There currently is a very vibrant discussion about international trends in education. A ripple effect is influencing common new government initiatives in mainstream schools around the world. This paper suggests that whilst such initiatives have excellent government led policy support, special schools are open to absorb what they can. These initiatives are frequently ignored as special schools seek to cope with the special needs challenges. These new internationally recognised initiatives will require teachers to appreciate the need for a paradigm shift to change their prevailing pedagogical practices. Special school education must match these trends for they can offer exciting new understandings of student ability if the teachers can appreciate and apply the principles of individual self-determination rather than dealing with the shroud of disability. It is time for a paradigm shift in the pedagogy of special education. Copyright by Special Education Society of Hong Kong Limited. All Rights Reserved.

The current New Senior Secondary curriculum was implemented in Hong Kong in 2009. This educational reform promotes a paradigm shift in learning and teaching strategies, with the ultimate goal to prepare secondary school students for meeting the changing needs of the workplace and for lifelong learning. This paper reports empirical findings by investigating the impact of such a paradigm shift in education on student learning through comparing the perceptions of different stakeholders (i.e., school heads, teachers and students). The data were collected from a self-reported questionnaire, involving 91 secondary schools, 1,439 school heads, Key Learning Areas coordinators/panels heads, Secondary 6 teachers, and 4614 Secondary 6 students. Key findings are: (1) seven dimensions of student learning were identified (in terms of generic skills, personal growth and well-being, values and attitudes) and these are regarded as the important paradigm shift in the secondary education curriculum; (2) school heads were more optimistic than Key Learning Areas coordinators/panel heads and frontline teachers about the performance of Secondary 6 students; and (3) Secondary 6 students had a more positive outlook than their teachers regarding world views, pluralistic views, communication skills, critical thinking and creativity. Implications and recommendations are discussed.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Journal of Education is the property of Routledge.]

The development of inclusive education practices have led to worldwide discussion of how best to deliver a more equal education apportunity for all. In Hong Kong this has led to the development of the concept of an inclusive curriculum for special schools. This paper looks at the implications of writing an inclusive curriculum that has common curriculum content for all pupils that is based on the State curriculum. Over a four year period, nine special schools for pupils of different designated disability collectively pooled their resources to work for one common curriculum goal. In doing so they discovered that the biggest challenge was to the teacher's hearts and minds. Over 130 teachers were involved in the project. It required a significant paradigm shift in the way the teachers thought both about what they taught and how they taught. It required a common team effort within and across each school. It was apparent that providing equal opportunity to raise standards of education for the all the pupils required the recognition that every teacher had to change their way of thinking, every teacher matters. 全納教育的發展及實踐已引發了全球性的討論，討論焦點為如何為所有學生提供平等教育機會的最佳方法。在香港，一個全納課程的概念正在特殊學校中發展。本文檢視這一套以中央課程為本及以課程內容適合所有學生的原則下發展的全納課程範式及其所涉及的問題。過去四年，九間收納不同弱能類別學生的特殊學校匯聚他們的資源，致力為達致同一課程目標工作。過程中，最大的挑戰來自教師的心能及熱誠。超過130位教師參與這個計劃。這計劃涉及一個重要的範式轉移，教師需要就教學內容及教學方法重新思考。這計劃亦需要學校共同努力。計劃顯示要達到為所有學生提供平等機會及提升教育水平的目的，每一位教師都需要改變他的思維方式︰一位教師都也不能少！
[Copyright of Hong Kong Special Education Forum is the property of Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
https://sites.google.com/a/seshk.org.hk/seshk-org-hk/c_publication]

Since the political handover in 1997, there has been a chain of reform initiatives aiming at enhancing the quality of educational services in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Such episodes include the issuing of a report on quality school education measures, the promulgation of a new set of education aims and the impending education reform to bring forth life-long learning. Together these would substantially transform the landscape of education in Hong Kong. This paper aims at reviewing the changing lanscape of Hong Kong's education. Particularly, the paper would explore the following: 1) the degree of continuity and change as represented in the current development 2) the paradigm shift in education especially with respect to the meaning of learning, the role of teachers and schools and the sort of personality we want to build up for the future. At the end, the paper will also point out the potential risks we need to guard against in this change period.