This paper analyses aspects of a Hong Kong school curriculum reform, which recommends amongst other things, a greater focus on assessment for learning. It outlines the principles of the reform as it pertains to assessment and discusses how structural changes are being employed to lend support to changes in the assessment culture in Hong Kong. The paper draws on a previous problematic attempt to introduce formative assessment through the Target-Oriented Curriculum initiative. Two examples of assessment for learning practice of 'early adopters' are used to illustrate both the potential and some of the challenges of implementation in the Hong Kong primary school context. From these cases, are drawn out some of the facilitating and inhibiting factors impinging on the implementation of assessment for learning in schools, building on a model of professional growth.
[Copyright of Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969594042000333904]

Educators in China are facing challenges as a tug-of-war between local culture and global influences in Chinese early childhood music educations plays out. By exploring the situations of Hong Kong and Nanjing, the authors demonstrate a wide gap between policy and practice. The top-down policy from government officials is based on global views of education. It cannot work without providing the necessary support for teachers, parents, and children based on an understanding of local cultural beliefs. Four factors need to be considered in bridging this gap. The aims of the policy must be appropriate; resources necessary should be available, capacity of the practitioners has to be adequate, and the local environment should be carefully considered.
[Copyright of Arts Education Policy Review is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/AEPR.109.3.9-16]

In a rapidly changing society, business education needs to likewise change and evolve to remain relevant and useful. This paper looks at the graduates of one university in Hong Kong and examines how well they feel they are prepared for the world of work. Through the analysis of secondary data, an assessment was made of the success or otherwise of the restructuring and redesign of the undergraduate business programme at City University of Hong Kong, in terms of appropriately training students to meet the demands of the market. By comparing the results of an exit survey conducted on four cohorts of final year students, with the Government's recommendations on what tertiary education should achieve in the contemporary knowledge-based society of the twenty-first century, it was found that the new Bachelor of Business Administration programme at City University of Hong Kong, through its formal and informal curricula, appears to have equipped its graduating students with not only solid technical knowledge but also other valuable competencies and life-skills.
[Copyright of Journal of Teaching in International Business is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J066v16n04_04]

This article reports research undertaken as part of the curriculum development of a Master of Social Work programme at the University of Hong Kong. It was decided to switch four out of five core subjects to a problem based method of teaching and learning. Two student self-assessment measures were used to track learning skills acquisition and professional knowledge acquisition. The Problem Based Skills Learning Inventory covered problem solving, interpersonal and group skills, self-directed learning skills, self-assessment and knowledge building. The Competence and Aptitude in Social Work Scale included knowledge, social awareness, communication skills, leadership and self-concept. Results indicated that for most students there were significant gains over the course of the academic year in most areas. Serendipitous findings throw light on the issue of students' response to pure and hybrid PBL methods and the acceptability of this more active approach to learning to Chinese students.
[Copyright of Social Work Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02615470701456533]

This study examines the Chinese learner in the current changing education contexts with their emphasis on 21st century learning goals of inquiry, teamwork, and learning how to learn. With socioeconomic and technological changes, internationalisation and educational reforms, pedagogical approaches developed in the Western countries, such as inquiry-oriented and technology-based learning are becoming increasingly common in Confucian-Heritage Culture (CHC) classrooms. This paper reports on a case study of an expert teacher implementing a computer-supported knowledge-building approach in Hong Kong classrooms over a period of three years. The analyses indicated that the Chinese learners used seemingly contradictory approaches to make meaning, given the contextual dynamics. Similarly, the teacher did not merely adopt the Western model; he developed a transformed pedagogy integrating Chinese and Western approaches to scaffold student learning. The Chinese learners and Chinese teachers employed approaches that transcended the polarised categorisation of surface vs. deep, student-centred vs. teacher-centred, and didactic vs. constructivist approaches in the Chinese classroom. Implications for teaching and learning for Chinese learners in the changing educational contexts are discussed.
[Copyright of Evaluation & Research in Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500790802485245]