Editor's Notes

Last year when we decided to reduce the number of issues of the Forum to one a year and to terminate the free distribution policy, we were uncertain of what that decision would lead us to. The worst scenario would have been a drastic reduction in both readership and papers. Members of the Special Education Society might have felt less motivated to renew their membership and our contributors might have resorted to the more frequently published journals to release their papers. Fortunately our decision was greeted with more positive and encouraging response. Our membership remained stable. Besides, we did receive subscription orders for the ensuing issues of the Forum. These orders came from individuals and institutions, both locally and overseas, and some were for as long as three years. Our worry of less papers was again proved to be unfounded. Papers were submitted to us as early as June, way ahead of our publication date. This is most encouraging as these early submissions indicate that the authors have identified us as the journal of choice for their papers. We cherish this role and feel more committed than ever to maintaining this Hong Kong forum for quality papers on special education issues.

For the first time in our journal, we received two papers from overseas authors. From New Jersey, US, Cathy G. Spinelli sends us her paper, "Diagnostic and prescriptive assessment strategies for special and general education teachers". Though written in the context of the US educational system, the paper does have universal appeal and special relevance to teachers in Hong Kong where performance measures are being developed, and used in the Quality Assurance Inspection, to gauge the effectiveness of teaching and learning in our schools, general or special. The paradigm being advocated here is an assessment approach that is performance-based and links/integrates instruction and evaluation. Admittedly the strategies described in Cathy's paper are much more related to the English language; the principles and techniques behind, however, could be adapted and applied to the Chinese language setting. We thank Cathy for sending her paper to us and we treasure this opportunity of global sharing of ideas and experiences in the name of enhancing the effectiveness of learning for special education children.

From Taiwan, global sharing might have prompted Prof. Wu Wu-dian (吳武典) to offer us the privilege of publishing his expert review on special education in Taiwan in his paper : "台灣特殊教育的最近發展 - 教育改革與特殊教育"("The latest development of special education in Taiwan: Education reforms and special education"). There is a striking coincidence that both Hong Kong and Taiwan launched a large-scale education reforms almost at the same time. And almost in the same year as Taiwan published its Amendment of Special Education Acts (1997), Hong Kong published its first ever Report on Special Education Review (1996). It should be interesting to compare how much the services for special educational needs children in Taiwan have progressed and how much progress Hong Kong has made on the recommendations of the 1996 Report. I am personally impressed by the holistic concerns and extensive coverage of special education in the Taiwan 1997 Amendments as summarized by Prof. Wu and feel rather confused by the lack of reference to special education in our education reform documents. Has special education been so much integrated in the mainstream system that it need not be specifically addressed? Taiwan is more pragmatic. Special education, acknowledges Prof. Wu, is a macro issue (顯學). It encompasses all aspects of educational issues and is not necessarily subsumed under general education. The ultimate aim for children with special educational needs is NOT to find the most 'trendy' mode (segregated, integrated, inclusive or otherwise) but the most appropriate (適切) education for them.

Meanwhile, our colleagues in Hong Kong are voicing their concerns in the development of special education. Tang Lai-lin in her paper, "Analyzing inclusive education: Is it justified and realistic in Hong Kong ?" joined previous authors of the Forum in casting doubts on the justifications and pace of the Government's Integration Scheme from the perspective of a teacher with direct experiences with special needs children. She reminds the Government of the importance of empowering and equipping our teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge before implementing full inclusion.

The isolation of special school teachers is the focus of a study by Eria Ping-ying Li, Jeffrey Day and Nick Crawford. In their paper, "Special school personnel are isolated: Professional development approach for collegiality" they reported their interviews of teachers, social workers and school principals of special schools and found that teachers were often left to their own means, in terms of curriculum support, effectiveness of their teaching and their own professional development. Some of them were confused about their roles as teachers. There is definitely a crying need for intra- and inter-school network to pool special school personnel together so that "they can be empowered to function as educators".

One effective ways of networking special education personnel is through the internet and the paper by 陳洪基 and 黃仲佳(Chan Hung-kay & Wong Chung-kai), "香港特殊學校經驗：數碼資訊網頁的發展" (The development of digital information technology webpage: A Hong Kong special school experience") describes how creating a webpage for a school will bring teachers, parents, students together in the pursuit of knowledge and learning. The experience of the Mary Rose School is only one of many such ventures launched by special schools in Hong Kong and the stage has been set for these webpages to be networked to form a quality circle for collegial sharing and interchange of knowledge, skills and insights in their work.

Sharing is definitely the key to service improvement in special education. Sarah C. Shea, Patrick S.Y. Lau and Mantak Yuen shared with us their case study of a severely mentally handicapped girl in their paper, "Classroom discipline and management of children with severely mental handicap: A case study". They demonstrated how Individual Education Plan and behaviour modification were insufficient in alleviating disruptive behaviour. Effective management of discipline for the severely mentally handicapped children might lie in first identifying their basic needs and then providing them with a responsive environment.

Sharing the result of a two-year language curriculum development project is the objective of the paper "為有特殊教育需要的兒童而設的語文教育套件"(A Language Education Package for children with special educational needs) by蘇簡開, 林小玲, 謝宗義, 李文貞(Lydia So, Cecilia Lam Siu-ling, Andrew Tse and Lee Man-ching). Against a dearth of substantial curricular support, most teachers and schools have been compelled to resort to their own initiatives to develop curricular contents that match the needs of their children. Many of these initiatives are the results of extensive research and tryouts. This paper describes the a language teaching programme that is based on developmental data in Cantonese, the first ever attempt so far. One very important feature in this integrated programme is its carefully designed assessment procedure. Used in conjunction with the school's nine-year curricular content and detailed activity guides this package should provide an effective teaching tool for special school teachers.

"Effective Education for children with disabilities" was the theme of the Education Seminar in the Hong Kong Red Cross 50th Anniversary International Seminar Series. Over 300 Red Cross school teachers and professionals in special education attended the two-day seminar in July, which attracted scholarly speakers from the United States and local tertiary institutions. The Editorial Board successfully seeks permission from the Red Cross to reproduce three papers on learning difficulties for our readers.

Efficacy and the evaluation of efficacy have always been the elusive objects of pursuit in the education for children with special educational needs. Criterion references used for children in general education are definitely not applicable to children in special schools even with drastic modifications. How then can the effectiveness and quality of education in special schools be judged? This and many similar questions were raised at the Third Annual Seminar of the Special Education Society of Hong Kong, entitled, "The evaluation of performances by students with special educational needs" (如何衡量有特殊教育需要學生的表現?) For those who missed this Seminar, there is a chance of re-living the day's events by going through the Seminar extracts.

As we enter into the twenty-first century, we find ourselves riding on the crest of a series of educational reforms. It is very important for teachers to "sail" with the currents (to stay alive) and at the same time keeping a "balanced" mind so that we do not get swept away by the vigor of the current. We need to keep abreast of the latest research to stay informed. We need to search for ways and means to enhance the efficacy of our work, and we need to question the validity of our work with our children. In other words teachers should be proactive in these days of educational reforms. The Forum is where you can share the results of your pursuit for quality with us. Tell us what you think about the education reforms and how you respond to the calls of reforms.

Finally as the Forum bids farewell to its old "jacket", we hope our new "look" will attract readers and authors from divers fields in special education and from far and near. Taiwan and the States are our new partners. Will China and Macau be NEXT ?

A. Tse