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]

There are a number of theoretical perspectives established for studying adult participation in education, but they are seldom examined together in single studies; neither are participants and non-participants examined simultaneously. This study examines the relative power of the major perspectives in distinguishing between and predicting participants and non-participants. Secondary school teachers who were participating or not participating in continuing professional education programmes were taken as target respondents. Results show that the theoretical perspectives of situations, dispositions, attitudes and beliefs in continuing professional education, and social norms and pressure, do not discriminate teacher participants and non-participants and are therefore not good predictors of the participation status of teachers. Only a few factors in the perspectives of motivations and socio-economic background are significant and meaningful in distinguishing the two teacher groups and in predicting participation status.
[Copyright of International Journal of Lifelong Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026013799293559]

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 ]

An urgent need for a relatively large number of qualified Putonghua language teachers in Hong Kong has led the Open University of Hong Kong to establish a distance education programme for in-service language teachers, most of whom are non-native speakers. The programme designed by the university involves distance study coupled with regular face-to-face tutorials, and is designed to enable the in-service teachers to apply their learned knowledge directly in their daily teaching. The article explains how evaluation of the first presentation of the course in 1996 showed that the course alone could not fully address the actual deficiencies in the teachers' Putonghua listening and speaking skills while, additionally, there was also a need to restructure the teaching methodology component of the course. The basis upon which these judgements were made is explained, and the steps taken to strengthen the course to meet these perceived deficiencies, while not adding to the students' workload, are outlined.
[Copyright of Open Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026805100115434]

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 ]

This paper describes the use of coaching as a means to enhance professional development of English-language teachers in a school involved in a partnership project in Hong Kong, which is characterised in terms of three phases. While the rationale for bringing in coaches into the school is on creating effective professional development environments for teachers--that is, providing ongoing supports and forming a community of practice focused on instructional methods, curriculum innovation, and new formats for instructional delivery--after 18 months of the partnership project it was found that the teacher/coach relationship is more complicated than expected. The paper will end with suggestions on how the three key stakeholders, namely the teachers, principal and teacher educators, can co-construct effective professional development environments.
[Copyright of Journal of In-Service Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13674580701486952]

This study examines the theory‐and‐practice connection model in mentor preparation in the context of two mentor preparation programmes in Hong Kong. The 30‐ and the 60‐hour mentoring support development (MSD) programmes share a common conceptualization of mentoring—with the improvement of teaching and learning as the core of mentoring—yet they differ in objectives, duration and the mentoring practice settings in which structured practical work occurs. This enquiry addresses how the theory‐and‐practice connection model contributes to the construction of professional knowledge in mentoring and the development of mentoring practices in schools. It was found that the organization of curriculum components, such as coursework (e.g., skills of lesson analysis and conferencing), and structured practical work in mentoring, facilitated the connection of the theory and practice of mentoring. In addition, mentor trainees (practising school teachers) developed competence in mentoring through integrating research‐based knowledge and knowledge that grew out of their own mentoring experience. Finally, suggestions for the design of mentor preparation programmes and workplace conditions that facilitate mentoring in schools are discussed.
[Copyright of Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13611260500206002]