In recent years, the Government of the Hong Kong SAR has allocated considerably more attention and resources to pre-primary education. This chapter considers how these changes at the policy and pedagogy levels are shaping the learning experiences of young children in Hong Kong. It will focus on the impact of the following four broad policy changes initiated in the last decade: the implementation of the Guide to the Pre-primary curriculum; the adoption of the biliterate and trilingual language policy; the enactment of a new quality assurance process; and the introduction of the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS). It was assumed that the implementation of these policies would enhance the preschool and home learning experiences of young children. However, after one decade of implementation of these measures, studies have shown that: (1) preschool teachers still encounter difficulties in implementing child-centred teaching approaches and are likely to continue to adopt teacher-directed instruction or product-oriented pedagogy; (2) there are problems associated with the implementation of the trilingual language policy; (3) there are still wide variations in preschool quality despite the new quality assurance processes; and (4) the PEVS has resulted in some middle-families using the extra disposable income to enrol their children in additional academic classes rather than more play-based extra-curricular activities. Against the background of these research findings, this chapter argues that the changing role of the State, teacher characteristics and traditional Chinese beliefs should be adequately considered for an understanding of the early learning experiences of young Chinese learners in Hong Kong. Preschool education in Hong Kong has not necessarily become more child-centred as teachers have difficulties implementing developmentally appropriate teaching. On the other hand, the government has allocated more resources in enhancing the quality of early childhood

Given the strong worldwide trend of internationalisation of higher education, what implications can be drawn from the ongoing progress for research development, policy improvement and practical innovation in higher education? Based on international literature, this chapter will review and discuss the complicated nature of higher education internationalisation and propose a conceptualization matrix to capture its major characteristics. A typology of higher education development will also be proposed to illustrate how internationalisation is related to the future directions and scenarios of higher education development in Hong Kong and beyond. It is hoped that both the development typology and conceptualization matrix can help policy makers, educators, researchers, social leaders and change agents to understand the related issues of internationalisation of higher education in a wider context. Taking Hong Kong as a case in the fast-developing Asia-Pacific region, this chapter will also introduce the key features of the book composed of three parts with ten chapters which provide comprehensive studies with quantitative and qualitative empirical evidence and diverse perspectives to analyse and review the key issues and challenges in different aspects of the internationalisation of higher education. It aims to draw implications and recommendations for future developments in both Hong Kong and international communities.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.]

This article reports the results of a case study involving two ethnic Chinese students, one from Malaysia and one from Indonesia, who chose to pursue higher education in Hong Kong. By placing the students at the centre of an investigation of the social, political, economic and educational contexts of their home countries and host territory, the study sought to gain a holistic understanding of cross-border mobility. The findings suggested that the students’ personal backgrounds and dispositions mediated the external push-pull factors involved in their decisions. The data showed that the two students’ cross-border mobility allowed them to redefine their ethnic identities and create global academic and professional identities. The implications of the purposes of cross-border mobility and methods for examining student mobility are discussed.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.]

This paper aims to explore management practices in school organization for sustaining teacher collective learning by using a quasi-experiment design. Secondary schools in Hong Kong are seeking ways to sustain their development in terms of teaching and learning under the 334 New Senior Secondary Reform. Enhancing teacher professional competency via collective learning is the radical key to developing the capacity of schools for coping with this change. Teacher collective learning is conceptualized as team learning of Sengeûs (1990) Learning organization model which is important for school development and individual professional development. By adopting Sengeûs (1990) five disciplines of learning organization as the theoretical framework, this research study has constructed a path model for providing school administrator practical steps to facilitate teacher collective learning effectively under the reform. 20 aided secondary schools in Hong Kong were selected by cluster sampling. 777 teachers took part in the questionnaire survey. A structural equation model was applied to identify the path model for the five disciplines of Sengeûs learning organization model. Results showed that there are predictive effects of personal mastery and system thinking on team learning, while mental model, shared vision are sequential path predictors of system thinking. A path model for predicting teacher collective learning was validated in this study. Enhancing teacher professional development, nurturing a culture of trust, communicating with professional dialogue, negotiating a shared vision and provoking system thinking are recommended to school administrators for sustaining teacher collective learning in coping with the change generated from the reform.

The spread of quality assurance (QA) regimes in higher education has been an explosive phenomenon over the last 25 years. By one estimate, for example, half of all the countries in the world have adopted QA systems or QA regulatory agencies to oversee their higher education sector. Typically, this phenomenon is explained as a process of policy diffusion, the advent of marketization, the spread of neoliberalism, massification and, concomitantly, the emergence of a 'global market' for higher education, prompting governments to respond by validating standards, quality, and introducing certification and compliance regimes. In this paper I question the utility of these explanatory frameworks, specifically looking at the case of Hong Kong in order to explore the role coercive institutional isomorphism plays in policy adoption and the implications of this for regulatory performativity.
[Copyright © Elsevier BV].

