Hong Kong provides an excellent case study of language policy in a multilingual world. Cantonese is the medium of instruction for all government primary schools, where English and Putonghua are taught as subjects. The majority of HK's secondary schools are also Chinese (Cantonese) medium, but about a quarter are English medium. This policy has not been popular with parents and the government has now bowed to parental pressure for more access to English and announced a ‘fine-tuning' of the current policy, to take effect from the school year 2010-2011. This new policy will allow secondary schools to teach more subjects through English, as long as certain criteria concerning student and teacher capabilities and resources are met. After a brief historical review of Hong Kong's language policy, the paper will report on an empirical study into the practical and pedagogical consequences of the new fine-tuning policy. The study surveyed 127 secondary schools to identify what changes in practice were planned. The hypothesis was that schools would be primarily influenced by parental demand and that therefore the overwhelming majority of them would plan to use the maximum allowance given by fine-tuning to increase their teaching through English as a subject and as a medium of instruction. In reporting the findings, the paper will show whether these predictions were in fact met, and the effects it could have on schools, teachers and students.

MOI for sure affects the effectiveness of teaching, schooling and even language landscape of society. Under certain language policies or social language environments, selection of MOI is a metaphor of politics and resources. HK is a special place with a history of British colony over 150 years. After return of sovereignty to China in 1997, language landscape of HK does not change a lot. According to government statistical figures, Cantonese which HK people consider as their mother tongue is still a dominant language in daily life and local context (96.5% Proportion of the population able to speak Cantonese in 2006). This article is going to study how Putonghua becomes a core subject and Mol of Chinese Language subject in primary and secondary school curriculums from perspectives of policy making and responses of stake holders. According to scholars' research, by 2011, 46% of schools will adopt Putonghua as Mol for Chinese Language subject. Is enhancing Chinese standard of students the sole rationale behind this move? Can Putonghua, L2 or L3 of many Hong Kong students, enhance L1 Chinese standard of Cantonese speaking students? This is an interesting research question as Singapore is investigating how to use English, official L1 in Singapore, as Mol to teaching Chinese. As Putonghua has not developed from L2 or L3 to L1 in Hong Kong, is teaching Chinese Language subject in PMI a correct move right now? The findings of the paper can help us address the nature of L1 learning in multilingual and cultural societies such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

Scaffolding in education refers to the strategies of support which facilitates student development and aims at assisting them to learn effectively. When students are able to learn independently, the scaffolding can be withdrawn. This paper aims at analyzing how effective scaffolding is to the non-Chinese specking students in learning Chinese through video-recording of actual classroom teaching of three periods in a Hong Kong primary school. Research methods include observing classroom teaching and analyzing video-recording-turned scripts. The research finds out that teachers and students can communicate through the target language (Cantonese) without the need for translating. This implies it is feasible to apply immersion method in the teaching Chinese as the second language. The research also finds out that teachers applied eight scaffolding strategies in helping students to learn Chinese, namely: 1. recall scaffolding; 2. language scaffolding, including dialogue scaffolding, sentence pattern scaffolding and dominant language scaffolding; 3. predictable book scaffolding; 4. concept scaffolding; 5. “directed reading-thinking activity” structure scaffolding; 6. peer scaffolding; 7. demonstration scaffolding; 8. multi-media scaffolding. Most of the scaffolding strategies are effective in helping students to learn Chinese. However, a few of them are not running effectively and need to be improved.

In Hong Kong, three principal languages co-exist: Cantonese, English and Putonghua. For more than two decades, among policy-makers and educators, there has been a substantial debate on the language policies governing the three principal languages. Since the political transition in 1997, the Hong Kong government has made a series of language policy reforms trying to create a reasonable balance among the three languages, and a “biliterate and trilingual” policy has been adopted, with the aim of enabling Hong Kong residents to become biliterate in written Chinese and English, and trilingual in Cantonese, Putonghua and spoken English. The policy is now guiding the curriculum design in Hong Kong language education. However, currently, Hong Kong primary schools do not have an agreed approach or method for the implementation of trilingual education, and there is an urgent need to explore current successful or unsuccessful models. After a comprehensive historical review of the development of language education in Hong Kong schools, this study aims to find out how the ‘biliterate' and ‘trilingual' language policy is currently implemented in Hong Kong primary schools. A large scale questionnaire survey were carried out among Hong Kong primary school principals on how trilingual education was implemented in the schools. The findings suggest that, from school to school, the implementation of trilingual education varied significantly, and the effectiveness of the trilingual education models varied as well. It is hoped that this study will help us to gain a better understanding of trilingual education in Hong Kong, and the study could lead to some insightful and theoretical contributions to multilingual education in general.

