Highlights of International Achievements

Specializations: educational effectiveness, leadership development, teacher education, school management, quality assurance, educational reforms and paradigm shift in education 

International Leadership:

• WERA. He is the president-elect of the World Educational Research Association (WERA) (2012-2014), that is a global academic, organisation which comprises 27 national, regional, and international specialty research associations, such as EERA, AERA, BERA, etc., representing more than 60,000 education researchers on six continents.

• APERA. He was the past-President (2004-2008) of the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association (www.apera.org) (APERA) that was established by 22 national and international organizations in 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific Region in 2001. Founding Vice-President (2001-2004).

• ICSEI. He had served a long time as elected board member, one of key leaders of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) that is a leading international organization established in 1989. Invited by ICSEI three times to give keynote speeches at its annual conferences in 1994 (Melbourne), 2000(Hong Kong) and 2001 (Toronto).

 International Scholarship:

• Has published 20 academic books (7 single-authored and 13 co-edited) internationally and regionally on educational effectiveness, leadership, school-based management, educational reforms, paradigm shift in education and teacher education.

• Has published 105 refereed journal articles, 54 academic book chapters and 58 other professional and academic publications internationally and regionally.

• Some of his publications in English have been translated into Chinese, Hebrew, Korean, Spanish, Czech, Thai and Persian languages.

• His books, School Effectiveness and School-based Management: A Mechanism for School Development has been published in four language editions, o ne of the 20 books in the world on educational management and leadership highly recommended by the National College of School Leadership of the UK Government. The number of citations is 113 (Google Scholar, April, 2008).

• 3 articles awarded as Outstanding Papers and 5 papers as Highly Commended Paper by the Literati Club, London, UK, in 1994, 1996- 98, 2001, 2004-05 and 2008.

• Invited to give over 90 keynote/plenary speeches at international conferences organized by national and international organizations such as APEC, UNESCO, UNICEF, ICER, ICSEI, APERA, IBO, Ford Foundation, World Bank, SEAMEO RIHED, AIAER, NIEPA, NCERT, ONEC/OEC, ACEA, NIER (Japan), ICTED, iAPED, ERAS, Ministry of Education of Israel, Ministry of Education of Malaysia, etc.

• Has presented 148 papers at international/academic conferences and 67 keynote speeches at local conferences.

• Serving on the advisory boards of 17 international refereed journals and 6 local/regional journals, and also as the associate editor of the International Journal of Educational Management (UK).

• Served as external academic reviewers and assessors for international and local universities such as University of Cyprus, Indian Institute of Technology, University of Malaya, Western Australia University, Taiwan Normal University, City University of HK, and CUHK.

• Invited consultant to national and international projects in Brunei Darussalam, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Korea, Mainland China, Netherlands (PISA-OECD 2009), Macao, and Thailand.  

International Contribution:

• Cheng's research on school-based management and educational effectiveness has won him a number of international awards and recognition. In 1994, he was invited to give a keynote speech on his theory at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement held in Melbourne Australia and in the same year his article "Theory and Characteristics of School-Based Management", which was published in the International Journal of Educational Management, won the Award of Excellence as Outstanding Paper of the Literati Club in UK In 1997, 1998 and 2004, three of his co-authored articles on school-based management had also been awarded as highly commended papers and the outstanding paper respectively.

• In 1997, the renowned scholar Prof. John MacBeath of University of Cambridge had highly commended Cheng's comprehensive theory in a book review of the Bulletin of European Educational Research Association: "Yin Cheong CHENG has to be one of the most prolific writers on the school effectiveness scene.. …Cheng is very much a researcher's researcher and writes the kind of comprehensively referenced book that is meat and drink to them.….His primary audience is researchers and academics for whom this book will be both challenging and useful as a source of conceptual reference. Many of the models and matrices will be helpful to a research student, or indeed anyone trying to make coherent sense of that over-researched field of school effects. The systematic unpacking and repackaging of the issues may even bring the school effectiveness movement a step closer to its holy grail - a body of theory!"

• In 2000, as invited by the Research Grant Council (RGC) of the University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong SAR Government, two international scholars had reviewed Cheng's completed research projects and highly commended his research achievements "… as one of the world's leading researchers in the area of school effectiveness, especially in the context where significant authority, responsibility and accountability has been decentralised to the school level, as is the case in Hong Kong….. In an international context this research has to be rated at the leading edge of efforts to understand the links between management and learning…"

• Since 2000, Cheng's new paradigm on "Triplization" and "Multiple Thinking and Creativity" for the new century education has attracted growing international recognition because it can provide completely new thinking about education and its practice and management in an era of globalization and transformation. In 2001, 2005 and 2008, three of his papers on this new paradigm had won two highly commended paper awards and one outstanding paper award from the Literati Club in UK. Many international and national conferences have invited him to give over 50 keynote speeches on his new paradigm and research on educational reforms and teacher education.