Search results

This paper aims to analyse the reform syndrome, bottle‐neck effects and their impacts on teachers and school education in the last ten years and highlight the direction of new developments.

The paper examines educational reforms in Hong Kong in the last decade.

Echoing the international trends of educational reforms, Hong Kong, as an international city, has initiated a series of educational reforms in the past decades. The experiences of educational reforms in Hong Kong may provide a good case for understanding the dynamics of educational reforms and drawing theoretical and practical implications for research, policy formulation and implementation not only in Hong Kong but also in other international communities.

From the analysis of the reform syndrome, particularly the bottle‐neck effect, there should be seven key aspects for policy‐makers, educators and stakeholders in Hong Kong to address the emergent key issues in educational reforms and work for the further development of their education system in the coming few years.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of school autonomy and accountability and related multiple changes and impacts in key areas of school education in Hong Kong since implementing school-based management (SBM) from 1990s.

To explore the evolution and the uniqueness of autonomy and accountability in the Hong Kong school system, the paper begins with an historical account, followed by an evaluation of the effects of SBM as shown in policy documents, local research, international reviews and illustrative findings from a case study. The local and international implications of SBM for research and practice are then discussed.

This paper shows the links between school autonomy and accountability by exploring the potential effects of both of these factors on educational management and student achievement, which are increasingly emphasised in educational policies. The investigation shows that the assumed links and effects are not always consistent or empirically supported. The positive effects that school autonomy has on school governance and management, teachers’ work, school-based curriculums and student learning are all significant when there is also strong leadership, comprehensive continuous professional development and a positive, collaborative school climate. These key elements work alongside school autonomy to facilitate positive change.

School autonomy and accountability should be viewed as necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for school improvement and development. Further characterisation of the processes happening in schools is needed to explore the different realisations of school autonomy and accountability.

This investigation of school autonomy and accountability in Hong Kong provides the international audience with a deeper understanding of the dynamics involved in the development of SBM.

To develop a framework for conceptualizing and managing integration in STEM learning, that can help address key issues in its research and implementation worldwide.

Integration in learning is a complicated but not a well-defined concept and therefore it is difficult to illustrate in theory and practice how to conceptualize, manage and implement integrated STEM learning with aims to enhance students' learning effectiveness and multiple-thinking ability. Based on a typology in integrated learning, this article re-conceptualizes integrated STEM learning into a comprehensive framework of three categories, six subcategories and four basic models. With this framework, how to manage integrated STEM learning and related issues in schools for effectiveness are discussed.

As a typology, integration in STEM learning can be classified as content integration, pedagogical integration and learner integration. They can be further differentiated as six subcategories: subject integration, domain integration, method integration, cognitive integration, SEN integration and diverse ability integration in STEM learning. Depending on the extents of content integration and pedagogical integration, four basic models of integrated learning can be identified in theory and practice. The categories, subcategories and basic models have their own characteristics, strengths and limitations. Strategies are developed to address the characteristics and related key issues of each category of STEM learning.

The framework may help to analyze the key issues of integrated STEM learning in research and development, such as “Why and what integration in STEM learning is important and necessary in curriculum reforms for the future?”, “How the integrated STEM approach is different from the traditional subject approach?”, “How the STEM learning activities can be integrated and managed effectively for enhancing students' learning effectiveness and multiple thinking capacity?”, and “What key implications can be drawn for managing and implementing STEM learning?”

Based on the proposed typology and models of STEM learning, various strategies of managing STEM are discussed and developed, which will contribute to policy formulation and professional practice of integrated STEM learning locally and internationally.

The proposed typology and models of STEM learning and related new ideas and perspectives will contribute to future research and development in this area locally and internationally.

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.

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.

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.

The new framework of conceptualisation and the comparison between the characteristic profiles of broad-based and narrow-based national education provide new implications and possibilities not only for policy and implementation but also for research involving multiple functions and multiple levels.

