This study explored the views of 296 serving physical education (PE) teachers concerning the interface of secondary and primary school PE in Hong Kong. Attached to the interpretive research perspective, questionnaire and follow-up telephone interviews were adopted for soliciting their views on the importance, measures taken and suggestions for improvement. The findings indicated that over 91% of serving PE teachers acknowledged the importance of interface for facilitating pupils' learning. Similar articulations with the functions and content of school PE that facilitated the interface were found. Although 21% of them claimed that they had taken some measures for enhancing curricular interface, most of them were not systematic and well-planned. Thus, most PE teachers looked forward to a standardized curriculum stipulated by the Education Bureau as to ensure the effectiveness of the interface. The study suggests reinforcing teachers' awareness of the interface of PE; considering the inclusion of PE in the internal school assessment for the Secondary School Places Allocation System and strengthening the interface from system, school and classroom levels. Consequently, it would enhance the learning and teaching in physical education.
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Background: Mosston’s “spectrum of teaching styles” which composes of 11 pedagogical approaches in physical education (PE), has been popularly promoted for maximizing students’ learning in the Western countries. However, very few of them have been put into practice and studied in Hong Kong. This article concerned a report of a pilot study on one of the teaching styles, reciprocal teaching. Aims: The study aimed to examine students’ and teacher’s experiences when engaging in learning and teaching in reciprocal teaching. Sample: 3 classes of 80 male students (Form 3 : 31 students, Form 2 : 26 & Form 1 : 23)from a local secondary school and their PE teacher were invited to participate in the study. Methods: Attached to the action research perspective, 3 teaching units of gymnastics, swimming and handball were conducted in the form of reciprocal teaching. Data composed of students’ reflective journals and interviewas well as teacher’s self review were collected at the end of the teaching units. Findings: both the teacher and students experienced reciprocal teaching positively. Students perceived their learning as active and comfortable. They were satisfied with their mastery of skills, taking peer tutoring roles, engaging in observing, taking care of others and seeing their partner’s improvement. They also encountered with those dissatisfying experiences of boring, simple and repetitive learning content, difficult skills and the undesirable learning attitude of some of the students that they feared of ending up with discipline problems and learning nothing. Their articulation with their improvement in collaboration, communication and presentation skills, building up confidence, team spirit and learning attitude of trying hard was found. Conclusion: The reciprocal teaching might solve some of the current PE problems of passive learning, little collaboration and weak accountability of learning as well as empowering students in their learning. Students’ worries concerning reciprocal

This article reports a workshop presentation suggesting a conceptual framework of teaching soccer by adopting the TGfU approach for secondary school students in Hong Kong. It was intended to help teachers to tackle three basic questions of instruction namely, "Why to teach?", "What to teach?" and "How to teach?". Firstly, the emphasis of teaching soccer should focus on adopting experiental learning concept for cultivating the learning-to-learn skills highlighted in the current education reform. Secondly, the attacking and defending principles of soccer were assumed to develop themes as teaching content, which were the basics for all tactical concepts of soccer performance. Thirdly, teachers could make use of the teaching progression of a variety of games forms and cognitive deliberation techniques for sequencing learning experiences for students. The framework of using experiential learning as theoretical basis, developing learning-to-learn skills as possible objectives, selecting themes from attacking and defending principles as teaching content and sequencing teaching activities from the games forms and cognitive deliberation techniques served as practical guides for teachers to teach soccer by using the TGfU approach in the context of Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2006 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]