Fifty Hong Kong Chinese teachers rated the importance of 25 characteristics and 14 competencies for teachers of gifted learners. While all 39 characteristics and competencies were endorsed as important, the characteristics classified as philosophical ideals were rated most important, followed by characteristics related to professional predispositions. Personal attributes were rated least important. Regarding competencies, specific skills related to identifying, teaching, and counseling gifted learners were rated more important than global strategies. While the selection of teachers of gifted learners might proceed with selecting teachers with the desirable characteristics to meet the needs of gifted learners, the present findings indicated that the development of philosophical, professional, and personal characteristics conducive to effective teaching should not be neglected in teacher preparation programs. Further, desirable skills and competencies that teachers require to teach the gifted well could be made the objectives, goals, and outcomes of teacher preparation programs for teachers of gifted learners. It is believed that the development of teacher preparation programs for teachers of gifted learners in Hong Kong and elsewhere might benefit from integrating Chinese thinking with Western empirically supported findings on the characteristics and competencies of teachers of gifted learners.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02783190109554098 ]

Purpose: Children with hearing loss who require special school placement may have a wide range of audiometric configurations. Since such children will vary in auditory status their amplification requirements may also be diverse. This study examined the audiological records of 231 children attending four schools for hearing impaired children in Hong Kong to gain an understanding of common audiometric patterns found in the school children and their auditory rehabilitation needs. Method: Data on the children's aetiology of hearing loss, hearing status, tympanometric findings and the electroacoustic characteristics of their hearing aids were obtained. For 424 children's ears considered having essentially sensorineural hearing loss, k-means cluster analysis methods were used to categorize audiometric configuration groups Results: Cluster analysis that indicated that five distinct audiometric configurations could be found among the school children. Different clusters contained children who had differing amplification needs. The study analysed a number of parameters to check fitting outcomes, including average prescribed gain, frequency-specific measured versus prescribed gain, prescribed frequency response, measured versus prescribed frequency response and the predicted aided thresholds for the children. Conclusion: The amplification needs associated with these five configurations, including recommended prescription gain, maximum power output and possible signal processing strategies, were considered. The clustering algorithm approach proved useful as a means of grouping distinctive audiometric profiles.
[Copyright of Disability and Rehabilitation is the property of Informa Healthcare . Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09638280210148602]

Ninety university undergraduate students were tested on a number of tasks assessing their recognition of possible and impossible figures, mental rotation, ideational fluency, and self-report artistic and creative characteristics. Scores on the Impossible Figures Task (IFT-14) and the Mental Rotation Test, and self-ratings on the Artistic Characteristics Rating Scale were found to differentiate among Fine Arts students, Architecture students, and students from Arts Faculty disciplines less related to visual-spatial abilities, suggesting that the IFT-14 could be used to assess visual-spatial or visual arts talents. The application of the IFT-14 with the same related measures to a sample of 103 primary and secondary gifted students provided further supporting evidence. Implications of the findings on the development of more sensitive measures for identifying students with visual-spatial or visual arts talents are discussed.
[Copyright of High Ability Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598130802504296]

The relationships among adjustment problems, self-efficacy, and psychological distress were investigated in a sample of 207 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. A mediation-effect model specifying that adjustment problems had an effect on psychological distress mediated by self-efficacy was hypothesized and tested using structural equation modeling procedures. For comparison, a direct-effect model and a direct-and-mediation-effect model were also fitted to the data. The results indicated that the direct-and-mediation-effect model provided the best and a reasonably adequate fit, suggesting that the effects of adjustment problems on psychological distress could be direct, but more importantly the effects could also be mediated by self-efficacy. Implications of the findings for enhancing the self-efficacy of students to promote their psychological well-being are discussed.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02783190609554365 ]

The debates I explore in this article were prompted by conversations I had with a Government Education Inspector who accompanied me on a visit to a primary school and participated in a series of workshops I organised while I was on a fellowship at Hong Kong University. May Lee's challenge to me that a non-selective education system was a luxury only the First World could afford provoked me into acknowledging a whole new dimension for our discussions of the function of segregated education for groups excluded from the mainstream. I begin by introducing the education system in Hong Kong as it was in the early 1990s. Then I go on, and discuss the activities and conversations I shared with May Lee. Patterns of inclusion and exclusion in Hong Kong reflect a deeply-respected concept of a `good school'; special schools and classes are the only settings for the provision of additional learning support. I discuss examples of each. Finally, I discuss inclusion in education in the context of a developing country, drawing on the work of Chinese, Indian and Western writers to assess May Lee's claim. Opinion is divided. I conclude that the force of an international rhetoric of inclusion obscures the continuing operation of a cultural commitment to selection.
[Copyright of Disability & Society is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599826948 ]