The Faculty of Education was established in 1984 and has adopted a unitary structure by merging its two former departments (Curriculum and Educational Studies and Speech and Hearing Sciences). The Physical Education and Sports Science Unit has left the Faculty to join the newly-formed Institute of Human Performance , but its degree courses will still be offered through the Faculty. The Faculty has assumed an important role in educational research and professional training in the region and internationally, and has contributed significantly to education policy and development in Hong Kong . It is a major teacher education institution, has strong expertise in policy analysis and curriculum development, and is the only institution in Hong Kong training speech therapists and audiologists for the local community.

The Faculty has nearly 100 full-time academic members of staff drawn from various parts of the world. In addition to performing teaching duties, academic staff are engaged in an extensive range of research which provides a focus for supervision of research degrees. Major areas of focus include comparative education, curriculum development and evaluation, education in China , language education, education psychology and special education, policy studies and leadership, speech and hearing sciences, educational technology and instructional media, and mathematics and science education. Members of the Faculty lead both international and local projects and play roles on Editorial Boards for local and international journals. Many of them also sit on different advisory committees contributing to the formulation of policies related to education in Hong Kong .

In addition to undergraduate programmes and taught postgraduate programmes, the Faculty offers supervision of research leading to the award of MPhil and PhD degrees. The Faculty places considerable emphasis on the quality of research postgraduate education, and applies quality-assurance systems and policies operating in the admission process and during the period of candidature. For each successful applicant, an Advisory Panel is in place for the length of candidature, advising on confirmation, academic performance, transfers, and issues of progress, including the evaluation of study plans where these are required. To promote collegiality among research students and encourage exchange of ideas among students and staff in enhancing research activities in the Faculty, a postgraduate research conference is organized annually. This conference attracts over 100 participants each year. In addition, to enhance communication with students, a Research Students Consultation Meeting has been set up since May 2002 and holds meetings on a monthly basis.

In order to provide a focus for research, the Faculty has established an Office of Research to deal with all matters relating to research postgraduate studies and research projects. In addition, a number of research centres have been established in the Faculty. The Comparative Education Research Centre, formed in 1994, promotes research in the field of comparative education. The Centre for Educational Leadership provides a focal point for academics engaging in research in educational leadership. The Centre for Information Technology in Education was established in 1998 to promote research on and development of IT in education and information management and to offer continuing professional development opportunities in these areas, including the support of a Master of Science in Information and Technology Education programme and a Master of Science in Library and Information Management programme. The Wah Ching Centre of Research on Education in China was established in 1998 and its team members apply their international expertise to the study of education in China and abroad. The Centre for Advancement in Special Education, and the Centre for Advancement of Chinese Language Education and Research, were established in 2004 to co-ordinate research and provides consultancy in the fields of special education, and Chinese language education respectively. Centre for Communi cation Disorders, newly established in 2005, engages in research in the area of human communication and its disorders.

Division of Learning, Development and Diversity

Major Research Areas
Educational psychology:
Child and adolescent development; educational psychology; developmental psychology; pre-school, primary, secondary, and higher education; school psychology; educational assessment and measurement; test theories; single case study; statistical modeling of educational data; quantitative and qualitative research design; psychology of teaching and learning; cognition and instruction; knowledge building; higher-order thinking; giftedness; intellectual styles, personality and student learning; experiential learning; computer-supported collaborative learning; conceptual change; reading processes; student development; teacher-pupil interaction; applied behavior analysis; classroom management; social psychology of education; cross-cultural psychology; self-concept/self-esteem; stress management; gender identity development and transgender; educational psychology program design and evaluation.

Special education:
Special education needs; children with learning difficulties; sensory, physical, mental, and social-emotional disabilities; learning and behavioral difficulties; developmental and multiple disabilities; early childhood, primary, secondary, and post-secondary special education; curriculum modification and adaptation; remedial teaching; literacy and numeracy; personnel preparation; comparative special education; cultural and linguistic diversity; immigrant learners; inclusive education; assistive technology; parent involvement; home-school partnership; transdisciplinary teamwork; special education program design and evaluation; gifted children with learning disabilities; gifted and disadvantaged children; role of orthographic awareness in language acquisition among dyslexic children.

