從八十年代至九十年代初期，香港各小學校基本上根據八十年代初編訂的“小學科學科”課程綱要推行科學教育。1994年，香港課程發展議會將小學課程重整，把小學原有的“社會科”、“科學科”及“健康教育科”三個科目綜合為一個小學核心課程，稱為“常識科”。此改變表面上令香港小學自然教育在學科分類上與全國其他省市課程有很大分別。不過留心細看，可察覺香港小學的“常識科”與全國其他地區的自然教育發展方向有很多相同之處。本文旨在簡介香港過往的小學科學教育及近期發展中的“常識科”。希望藉此促進香港及全國各地自然教育工作者的交流，共同發展我國的基礎科學教育。
[Copyright © 1998 小學自然教學編輯部.]

為提升學校教育質素，1997年教育統籌委員會第七號報告書特別提出須考慮包括學生的個人成就發展、學生在主要教育範疇表現的指標，即與輔導有關的過程和產出指標。而1999年教育統籌委員會的廿一世紀教育藍圖諮詢文件，更重申發展學生心性及多元智能是邁向優質教育的必經之路。有關措施自1992年實施至今，其成效如何？是否能為學校帶來預期的效果──培養學生良好的行為，加強他們的自我形象？甚至帶來優質學校教育？本文旨在報告一個探討校本輔導計劃在本港學校推行成效的研究結果。研究結果顯示：雖然自校本輔導計劃推行後，學童在課室的表現較前合作，社交能力較為進步，師生關係也較密切，但似乎有關學校仍未能掌握及有效將輔導理念實，與原有的推行目標仍有距離。文中除分析上述情況外，也表列了一些值得再作探討的問題，最後提出啟示，冀學校能透過改善校本輔導的質素，讓學生能增進自我形象，強化良好行為，使優質學校教育的精神能真正在學校落實。
[Copyright © 2001 優質學校教育學報.]

It is often said that young children in the Western Tradition have an innate desire to investigate and make sense of the world. Philosophy is about asking these important questions and trying to justify our answers. In the process of looking for an answer for their teachers, young children’s creative thoughts are enhanced, which in turn has kept in line with the prevailing global trend of educational practise. By engaging themselves in applying the questioning and scaffolding techniques, teachers would be able to gain a deeper understanding of how philosophical thinking would enhance their understanding of the meaning of learning and teaching and the nature of knowledge. Correspondingly, by engaging young children with Philosophy, young children’s creative mind could be enhanced. This paper reports a research study conducted in a child-care centre in Hong Kong which aimed at exploring how far have the preschool teachers gained in understanding that young children’s expression of creative thoughts could be enhanced through their use of questioning techniques. The findings suggest that teachers in the Eastern Tradition differ ideologically with those in the West on how creativity is viewed and expressed through philosophy generated by the young children.

The Chinese number system is believed to aid Chinese children in learning mathematics, which may help to explain the differences in mathematics performance between English-speaking and Chinese-speaking children. This chapter discusses Hong Kong Chinese preschool children’s mathematics learning and pre-primary and primary transition from the perspective of language and culture. Hong Kong preschool children have been found to perform better in mathematics compared with their English-speaking peers. Although the Chinese number naming system helps to explain the children’s better performance in learning individual mathematics concepts, this is insufficient in itself to account for the children’s performance. Other factors, such as classroom instruction and cultural beliefs about mathematics learning, may also have an important influence on children’s mathematics performance. Further studies involving teachers have shown that there is top-down pressure for Hong Kong preschools to adopt an academically focused curriculum. The Chinese cultural aspiration for academic success and the quest for a smooth pre-primary and primary transition have led to the use of the traditional drill-and-practice approach for teaching particular advanced mathematics concepts in Hong Kong preschools. The implications of this for early childhood mathematics teaching are discussed.
[Copyright © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore].

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is often seen to be constraining and focused on specific skill development for specific occupations. This goal is at odds with the demands of a knowledge economy that requires more general educational outcomes for an uncertain and unpredictable labour market. For this reason, Hui (2012) has adopted a broader definition of student learning outcomes and assessed the extent to which ‘cultural literacy’ might be a preferred goal for TVET to supplement the skills training element. Cultural literacy refers to an individual’s world view, ways to interact with people, character, personal ethics, values and style. Hui’s study highlighted the need for TVET to emphasise the development of these generic outcomes, students’ comprehensive attitudes and personal qualities in particular. To achieve greater control over the quality of outcomes, this study aims to investigate the influence of students’ participation in institutional activities on their growth. Through modifying the well-known National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), this study examines the relationship between the five benchmarks of effective educational practice and students’ cultural literacy and their self-reported academic performance. Results of a survey study of 238 Hong Kong TVET students indicated that some of the benchmarks could predict to a strong and moderate degree these two important outcomes. It is argued that proper planning and facilitation of educationally purposive activities could enhance both their learning and development. This article will contribute to the discussion on how to advance TVET students’ learning performance.
[Copyright © 2014 Behalf of UCU.]

Several leadership approaches have been advocated as effective ways of bringing about substantial changes in practices. “Instructional” or “transactional leadership” describes the qualities of a leader who provides the vision and impetus for change. In contrast, “transformational leadership” refers to those whose approach is more consistent with evolving trends in educational reform such as empowerment, distributed leadership, and co-construction of learning. Hong Kong has launched a variety of education reforms that focus on quality of learning and teaching. While there has been a general recognition of the importance of teacher leadership few efforts have been made to identify and promote specific approaches to teacher leadership designed to bring about desired improvements at the early childhood stage. The present study examines how teacher leaders conceive their role within current school leadership models. In this study kindergarten/preschool teachers of the senior management team were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning various aspects of leadership. Factor analysis, however, was unable to replicate the clear patterns found in Western countries which broadly differentiated between transactional and transformational styles of leadership. Instead a mix of styles was more often reported. A number of possible explanations for this finding are considered and some implications for policy makers wishing to transform kindergarten education in Hong Kong are put forward.
[Copyright © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.]