Since the release of the official document on education reform, special schools in Hong Kong have been making efforts to develop their own school-based curriculum to echo the spirit of 'one curriculum for all' (Curriculum Development Council, 2001). However, there are several concerns when working towards this spirit: (1) it is difficult to help students with special educational needs (SEN) access the central curriculum due to the lack of guidance; (2) a common language has not been developed with agreed performance standards to describe students' attainment and learing progress; (3) and low expectations for students is common due to high emphasis on skills training oriented education and (4) a lack of direction in teaching and the understanding of the key learning areas. This article is, therefore, an attempt to (1) review the trends and related studies on 'accessing the central curriculum' from an international perspective; (2) discuss the concerns on assessment and curriculum development for improving access to the central curriculum for students with SEN in Hong Kong with respect to the "one curriculum for all' spirit; (3) describe a project (the SAME Project) in Hong Kong in this related topic and to highlight the accomplishment of the Phase 1 of the project. The implications to the field are also discussed. 自從教育改革文件發表以來，香港不少特殊學校都會致力發展校本課程去回應「同一課程」的精神。在過程中，遭遇不少問題，例如︰(1) 缺乏指引去協助有特殊教育需要學生學習中央課程；(2) 缺乏一個共通語言及共同同意的表現標準去描述學生的能力及學習進度；(3) 由於過份重視技能訓練引致對學生期望偏低的普遍現象；(4) 缺乏對主要學習領域的認識及教學方向。就上述情況，本文會 (1) 從國際視野檢視「接受同一課程」的趨勢及研究；(2) 就「同一課程」的精神討論如何評估及課程發展去改善香港特教學生接受中央課程的機會及 (3) 描述一個與此題目相關的計劃(「融通計劃」及介紹這計劃第一階段的成就。最後會討論此計劃對業界的含意。
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This study examined visual orthographic skills in Chinese primary school students with spelling difficulties. One hundred and fourteen children with spelling difficulties from grades one, three and five were compared to 114 non-disabled children matched with sex, same school enrollment and grade. All participants were asked to perform on four visual orthographic tasks. Findings revealed significant difference between those with spelling difficulties and those without in various aspects of visual orthographic skills. Data indicated that students with spelling difficulties, in general, tended not to be aware of features of strokes within a Chinese character and not to be aware of the constructional legalities within an unfamiliar radical over different grades. It was also noted that these students in grade one had difficulties with the spatial position of a radical within a Chinese character and lacked knowledge about positional legality of a radical. The findings led to the conclusion that deficits of visual orthographic skills were apparent among Chinese students with spelling difficulties when compared to those without such difficulties. 本研究探討香港小學一、三、五年級，有中文書寫困難學生(n=114)，及對照組非殘障生(n=114) 的視覺拼字能力。對照組學生有性別、就讀學校、及年級之相同組成。全體學生(N=228) 均做四項視覺拼字能力測驗。結果發現兩組學生有顯著差異。一般而言，所選各不同年級，有中文書寫困難的學生，均較缺中文字筆劃和組成方面的基本概識。而一年級學生，已面對中文字體結構空間與方位上的困難。總結是中文書寫困難比對照組學生有較多的視覺拼字能力缺陷。
[Copyright of Hong Kong Special Education Forum is the property of Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
https://sites.google.com/a/seshk.org.hk/seshk-org-hk/c_publication]