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Building Professional knowledge-base for Quality Education Development Francis Wing-ming CHEUNG The Hong Kong Institute of Education |
Hong Kong has undergone a few waves of educational reform in the past 30 years. During this period of development, increasing efforts have been invested in educational research and related studies. However, the pace of such effort was not fast enough to match with the educational reforms, and the outcomes of related studies have not been accumulated a substantial threshold to support and inform effective and far-reaching reforms. Not until the recent decade, the Hong Kong education community has experienced a quantum jump, in the level of educational and professional discourses as well as education research and action studies.
This will gradually change the past reform experiences, in which education policy makers and frontline educators engaged in education reform based largely on the experience and previous professional training, without benefited from the cutting-edge professional knowledge-base.
The current wave of educational reform emphasizes on the paradigm shift of teaching and learning. Its success hinges largely on the frontline educators' capacity in continuous reflection and learning, in the mastery of creative and innovative practices. To meet this ends, the frontline educators need to have quick access to the cutting-edge professional knowledge-base which will provide inspiration for effective practices in schools. It is in this way, the learning and teaching as well as other school practices will not only be supported solely by individual experience, but also by the established knowledge base of the profession.
In relation to the building up of a professional knowledge-base, the Hong Kong community has been investing a large amount of resources in education and educational research. The outcomes are not always encouraging, especially the use of educational research findings by frontline educators.
In response to this phenomenon, the academics and the frontline educators of the Hong Kong Primary Education Research Association (HKPEA) initiated the launching of the Journal of Quality School Education (JQSE), with a view to contributing to the current education reform through sharing educational research findings and professional practices with frontline educators and academics.
JQSE, supported by the Quality Education Fund (QEF) of the HKSAR, is established by the joint effort of the Hong Kong Primary Education Research Association (HKPERA) and the Centre for Research and International Collaboration (CRIC) of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). We are honored to have ten internationally respected scholars to serve on the International Advisory Editorial Board of the Journal, which provides valuable comments on the editorial and publishing policies in actualizing JQSE's vision. JQSE publishes articles with both theoretical and practical significance, relevant to the current reform. It is hoped that the ideas and knowledge conveyed by these articles could be fedback to schools and academics to stimulate more fruitful discourses and effective practices in the education field.
This first issue contains a wide range of inspiring articles, ranging from theoretical conceptions to the sharing of pragmatic ideas. Professor Yin-cheong Cheng shares with us his recent inspiring conception of globalization, localization and individualization. This is a very important guiding framework for conceptualizing future directions in education reforms. Professor Wing-on Lee systematically analyses the new demands of teacher quality arising from the recent wave of reform, drawing experiences from Asian countries. He also suggests new directions for teacher professional development.
Mr. Paul Kit-kong Lee and his colleagues discuss the major hurdle of the current education reform - teachers' heavy workload, which is a key issue for education policy makers and school administrators to reflect on. In the area of student development and teaching and learning, Mr. Ping-yan Chow reports a study on the effectiveness of the "Whole School Approach in guidance and counseling" and suggests ways to move forward. Mr. Wai-Choi Leung shares his experience in the "Love and Life Education Project". Ms Mei-yi Cheng and Ms Sze-yin Yeung discusses with us the innovative ways of teaching in Chinese language.
Ms. Yuk-yi Fung has launched her "Quality Classroom Teaching Action Project" in 11 local primary schools, and her article outlines the concrete ways in implementing the project. Professor Chi-kin Lee and his colleagues kindly contribute two pieces of work, one of which shares the experience in home-school cooperation, and the other discusses the implications of the Outstanding School Award Scheme. These are all valuable ideas for frontline educators.
With the permission of the Association of Heads of Secondary Schools of Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi District, we are also able to share with the readers the stimulating experience in General Studies curriculum integration of the "i School" Quality Circle Plan with our readers. We take this opportunity to thank the Association once again.
With all the above contributions to this issue of JQSE, we hope that the journal will be able to arouse the interests of all concerned to engage in more in-depth discourses in the field. We welcome contributions from academics and frontline colleagues. Please do not hesitate to share your conception and experiences with us. Our next issue will be focused on the application of information technology in education. We hope that the JQSE would contribute to the on-going development in the field.
Wish that all schools learn continuously, all teachers be inspired and developed professionally, and all students grow joyously in the nurturing and stimulating schools.