Integrating students with disabilities in ordinary schools has been a topic of debate in the Iast two decades. Inclusive education, in its broader sense, is still in its infancy in Hong Kong. Educational reforms, such as inclusive schooling, depends on teachers' support in implementing the change. Teachers' attitude towards integration and the changes required in schools and classrooms are crucial to the accomplishment of educational reforms. The purpose of this study was to survey classroom teachers' views toward integrating students with disabilities in Hong Kong. Results indicated that the availability of necessary resources, training of teachers, and the suitability of instruction and services were prime concerns for classroom teachers in providing education for students with disabilities. Recommendations for Hong Kong are proposed on considerations given to the above concerns and on legal mandates in providing education for students with disabilities.
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This paper provides a background to the 2 year Pilot Project on Integration completed by the Hong Kong Government in 1999. It considers the implementation of the Project, the difficulties faced by the Government in recruiting schools and the preparation of the participating schools. The paper describes the aims of the Pilot Project in integrating students with disabilities in primary and secondary schools and outlines the methods used by the research team to evaluate the Project. The paper discusses some of the main findings of the evaluation study and considers the central issues and challenges for Hong Kong set against a back cloth of the political changes surrounding the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. A number of recommendations for successful integration strategies for Hong Kong are indicated.
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Education is increasingly driven by the concept of quality assurance. Early indications from a Hong Kong project to integrate children with learning difficulties and disabilities into mainstream schools suggest that integration can have a positive impact, both on pedagogy and on the organizational thinking of mainstream schools, offering opportunities for school improvement and quality development.
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This article, while supporting the notion of inclusive education, urges caution in the rate at which the necessary changes take place. The writer acknowledges the important role played by special schools in meeting the needs of students with moderate to severe disabilities, and suggests that special schools must continue to exist in order to provide the full range of placement options. Some of the difficulties involved in implementing inclusive education are discussed, including the demands made upon the regular class teacher, the problem of class sizes in ordinary schools in Hong Kong, and the need for additional professional training with a focus on mixed-ability teaching.
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This paper aims to review the provision of special education and the need of Integration/ Inclusive Education [I/IE] in the Hong Kong context. The paper begins with the definition of relevant terms and follows it with a brief review of the existing provision of the segregated schooling in Hong Kong. Some preliminary comments on the "Pilot Project on Integration of Children with Special Needs in Ordinary Schools" and experiences from overseas on implementing Integration/ Inclusive Education will be given at the end of the paper.
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The Hong Kong government introduced a scheme to include students with disabilities into mainstream schools in 1997. This can be seen as the beginning of the "inclusion movement". The main problems of inclusion are its "one size fits all" philosophy and the belief that "the least restrictive environment" is exclusively the regular classroom. There are four major obstacles to implementing full inclusion in Hong Kong. (1) The existing teacher to student ratio is already unacceptably high. Putting disabled students into regular classrooms without decreasing the class size will burn-out teachers, without any obvious benefit to the disabled students. (2) Most teachers do not have any training to deal with disabled students. Without a qualified teacher, disabled students are unlikely to be receiving high-quality educational services. (3) Disabled students are put into classes with lower academic performance, a practice which presently compromises the learning potential of all students involved. (4) Hong Kong teachers in general education have inadequate experience in collaborating with other professionals so that providing teacher assistants to deal with special needs students may not be as helpful as it appears. In summary, full inclusion may not be the only answer. It should be recognised that disabled students have their own special needs which the regular classrooms may not be able to meet.
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This paper aims at identifying the use, benefits and challenges of integrating Minecraft in teaching students with autism. Classroom observations, students-created manifests and interviews were conducted in two Chinese-speaking special schools in Hong Kong. It is concluded that Minecraft does have positive impact on how children with ASD learn. Students were more engaged in class, showed improved collaboration and communications skills, developed deeper relationship with their classmates and the teachers, and were more motivated to learn. Some potential challenges and concerns are discussed. Copyright © 2018 The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

