changes in the learning outcomes of subject departments over a 3-year period as compared with patterns of whole school improvement in 47 Hong Kong secondary schools. The results support the proposition that theory, research, and practice on secondary schools will benefit from viewing their improvement from a perspective that takes into account the diversity of department-level conditions and learning outcomes.
[Copyright of School Effectiveness and School Improvement is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2014.882848]

This paper analyses how the impact of international student achievement studies and the recent economic crisis in Europe are influencing the development of educational policy transfer and borrowing, from East to West. This is contrasted with education reform movements in East Asia, which have long legacies of borrowing from so-called 'progressive' discourses in the West. England and Hong Kong are used as case studies. Since 2010, England's coalition government has prioritised its determination to look to jurisdictions like Hong Kong to inspire and justify reforms that emphasise traditional didactic approaches to teaching and learning. In contrast, Hong Kong's reforms have sought to implement practices related to less pressured, more student-centred lifelong learning, without losing sight of strengths derived from its Confucian heritage culture. Conclusions highlight factors that underpin English interest in Hong Kong education policy, values and practice and point to the need for further attention to be given to these multidirectional and often contradictory processes by researchers concerned with the study of policy transfer.
[Copyright of Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2014.928508]

The survey compared the scores of 159 (118 females) randomly selected Brunei and Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region) student teachers on the New General Self-efficacy Scale (NGSS); Self-efficacy in Implementing Inclusive Practices Scale (SIIPS); Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education Scale (SACIES); and Inclusive Classroom Setting Scale (ICSS). The scales were reliable and valid for use with participants in both countries. Females scored significantly higher on NGSS than male counterparts. In addition, Brunei participants scored significantly higher on NGSS and SACIES than Hong Kong peers. Furthermore, the samples' scores differed significantly on NGSS and SACIES by participants' educational level with A-Level trainees scoring highest. Moreover, the majority of the participants generally scored high on all the scales. However, Two-Way ANOVA revealed only one independent variable (ICSS) with a significant main effect on SIIPS, the dependent variable. Also only one lower-order interaction variable (gender and educational level) had a significant joint effect on the dependent variable, SIIPS. Overall, the results indicate a need to increase self-efficacy in males and Hong Kong students. Extra attention and interventions ought to be directed to SACIES and ICSS variables. Mixed-methods research was recommended to gain more comprehensive insights.
[Copyright of Asian Social Science is the property of Canadian Center of Science and Education. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/]