The purpose of this study was to establish the factorial construct validity and dimensionality of the Metacognitive Orientation Learning Environment Scale – Science (MOLES-S) which was designed to measure the metacognitive orientation of science classroom learning environments. The metacognitive orientation of a science classroom learning environment is the extent to which psychosocial conditions that are known to enhance students’ metacognition are evident within that classroom. The development of items comprising this scale was based on a theoretical understanding of metacognition, learning environments and the development of previous learning environments instruments. Four possible hypothesized structure models, each consistent with the literature, were reviewed and their merits were compared on the basis of empirical data drawn from two populations of 1026 and 1223 Hong Kong secondary school students using confirmatory factor analysis procedures. The scale was calibrated using the Rasch rating scale model using data from the 1223 student sample. The results suggest that there is strong evidence to support the factorial construct validity of the MOLES-S but that, on the basis of the Rasch analysis, there are still suggestions for further refinement and improvement of the MOLES-S.
[Copyright © 2004 Journal of Applied Measurement.]

In Hong Kong, the Guidelines on Civic Education for Schools (1996) recommended nationalistic education as one of the five aspects of civic educatioin. As an aspect of civic education, nationalistic education should serve both a cognitive mission of "preparing critical thinking, responsible, participating, multidimensional citizens" and an affective mission of "instilling the sense of national identity, love and loyalty to the nation state and patriotism". These two missions are in potential conflict. In order to achieve both missions, an appropriate balance between cognitive and affective teaching approaches is necessary. Two commonly adopted affective approaches used for the affective function are positive and negative approaches. This paper is an exploratory report of case studies on the use and misuse of affective approaches in nationalistic edcuation by some civic educators in Hong Kong secondary schools. It was found that in-depth and systematic reflection was needed to balance the two potential conflicting missions. Moreover, it was also found that if handled inappropriately, a positive approach might lead to bias and indoctrination while the extreme manifestation of a negative approach might even lead to 'education for hatred'. Both are contradictory to the cognitive function of preparing critical thinking citizens.
[Copyright © 2003 Pacific Circle Consortium for Education.]

This paper aims at identifying and recording good music teaching practices that promote social inclusion, and at developing effective teaching strategies that incorporate student perspectives into the pedagogies. A music teacher in Hong Kong was selected for this study, and two different classes of Form 2 (ages 12-13) were observed. The teaching process was videotaped and reviewed. Afterwards the teacher and a group of students were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview to solicit their ideas towards good practice of music teaching. Findings reveal that the good practices observed were attributed to four factors: 1) teacher’s personality, 2) teacher’s pedagogy, 3) teacher’s musical competence, and 4) teacher’s philosophy of teaching.

A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. First-hand experiences in learning art are very important. In Hong Kong secondary art, teachers must follow the syllabus and examination schedule suggested by the Education Department. Thus, these teachers cannot undertake art projects because they are locked into the structure of the syllabus and the limits of the timetable. This paper investigates two artist-in-residence projects implemented in Hong Kong. One project is an artist based in a secondary school and the other is an artist based in the studio. The paper finds that the students had greater exposure to various artforms and developed new ideas to make their work more creative. The art teachers participated in different activities and gained new ideas and stimulation for teaching. The paper concludes that, through their participation in teaching and exhibitions, the artists made successful contributions to schools and the community.

Research into the teaching and learning of speaking in the ESL context is relatively neglected. There have been only a few studies that addressed the need to incorporate the development of strategic competence into the L2 oral classroom (e.g., Cohen, 1998; Dornyei, 1995; Konishi & Tarone, 2004). This paper will report findings from a strategy interventionist study conducted in the secondary English oral classroom in Hong Kong. Based on a psycholinguistic model of speech processing, eight strategies were identified and introduced to the treatment class in the study. A data collection method comprising stimulated recall interviews and observations that aimed to investigate respectively the learning process (i.e., covert thoughts) and the learning product (i.e., overt speech) was employed. A comparison of the findings between the treatment class and the control class which was not exposed to any strategies-based instruction supports the view that not all strategies are equal and that some are more teachable than the others. Specifically, 'Resourcing' seems to function as a 'bedrock strategy' for young L2 speakers. Possible implications for strategy instruction are made with a view to enhancing the development of strategic competence in the L2 classroom.
[Copyright © 2005 The Asian Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language.]

The Guidelines on Civic Education in School (1996) for Hong Kong recommend that there should be five foci in school civic education, namely education for democracy, human rights education, education for the rule of law, nationalistic education and global education. After the return of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997, Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR) and the SAR government has singled out nationalistic education as the sole focus of civic education. This paper is a report of case studies focusing on the understanding and practice of nationalistic education of three civic educators whose understanding is inclined towards education for totalitarian nationalism in Hong Kong secondary schools, using the concepts of indoctrination. The findings show that because of the teachers' inability to separate the nation from the ruling party and their strong mission of sending a positive image of the party to their students, they have tended to adopt particular teaching strategies, which might suppress the students' ability to reflect critically. According to the criteria of indoctrination, namely relationship, intention, content and teaching method, their teaching approaches tend to be indoctrinatory, rather than educational. This is certainly unacceptable to those who believe education is concerned with the development of independent, critically thinking individuals. Hopefully, this paper will enhance the awareness of the potential indoctrinatory nature of nationalistic education of teachers and shed light on the development of school-based nationalistic education aiming at the cultivation of the 'critical patriot'.
[Copyright © 2004 Symposium Journals Ltd.]

There is always an on going debate on whether nationalistic (patriotic) education is compatible with the practice of civic education with an emphasis on preparing critical thinking citizens. After the return of Hong Kong's sovereignty to the People's Republic of China, the urge to promote nationalistic education within civic education is increasing rapidly as the national identity and sense of belonging to China among Hong Kong people is weak. This paper argues by case studies of some civic educators in secondary school that teachers with an understanding of 'education for totalitarian nationalism' tend to adopt teaching strategies which probably lead to indoctrination -- for example -- the use of biased sources of information, exposure to the 'bright side' only, refraining from discussion of the 'dark side', and restricting divergent views in the teaching of controversial issues. This practice of nationalistic education is contradictory to the aim of civic education to prepare critical thinking citizens.