Yin Cheong 鄭燕祥 Cheng

Multi‐models of quality in education

Suggests that there is a strong emphasis on the pursuit of education quality in ongoing educational reforms in both local and international contexts. Policies issued to implement educational changes for education quality often fail because of lack of comprehensive understanding of the complex nature of education quality in schools or higher education institutions. Introduces seven models of quality in education: the goals and specifications model; the resources input model; the process model; the satisfaction model; the legitimacy model; the absence of problems model; and the organizational learning model. Concludes that these models can form a comprehensive framework for understanding and conceptualizing quality in education from different perspectives and facilitating development of management strategies for achieving it. The framework can contribute to ongoing policy discussion, school practice, and research development on issues of quality in education institutions.

Quality assurance in education: internal, interface, and future

This paper aims to point out that the world‐wide education reforms for education quality are experiencing three waves based on different paradigms and theories of education quality and school effectiveness, and they result in different strategies and approaches to education assurance. The first wave of school reforms and initiatives focuses mainly on internal quality assurance and makes an effort to improve internal school performance, particularly the methods and processes of teaching and learning. The second wave emphasizes interface quality assurance in terms of organizational effectiveness, stakeholders’ satisfaction and market competitiveness and makes an effort to ensure satisfaction and accountability to the internal and external stakeholders. The coming improvement initiatives should be moving towards the third wave, which emphasizes strongly future quality assurance in terms of relevance to the new paradigm of education concerning contextualized multiple intelligences (CMI), globalization, localization and individualization.

A CMI‐triplization paradigm for reforming education in the new millennium

This article proposes a new paradigm including the concepts of contextualized multiple intelligences (CMIs) and triplization for reforming education. A pentagon theory is developed as the base for learning and teaching, to help students develop the necessary CMIs in the new century. Then the article illustrates the concepts and processes of triplization, including globalization, localization, and individualization, and explains why they together can provide a completely new paradigm to reform school education, curricula and pedagogy and how they can substantially contribute to the development of CMIs, of not only students, but also teachers and schools. Finally, the implications of the new paradigm for changing curricula and pedagogy are advanced. It is hoped that the new century education can support students becoming CMI citizens, who will be engaged in life‐long learning and will creatively contribute to building up a multiple intelligence society and global village.

A multi‐level framework for self‐management in school

Attempts to conceptualize a framework for understanding and implementing self‐management in school from a multi‐level perspective. Proposes that there are three levels of self‐management in school; namely, the school level, the group level and the individual level. Each level of self‐management follows a self‐propelling and cyclic process comprising five stages. By following these self‐management cycles, the school, the groups and its individual staff members are sensitive to environmental changes and capable of self‐learning and development. In order to implement self‐management successfully, various conditions at the three levels are to be fulfilled. Also discusses the importance of school leadership and mission. It is hoped that this framework could provide a comprehensive view of self‐management in school and consequently contribute to the worldwide ongoing school management reforms and school development research.

School Leadership and Three Waves of Education Reforms

This paper aims to report how school leadership is challenged by the three waves of education reform and development in Hong Kong. Since the 1970s, school leaders in the first wave were mainly concerned with achievement of the planned goals through improvement of teaching and learning. In the 1990s, school leaders of the second wave often focused on interface improvement through various types of quality inspection and assurance. In facing the challenges in the new century, the third wave of changes in Hong Kong is moving towards the pursuit of future effectiveness. The school leaders need to be concerned with enhancing educational relevance and creating new goals. This paper will discuss how the leadership conceptions and concerns of the third wave in Hong Kong are completely different from the traditional thinking. Implications are drawn for educators, policy-makers, and scholars in different parts of the world.

A Theory of Self-Learning in a Networked Human and IT Environment: Implications for Education Reforms.

Aims to develop a theoretical model for understanding and enhancing effective self‐learning in a networked human and information technology (IT) environment. Recent educational reforms in different parts of the world emphasize that independent self‐learning throughout the life span is a sine qua non of education. Parallel to this is the development that the Internet and information technology have changed the modes of teaching and learning fundamentally and created unlimited opportunities for learning. There is an urgent need to develop a theory or model that can be used to deepen the understanding of the nature and process of self‐learning and facilitate students becoming highly motivated and effective self‐learners with the support of a networked human and IT environment. The implications drawn from the theory can contribute to the paradigm shift of education in current worldwide education reforms.

A framework for the analysis of educational policies

Responding to the needs of current education developments, presents a comprehensive framework specifically for the analysis of educational policies and uses different policy cases in Hong Kong to illustrate how it can be applied effectively. The framework consists of four frames and each suggests the major considerations that need to be focused on in analysing the characteristics of educational policy. The first frame analyses the background and underlying principles related to the development of educational policies. The second frame examines the policy formulation process. The third frame investigates the implementation process and the related gaps between implementation and planning. The last frame focuses on the effects of policies. By using these four frames, the policy analysts might have a more comprehensive perspective for critically reviewing current educational policies. The framework can contribute to the ongoing discussion and development of educational policies, not only in Hong Kong, but als...

A School‐Based Management Mechanism for School Effectiveness and Development

ABSTRACT The paper aims to report on an integration of my recent research and thinking on school effectiveness and school‐based management and to develop a school‐based management mechanism for continuous pursuit of school effectiveness and development. The matrix of school effectiveness in terms of four categories and seven different conceptions provides a framework for examining the basic issues of conceptualization, measurement and maximization of school effectiveness. Furthermore, a dynamic perspective can be used to reconceptualize school effectiveness and explore the relationship of school effectiveness to school‐based management and strategic management. The characteristics of school‐based management based on a strategic management system can reflect the emphases of different conceptions of school effectiveness and constitute a mechanism for pursuing long‐term school effectiveness, even in different categories. Based on the matrix of school process and the principle of congruence, the management co...

What effective classroom? Towards a paradigm shift

The initiatives for educational effectiveness experienced 3 waves of movements. Each wave had its own paradigm in conceptualizing the nature of education and its effectiveness and formulating related initiatives for improvement of educational practice in the classroom. This article aims to discuss how the conceptualization and characteristics of the effective classroom are changed with the paradigm shift from the traditional site-bounded paradigm toward the new Contextualized Multiple Intelligences (CMI)-triplization paradigm. With the support of empirical data, the profiles of effective and ineffective classrooms in the 1st and 3rd waves are mapped and discussed, and some implications are drawn for research and development of a new type of classroom effectiveness.

Development of multiple thinking and creativity in organizational learning

Purpose – Based on a typology of contextualized multiple thinking, this paper aims to elaborate how the levels of thinking (data, information, knowledge, and intelligence), and the types of thinking as a whole, can be used to profile the characteristics of multiple thinking in organizational learning, re‐conceptualize the nature of creativity in organizational action and thinking, and provide a new systematic framework to broaden the possibilities and approaches to developing multiple thinking and creativity in organizational action and learning in education and other sectors.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a theoretical framework of multiple thinking and creativity in organizational learning.Findings – Based on the typology of contextualized multiple thinking, a new theoretical framework can be proposed to facilitate understanding and development of multiple thinking and creativity in organizational learning and to enhance the effectiveness of action of individuals and organizations in e...