In Hong Kong, curriculum is centrally developed and teachers are expected to implement it as designed. With few teachers and educators involved during the developmental process and limited efforts to disseminate the curriculum initiatives, teachers are often left to implement the curriculum with little understanding of the rationale of these changes. Successful implementation is, therefore, left with individual teachers. Based on experience and research in areas of (a) curriculum development, (b) implementation of innovation, (c) teacher thinking and teaching, and (d) professional development of teachers, this paper argues for the importance of looking at implementation issues from the eyes of practitioners in schools. Research findings suggesting that teachers’ conceptualization of teaching and the way they carry out their professional duties are influenced by their personal theories and school culture will further be presented. With knowledge and understanding of the social realities of teachers, strategies for effective implementation of educational innovation will be proposed.

Technology Teacher Education, in similar ways to medical practitioner education, has to rely heavily on constructivist learning principles whereby learning takes place as a result of processing and solving a series of relevant subject based question. Using PBL techniques, the objectives of the project were addressed in the following terms: 1. Increase collaborative Learning through quality learning teams; 2. To enhance academic outcomes of individual members of the quality learning team; 3. To inculcate a constructivism culture within the quality learning teams through PBL; 4. To enhance both learning and instruction strategies through PBL; 5. To encourage and increase motivation of both the quality learning team and each of its individual members by immersion in PBL techniques; 6. To increase student achievement and create a positive technology teacher attitude within the quality learning team and its individual members. The use of small PBL learning teams to enhance technology teacher learning not only created extremely motivated student teachers whose reflective skills constantly improved, but, also engendered a much improved attitude in language acquisition skill as each team confronted the difficulties of a second language. In adopting the PBL technique within small learning teams it has been found that in the case of Hong Kong the Confucian precept of learning and of collectivism fits well with the Chinese culture. Cultural perspectives in the five countries in which the authors conducted their research added to the learning psychology of this intervention, thus increasing understanding and reflection.

The project was presented at the first PBL Conference held in Hong Kong in 1999. What follows is a progress report of the findings of the project during the past year. The objectives of the project remain as follows: · Increase collaborative learning through quality learning teams and PBL; To enhance academic outcomes of individual members of the quality learning team using PBL techniques; To inculcate a constructivism culture within the quality learning teams through PBL; To enhance both learning and instruction strategies through PBL; To encourage and increase motivation of both the quality learning team and each of its individual members by immersion in PBL techniques; To increase student achievement and create a positive student attitude of quality learning teams and their individual members by adopting PBL. It has been found that using small PBL learning teams not only created extremely motivated students whose reflective skills constantly improved, but, also engendered a much improved attitude in language acquisition skill as each team confronted the difficulties of a second language. In adopting PBL techniques within small learning teams it has also been found that the Confucian precept of learning and of collectivism fits well with the Chinese culture. Cultural perspectives added to the PBL psychology thus increasing understanding and reflection.

The Sub-committee on Review of School Education, Board of Education has identified in their Report, March 1997, four major areas of concern in the implementation of compulsory education in Hong Kong. Effectiveness of learning in the classroom is one of them. The Sub-committee considers school culture/ethos a factor which is essential in enhancing teacher quality, and recommends that teachers should be encouraged to work in collaboration in planning and development of work in school. The present paper which describes the experience of a group of teacher educators working collaboratively in designing and implementing their curriculum on a module for the student teachers aims to explore the feasibility of the Sub-committee's recommendation in the tertiary setting. It is hoped that teachers in the primary and secondary schools can also share this experience and will be better equipped to carry out the recommendation of the Sub-committee.