Working Paper Series

Abstract: Although the concept of state capacity seems to highlight the importance of the state, I argue that the core insight that emerges from the literature review is quite the opposite. This insight is that the government can only do so much. Certain important kinds of state capacity depend on whether and how the state is connected to important stakeholders in society. After reviewing three concepts of state capacity in the literature, namely the capacity for social control, the capacity for industrial policy, and the capacity for industrial upgrading, I discuss the capacity for healthcare reform, which is relatively new in the literature about state capacity. In this new scenario, what the government finds is the medical profession who has been given the privilege for professional self-regulation. How to deal with a profession who has been enjoying a lot of autonomy, and who is unlikely to give up any power without seeing any return to its ?sacrifice,? will pose a great challenge to the state. I argue that when the issue is about state capacity for healthcare reform, the connection between the state and the medical profession as one of the most important stakeholders in the healthcare sector becomes even more critical.

Abstract: Every teacher understands the importance of getting timely student feedback for effective and efficient teaching and learning. However, students in Hong Kong are not keen to respond to prompts from teachers for questions and examples. There is a need for an efficient method to engage all the students in a classroom, and evaluate the progress of their learning. Studies have shown that student response systems (SRS) are effective increasing student engaging and active learning. In a traditional SRS, the students use a small portal device, called a clicker, to choose their answers to questions. With the widespread use of smart mobile phones, it is possible to replace the clickers with mobile phones, and the proprietary software with commercially available polling web site. The author subscribed to a polling website and used it together with the mobile phones of students to form an SRS. The SRS was used over a period of 6 weeks. Thirty-five polls were conducted and 1,155 answers were received. A follow-up survey showed that the students involved have very positive attitude towards the SRS. Over 90% of the students indicated the polling website was easy to access and worked well. The majority of the students indicated that it SRS made the lessons more interesting and helped them to maintain their attention. They also indicate that they were willing to use SRS in future. It is suggested that the Technology Acceptance Model be used to study teacher?s intention to use SRS in future.