In the transitional period, there has been a general concern among Hong Kong people that out young citizens are not adequately prepared for the reunification of Hong Kong with China. They demanded a more effective civic education programme in both primary and secondary schools. There are different modes of implementation of civic education in the Hong Kong secondary schools. In the formal curriculum, civic education is mainly carried out through the subjects of Social Studies or Economics and Public Affairs. This paper identifies teachers' competence as a major factor which determines the effectiveness of the civic education programme and evaluates the competence of pre-service secondary Social Studies teachers in implementing civic education through the teaching of the subject of Social Studies. The research project mainly adopted a quantitative method. Through the instrument of questionnaires, student teachers were required to conduct self-evaluation of their competence in implementing civic education in secondary schools. At the same time, this instrument is supplemented by a semi-structured group interview on the student teachers' understanding and perception of civic education. The findings show that final year student teachers of Social Studies are, in general, not well equipped in both knowledge and skills in implementing civic education in secondary schools. The findings are thoroughly analyzed and their implications for teacher education discussed.

In the post-industrial phase, changes are so rapid that Alvin Toffler fore-told the phenomenon of 'future shock'. Satellite communication & computers changed the world into a global village. (Toffler, Alvin. 1970)(Naisbitt, John. 1982) Apart from experiencing the above, we, living in this international city of Hong Kong, are also experiencing political change and other subsequent changes as a result of the return of sovereignty to PRC in 1997. Amid such changes, there is the urgent need to reshape education & to restructure schools so that our education will be able ot prepare future citizens to withstand the future shock. (Sadker, Myra pollack. 1991) However, to the teachers who are in the fore-front of education, what are their value orientations like? Are they ready for the adoption of a more national & more global perspective? This research is a pilot study in which Rockeah' s questionaire on values, which had already been translated & used in previous surveys by Dr. Lau Sing, was adopted as the instrument. The questionaires were distributed to and completed by full-time and part-time students of HKIEd, full-time B. Ed. students of HKU, practising teachers of 4 primary and 4 secondary schools. Datas were analysed and implications discussed.

Physical Education (PE) has been implemented in Hong Kong as a primary as well as a secondary school subject in the past few decades. It is, thus, very natural to see student teachers of PE bearing attributes that are shaped by the existing PE system. At present, quality of PE programmes varies largely across schools. Secondary school graduates are very different in their physical fitness, sport competence, and life style. In spite of this, it makes sense to expect student teachers of PE to be active, confident, and capable in exercise and sport performance. However, this can hardly be the case, given the constraints put forth by the academic-oriented admission procedures of teacher education programmes. In this study, 213 student teachers of primary PE from the Hong Kong Institute of Education were investigated. The study assessed physical self-concepts of year 1 and year 2/3 student teachers of primary physical education. Implications of the findings were discussed and recommendations for improving existing PE teacher education programme were made.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

There has been wide recognition of the need for teacher education in environmental education (e.g. UNESCO, 1980). Recently, UNESCO has even referred to teacher education as "the priority of priorities" in environmental education (UNESCO-UNEP, 1990). This is argued on the basis that "the key to successful environmental education is the classroom teacher. If teachers do not have the knowledge, skills and commitment to environmentalize their curriculum, it is unlikely that environmentally literate students will be produced." (Wilke, 1985). In support of this, Tilbury (1992) and Fien (1993) argued that environmental education within pre-service teacher education, which aimed at improving environmental educational competencies of teachers, was critical. The present study is unique in being the first conducted with the HKIEd teacher trainees (pre-service and in-service) to gather and analyze relevant data related to environmental education. In this regard, this study aims to scrutinize (i) the environmental worldviews, (ii) the environmental dispositions, (iii) the perception on the urgency of major local and global issues, (iv) perception towards various environmental protection issues, (v) various aspects of green behavior, (vi) environmental knowledge and (vii) the related academic, gender and age background, of the teacher trainees of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The research method adopted is basically quantitative, in which a set of questionnaire is served as the measuring instrument to access the teacher trainees' environmental attitudes, environmental behavior and environmental knowledge. The major assessment tools adopted in this research include the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale (developed by Dunlap and VanLiere (1978)), the Environmental Response Inventory (ERI) scale (developed by George McKechnie(1974)) and the Urgency Index (UI) etc. After piloting, the finalized questionnaire was administered to the teacher trainees of the HKIEd in April to

