In this short paper, we review the geographical education research carried out in Hong Kong and discuss their relevance to teacher education. The methodologies used in these reviewed studies will also form part of our discussion here.
[Copyright of International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10382040308667538]

This article first reviews important issues of language, power, and testing. It then examines in critical fashion a particular instance of the use of language testing by the Hong Kong government, namely, the Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers (LPAT). Treating the LPAT developments as a form of narrative rather than debate, it presents analysis through a context-events-problem-solution-evaluation discourse sequence that perpetuates nonresolution. This procedure permits ongoing reference to and evaluation of the political, educational, and language setting, the schizophrenic position of English, government language policy documentation, the test itself, and media coverage of the results. It indicates the detrimental effects of the LPAT for test-takers, for learning, and for the community at large, advancing and justifying some alternatives and explaining why such lines of resistance lie beyond the purview of most teacher victims. It concludes that the LPAT examination should be heeded both as an early sign of increasingly illiberal political tendencies and as a warning example of bad educational practice.
[Copyright of Journal of Language Identity and Education is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327701jlie0403_2]

A number of studies have indicated that the successful pedagogical use of technology depends on teachers' attitudes and acceptance towards technology. In order to predict and understand teachers' technology use and acceptance, a well- defined framework is essential. The purpose of the present paper attempts to explore a model to understand teacher acceptance of e-learning technology. A self-reported questionnaire was designed to examine teacher acceptance and attitude towards an online learning platform. Data were collected from 152 in-service teachers who were studying in a part-time teacher education program in Hong Kong. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as the core framework for analysis while additional constructs were added in order to find a better model to understand teacher acceptance of e-learning technology. A composite model including five constructs, namely, intention to use, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norm and computer self-efficacy, were formed and tested in the study. LISREL was used in the data analysis. It was found that subjective norm and computer self-efficacy serve as the two significant perception anchors of the fundamental constructs in TAM. However, contrary to previous literature, perceived ease of use became the sole determinant to the prediction of intention to use, while perceived usefulness was non-significant to the prediction of intention to use. Altogether, subjective norm, computer self- efficacy and perceived ease of use were able to explain 68 percent of the variance observed in users' intention to use the e-learning system. Implications to teacher education and teacher professional development are discussed.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598660802232779]

A survey study was conducted to investigate the epistemological beliefs of 352 student teachers of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Schommer's 63-item questionnaire was used in the survey study with Schommer's 12 conceptual subscales as variables in Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) analysis followed by varimax and oblimin rotation. Three factors were generated with an eigen value of 1.00 as cut-off. Some features distinct from Schommer's studies were identified. The three factors were complex, with two to three subscales representing different dimensions loaded together. The subscale concerned with Omniscient Authority, which was not reported in Schommer's findings, substantively loaded in one of the factors. Social-cultural factors were suggested to account for the apparent differences in factor structure obtained in this study, with implications drawn for teacher education. Revision of Schommer's questionnaire was suggested to study epistemological beliefs for local context.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/135986600750034841]

Three key publications from September 2000 point to rapid changes in the educational and arts environment in Hong Kong that will impact on the development of dance education. This paper provides some contextual details on the current state of dance education in Hong Kong and also examines the influence and possible ramifications implicit within these publications. A brief outline of the prevailing scope of professional activity is also provided. The necessity for teacher training to facilitate change is then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]; Copyright of Research in Dance Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
[Copyright of Research in Dance Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14647890220129131]

As part of the module "Further Studies in Kindergarten Curriculum" in the Certificate in Kindergarten Teacher Education Course conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Education, teacher-educators made use of semantic webbing to help kindergarten teachers/principals develop reflective and thinking skills regarding subject matter content and teaching curriculum. Semantic webbing/mapping or semantic networking or plot maps may be defined as a strategy in which information is categorically structured in graphic/visual form. However, its use in teacher education is more recent. Kindergarten teachers/principals were interviewed to discern how they developed critical thinking and evaluative skills concerning subject matter content and teaching curriculum through the use of semantic webbing. Interviews of a random sample of participants and analysis of their mind-maps revealed a change in perspectives and attitudes towards subject matter content and teaching curriculum. The present paper examines some of the affective outcomes for both teacher educators and student-teachers resulting from the use of semantic webbing/mapping as a strategy for facilitating reflective and critical thinking skills in four components of the module "Further Studies in Kindergarten Curriculum"; namely, Art, Language, Mathematics/Science, as well as Social Studies. Implications for teacher education are drawn from the findings.
[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/10.1080/0300443022000022422 ]

Dance education has not played a significant role in Hong Kong schools. Teacher education may be at a crossroads in determining its future directions in relation to dance as art rather than physical activity. Taking Marcel Mauss's characterizations of the techniques of the body as the ways in which, from society to society, people learn how to use their bodies, this paper looks back at the context in which forms of dance education were introduced into the physical education curriculum of Hong Kong schools and examines social, cultural and political constraints upon their directions and development in a colonial and post-colonial society. Viewing dance education as forms of socially mediated practices, we show how bodies that are subjected to formal and informal programmes of dance education can be both inscribed and inscribing. Developments in dance education inevitably involve statements about the body, attempts to capture it, impose disciplines upon it, or mitigate their force. To reflect upon Hong Kong's changing destiny is to ask how the history of colonialism's disciplining of the body can be shaken loose from the domination of categories and ideas it produced and incorporated into the educational system, and what potency might dance education practices have in the future for troubling and negotiating meanings around identity and "Chinese-ness".
[Copyright of Sport, Education and Society is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13573320601081575 ]