The new perspectives associated with the broad-based national education will contribute to future research worldwide in this area.

Aims to develop the conception and theory of school‐based management and map its characteristics of school functioning for facilitating the ongoing discussion and effort for school management reforms in local or international contexts. School‐based management employs theories of “equifinality” and “decentralization”, assumes that “school is a self‐managing system” and regards “initiative of human factor” and “improvement of internal process” as important. When compared with externally‐controlled schools, the characteristics of school‐based managing schools are very different in school functioning. They should have clear school mission and strong organizational culture. In these schools, managing strategies should encourage participation and give full play to members′ initiative; there should also be considerable autonomy of procuring and using resources to solve problems in time; the role of people concerned should be active and developmental; human relationship is open, co‐operative with mutual commitment; administrators should be high quality and always learning; and evaluation of school effectiveness should include multilevel and multi‐facet indicators of input, process and output in order to help the school learn to improve.

School‐based management programmes have been launched in various regions of the world to enhance education quality in schools. Presents a multilevel self‐management framework necessary for effective implementation of school‐based management. Proposes strategies for minimizing restraining forces and developing plans for effective multilevel self‐management in schools. Suggests three stages of implementation: unfreezing stage, changing stage and reinforcing stage. The time frame is critical for implementing the three levels of self‐management and, therefore, its management is discussed. Proposes seven types of skill required to work more effectively through the above stages, reduce resistance and gain support from school members.

Describes how the changing educational environment demands continuous school‐based teacher education (SBTE) for school development, teacher effectiveness and quality assurance. Suggests that SBTE should help teachers and the school to perform technical, human, political, cultural and educational functions at five levels. Asserts that the functions of SBTE can contribute to the strategic management process, facilitate whole‐school development and enhance school effectiveness. Argues that a thorough understanding of the multi‐functions of SBTE is necessary for effective design and implementation of the content and activities of teacher education in school. Provides a comprehensive framework for practitioners and researchers to understand the complex nature and potential contribution of SBTE in both local and international contexts.

This paper aims to report empirical research investigating how school‐based management (SBM) and paradigm shift (PS) in education are closely related to teachers' student‐centered teaching and students' active learning in a sample of Hong Kong secondary schools.

It is a cross‐sectional survey research involving 31 secondary schools, 1,119 teachers and 7,063 students with seven sets of questionnaires: three for students, three for teachers and one for principals.

The results of analysis indicate the following findings. The greater tendency towards SBM of a school associates with the greater extent of PS from the site‐bounded paradigm towards the triplization paradigm in education. Both the measures of SBM and PS in education are closed related to teachers' student‐centered teaching (in terms of facilitating student learning, facilitating student thinking and facilitating student self‐reflection and assessment) and students' active learning (in terms of positive learning attitudes, application of various learning methods, learning effectiveness, multiple thinking in learning and satisfaction in learning). The profiles of “high SBM and high‐PS” schools are much more preferable than “low SBM and low‐PS” schools in terms of various measures of teachers' teaching and students' learning.

Even though SBM and PS in education are strongly emphasized in ongoing educational reforms in different parts of the world, there is lack of empirical study to show how they are related to teachers' teaching and students' learning in practice. The findings of the research contribute to filling this research gap and advancing theoretical and practical understanding in such a frontier area.

School‐based management (SBM) or school self‐management has been an important worldwide school restructuring movement since 1980s. This paper aims to map out how SBM in terms of self‐management at the school, group and individual levels is related to school performance at different levels. From a sample of 82 schools, the strength of multi‐level self‐management in school was found to be strongly related to the quality indicators of organizational performance, moderately correlated to the quality indicators of group social norms of teachers, and individual teacher job performances. The profiles of strong and weak self‐management schools were also found to be significantly different in most indicators of school performance at different levels. The findings provide preliminary evidence to support that the success of SBM implementation for achieving school quality depends on the involvement of the school, groups and individual teachers as a whole in continuous self‐management and self‐learning cycles.