VERNER BICKLEY is Education Adviser to the International Examinations Board, Trinity College London (HK) (Trinity Guildhall) and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the English-Speaking Union, Hong Kong. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong and a Sector/Subject Specialist for the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic & Vocational Qulifications.
Trinity GuildhallDr Bickley was Assistant Director of Education and Director of the Hong Kong Government�s Institute of Language in Education for nine years.
Previously, he served as Director of the Culture Learning Institute and Chairman of the Directors of the East-West Center in Hawaii. He was appointed to hold a concurrent appointment as Full Professor of English at the University of Hawaii. Dr Bickley was also President of the Hawaii Branch of the English-Speaking Union.
Earlier in his career, he was a member of the Singapore Education Department and a British Council Officer in Burma (Myanmar), Indonesia and Japan.
Dr Bickley�s most recent book, Language and the Young Learner in Hong Kong (2004), is a critical survey of kindergarten education in the SAR.
His book, English for the Office, published by the Commercial Press, is designed specifically to address the needs of Chinese students entering the workplace in China, after completing secondary education.
In 2001, supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Dr Bickley published Searching for Frederick and Adventures along the Way (Asia 2000), a partly-autobiographical guide to life-writing, focusing in particular upon Dr Frederick Stewart, the founding Principal of the Central School (now Queen�s College) in Hong Kong.
Dr Bickley is the Language Adviser for the whole series, and author of a subset of the series for the Oxford University Press primary English course, On Target, for Hong Kong, China and Thailand.
In different countries, he has directed amateur productions of the following:
In Hong Kong Verner Bickley has played a variety of roles in Hong Kong Players� productions, including:
Verner Bickley played John of Gaunt in the Queen�s Caf� production of Richard II.
For the professional, Square Peg Theatre, Verner played the surgeon in Sally Dellow�s play, Making Boobs .
In Hong Kong Singers� productions, he was the Judge in Hello Dolly! and President Roosevelt in Annie! .
He had cameo roles in three films:
He enjoyed a walk-on part in The Chinese Box, directed by Wayne Wang, starring Jeremy Irons and Gong Li.
Dr Bickley has a particular interest in curriculum reform. He was a member of the Ford Foundation Curriculum Development project in Indonesia, and, for some years, was leader of one section of the American team that participated in the five-nation (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and the United States) curriculum development project (�The Pacific Circle�), sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).