Mentoring as a time-honored and effective mode of training and teaching is briefly reviewed, highlighting the valuing of the mentoring relationship in educating gifted and talented youths in Chinese history. The current development of mentorship programs for gifted students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong is explained with examples from the search for potential mentors within the university community, and the development and operation of the mentorship program of Chinese creative writings for Hong Kong students. Future directions in the development of mentorship programs for gifted students using reformation technology and peer mentors in double mentoring are discussed, and a model of three levels of mentoring encompassing telementoring, double mentoring, and one-to-one mentoring is suggested.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02783190009554072]

Mentoring may be seen as a process that helps student teachers become professional teachers. In this context, a variety of significant roles played by mentors have been identified in the literature. This paper reports on mentors' perceptions of the most important roles selected from a given list, as revealed through questionnaire and interview data. This analysis forms part of a large-scale evaluative project of a school-university partnership scheme initiated by the University of Hong Kong. The findings indicate overwhelming attention given to the role of 'provider of feedback', which stresses the provision of pragmatic advice given to student teachers according to their personal strengths and weaknesses. However, for those mentors whose perception of the most important role had changed over time, the direction of change was towards roles such as 'counselor', 'equal partner' and 'critical friend', which emphasize a more relational aspect of working together with student teachers to achieve professional development.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598660500286267]

Substantial, broad and varied benefits can be gained from mentoring; however, the key to successful mentoring lies in the mentor/mentee relationship. The present study investigated the dimensions in the mentoring relationships that foster or impede the mentoring process between four kindergarten principals and four student-teachers in Hong Kong. The findings of the study support the view that relationship-building is critical in the mentoring process. The dimensions that may sustain an effective mentoring relationship appear to be a high comfort level, trust, openness, ongoing support, regular communication, and the mentors' expertise and level of commitment.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443022000022404]

During 2001-2002 the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong undertook a large-scale evaluation of the school-university partnership scheme. As part of this study, all mentors were asked how, if at all, the mentoring process had enhanced their own professional development. An open-response questionnaire was administered with a selection of follow-up interviews. About 70% of the mentors claimed that they had benefited professionally from mentoring. Here we analyse mentors' responses and from them propose four constructs that we suggest lead to professional development, namely: learning through self-reflection, learning from student teachers, learning through mutual collaboration, and learning from university tutors. Of these, the first appears to be the most significant.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607470500043532]

This study examines the theory‐and‐practice connection model in mentor preparation in the context of two mentor preparation programmes in Hong Kong. The 30‐ and the 60‐hour mentoring support development (MSD) programmes share a common conceptualization of mentoring—with the improvement of teaching and learning as the core of mentoring—yet they differ in objectives, duration and the mentoring practice settings in which structured practical work occurs. This enquiry addresses how the theory‐and‐practice connection model contributes to the construction of professional knowledge in mentoring and the development of mentoring practices in schools. It was found that the organization of curriculum components, such as coursework (e.g., skills of lesson analysis and conferencing), and structured practical work in mentoring, facilitated the connection of the theory and practice of mentoring. In addition, mentor trainees (practising school teachers) developed competence in mentoring through integrating research‐based knowledge and knowledge that grew out of their own mentoring experience. Finally, suggestions for the design of mentor preparation programmes and workplace conditions that facilitate mentoring in schools are discussed.
[Copyright of Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13611260500206002]

Kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong are blamed for not putting child-initiated learning theory into practice. Their competence is challenged. An earlier study ( Li, 2003 ) suggested that the professional development of kindergarten teachers was limited by their inability to extend thinking beyond their own personal concerns so that the needs of the children were not the major determinant of their classroom practice. It was argued that to confront and modify the teachers' personal beliefs the presence of models, action research and joint collaborative activity were the keys. This report was a follow-up study of a school-based project, providing opportunities for teachers to engage in collaborative investigation of school curriculum and of pedagogical innovations. In this study, the practice and belief of a group of around 60 teachers were tracked during their participation in the project and the merits of peer coaching, mentoring and collaborative teamwork were examined. Classroom observations and semi-structured interviews (40-60 minutes) were adopted as the main research procedure. Teaching records, videoed teaching episodes and feedback on project workshops were sources of data collected for triangulation. The findings of the study suggest that collegiality holds some promise for change in teachers' practice, though questions concerning the constancy of change are of concern.
[Copyright of International Journal of Early Years Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966976042000225534]