In the past two decades, young women's educational performance in Hong Kong has gradually improved; yet this has sparked concern over boys' "under-achievement." Despite prevalent concern, however, few academic studies have seriously considered this complex phenomenon. Inspired by feminist discussions on this topic, this chapter explores the contradictory construction of successful female leaders in an elite girls' school in Hong Kong. The discussion aims to show that the discourse and expectations of "successful girls" are similar to those in Anglophone countries and that they are intimately linked to Hong Kong's neoliberal educational reforms, middle-class oriented, and fraught with contradictions. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

With the economic and technological developments of Asian countries in the last two decades, nurturing individuals' capabilities for logical thinking and problem solving have become one of the major foci of secondary education. Being a core subject for developing the fundamental ability of high school students towards systematic and organized ways of thinking, mathematics is no longer a requirement only for students who are going to study science or engineering majors in university but has become a common core subject for whole-person education. In this chapter, we shall investigate the recent development of high school mathematics curricula in Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, in coping with the change. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

Gifted education has the mission of providing a favorable learning environment and opportunities for the developmental trajectory of gifted students in quality education. In this chapter, researchers from four Asian societies share evidence on the policies, research and practices of gifted education in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. They examine current gaps and the potential for future development of gifted education by analyzing formal policy documents, administrative and research units established by the government and the education bureau or related organizations. The researchers analyze gifted education in these countries with regards to clarity, comprehensiveness, connectedness, feasibility for implementation, research-based nature, gaps in policy, practice, and research on gifted education and provide a discussion of the implications of each. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

Valid feedback is essential for the administrators, educators, parents and, of course, for children to be able to steer their development in a sustainable way. Key influential theorists such as Montessori, Piaget, Vygotsky, and others all used observations extensively to understand how children learn and use knowledge about children's learning to improve pedagogies and children's lives. However, most adults including teachers in the ECEC settings have not always observed children and tracked their growth. Based on the research and professional development programs conducted in Finland, Taiwan and Hong Kong with more than 100,000 observations, we found some relationships between young children's involvement, adaptation and agency in early childhood settings through systematic observations. We will introduce observation strategies with video clips and demonstrate our latest mobile application for observation for practitioners to contribute to a big data pool aimed to enhance the teaching quality in ECEC settings. Copyright © 2018 EARLI.

This article reports a comparative study on the reasons for pre-service student teachers becoming teachers in Hong Kong and Macau. The study adopted a mixed methods research design, with 459 and 137 student teachers completing a questionnaire on teaching motivation and 35 and 15 student teachers joining a follow-up interview in Hong Kong and Macau, respectively. The study found that student teachers in both societies share commonality in their altruistic and intrinsic motivations, i.e. a sense of vocation. The difference in student teachers’ motivation reflects the contrasting perceptions of teachers’ work and the teaching profession in connection with the different educational systemic factors in Macau and Hong Kong. Government-initiated quantitative expansion and quality enhancement in education set the backdrop of an aspiring teaching profession with promising prospects as perceived by the student teachers in Macau. In contrast, the move towards "centralized-decentralization" with a focus on excellence, competition and accountability in education at a time of teacher surplus results in a demanding profession with gloomy prospects as perceived by the Hong Kong student teachers. These differences add to our understanding of how the development trajectories of different education systems and teaching professions influence young people’s motivation to become teachers in different societies. The study also provides insights for initial teacher education and offers suggestions for the education communities of the two societies. Copyright © 2018 Education Research Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

Educators and politicians in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea expound the necessity for their East Asian school systems to become more like those in the West. They complain that there is too much rote learning, uniformity, and standardization and too little emphasis on creativity, diversity, and problem solving. In addition, competition is fierce for scarce places in elite schools and universities, leading to unfulfilled ambitions and wastage of talent among the high proportions of young people failing to gain entry. Meanwhile, their counterparts in North America, Australia, and Great Britain look in the reverse direction to these same East Asian countries and wonder what they can learn from the superior academic results of East Asian students on International Achievement Tests in mathematics and science (Atkin & Black, 1997). Copyright © 2002 by Routledge.

On 1 July 1997, after 150 years of British colonial rule, Hong Kong returned to its mother country, the People's Republic of China (PRC). Anticipation of reunification spawned speculation about the possibilities, prospects and problems for the political, economic and social life of Hong Kong after 1997. This paper argues that the unpredictability and uncertainty which have characterized the educational policy environment in Hong Kong for many years were compounded by the imminence of the change of sovereignty. It is suggested that examination of the policy process in the contemporary Hong Kong context can best be understood by examining both macro‐ and micro‐policy perspectives, and the interrelationships between them. Two guiding questions related to the influence of sovereignty change on education are addressed. The first question asks how system‐level policies are being interpreted in schools. The second question asks whether, how and to what extent change of sovereignty has politicized the policy process, particularly at the school level. The paper has three parts: the first provides a socio‐politico‐economic context to Hong Kong's handover; the second describes important educational policies shaping the system during the period of transition; and the third discusses school‐level responses and reactions to the policies within the context of a politicized environment. Copyright © 1998 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Background: Research into teacher emotion has attracted increasing attention in the last two decades. The relevance of teacher emotion in education has been highlighted. However, evidence of how teacher emotions impact their teaching approaches is rather limited.Aims: This study investigated the relationship between two self‐report instruments – the Teacher Emotion Inventory and the Approach to Teaching.Sample: There were 1,830 teachers were approached from 43 primary schools in China and 12 primary schools in Hong Kong.Methods: Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling were utilized in the analysis procedure.Results: As a result, a five‐factor TEI model was identified with two positive factors (Joy and Love) and three negative factors (Sadness, Anger, and Fear). A ATI model involved was confirmed with three factors (Knowledge Transmission, Student‐Teacher Interaction, and Student Focus). Structural equation modelling demonstrated that more student‐centred approaches are the consequence of positive teacher emotions while a teacher‐centred approach is the consequence of negative teacher emotions although there are two surprising links.Conclusions: Identifying this pattern of relationships will contribute to understanding the reasons why new teaching strategies are often not adopted despite well‐designed professional programs and educational reform and will provide implications for teaching improvement through teacher emotion. Copyright © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

The University of Hong Kong (HKU), following its establishment in 1911, has assumed the mission of bridging British and Chinese cultures, to prepare European and Chinese elite youth for political and other professional careers, and thus to improve Britain's cultural influence in competition with other western powers with regard to China. Dominated by its colonial character and pragmatic orientation, Chinese education at HKU was confined to no more than a supplementary subject at the initial stage. However, colonial crisis and cultural changes in the 1920s and 1930s, together with the endeavours of local cultural and commercial elites, made advanced Chinese education at HKU necessary and possible, and led to an independent unit for Chinese education and Chinese studies being established and strengthened. Organisational and curricular reforms before the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 led to further modernisation and solidified the structure of Chinese education at this university, laying the essential foundation for its post-war recovery and development. The evolution of Chinese education at HKU demonstrated well the subtle entanglements of education, culture and politics in a colonial context, through which coexistence and tensions between tradition and modernity, between China and the West, and between the imperial and republican intellectuals were also vividly revealed.
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