The development of full potentials of students so that they can play a positive role in community life has been highlighted as a fundamental aim in school education in Hong Kong in the 1990's. The aim points to the need for personal and social education for students in schools. The emphasis on personal and social development of students was marked by the compilation of relevant of teaching materials circulated to all Junior Secondary Schools in 1996. Apparently, whole person development of students is not a new concept to Hong Kong schools. Traditional Chinese values towards an all round education of a child include moral, intellectual, physical, social and aesthetic developments. However, keen academic competition has led to an unbalanced emphasis on intellectual development at the expense of other developments. This paper attempts to trace the development of personal and social education in Hong Kong schools. It examines the wave of official guidelines in moral education, civic education, sex education, environmental education, and guidance and counselling already in circulation from the 1980's. The paper studies what additional concepts are expounded in the call to develop personal and social education in schools in the 1990's. The author further attempts to raise issues concerning conceptual frameworks, approaches and ways and means to accomplish them. Finally, the implications on teacher training will also be discussed.

The present research aims at exploring the effectiveness of spiral bianshi mathematics curriculum on the teaching of speed and circumference to Primary 6 students in Hong Kong. Cognitive and affective learning outcomes, together with students’ beliefs are investigated. Teaching materials of these two topics are designed basing on the framework of spiral bianshi mathematics curriculum and were implemented in three primary schools in Hong Kong. The effectiveness of the curriculum was investigated with a pre-test/post-test, experimental/control group design. Preliminary analyses of the cognitive learning outcomes revealed that the students using the bianshi curriculum and teaching materials performed better than their counterparts. The experimental group also showed more positive attitude in some of the affective variables, though such changes did not happen in all the affective components. The experimental group also showed more positive attitude in some of the affective components. Further statistical analyses could be performed to see why the improvement was not as prominent as expected. A possible further analysis could be, by separating those who had sizable improvement with those who had not, we may attempt to identify the characteristics of students, to see who benefit most (in the affective domain) from the bianshi curriculum. It is hoped that these qualitative data would help unveil the secret of the learning process that leads to the desirable learning results.
[Copyright © 2010 Anna Mei-Yan Chan, Ngai-Ying Wong & Chi-Chung Lam.]

Our research is to compare students’ ability of presenting counter examples between Korean students and Hong Kong students and prospective teachers’ ability of treating counter examples between Korean prospective teachers and Hong Kong prospective teachers. Our analysis suggests the methodological implication for mathematics education of two countries on how to improve teaching methodology dealing with counter examples in classrooms through investigating students’ and prospective teachers’ ability on applying counter-examples.
[Copyright © 2010 Issic K. C. Leung, Hee-Chan Lew & Tae Soen Cheon.]

Although they are not listed in the regular teaching material, the high value of anime and manga (Japanese cartoons and comics) in teaching and learning, and the enormous application of anime and manga in teaching, is clearly recognized in Japan, especially in liberal studies subjects. Education professionals in America are also paying positive roles in regard to this new teaching lately. While cartoons and comics are also one of the most popular entertainments of Hong Kong teenagers, and Japanese commodities occupy the largest share in the market, anime and manga are barely adopted by local schools in teaching and learning of liberal studies subjects. Through in-depth interviews with teachers and case studies of school practices, this paper explains the experience in Japan by the society’s tradition, culture and attitude in reading anime and manga. Demonization of some categories of this popular culture commodity in recent decades does not demolish the long-established positive regard towards anime and manga. With the effort of the government and parent organizations, adoption of anime and manga is well justified in schooling institutions, hence constructed effectively in teaching and learning of liberal studies subjects in Japan. The paper also applies the explanation of Japan’s experience to analyze the contrary situation in contemporary Hong Kong.

Learning Study, in the form of action research, provides a platform for school-based teacher professional development in Hong Kong. In each Learning Study, teachers work collaboratively with researchers from the Hong Kong Institute of Education and are actively involved in the planning, teaching and assessing of the research lesson. This presentation describes one English Learning Study conducted on the topic of past tense in a Hong Kong primary school. Findings from students’ interviews, pretest and teachers’ meetings indicated that the students had difficulties in choosing and sequencing lexical and auxiliary verbs when forming yes/no questions and statements (affirmative or negative) in past tense. As such, the Object of Learning in this research lesson is to ‘build up the students’ ability to formulate yes/no questions in past tense and to provide complete answers to the questions”. The presentation outlines the whole process in conducting the Learning Study, and then examines both student learning and teacher learning in the action research.

This paper reports on a research project that monitored four key features in an in-service teacher education course for secondary art teachers in Hong Kong. First, the content of the course was reframed to include focus on the attributes of good art teachers and standards of good art teaching. Second, the theory-into-practice model of previous courses was reframed to include a focus on understanding theory through its practical implications. Third, teachers were encouraged to use dialogue journals to reflect on how the ideas and information presented in the course confirmed or challenged their beliefs and practices. Fourth, jointly developed “standards of good practice in art teaching” were used for self and peer evaluation in the teaching practice. Data from dialogue journals and end-of-course interview as well as questionnaires suggest the value of such approaches for in-service teacher education.

In 1998, a five-year strategic plan in IT education—the Information Technology for Learning in a New Era: Five-Year Strategy 1998/99 to 2002/03 was launched to promote the use of IT to enhance teaching and learning in Hong Kong. An integral part of the government’s IT policy is that comprehensive IT integration across the curriculum has been encouraged by the provision of ample of resources to implement various proposals in the strategic plan including the acquisition of hardware and software, the development of ICT infrastructure, and the provision of IT training for teachers. This paper describes the context regarding the professional development for music teachers associated with ICT integration in primary school music education in Hong Kong. Through an extensive study of government documents and review of related literature, the provision of professional development in IT for music teachers were discussed and analysed. Findings revealed that, on the average, general IT training for music teachers might be inadequate with regard to the desired level of IT competence. Whereas the provision of music-oriented IT training for teachers as a whole is practically adequate in terms of quantity and content.

The objective of this project is to investigate and recommend on the introduction of a comprehensive and embedded program of information literacy at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The project aims to identify the key information literacy competencies required (such as information searching, evaluation, application, and management techniques), as well as examine best practice in university libraries in Hong Kong and elsewhere. The project will also explore models for the integration of information literacy training into the curriculum, and will recommend on the most appropriate approach within the HKIEd context.
[Copyright © 2007 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]