In November 1998, the Hong Kong Government published the policy document entitled "Information Technology for Learning in a New Era Five-Year Strategy 1998/99 to 2002/03" and defined the goals and the scope of the development of Information Technology in education in Hong Kong One of the goals is to encourage using Information Technology (IT) in education and to promote students' ability in handling information As the role of IT is becoming more and more important in education, schools themselves have also implemented IT to various extents The main purpose of this study is to explore the impacts of the external environment on the development of IT in Hong Kong primary schools and examine also the relationship between the use of IT in education and teaching effectiveness in Hong Kong primary schools
This study uses a quantitative approach to achieve the above purposes Questionnaires were sent to 823 teachers from 25 Hong Kong primary schools to solicit their views on the impact of IT in school education, the use of IT education and their perceptions of teaching effectiveness
The School Environment Constraint Instrument developed by Lam (1989) was adopted to meet the context of Hong Kong primary schools and modified for this study Two new factors "New Arrivals" and "Language Policy" are used to replace the original factors of 'Ethnicity' and 'Second Language' The other two research instruments which measured "Information Technology Development" and "Teaching Effectiveness" were developed by the Researcher
The results of the research indicate that: (1) the "Policy" factor and "Funding" factor had a high, significant correlation with the different aspects of IT development of Hong Kong primary schools; (2) a school with well-developed IT had a positive significant correlation with "Teaching Effectiveness"
Recommendations have been made for school administrators' consideration in the development of IT systems in primary schools and ways of improving

As an area of inquiry, teacher learning has grown increasingly important in the field of teacher development and school improvement It is commonly believed that teacher development is a form of professional development; and professional development implies 'learning' by teachers Even though opportunities for teachers' professional development have increased in recent years, there has been little advancement toward a commonly shared understanding of the vital aspects of professional development: What are the essential factors for success? What do teachers really learn from professional development? Based on the idea of facilitating school improvement and teacher development more effectively, several important university-school collaborative projects were introduced and launched in Hong Kong and Beijing in the last decade
This study aims to delineate teacher learning in the context of university and school collaboration The two projects under investigation are based in Hong Kong and Beijing While the two projects have different missions, the participants in both projects share a common belief that collaboration should enhance teacher capacity and ultimately help to improve students' learning
A sociocultural theoretical lens is used to study university and school collaboration, and the ways in which a context for teacher learning is created in this process It also examines the results of teacher learning Using qualitative data gathered in the two projects, the study confirms that collaboration can offer a supportive context for teachers to learn
During the process of appropriation, teachers master and own the necessary cultural tools, and then aquire about new knowledge and skills that enhance understanding on practice During the process of collaboration, which is established on the principles of trust and equality, university faculties provide teachers with cultural tools, which is essential for teacher change Only when the cultural tools are appropriated