The State Education Development Commission in China introduced the communicative syllabus in 1992. However, evidence indicated that the traditional structured-based approach was still prevalent in the English classroom. The paper is an attempt to examine rural teachers’ concerns regarding the adoption of a communicative language teaching (CLT) approach in their classroom. The data for the investigation came from teachers’ journals written during a two-week training programme organized by a Hong Kong voluntary group in Gansu Province, classroom observations, interviews, as well as written correspondence between the teachers and the mentors. The analysis showed that the teachers were positive about the effectiveness of CLT in motivating students to learn English. However, a number of teachers’ concerns that might hinder the adoption of CLT were revealed. Examples of these included teachers’ low English proficiency, lack of confidence, a misconception of CLT, poor understanding of language teaching and insufficient acquisition of teaching skills. The measures taken to help the teachers during the programme were discussed. It is hoped that the discussion contained in this paper could lead to a more frequent professional exchange between teachers from the mainland and Hong Kong so that CLT can be elevated to a new level for the benefits of both teachers and students.

Technology Teacher Education, in similar ways to medical practitioner education, has to rely heavily on constructivist learning principles whereby learning takes place as a result of processing and solving a series of relevant subject based question. Using PBL techniques, the objectives of the project were addressed in the following terms: 1. Increase collaborative Learning through quality learning teams; 2. To enhance academic outcomes of individual members of the quality learning team; 3. To inculcate a constructivism culture within the quality learning teams through PBL; 4. To enhance both learning and instruction strategies through PBL; 5. To encourage and increase motivation of both the quality learning team and each of its individual members by immersion in PBL techniques; 6. To increase student achievement and create a positive technology teacher attitude within the quality learning team and its individual members. The use of small PBL learning teams to enhance technology teacher learning not only created extremely motivated student teachers whose reflective skills constantly improved, but, also engendered a much improved attitude in language acquisition skill as each team confronted the difficulties of a second language. In adopting the PBL technique within small learning teams it has been found that in the case of Hong Kong the Confucian precept of learning and of collectivism fits well with the Chinese culture. Cultural perspectives in the five countries in which the authors conducted their research added to the learning psychology of this intervention, thus increasing understanding and reflection.

The project was presented at the first PBL Conference held in Hong Kong in 1999. What follows is a progress report of the findings of the project during the past year. The objectives of the project remain as follows: · Increase collaborative learning through quality learning teams and PBL; To enhance academic outcomes of individual members of the quality learning team using PBL techniques; To inculcate a constructivism culture within the quality learning teams through PBL; To enhance both learning and instruction strategies through PBL; To encourage and increase motivation of both the quality learning team and each of its individual members by immersion in PBL techniques; To increase student achievement and create a positive student attitude of quality learning teams and their individual members by adopting PBL. It has been found that using small PBL learning teams not only created extremely motivated students whose reflective skills constantly improved, but, also engendered a much improved attitude in language acquisition skill as each team confronted the difficulties of a second language. In adopting PBL techniques within small learning teams it has also been found that the Confucian precept of learning and of collectivism fits well with the Chinese culture. Cultural perspectives added to the PBL psychology thus increasing understanding and reflection.

It is expected that heading towards year 2000, using Information Technology and effectively implemented Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) in Hong Kong will become very hot issues in information era. This paper aims to examine the role change of primary school subject coordinators and how teachers face the curriculum change and instruction innovation. A questionnaire has been administered to the random sample school coordinators, followed by an interview of a selected sample. It is hoped that the results will have some implication to teacher education programs, and will enhance the "Teacher Changing Capacity" in our rapidly changing society.

In the current curriculum reform of Hong Kong, the Curriculum Development Council (2002) recommends that teachers make use of co-operative learning to cater for their students' individual differences. A common feature of co-operative learning is that students help each other to learn in small groups towards a common goal (Cohen, 1994; Johnson & Johnson, 1999). For such kind of co-operative learning, the success of members of a group is interdependent to one another (Kagan, 1994; Slavin, 1995). The concept of co-operative learning is radically different from competitive learning in which a student's success builds on the failure of others. This paper aims to investigate the factors influencing teachers when they consider using co-operative learning in their classrooms. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of teachers (n = 179) from five primary schools conveniently chosen. Descriptive statistical analysis as well as factor analysis was performed on the data collected. The results suggested that the respondents agreed, to different extent, to all the twenty items of constraints as listed in the questionnaire. Four categories of factors that influenced teachers' decision to use co-operative learning were extracted. They represented the school and system levels, teachers' conceptions of teaching, pupils' ability and discipline, and classroom level. The study concluded that, in view of the various constraints, it would be difficult for teachers to implement co-operative learning to meet the curriculum re-structuring. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made.