This commentary looks at the contributions and future research implications of the four articles in this Special Issue of "Thinking Skills and Creativity" to the fields of creativity and creativity education, both in culture-specific and culture-general terms. The articles included in this Special Issue draw attention to issues of…

This paper views seeking the optimal balance between state strengths and the scope of state functions for "good governance" as the formation of a homogenization-heterogenization matrix of policy initiatives in different social settings. Homogenization refers to a global tendency for institutional changes and governance framework to…

Trainers and developers of school leaders across the globe are currently searching for models of best practice leadership development programmes. Are there generic features and principles of design underpinning such programmes? This article argues that corroborative evidence of what works in leadership training and development--to influence…

In this study I address the problem of the implementation and the foreseeable success of the July 2004 document from the Education and Manpower Bureau of Hong Kong, "Empowering Learning and Teaching with Information Technology" (EMB 2004). The statements in this policy will be compared to Sweden's ICT policy and a report completed by…

Investigates changes in Hong Kong government's medium of instruction policy amid political, economic, and sociolinguistic changes in the last three decades. Explores the possible impact of the Chinese-medium instruction policy proposed in the wake of change of sovereignty on English-language learning. The theoretical underpinning of the study is…

In the 1990s, Hong Kong underwent a great deal of education reforms in response to the public's concern for the quality of education. To keep pace with social and economic developments, education policies have had to be reviewed periodically so that necessary modifications could be made. In 1999, the Education Commission was requested to conduct a…

This article examines strategies to foster and evaluate research and scholarship in Hong Kong's higher education sector. It addresses the definition of performance indicators, the role of governmental policy initiatives, performance indicators in the academic research context, possible research indicators, application of indicators, and other…

A November 1990 recommendation by the Hong Kong government's education department to adopt a language-streaming policy is discussed. The policy would have children tested and assigned to English-medium or Chinese-medium instruction in the sixth year of elementary school. Implications of this development are examined from the point of view of…

A discussion of the role of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) textbooks in Hong Kong schools is examined first in social and historical contexts and then within the framework of a newly revised public school curriculum. The textbook is first viewed from three perspectives: curricular (socio-political); instructional (as an educational tool); and…