Due to the importance of biotechnology education, there is a worldwide trend of extending this from college to secondary school level. While many western governments have been planning to bridge the gap, the pace in Hong Kong is comparatively slow. As Hong Kong science educators, we are planning to introduce relevant and updated biotechnology elements into our secondary school biology curricula, in order to promote basic biotechnology knowledge as well as positive attitude towards advances in science and technology. Before we can modify the curriculum, it is important to understand the biology teachers' perception of biotechnology. For example: What are their attitudes towards the practice of Biotechnology? What is their average knowledge towards the subject? Do male and female teachers have significant difference in their attitudes towards Biotechnology? What are the implications on school science curricula? The search for these answers leads to this study.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

On June 30, 1997, the handover ceremony ended 155 years' of British colonial rule and marked the beginning of resumption of China's sovereignty over Hong Kong. However, did allegiance and sense of belonging of the people of Hong Kong drastically readjust to match the political transfer? What did the identity of 'citizen under "one country, two systems'" mean to the people of Hong Kong, especially the student-teachers sculptors of the mind of to-morrow? To match the political transition, Civic Education has been promoted in Hong Kong since the issuing of the First Guideline in 1986. Since that time, in the process of curriculum development in Civic Education, there has been a hot debate on whether the focus of Civic Education should be placed on democratic education or nationalistic education. This debate is bound to continue in the upcoming curriculum development and teaching in Civic Education. In this debate, what position did student-teachers take? In late 1996, it was decided that Civic Education should become an independent subject of study in Junior forms. The syllabus was compiled and drafts issued for public consultations. The finalized version is to be implemented in late 1998. To what extent were aims and objectives, and contents of the new guideline endorsed by student-teachers? This study included a survey by questionnaires of Social Sciences elective student-teachers in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. It was conducted in December, 1997. The questions in the questionnaire were developed basing on the aims, objectives and contents of the draft of the 1998 Civic Education Guideline and other policy papers related to Civic Education. It intended to find out student-teachers' conceptions of citizenship and citizenship education under "one country, two systems", focussing on the 2 key issues of democratic education and nationalistic education. It explored the extent to which the aims, objectives and contents of the 1998 Civic Education Guideline were endorsed

The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) provides training to students who wish to pursue their career in teaching. The authors, computer literacy lecturers, would like to find out if there is any difference between the expectation and perception of the computer knowledge students should possess in order to be competent junior secondary computer subject teacher. The authors would also compare the computer knowledge required with the present Computer Literacy curriculum and suggest amendment if necessary. A questionnaire was distributed to student teachers of Northcote Campus before and after teaching practice in 1996. The questions were grouped under basic computer knowledge, Logo programming, computer applications and others. Student teachers regarded all the computer knowledge as important. They gave highest regards to Logo programming, followed by computer applications, basic computer knowledge and others before teaching practice. However, after teaching practice, student teachers gave lower regards to all categories of computer knowledge except for the topics included in the"others" categories. It might be due to the anxiety they had before teaching practice and they found the reality was not so demanding. Student teachers found that computer applications were more important than the knowledge of Logo programming after teaching practice. The importance of other computer knowledge remained unchanged. It could be due to the fact that not all schools required student teachers to teach Logo programming to their junior form secondary school students. Although the importance for most topics in the"others" category had decreased, there was a slight increase of importance in the topic of artificial intelligence, computer organization, database programming, objected oriented programming language, operating systems and systems analysis and design. The present HKIEd curriculum has covered all the topics in basic computer knowledge, Logo programming and computer applications