English is an important language in Hong Kong, an international city located on the southern coast of the People's Republic of China that, for over 150 years to 1997, was a British colony. This paper describes and analyses changes in teaching methodologies in the English language curriculum formally proposed for Hong Kong junior secondary schools from 1975 to the present day, to study how the curriculum developments reflect interrelated social, political, economic, and cultural factors of the period and the ideology in educational circles that was pre-eminent at the time. It finds that, while the rhetoric of the curriculum has changed in accordance with shifts in socio-economic conditions, the curriculum content and pedagogical approaches implemented in the classrooms have proved more constant across time. The paper suggests some explanations for the resultant curricula tensions.
[Copyright © Lulu Press Inc.].

This paper aims to critically reflect on internationalization of higher education in Hong Kong in the light of Beck's thesis of cosmopolitization. While it argues that the existing internationalization process is largely founded on a national perspective, it proposes a cosmopolitan alternative for future development. Alternative here refers to a transnational perspective on global development of higher education. The paper begins with a literature review which exemplifies how cosmopolitanism can be used to examine and rectify the internationalization process in higher education. This is followed by a historical review of internationalization of higher education in Hong Kong. It then turns to examine the main policy initiatives related to internationalization and the corresponding tensions caused. The following section leads us to rethink the mission of internationalization. To conclude, the paper argues that cosmopolitan solution, by giving a cosmopolitan vision, is a way of bringing the educational perspective back to education.
[Copyright © National Academy for Educational Research].

Classroom research suggests teachers can use instructional (cognitive, organizational, and procedural) choices to support student autonomy and promote their engagement in schools. Guided by self-determination theory, this study examined the relationships among these three instructional choices and students' engagement in secondary physical education. Participants were 92 middle school (64 boys, 28 girls; M age = 13.94 years, SD = 0.87) and 83 high school students (29 boys, 54 girls; M age = 17.76 years, SD = 0.94) enrolled in physical education classes at six schools in Hong Kong. They responded to previously established questionnaires on 5-point scales. Results of the study revealed cognitive, organizational, and procedural choices emerged as differential predictors of student engagement in physical education for middle and high school students. Teachers should be aware of this finding while providing students instructional choices in physical education.
[Copyright © ACESS, Asian Council of Exercise & Sports Science].

Purpose: The function of early childhood education (ECE) has shifted from mothering to nurturing child development in Hong Kong. Teaching in kindergartens seems to be more attractive to men nowadays. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issues of male participation in ECE through a case study of a local kindergarten. Design/methodology/approach: A case study methodology was used in the research design and the data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The interviewees all came from a single, case study school, and included the kindergarten principal, head teacher, teachers, both Chinese and foreign nationals, and parents. Findings: The findings of the study indicated that most of the school staff support hiring male teachers in kindergartens and perceive that male teachers play an important role in educating young children. On the other hand, the views of parents who participated in the study were divided. This reflects gender bias on the part of parents. Originality/value: Minimal research on male participation in kindergartens has been conducted in Hong Kong. The findings of the study shed some light on the issues of male participation in ECE in a Chinese context. It is argued that overcoming the low participation of male teachers in ECE will require changes in deeply rooted institutional and management practices. From a wider perspective, providing better career prospects and improving the professional status of kindergarten teachers will attract more men to teach in kindergartens.
[Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited].

In 2009-11, the researchers were engaged in the Basic Law Education (BLE) Project financed by the Quality Education Fund of the HKSAR Government. The project aimed at providing Liberal Studies teachers curricular and pedagogical support in the teaching of the Hong Kong Basic Law, human rights and law-related concepts. As part of the project, the human rights friendly ethos of the participating schools was studied. The research methodology comprised both a questionnaire survey, using the Indicators and Evaluative Checklist for Human Rights Friendly Environment in Schools, and in-depth focus group interviews with groups of students and teachers who had participated in the survey. Human rights education is an important part of civic education in the 21st century and it can best be supported by a human rights friendly school ethos. This paper makes use of the research findings from the study and explores, with the help of a case study, why and how a school can promote a human right friendly school ethos and the complications that may arise. The paper can be of reference value to researchers and civic educators who are interested in human right education. It can also be of help to school leaders and teachers who are trying to develop a human right respecting school environment which is now universally required.
[Copyright © World Education, Science, Research and Counseling Center].