The Self-Report Family Inventory (SFI) is a 36-item scale developed by Beavers, Hampson, and Hulgus (1990) to assess competent and dysfunctional family functioning. While the SFI is widely tested in the areas of counselling psychology and clinical psychology, considerably less effort has been allocated to examine its psychometrics in educational settings. By using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) based on previous research, this study aimed to validate the Chinese version of SFI (C-SFI, Shek, 1998) with a sample of Hong Kong secondary students with special educational needs (SEN). The key purpose was to provide a useful tool to assess family functioning of this vulnerable population of students to inform practice improvement to cater for their needs. Consistent with Shek’s studies in typically developed students, the results of EFA showed a two-factor pattern. CFA results provided further evidence showing the best model fit indices were for the two-factor solution (i.e., family health and family pathology) compared with other competing models. This study also developed a short form (8 items instead of 36) of the C-SFI, which would be regarded as a parsimonious screening tool for researchers and practitioners to test family functioning of SEN students.家庭自我報告量表 (SFI) 是由 Beavers, Hamson, 及 Hulgus 在 1990 年編製的評估家庭功能狀況的量表。雖然該量表被廣泛應用於輔導心理學和臨床心理學，然而在教育領域的應用卻鮮有報導。本研究在已有研究的基礎上，通過探索性因素分析和驗證性因素分析評估中文版 SFI (C-SFI, Shek, 1998) 在香港有特殊學習需要中學生群體中的信度和效度。研究的主要目的是為有特殊教育需要學生這一弱勢群體提供一個有用的家庭功能評估工具。並在了解他們家庭功能的基礎上，為改進幫扶這一特殊需要群體的實踐提供指導作用。探索性因素分析結果生成兩個因素，這與已有的在香港普通學生中的研究結果一致。驗證性因素分析進一步提供了兩因素模型相關的擬合指數。本研究在原中文問卷的基礎上(36 條題項)，發展了一個簡化版 SF-C-SFI(8 條題項)。簡化版的兩因素與原版對應的兩因素之間的相關係數較高，達到 r=.92 以及 r=.94。 本研究初步為研究者和實踐者提供一個簡化版的篩查工具，用以評估殘疾學生的家庭功能。 Copyright © 2017 The Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.

香港教育大學中國語言學系提供的「照顧小學生中文的學習差異專業進修證書」課程，通過理論介紹與行動研究，幫助在職老師進一步了解、掌握、推動小學中文課室內融合教育，改善教學方法，提升教學質量，照顧學生不同需求，讓不同層次的學生在學習上都能有所提升，從而更好地在學校推行融合教育。此課程是一個雙向的課程，學員們不但能從課程中學到最新的理論，也可以從各自的學校的實戰當中相互分享先進實用的經驗。本文將列舉本課程中和學員一道進行的一部分行動研究，並闡述一些學校在融合教育當中對於協助具有特殊教育需要的同學在小學中國語文方面的中國語文校本課程計劃、照顧個別差異的課程評估，以及提升學生在閱讀教學中的興趣和投入感等方面的實戰經驗，使學界能對香港小學課室內中文科目融合教育有進一步的了解。The Department of Chinese Language Studies of The Education University of Hong Kong offers a “Certificate in Professional Development Programme on Catering for Student Diversity in Learning Chinese in Primary Schools” course. Through theoretical introduction and action research, the in-service teachers can better understand, master and promote their classroom integration in primary school Chinese classes and improve their teaching methods. The quality of teaching takes care of students' different needs and enables students of different levels to improve their learning so as to better integrate education in schools. This course is a two-way course, not only the in-service teachers can learn the latest theory from the course, but also share their advanced and practical experiences. This article will describe some of the action studies conducted in conjunction with the students in this course, and explain some of the schools' Chinese language school-based curriculum plans for assisting students with Special Educational Needs in elementary school Chinese language in integrated education. The practical experience of taking care of individual differences in curriculum assessments and enhancing students' interest in and interest in reading has enabled the academic community to have a better understanding of the integration of Chinese subjects in Hong Kong’s primary school classrooms. Copyright © 2017 特殊教育學會有限公司.

A hierarchy of inclusive teaching tasks by associated level of teacher efficacy is derived from a group of primary and secondary school teachers in Hong Kong using a Rasch rating scale model on 536 in-service teachers attending a professional development course. Findings show collaboration tasks represented the highest teacher efficacy in primary and secondary teachers. Managing behavior represented the lowest level of teacher efficacy but slightly more in primary than in secondary school. Hence, future training regarding inclusive practices should be specific to the school level, with a strong focus on collaborations between school, parents, and the community. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.