The increasing number of Mainland Chinese immigrant children with difficulties in Hong Kong schools mandates understanding of the complex interactions between cultural-linguistic differences and disabilities. This case study adopted narrative inquiry to probe deep into participants' lived experiences to reveal that the special education teacher was primarily concerned about the student participant's difficulty associated with his disabilities, totally unaware of the impact of her limited proficiency in the child's first language. Researchers called for government policies to integrate special and multicultural teacher education.
[Copyright © Elsevier Ltd.].

School-based learning community is widely supported by educators as an effective professional development strategy to improve teaching and learning. With reference to the collaborative and supportive features, the professional learning communities (PLCs) are further recognized in schools. Teachers in different schools work collaboratively to solve the actual problems that they come across in their classrooms and improve their teaching practice. With the support of school teachers, education officers and tertiary academics, PLCs was widely adopted as a strategy to enhance teacher professional learning. The tripartite partnership offers a platform for teachers to actively engage in professional sharing about teaching and learning. The paper illustrates the outcome of the lesson study in a two-year project of University-School Support Program (USP). It is evident that the Lesson Study was an effective collaborative mode of professional development for teachers of special schools in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © The Hong Kong Special Education Society].

The SCALE, an assessment instrument to align assessment with the central curriculum for pupils with intellectual disabilities was developed by a team of teacher leaders from nine special schools in Hong Kong. This study aims to report on the psychometric properties of the SCALE using Rasch analyses. Results indicate that SCALE possesses a high degree of validity and reliability. It can classify pupils into at least 13 levels of abilities, and that the range of item difficulty is capable of stratifying pupils' abilities into at least 8 to 11 attainment levels. Uni-dimensionality of the SCALE was also established. The use of SCALE in providing evidenced-based outcome data to document progress of pupils across their years in education, and, to inform school-based curriculum planning, is discussed. Impact of a well-validated curriculum-based assessment measures on accountability from the perspectives of assessment of learning and assessment for learning are also considered.
[Copyright © CONFAB JOURNALS].

The role of fatherhood appeared to change during the last century such as shifting the role as a breadwinner to caregiver and deepening and strengthening father-child attachment. Recent investigators have drawn attention to the importance of fathers in the development of children with various disabilities. Also, fathers are becoming increasingly aware of their responsibility toward their disabled children's educational programmes. However, studies in Asia, especially in Hong Kong regarding the issues related to fathers towards disability, are still limited. There is a need to increase the collection and dissemination of such information regarding the fathers of young children with disabilities. The purpose of this paper was to examine fathers' views about early childhood special education in Hong Kong. Semistructured interviews were obtained from nine fathers whose children had disabilities and were studying either in special or inclusive child care centres in Hong Kong. Their opinions on early childhood special education for young children with disabilities and its implication for the service providers are discussed.
[Copyright © Common Ground Publishing].

A core goal of inclusive education worldwide is to maximize the learning potential of students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream educational settings. However, little research attention has been paid to SEN children's social and emotional gains from inclusive education compared to their academic performance. This study included social, emotional, and academic variables in a single research design, not only to test their relationships but also to explore the predictive roles of social and emotional factors in academic performance for SEN students. Participants were 515 SEN students in grades 1–6 in mainstream primary schools in Hong Kong. The results showed that the social and emotional competences of children with SEN were significant predictors of their academic performance (p < .001), with emotional competence having the larger impact. Although SEN students' relationships with peers and teachers were not found to be direct significant predictors of academic performance as reported in previous studies; they positively and significantly predicted emotional and social competences of SEN students (p < .001). Implications for establishing a caring campus, as well as developing educational interventions which will increase SEN students' positive emotional experiences and foster and maintain their adaptive social and emotional competences are discussed.
[Copyright © Springer].

Social, emotional, and behavioural disorders of children, within the context of a whole-school approach to inclusion as adopted by Hong Kong, can be challenging for teachers and parents. Based on a comprehensive review of the literature and feedback from a range of experts and parent groups in Hong Kong, specific scales were developed to measure four behavioural traits identified in local school-aged children and the impact these have on their teachers and parents. Completed surveys were obtained from 914 members of school staff and 573 parents of school-aged children. This research, carried out by Chris Forlin and Paul Cooper of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, led to the identification of substantial levels of student behavioural problems in relation to educational engagement, motivation, co-operativeness and oppositionality. Evidence of emotional burden from these problems was also identified on parents and teachers. Discussion focuses on areas of potential stress in the school situation and possible points of influence in the home.
[Copyright © Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.].

This paper reports the final development of a scale to measure pre-service teachers' perceptions in three constructs of inclusive education, namely, sentiments or comfort levels when engaging with people with disabilities; acceptance of learners with different needs; and concerns about implementing inclusion. The Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education Revised (SACIE-R) scale was developed from an initial 60 items and administered through a series of refined surveys. A final 15-item scale was validated using 542 pre-service teachers from nine institutions in four countries including Hong Kong, Canada, India, and the United States. It is posited that the SACIE-R scale will yield valuable information for assisting universities and colleges in preparing more specific training to address the needs of pre-service teachers for working with diverse student populations.
[Copyright © Western University].

This article, written by Meng Deng of Beijing Normal University and Kim Fong Poon-McBrayer of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, reviews and analyses the reform of special education in China, the challenges confronting Chinese special education provisions, and how the Chinese inclusive education model, namely 'Learning in Regular Classrooms', has been shaped by the pragmatic needs aligning with the nation's economic and social developments. In an effort to provide wider school access, the current inclusive education model has become the form of educational placement that serves the majority of students with disabilities in China. The authors conclude that reforms in the last two decades have resulted in dramatic changes and progress in many facets of special education service delivery, school structure, administrative monitoring mechanism, and instructional practices. However, the current Chinese special education service structure is still shaky, with inadequate resources, personnel preparation and support at the local level. Fundamental changes to the examination-oriented mainstream education system are still needed, to enhance the quality of education for students with special needs.
[Copyright © Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.].

Despite sharing a common cultural heritage, recent developments in gifted education in several countries and regions within East Asia, including the People’s Republic of China (mainland China), Taiwan, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, show that each country and region is now characterized by different approaches to gifted education. However, the challenges facing many of these countries and regions are remarkably similar, including a number of fundamental issues such as misconceptions as to the role of gifted education within communities that are dominated by extensive and pervasive examination systems, and the limited roles of indigenous research in conceptions of giftedness and curriculum development. In contrast, gifted education in Japan has had a “virtual” existence over many years, although the ability of its education systems – both public and private – to meet the specific needs of its “gifted” students is yet to be determined.
[Copyright © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.]