Language in education debates in Hong Kong focus on the role and status of English (as the former colonial language and an important means for international communication); Cantonese, the mother tongue of the majority of the population; and Putonghua, the national language of China. I will examine language in education policy from an historical perspective, with particular emphasis on the period after the retrocession of Hong Kong in 1997. The questions I will address include: How have the role and status of each of the three language changed over time? What are the major influences on policy decisions? What do policy changes reveal about educational values and ideologies in Hong Kong? Who wins and who loses out?

Enhancing the higher order thinking (HOT) ability of students is a worldwide educational goal. This has also become a significant objective in the curriculum reforms in Hong Kong, which aims at better preparation of students to meet the challenges of the new era. Cultural aspects are often regarded as salient in determining approaches to teaching. The influence of Chinese traditions on teaching in Hong Kong has been discussed by many researchers, who found the thinking of Confucius still strongly influences the conception of teaching of Chinese teachers. By the in-depth interviews with 12 Chinese teachers, their conceptions of effective HOT teaching were examined. Nine teaching tips were suggested by the teachers. The list of HOT teaching tips reflects that intermingled values of Western and traditional Chinese education are embraced. The findings also show how Chinese values influence teachers' conceptions of effective HOT teaching and the results are discussed with reference to the influence of Confucian thought. The comparatively narrow conceptions regarding HOT teaching imply that certain cultural barriers are still hampering Hong Kong teachers in the post-handover period. One major recommendation is that an awareness of the cultural values of the context is important for any application of foreign methods of teaching.
[Copyright © 2015 British Educational Research Association.]

This article explores the dynamics of power-sharing between teacher and students in learning and teaching situations, and describes the theoretical bases, implementation, and results of an empirical study in three elementary schools in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Findings from 58 class observations and interviews with 50 students, 25 teachers, and three school principals suggest that teachers can empower students by acknowledging their right to and responsibility for learning and by sharing power with students. Power-sharing classroom practice requires the dual efforts of teachers and students, and can be facilitated by the teachers’ interactive teaching mode, students’ cooperation and willingness to engage in learning, and school policy and culture, etc. In the power-sharing classrooms, teachers played the role of facilitators and students played as collaborators. In this article, theoretical implications for understanding power-sharing and critical pedagogy are discussed. The empirical evidence from this Hong Kong study contributes to an understanding of teacher-initiated power-sharing in the Chinese context, and the practice of critical pedagogy in classrooms.
[Copyright © 2014 Higher Education Press.]

本文藉著一項「創意教師獎勵計劃」來描述及探討香港小學教師在「創意教學」上的教學理念。作者參照Kainan (1995) 的敘事報告分析法與及Cropley (1997) 的六層創造階段，發現香港小學創意教師的表現，跟高效能教師的特質吻合。他們的創造過程符合Cropley 的理論架構，其等勇於創新的態度亦令人欽佩；可是這些被推薦的創意作品袛一面倒地偏向「兒童為本」的取向。此外，這些老師均認為整個創造過程都需要教師的自願及積極參與；本自工作環境的推動力，只可稍作幫忙而未足以成事。本文末部提出偏頗的教學取向，淺薄的教師資歷及欠理想的工作情境是妨礙香港小學創意教學的主要原因。幸好近年在香港的教育改革已開始為創意教學帶來新的希望和路向。以下是本文的行文大網：1. 引言；2. 「創意教學」之創造過程；3. 討論；4. 前景和希望；5. 結語；6. 參考文獻。