Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 2001

•Providing Professional Car e The professional service s p r o v i d e d b y the Faculty of Education extend to schoo l principals, teachers, students, and parents. Enhancing t h e E f f e c t i v e n e ss o f S c h o o l L e a d e rs Principals pla y a v e r y important role in schools. Yet the focus of most staff training and development is teachers. In-service trainin g for school principals and teachers w i t h management responsibilities is lacking. To fill this gap, the Faculty of Education set u p the Hon g Kong Centre for the Development of Educational Leade r s h ip ( HKCDE L) i n 1998 to initiate research into leadership issues and organize training programmes for the managers of schools, w i t h an aim to upgrade professionalism among H o ng Kong's educational ieaders. Left: Mr. Terry Palmer (middle) and Dr. Max Smith (right) from the Department of Education and Training, New South Wales, Australia, sharing their insights intoself-evaluati Right: Ms Jenny Lewis, president of the Australian Council for Educational Administration (New South Wales Branch) discussing her experience of self-evaluation from a principal's perspective Prof. Leslie Lo, director of HKCDEL , pointed out tha t to date some 100 principals an d close to 270 middle managers from 27 schools have taken part i n in-service trainin g sessions. The Education Department has also created a 'committee of managers' fo r each government school. Members of this new ly constituted structur e include the school principal, teachers, parents, Education Department officials, and social workers, who are responsible for matters pertaining to school management, planning, and development. The University's Department of Educational Administration and Policy has been commissioned by the Education Department to train some 600 of these school managers and help them acquire the necessary skills to perform their new roles effectively. Prof. Alan Walker (centre, standing), associate director of HKCDEL, and Dr. Paul Bagley (right, standing) from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, jointly facilitated a development workshop for some 20 experienced principals and Education Department officials. Together they built a locally relevant principals' profile, which can serve as a guide for leadership training, development, and improvement. Helping to Improve the Effectiveness of Schools 19