This paper compares the development and placement of teacher education within the tertiary sectors of Japan and Hong Kong. Historically both places initiated formal teacher education separate from university training as part of binary systems, and later moved teacher training to the university sector. Here Hong Kong lags behind Japan, having only recently moved towards creating an all-graduate, all-trained teaching force. Both places retain mono-technical teacher training institutions along side teacher training within comprehensive universities. Both societies are involved in major educational and curriculum reforms in order to respond to both the economic challenges of globalization, and social ills attributed in part to the failure of their educational systems. These reforms are closely linked to the quality (knowledge, skills and attitudes) of teachers. In this regard both Japan and Hong Kong have instituted teacher education reforms. At the same time, demographic realities have significantly lowered the demand for teachers. This has led both governments to try to reduce the size of publicly supported teacher education programs, primarily through pressure for consolidation of existing programs. Research on mergers indicates that these processes are more costly than usually expected, and may not result in the economy and efficiency that often drives the process to begin with. This paper concludes that it is important to initiate merger processes with care, and not to sacrifice other important goals (such as innovative approaches to the production of high quality teachers) in the course of consolidation.
[Copyright © 2004 Center for the Studies of Higher Education, Nagoya University.]

This article addresses the issue of preparing teachers as curriculum leaders to support the wide-ranging curriculum reforms that characterize societies in the Asian Pacific region. It draws on social cognitive theory and, in particular, on what has come to be called teachers’ sense of efficacy. The study sought to extend that research in a Chinese context.
[Copyright © 2006 Rowman & Littlefield Education.]

This article explores pupils’ attitudes toward technology relative to academic banding as well as gender and other variables. Over 2,800 students in 22 schools completed questionnaires. Results indicated that students in lower band schools were more likely than students in higher band schools to participate in Design and Technology (D&T) programs. Moreover, many more students had computers in their homes than did when a similar study was conducted in 1997 (Volk & Yip, 1999). The implications of this study relate to improving the type of program that students in lower bands receive and encouraging positive attitudes toward technology regardless of which school a student attends.
[Copyright © 2004 International Vocational Education and Training Association.]