There are increasing commitments from the education sector to cultivate our next generation with a life-long and forward-looking concern for the environment, preparing them to make well-informed, reasoned and practical decisions, and to take actions leading to the creation of a sustainable environment. In 2005, the United Nations declared the year as the start of the “United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development”, where “sustainable development” is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This has become the guiding principle of environmental education focusing on the three major aspects of awareness, attitudes and actions. Through enhancing our students’ awareness of environmental issues and cultivating their positive attitudes towards conservation work, it is believed that they will be more willing to take environmental friendly actions. In response, guidelines have been issued to schools in Hong Kong urging energy saving and waste reduction. Current work on Education For Sustainability (EFS) includes elements of sustainable development infused into the curricula of various subjects at different levels of schooling, from kindergarten to secondary. In addition, a whole range of programmes related to the promotion of sustainable development have been organized. However, at a recent symposium on plastic waste management attended by educators, policy makers, personnel from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and scientists, there were discussions that in spite of these programmes aiming to help our students better understand the interactions between human activities and the natural environment as well as the environmental problems they face locally and globally, our next generation cannot contribute much to alleviating these problems in their daily lives. This presentation will share the existing challenges and opportunities of EFS on plastic waste

Teachers and school administrators in Hong Kong have had to cope with more work and performance pressure as they strive to implement educational reforms aimed at deepening students' life-long learning skills. Management systems, which save time and transfer ideas, experiences, and knowledge more efficiently could help schools meet reform goals and relieve the occupational stress that inevitably accompanies change and progress. This paper explores the effect of knowledge management (KM) for school development by reviewing three cases selected from a school improvement project entitled "Knowledge Management and Primary School Development". The project was launched specifically to determine if KM practices can assist educators to cope with added pressures and rise to the challenges of education reforms. The case studies illustrate three separate approaches to incorporating KM systems. Problems faced by these case-schools included declining school competitiveness, time-consuming data storage and retrieval practices, and hierarchical communication structures that stunted feedback from the teachers who are on the front line of educational reform. Interviews were conducted with school principals, middle managers, and teachers. The results show that the core KM strategies of personalization and codification can be adopted to improve school development. Knowledge leadership, knowledge sharing culture, and knowledge management system support were identified as success factors for schools to implement KM.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.]

This chapter outlines the background, purpose, strategies, and initial outcomes of one centre’s research agenda into school leadership and change in the East and South-East Asian region. The Centre is the Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change (APCLC) at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). The first section outlines research on the state of indigenous knowledge in the region. This provides the context and justification for our research agenda. The second section presents our purpose statements, the broad research agenda, and the projects under this agenda. The third section describes progress to date. The fourth section summarises some of the key contributions of the Centre – the intention here is to illustrate our outcomes. The final section summarises what we see as the major contributions of the Centre to date.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland]

Although the essential role of school leaders in school improvement processes has been confirmed in the literature, the link between school leadership and student outcomes has only been recently addressed. Research suggests that the effect of school leaders on student outcomes is mediated through the creation of certain school conditions. Our study aimed to verify the mediating effect of some school conditions on the school leadership and student outcomes link. Based on empirical data collected from the principals and key staff in 49 secondary schools in Hong Kong, our results showed that staff collaboration was a mediating factor influencing the link and it was more commonly found in schools whose leaders were more attentive to the professional development of teachers.

為配合1990年教育統籌委員會第四號報告書內建議，香港教育署自1992年落實推行學校本位輔導方式 (下稱校本輔導)，鼓勵學校以全校性輔導活動來培養學生良好的行為，加強他們的自我形象。欲藉著校本輔導，讓全校老師更有系統地結合彼此力量，採取一個更積極鼓勵的方式去達致輔導的效果 (教育署輔導服務科，1995；教育署學生輔導組，1997)。而為提升學校教育質素，1997年教育統籌委員會第七號報告書更在建議制訂質素指標時，特別提出須考慮包括與學生的個人成長及發展、學生在主要教育範疇的表現的指標，即與輔導有關的過程和產出指標 (頁 10-11)。基於有關措施自1992年實施至今，其成效如何，是否能為學校帶來預期的效果---培養學生良好的行為，加強他們的自我形象？甚至能帶來優質學校教育？因此，筆者除了於1999年3月至5月期間在本港12間小學推行一個問卷調查研究外，並從中揀選一所有參與試行「輔導課」課程的先導學校，進行質性研究，目的為進一步探討校本輔導計劃在本港學校推行的成效，冀能從中取得啟示，使優質學校教育的精神能真正在學校落實。本文主要就有關實況評估的個案研究，分析報告。

本文基本上是一個以學校為本位輔導 (下稱校本輔導) 效能的研究報告，主要內容是描述有關筆者於本年3月至5月期間在本港12間小學進行的一個小規模的量性研究調查，目的為探討校本輔導計劃在本港小學由1992年推行至今的成效，是否能如有關報告書的建議，可以藉著校本輔導，讓全校老師更有系統地結合彼此力量，採取一個更積極鼓勵的方式去培養學生良好的行為，加強他們的自我形象，達致輔導的效果 (教育統籌委員會，1990；教育署輔導服務科，1995；教育署學生輔導組，1997)，進而提升學校教育質素 (教育統籌委員會，1997)。是項研究的另一目的是希望能在取得有關研究資料後，進而發展另一個更全面、更深入的研究計劃。因此本文會首先從文獻中比較香港所推行的輔導方式在本質上與現代西方國家教育趨勢的分別；其次是論述有關研究的發現，報告分析結果及提出一些推行校本輔導所引發的問題和啟示，以作進一步研究的基礎。

本文提出一個強調六環緊扣的學校改進方案，該六環即為「專業共治」、「賦權承責」、「同儕協作」、「持續發展」、「強效學習」與「溝通聯繫」。這個同時重視連貫一致與具前瞻性的校本發展規劃，乃建基於世界教育發展新趨勢的教育理念，結合國內外與香港本土有關研究成果，以及筆者親身參與學校改進計畫及師資培育經驗，包括校長及學校中層領導、在職教師專業進修等課程，綜合而來的學校改進方案。 總結過往有關學校效能研究及學校改進經驗，普遍同意學校的管治理念和領導方針，能否有效調動校內校外資源的配合，適時引入有系統、具認受性的內部評鑒及自我完善機制，是改善學校教育素質的成敗關鍵。「專業共治」與「賦權承責」兩個概念，乃源於此。另一方面，教師專業發展等研究亦發現，在課程設計和教學規劃上的專業賦權，有助教師教學範式的轉移，而「同儕協作」及「持續發展」須配合共同參與的校本管理文化，才會獲得教師支持和取得成效。適當引入「強效學習」的理念，則有助教師由傳統單向式的講授教學，逐漸轉移至重視師生互動及以學生為中心的範式，學生的學習成效遂得以提升。最後，在制度層面，建立穩固而持續的學校、家庭與社區互為夥伴的協作關係，增強學校與教育體系其他部門及社區的「溝通聯繫」，能夠為學校組織發展提供有利條件。