School-based assessment of science students' practical skills has two important roles—as a complement to written papers in public examinations and as a catalyst for enriching the science curriculum in schools. This article describes a quantitative study of the concerns chemistry and biology teachers experience as they engage in the process of implementation of a school-based assessment scheme for practical work. A 23-item questionnaire was developed to measure five categories of teacher concern: evaluation, information, management, consequence and refocusing. The nature of each category of teacher concern is discussed in relation to innovation adoption and implementation. Data were collected from 400 chemistry and 412 biology teachers in Hong Kong. Teachers' information and management concerns lessened in intensity when they became experienced users of a school-based assessment scheme. However, teaching experience alone could not motivate teachers to think more about the impact of school-based assessment on student learning, their professional development in student assessment and the possible refinements in their school-based assessment scheme. Concerns-based interventions are suggested to help teachers grow professionally.
[Copyright of Research in Science & Technological Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0263514042000290877]

The present paper describes the results of a two-year project aimed at developing a motor performance test instrument for a motor performance award scheme for kindergarten children to be organized by the Hong Kong Childhealth Foundation. The subjects were 1404 K1 to K3 children, aged three years, three months to six years, ten months. A set of tests developed for Hong Kong kindergarten children was administered to measure their gross motor proficiency. Boys were superior to girls on agility and throwing. Girls performed better than boys on static balance. It was found that a marked improvement in agility was found at the age of 5.5 years. After four years of age, children's static balance also improved. As expected, young children's overall gross motor performance improved, and this was seen as being age-related. The modified set of tests for motor performance was found suitable for use in measuring gross motor performance of children participating in the award scheme for Hong Kong kindergarten children.
[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/10.1080/0300443022000022468]

Gifted education in Hong Kong reflects the Chinese tradition of valuing and nurturing special abilities in children. Thus, identifying and selecting gifted and talented students into programs are central. Currently, procedures in Hong Kong generally emphasize the use of standardized instruments for identifying the intellectually gifted (using the Hong Kong Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children or Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices), the academically gifted (using the Hong Kong Attainment Tests), and the creatively gifted (using the Chinese versions of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking or the Wallach-Kogan Tests). Advocating the use of multiple criteria, educators in Hong Kong also employ informal measures such as nominations and rating scales. The complexity of the identification process was illustrated with the Chinese University Summer Gifted Program procedures of nomination, screening, and selection based on multiple measures and the ultimate criteria of matching individual specific needs with program services available. The issues regarding students being labeled as gifted or nongifted as a result of identification, the all-or-none misconception of giftedness, and the need to design and evaluate multiple measures and identification procedures are discussed.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/02783190009554008 ]

New approaches to assessment have emerged over the past few years, out of a variety of overlapping international debates about the purposes and methods of assessment and about its impact on teaching and learning. Examining the data from an ethnographic study on the relation between teachers' beliefs and their practices in an assessment reform, this paper focuses on teachers' use of metaphors in their accounts of their work. It brings to light the crucial role of teachers in mediating and bringing about changes envisaged in the new assessment reforms. The implications of the findings for the professional development of teachers are discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131910120085856]

This paper presents how the content and language that are cross-curricular and subject-specific in Targets and Target-Related Assessment are interrelated. It offers the way of how learning through inquiring, thinking, problem-solving, communicating, and valuing can be worked within the related framework of language.