Guidance and counseling:
General guidance and counseling; school guidance and counseling; counseling and personal-social education; affective education; teacher stress; gender and transgender studies; special needs; inclusive education; students' and teachers' perception; human helping relationship; group guidance; career counseling; life skills development; counseling and education of gifted children; leadership and affective development for the gifted; adventure based counseling; peer counseling; teacher selfdevelopment; teacher self-efficacy; counseling efficacy; guidance personnel supervision and education; school consultation; parent education; cross-cultural studies in guidance and counseling; counseling program design and evaluation; forgiveness intervention and education; student stress and adjustment; suicide prevention and intervention; bereavement and death education.

Division of Information and Technology Studies

Major Research Areas
Information technology implementation in education; socio-cultural issues regarding technological practice and change; design and use of information technology across curriculum; e-learning and learning objects; planning and managing information technology in education; information technology and educational leadership; computer supported collaborative learning; information technology support for school administration; library and information services; information literacy and information behaviour; knowledge management; information management; social responsibility and librarianship; collection management issues; management of libraries; bibliometrics; information policy.

Key members of the Centre for Information Technology in Education (CITE) are located within the Division.

Division of Language and Literature

Major Research Areas
Chinese language education:
Chinese language and literature education; language curriculum development and evaluation; general Chinese linguistics; psycholinguistics-Chinese; Chinese sociolinguistics; language testing, measurement and evaluation of Chinese; cognitive aspects of Chinese language learning; linguistic aspects of Chinese language education; computers in Chinese language teaching and learning; application of functional linguistics to teaching Chinese.

English language education :
English language education (TESL, TEFL); English curriculum; classroom interaction and classroom language; second language acquisition; grammar and pedagogy; spoken and written discourse; classroom discourse analysis; sound and meaning system; text linguistics and composition theories; language assessment; language policy; medium of instruction; genre analysis; teacher language awareness.

Division of Policy, Administration and Social Sciences Education

Major Research Areas
Curriculum and assessment; curriculum implementation and evaluation studies; business studies; curriculum innovation and development; economics education; economics of education; education and national development; educational administration and school organisation; educational change and leadership; educational philosophy; educational planning and policy analysis; environmental education; ethnic minority education; geographical education; history education; social sciences education; sociology of education; teacher thinking, beliefs and knowledge; education and professional development of teachers from initial through inservice stages; values education; women and education.

Key members of the Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC), the Wah Ching Centre of Research on Education in China (CREC) and the Centre for Educational Leadership (CEL) are located within the Division.

Division of Science, Mathematics and Computing

Major Research Areas
Science education; environmental education; physics education; chemistry education; biology education; mathematics education; statistics education; computer education; health education; substance abuse preventive education; studies of student thinking, learning and achievement in different school subjects; classroom processes (strategies of teaching and learning); use of information technology in teaching and learning; curriculum innovation and development; curriculum implementation and evaluation studies; evaluation of health education interventions; use of ICT for resources development in teaching and learning; evaluation of mentoring provision in schools; integrated curriculum development in science, health and humanities; comparative studies; teacher education; teacher thinking, beliefs and knowledge.

Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences

Major Research Areas
Speech and language studies:
Children's speech and language development in Cantonese and Putonghua; communication impairment in an ageing population; comprehension in Cantonese aphasics; cross-linguistic comparisons of normal and non-normal language development; efficacy of voice therapy; instrumental voice evaluation; normal speech, language in Chinese speaking populations; acquired reading disorders in Chinese bilingual language development; speech and language disorders of Cantonese-speaking hearing-impaired children; speech and language impairment in Cantonese-speaking children and adults; speech disorders associated with cleft palate and dysarthria.

Hearing science:
Acoustic analysis of speech and speech perception; perceptual segregation of simultaneous sounds.

Clinical audiology :
Application and performance of hearing aids in the Hong Kong environment; development of hearing assessment tools; neonatal and infant hearing screening; childhood hearing loss in developing countries.