In response to the emerging challenges in the 21st century, there have been numerous education reforms worldwide in the last two decades. From the case of Hong Kong, this speech aims to address the key features and trends of education reform phenomenon commonly happening in different parts of the world. It will help international educators, policy-makers, researchers and change agents to understand the complicated dynamics and issues involved in the formulation and implementation of systemic reform, including (1) conflicts and diversities among stakeholders, (2) constraints with limited resources for reform initiatives, (3) knowledge poverty and ignorance in practice of reforms at different levels, (4) conflicts and time competitions among a wide range of parallel changes, and (5) paradigmatic gaps in planning and implementing reforms. Without addressing these issues, many education reforms with good intentions finally failed in “reform syndromes” and “bottle necks” in the last decades. This speech will draw global implications from the local lessons for future research and policy development on education reforms.

To maintain one's competitiveness edge in a global sense, we have observed a wide spread drive in various economies on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education at different levels of education. The emphasis on STEM education originates in the US back in the middle of last century, since then tremendous input of resources and efforts have been put into STEM education for its development and implementation. The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region highlighted Hong Kong's commitment to STEM education in his three successive Policy Address in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Echoing this high level commitment were the reports on STEM education published by the Education Bureau of the HKSAR Government and the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong. Given these, there is still a wide spectrum of views as to the “What” and “How” of STEM education among stakeholders. While hero cases of STEM education and learning resources have sprung up in the past few years, we yet have to see sufficient research evidence to shed lights on the ways to scale up the initiative. This speech will attempt to reflect on the global and local lessons on STEM education.

Since 2009, Hong Kong senior school curriculum has been experiencing a shift in teaching and learning which was intended to change the current practice from traditional content-based to generic-skill oriented ones. The challenge for teachers, as highlighted by the Curriculum Development Council (2009), is that "teachers will need to have a wide repertoire of pedagogical strategies to cater for different learning intentions, individual students' needs and learning environments", "apply a pedagogy, old or new, that engages students, supports them to develop thinking and problem-solving skills and enables them to develop life-long learning skills", and "align assessment practice with curriculum change and recognize the wider achievements and abilities of students". In order to understand how beginning teachers perceive this new meaning of pedagogical shift and how they put the concept into practice, the study used case studies to explore the perceptions and actions of pre-service teachers through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The results collected were analyzed through the lens of teachers' professional development as highlighted in the literature (Darling-Hammond, 2005; Munby, Russell and Martin, 2001; Shulman and Shulman, 2004). It is expected that the results would help search for teachers' knowledge base of teaching in the new era.

This study examines changing nature of school leaders’ work during education reform in complex settings. We adopted a case study of investigating how two Hong Kong principals’ work was changed in responding to the 10-year education reform and demographic changes. Multiple qualitative data were collected. The results show that the principals’ scope of work had been changing and expanding to identify new opportunities for school development. Implications for school improvement and effectiveness are discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the worldwide discussion of conceptualization, multiple functions and management of national education in an era of globalisation by proposing a new comprehensive framework for research, policy analysis and practical implementation. Design/methodology/approach Based on a review of the diversity in definitions of national education, the controversies in policy and implementation of national education are discussed. The different interpretations of national education stem from different assumptions and perspectives. Each of them seems too confining in globalisation. To overcome the controversies, this paper calls for a re-conceptualisation of national education from a broader perspective. Findings The conceptualisation of broad-based national education is premised on two fundamental principles. First, national education which is meant for development is a process by which humankind moves forward at multiple levels including the personal, local, national and global levels. Second, national education nowadays must be understood against a globalised context, in which there are multiple, complex and dynamic developments at play including technological, economic, social, political, cultural and learning developments of not only individuals and local communities within the nation but also the global world beyond the nation. In brief, broad-based education serves multiple functions at multiple levels. With national identity understood in a broader perspective, the multiplicity and complexity of national education may be better addressed. Identifying with one's own nation is a dynamic and complicated process in which interaction and integration between the different levels and different functions of civic identities are involved. The approaches to management, implementation and pedagogy of broad-based national education are also discussed. Research limitations/implications The new framework of conceptualisation and the comparison

本文旨在探討實習教師在香港新高中課程改革的路途上，如何就新課程的學科發展、學生背景和學科教學知識，建構他們的新知識，及所面對的挑戰。研究發現實習教師在建構新課程的教學知識過程中有很多疑慮，這些疑慮，主要來自新課程的學科知識變化所帶來的不確定感，學生的多元背景和課堂教學的挑戰，以及來自學校與社會的文化氛圍所帶來的影響，研究結果有助當局對課程發展的檢視，並教師教育的發展。
[Copyright © 2013 香港青年協會.]

It has been estimated that over 37,000 students with special educational needs (SEN) study in ordinary mainstream school in Hong Kong, with an average of 37 students with SEN in a school. Since 1997, inclusive practice in Hong Kong has been implemented with great determination and wide school coverage. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, in his 2015 Policy Address, further announced a HK$200 million three-year programme titled "Provision of funding for ordinary schools to arrange special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs)". Taken together with the previous policy implemented by the Education Bureau in 2008, of funding additional leadership positions in shaping school-wide development in inclusive education, it has become clear that the SENCOs will play an increasingly important role in strengthening the implementation of inclusive education (IE) in Hong Kong. By using qualitative semi-structured interviews of the SENCO, school principal and six students from each participating school in this pilot study, this paper explored effects of the new SENCOs’ role on and values added to inclusive practices in support of special educational needs in the pilot schools in contrast to the current practices in non-pilot schools. The contextual difference in support of SEN by the pilot and non-pilot schools was particularly noted. Preliminary findings that have a direct bearing on the effectiveness of SENCO’s role, responsibilities and support in the pilot schools that could provide empirical evidences of defining value-added inclusive practices will be discussed.