This article reports on a mixed-method inquiry into pre-service and in-service secondary school teachers' knowledge about Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and attitudes toward students with this disorder in Hong Kong. The inquiry revealed no differences between pre- service and in-service secondary school teachers concerning their knowledge of ADHD and attitudes toward students with ADHD. It also identified possible sources of participants' knowledge and a variety of factors underlying their attitudes toward students with ADHD including sociocultural beliefs and working conditions. The findings call for teacher educators to develop better education programs to support both pre-service and in-service teachers in undertaking the challenging task of teaching students with ADHD.

The aim of this Quality Education Fund project was to set up a school network for teachers to have a platform for an interactive exchange of ideas, resources, services, and expertise among different schools that mutually address the needs of children with dyslexia in Hong Kong. A number of five primary schools were invited to participate in this project. Each school was requested to identify an area of concern in reading or writing for research and development. Each school also designed a 10-week teaching programme for children with dyslexia for the try-out of the chosen area of concern. The identified areas included story-telling for word identification, summarization for reading comprehension, recognition of word functions for writing, use of five senses for sentence making and co-teaching for teaching word recognition. A 5-day cross-site visitation was held among the five member schools during the implementation of the teaching programmes. Individual interviews were conducted for principals and teachers of member schools to evaluate the effectiveness of the network. It was found that teachers of member schools benefitted from the experience sharing in the immediate discussion after each peer observation. The most significant finding was that the motivation of the students was enhanced and their reading and writing skills were improved.

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 study focuses on teachers’ perception of what works for them in managing students with emotional and behavioral difficulties (EBD). The main purpose is to compare the current findings in mainstream schools with the study that was conducted in special schools in 2006–2007 to see if there are any discrepancies of approaches implemented by teachers. This recent study was carried out in 11 mainstream schools involving 102 teachers. It is compared to the seven special schools with 89 teachers. Focus group interviews with the same open-ended questions were adopted for both studies. Findings indicated that the majority of the strategies perceived by both groups of teachers as helpful were very similar, and they can be classified under eight major categories. In collating all the approaches deemed supportive in working with EBD students, a holistic conceptual framework is delineated to address the complexities of managing emotional and behavioral disturbances.
[Copyright © 2011 SEBDA.]

It is possible that many benefits may be found for all concerned in education and child development in understanding how knowledge of the brain and its development can inform early years practice. This article, written by Brenda Peters and Chris Forlin, both from the Hong Kong Institute of Education, reviews literature based on neuroscience to establish potential links with teaching and learning, in an attempt to identify the most appropriate pedagogical support for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Two key themes have emerged: firstly, neuroscience and education and translation between these disciplines, and secondly, the relevance of these developments for specific groups of learners. This article focuses on early educational intervention and how emerging evidence from neuroscience and collaboration with educators may support future developments for practice for these young learners with ASD.
[Copyright © 2011 The Authors. British Journal of Special Education © 2011 NASEN.]

The principle of educating students with special educational needs in the least restrictive settings renders a rapid growth of the population of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in ordinary schools in the last decade. This change has caused a concern to teachers in ordinary schools. To equip teachers in ordinary schools with the knowledge and skills in dealing with special edu-cational needs, different tiers of professional development programs have been developed. The problem is that these programs are mainly short-term and direct top-down transmission in nature. The lack of opportunity to try out the newly acquired knowledge and skills in real environments cannot give sufficient confi-dence to teachers to work with students with ASD independently. This chapter discusses the effectiveness of a current professional development (PD) program for teachers of students with ASD in Hong Kong SAR. A collaborative mode of PD is recommended that can assist teachers to gain hands-on experience in a field-based training program.