Between October 2014 and January 2019, 138 university, secondary, and primary students in Hong Kong committed suicide. Studies have revealed an upward trend in this phenomenon. The implementation of life education and life and death education has been suggested as a means for supporting students. In the past, resilience and self-confidence were the main focuses of life education, whereas the importance of life–death-related topics in the exploration of the value and meaning of life was often neglected. Although these topics have been included in some schools’ life education curriculums, few studies have evaluated their effectiveness. Crucial questions for investigation include the following: What school philosophy resulted in the inclusion of life–death-related topics in life education and/or life and death education? What considerations did schools have during implementation and how did it proceed? What were the problems they encountered? How did schools overcome the problems? What would be their future direction?This research involved case studies of 3 secondary schools in Hong Kong which have included life–death-related topics in their life education and/or life and death education curriculums. Through focus interviews, and document reviews, the implementing life–death-related topics in life education and/or life and death education in Hong Kong and three secondary schools was clarified. The difficulties, needs, and attempts to address the problems during the implementation were also explored. The researcher hopes that the current findings provide valuable information regarding the development and implementation of life and death education in Hong Kong and help guide future improvements.This study revealed that the people involved in life education and/or life and death education curriculum development play a crucial role. The teachers in charge of life education are responsible for determining the themes, designing the curriculum, and teaching in school. Their recognition

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study how reflection affects the teacher change with a focus on teaching practices under education reforms in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted narratives as the research design to unveil the contents of teachers' reflection and how the contents affect their change in teaching practices under education reforms. Findings: The study finds that teachers' reflection starts with completion of curriculum ("technical level"), then consideration of students' learning needs ("practical level") and finally, the social justice and equality ("critical level"). The levels of reflection teachers engage have significant influence on their change. The higher the level of reflection teachers have, the more motivated the teachers to explore new teaching practices not only for the learning needs of students in classroom but also for the society outside classroom. Originality/value: This study underlines the value of reflection in the process of teacher change in their teaching practices.
[Copyright of International Journal of Educational Management is the property of Emerald Publishing Limited.]

As one of the essential skills for success in work and studies, English communication is often made a key component in the GE curriculum of tertiary study programmes. In addition to the provision of required English proficiency courses, many tertiary institutions have established English centres of some description to promote English learning on campus. Yet from students' perspective, what kinds of programmes and activities should be offered, and how they feel about these initiatives is not very widely discussed in the existing literature. This paper aims to address these questions with practical experiences gained from a project to establish an English language enhancement centre by one self-financing tertiary institution in Hong Kong. Funded by the Quality Enhancement Support Scheme (QESS), the centre, titled the Centre for Academic and Professional Language Enhancement (CAPLE), was set up in March 2016. Cognizant of the benefits of life-wide learning, independent learning and collaborative peer learning, CAPLE offers a series of workshops and various kinds of English and culture learning activities that adopt these pedagogical approaches. Centre usage figures and user feedback were continuously collected for evaluative purposes. Data collected through student diaries, online surveys, usage records of the online programmes and other resources and a focus group interview showed varying levels of popularity of different types of workshops/activities, suggesting there is a need for programme designers to have a more realistic view about students' actual English learning needs and learning motivation. Recommendations are made accordingly for more economical use of resources.
[Copyright of English Language Teaching is the property of Canadian Center of Science and Education]

This paper reports a small-scale study conducted with 34 primary-school teachers in Hong Kong to determine how they meet the personal and academic learning needs of students officially identified with specific learning disability (SpLD) in their classes. Information was collected from the teachers via a structured questionnaire listing possible strategies for classroom use, and via an open-ended request for additional information from the teachers concerning their current practices. Results indicated that the teachers make relatively few adaptations to meet the SpLD students' needs, and rely mainly on other students in the class to provide peer assistance They sometimes also allow extra time for the students to complete work, and provide some individual help when possible during the lesson. Teachers rarely (if ever) adapt curriculum content, modify instructional resources, or design special learning activities for the students with SpLD. The paper also discusses briefly the contemporary theoretical perspectives on inclusion for SpLD students, differentiated teaching as a possible solution, and the difficulties encountered in implementing such a model.
[Copyright of International Journal of Special Education is the property of Hindawi Publishing Corporation.
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The author presents an overview of special education services for students with special needs in Hong Kong. In addition, the author discusses placement policies for ethnic minority students.
[Copyright of Preventing School Failure is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/PSFL.50.2.29-36 ]