This paper presents a case study of how four teachers in one school adopted Learning Study in teaching Visual Arts in Hong Kong. The teachers found that the students at the primary level had difficulties expressing feelings through shapes. In 2003, they used the Learning Study approach to analyse teaching of this difficult topic. Each teacher taught the lesson and observed the lesson of the other three. A discussion, using student feedback, was held immediately after each lesson, aimed at improving the next one. A post-test was conducted to discover what students had learned. The result was good yet there were still many problems. In 2004, the same teachers taught the same topic with revision based on the outcomes of their previous lessons. There was more focus on using artists' artworks and students' expression of human figures. This paper will analyse materials and interviews from the Learning Studies to look at how to improve teachers' teaching of drawing. As drawing is central in children's art and the findings of this paper could be useful for other teachers in teaching visual arts.
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Curriculum is not neutral. Curriculum as actuality is a representation of selected ideas, skills, values, norms and practices within society (Smith and Lovat, 2003). Moral and civic education is a key aim of the Hong Kong English Language Education Curriculum. To incorporate moral and civic education, a set of values and attitudes is proposed. The Hong Kong Extensive Reading Scheme is a reading program in the Hong Kong English education curriculum. Students participating in the Extensive Reading Scheme are recommended to read large quantities of books that are of their interests and within their linguistic competence. My research examines the extensive reading materials to demonstrate how the texts may contain hidden values and attitudes.
This paper is drawn from research in progress and it studies the extensive reading materials suggested by the Hong Kong curriculum from a critical discourse perspective. It aims to draw implications for raising the teachers' awareness of the cultural and political values inherent in the reading materials. In addition, this paper studies the Hong Kong English Language Education Curriculum. It proposes the need for having pedagogy that supports the critical approach of teaching English in the curriculum.
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Chinese society has, traditionally, perceived sex as a taboo subject, and as such, is seldom discussed openly, and rarely taught in schools. Under these circumstances, most Hong Kong people never learn about sex education during their formal school years. With an increase in the number of sex-related crimes in Hong Kong, education is becoming increasingly important. Since learning in early childhood influences a person's future values and behaviour, sex education should be implemented early, preferably in pre-schools (Roffman, 2002; Woody, 2002).
To implement effective sex education in pre-schools, parents' views are important. This pilot study aims to investigate Hong Kong parents' perceptions towards implementing sex education programmes in pre-schools. One kindergarten and one childcare centre were randomly selected for this study. A total of 12 parents were interviewed. The findings indicated that most parents lacked the confidence to discuss sex-related issues with their children mainly because they had insufficient knowledge and skills, and also felt embarrassed. However, to overcome these inadequacies and feelings they were willing to better equip themselves with the necessary knowledge and skills for the benefit of their children.
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Civic education has been idealized and assigned the mission of preparing critical thinking, responsible, participating, multidimensional citizens. But on the other hand, civic education is also charged with the responsibility of moralizing the citizens into characters like punctuality, obedience, docility, deference . It is also used to serve the function of nationalistic education: Instilling the sense of national identity , loyalty to the nation state and patriotism.
Many Asian countries have strong elements of nationalistic education in their civic education . In 1996, one year before the return of sovereignty of Hong Kong to Chinas, a new official Guidelines on Civic Education in Schools (1996), proposing a curriculum framework with equal emphasis on human rights education, education for democracy, education for rule of law, nationalistic education, global education and education for critical thinking was introduced by the Education Department, which is to be implemented in schools starting from September of 1996. After 1 July, 1997, there was a very strong pressure from the society, asking for more nationalistic education and more schools were taking the initiative to implement nationalistic education.
Does the the mission of civic education : preparing critical thinking, responsible, participating, multidimensional citizens, contradict with that of nationalistic education : instilling the sense of national identity , loyalty to the nation state and patriotism ? This paper attempts to construct a framework to study (1) whether there are contradiction and (2)whether the practice of nationalistic education in schools is different from that of civic education.
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