Inclusive education has been promoted in primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong since the 1990s, and it has now spread to pre-primary education. Without qualified teachers and sufficient resources, however, it is difficult to implement inclusion in early childhood settings. This case study investigated how inclusive education was practised in an ordinary kindergarten in Hong Kong with a focus on its benefits and challenges. Two children with special educational needs, their teachers and parents, the learning support team members, and the school principal were involved in the study, which included the triangulation of observations, interviews, and documentation analysis. The results indicated that (1) the chosen kindergarten demonstrated a variety of inclusive practices and (2) although there were some problems and difficulties, all of the participants interviewed showed positive attitudes towards the inclusive programme. The implications and challenges of implementing inclusion in Hong Kong early childhood settings are discussed.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge.]

A SCERTS model-based intervention with different durations (5-month vs. 10-month) was provided to 122 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (age = 53.43 ± 9.05 months) in Hong Kong. Before and after the intervention, the children were assessed with the Chinese Psychoeducational Profile-Third Edition (CPEP-3) and the Developmental Assessment Chart (DAC). Educators and parents expressed their views toward the intervention in focus groups. Results showed that participating children improved significantly in their social communication and emotional behavior after the intervention, as measured by DAC and CPEP-3. Likewise, educators and parents had positive views toward the intervention and noted the children’s improvement. The results suggest that a SCERTS model-based intervention can improve social communication, emotional regulation, and other skills in children with ASD.
[Copyright of Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders is the property of Springer New York LLC. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3649-z]

This study developed and validated an instrument, the Chinese Early Parental Involvement Scale (CEPIS), that can be widely used in both local and international contexts to assess Chinese parental involvement in early childhood education. The study was carried out in two stages: (1) focus group interviews were conducted with 41 teachers and 35 parents in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Teachers and parents were found to hold different perceptions of parental involvement. Responses further revealed that Chinese parents practiced more home-based involvement than preschool-based involvement, and that Chinese parents also have layers of responsibilities that limit their level of involvement in children's early development; (2) items of the CEPIS were developed using focus group responses. To validate the scale, 319 parents were asked to complete the new CEPIS. Results from principal-components factor analyses established that the resultant 26-item CEPIS consists of six parental involvement dimensions. Further analyses revealed that parental involvement differed as a function of parents' marital status and employment status. The major findings, implications and limitations of this research are discussed, together with directions for future research.
[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/10.1080/09669760.2012.743099]

This paper reports the results of a study concerning the expectations for the transition from kindergarten to primary school amongst teachers, parents and children in Hong Kong. It probes the expectations that teachers and parents have about children's competence in five specific areas of child development thought to be essential for a smooth such transition, as well as children's competence in these different developmental areas and their performance upon the transition to primary school. The study's data were obtained through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations, and its results will serve as a reference for evaluation of existing transitional practices and the design of effective transition programmes in the local context. Children's voices and their observed performance during the transition period indicate that they have varied expectations of the transition. Parents, in contrast, have high expectations for their children's academic ability and self-discipline. Both primary school teachers and the parents of kindergartners rank pre-academic skills as the most important developmental area, whereas kindergarten teachers rank them as the least important. Most of the adult respondents in this study agree that a stronger connection amongst kindergartens, primary schools and parents would facilitate a smoother transition to primary school.
[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/10.1080/03004430.2011.569543]

This study examines the perceptions of Chinese students and parents in Hong Kong on homework involvement, assignment type and homework functions. The relationships of homework perceptions to student and parent attributes are also assessed. The sample includes 1393 pairs of students and their parents from 36 primary schools in Hong Kong. Findings of this study show similarities in preference for assignment type across students and parents. Between-group discrepancies are observed in preference for homework involvement and endorsement of homework functions. Moreover, homework perceptions are found to relate to students' and parents' efficacy attributes and involvement behaviour. Findings of this study are discussed in light of the Chinese sociocultural context in Hong Kong. Suggestions are made on the design and use of homework in primary schools by incorporating the views of different stakeholders.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2010.539788]

Many children around the globe are learning English as a foreign language, especially in Asia. Numbers of participants and development of programs are increasing rapidly, as is a commercial testing movement targeted toward assessing this group of young learners. For example, the popular Cambridge Young Learners English test series has had more than 360,000 young testers globally (Cambridge ESOL Examinations, 2004, 2007). Published research on assessment for young learners has focused on developing reliable and appropriate assessment instruments at school or national levels, but little work has focused on the private uses of commercial international language tests for children. Reporting on a 3-year project investigating Hong Kong young learners' participation in commercial international language test taking and preparation, this article explores stakeholders' perceptions on the practice in order to examine the social consequences. The project adopted a multimethod qualitative approach with data including interviews with stakeholders from the education and commercial sectors, classroom observations, participant observation in online parenting forums, and documentary research on media coverage and advertisements. Our findings suggested that in lieu of clear and perceived fairness in their own education system, stakeholders were using language tests as a grassroots movement to gain access to material educational resources.
[Copyright of Language Assessment Quarterly is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2010.537417]