ABSTRACT Starting in September 1997, the Hong Kong Education Commission has adopted School Self-Evaluation as part of the framework of Quality Assurance Mechanism for promoting quality education culture in schools. Under a project initiated by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, some primary and secondary schools started to implement school self-evaluation in their school. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of this self-evaluation framework based on principals’ and teachers’ perception of these participating schools. The relationships among school self-evaluation, school cultural changes, teacher co-operative learning culture and principal leadership are also explored. Furthermore, this study examines whether other factors, such as school type, teacher gender, teacher ranking position, teachers’ year-of-teaching-career and Chinese cultural values, will affect the implementation of self-evaluation in schools. A mixed approach of methodology was adopted for this research work. The findings indicated that school self-evaluation can initiate teacher co-operative learning culture, which in turn effects cultural changes in these schools. Also, the above named components play specific roles in the school self-evaluation implementation – school cultural change process: teacher co-operative learning culture acts as mediator, school self-evaluation as moderator and principal leadership as change facilitator.

ABSTRACT Starting in September 1997, the Hong Kong Education Commission has adopted School Self-Evaluation as part of the framework of Quality Assurance Mechanism for promoting quality education culture in schools. Under a project initiated by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, some primary and secondary schools started to implement school self-evaluation in their school. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of this self-evaluation framework based on principals’ and teachers’ perception of these participating schools. The relationships among school self-evaluation, school cultural changes, teacher co-operative learning culture and principal leadership are also explored. Furthermore, this study examines whether other factors, such as school type, teacher gender, teacher ranking position, teachers’ year-of-teaching-career and Chinese cultural values, will affect the implementation of self-evaluation in schools. A mixed approach of methodology was adopted for this research work. The findings indicated that school self-evaluation can initiate teacher co-operative learning culture, which in turn effects cultural changes in these schools. Also, the above named components play specific roles in the school self-evaluation implementation – school cultural change process: teacher co-operative learning culture acts as mediator, school self-evaluation as moderator and principal leadership as change facilitator.