Chinese history (a subject entirely separate and distinct from 'history') has long been the most politically sensitive subject in Hong Kong's school curriculum. Previous studies have analysed the policies of the colonial and postcolonial Governments towards this subject. Here, we examine the role played by the Chinese history subject community (comprising teachers, academics and officials in the Government's educational bureaucracy), and look at the way in which this has operated as an autonomous interest group. We conclude that the influence of this subject community has been a key factor limiting the extent to which the local educational authorities have been able to develop a coherent policy in relation to history education in general, and the teaching of national history in particular. Specifically, advocates of the maintenance of Chinese history as a separate subject within the school curriculum have been able, by associating themselves with the post-1997 agenda of 'patriotic education', to effectively hoist the local educational bureaucracy with its own petard.
[Copyright of Cambridge Journal of Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057640701372525]

In recent years, there have been considerable changes to the Hong Kong education system, some of which directly influence the management of tertiary education. At the same time, the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University has also gone through stages of restructuring. These changes were necessary to adjust to the global broadening of the profession of land surveying to geomatics, and also to respond to the changing philosophy in university education. In order to promote effective geomatics education, a project is being conducted to analyse if these changes are beneficial to our graduates and employers in industry, based on the survey results performed on our graduates. First, patterns of changes in the Hong Kong secondary school education system, in the geomatics courses of the university, and in career requirements of the geomatics profession are identified. Second, a complete student profile, including details of entrance qualifications, attainments upon graduation, on-going careers and/or continuing post-graduate education, is analysed. The overall aims are to identify the preferred qualities of candidates to be admitted to our department, the preferred qualities of our graduates, and whether our curriculum has successfully transformed preferred candidates to preferred graduates.
[Copyright of International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10382040108667448 ]

The picture that often emerges from the research literature on 'Chinese learners' is a caricature of rote-learning, memorization and passivity. This article takes issue with the stereotype. The paper is in three parts. The first part considers the extent to which Chinese culture may influence Chinese learning styles. Some received opinions are counterpoised with more recent reinterpretations. The paper later examines some of the findings from the literature on effective adult learning. The third part explores the extent to which Hong Kong adult learners adopt learning styles consonant with those outlined in the second section. The results of the survey research, action learning projects and case studies considered suggest that Hong Kong adult learners are receptive to new modes of learning and go on to adopt learning styles quite different from those they deployed in school. The arguments are situated within the literature on adult Chinese second language (L2) learning but have wider resonance and application to Hong Kong adult learners in general.
[Copyright of International Journal of Lifelong Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02601370210156745]